Tri-color Quinoa Stir Fry

I've been on a health kick trying to lose my last 30 lbs (I've lost 50 so far in the past 2 years... most of it in the space of 10 months or so) and I'm gluten free, so quinoa is an increasing staple in my diet. I had a whole lb. of it in my cupboard, and then happened to see a twitter post by Jaime Alexander of "Thor" fame with a delicious looking dish of so many gorgeous colors and happened to have quinoa, as well as what looked to be an excellent combination of flavors. So I used her dish as an inspiration for this one.

Tri-Color Quinoa Stir Fry

2.5 c. uncooked tri-color quinoa

1 small red onion, diced

1 carrot, grated

1 bell pepper, diced

1 cup red cabbage, chopped

1/2 16 oz. can black beans, drained

2 T. olive oil

1/2 t. cumin

1/4 t. garlic powder or 2 cloves regular garlic, minced

sea salt to taste

Cook quinoa per directions. (You can cook quinoa in a rice cooker, I did! Google for cooking times and double your water at least). Next, warm oil in a large skillet or pan then throw in the red onion, carrot, bell pepper, red cabbage, throw in spices too and saute until cooked tenderly. When the quinoa is finished, add it to the skillet or pan along with the black beans and mix thoroughly being sure it's heated through. Taste and season until it's yummy and then serve! Yields about 8 servings.

Ratings from the Experts*: 10/10 for Vegetarian fare. My picky-eater hubby even said this was delicious, and it's great for making if you need something to eat throughout the week for lunches. It's very low calorie, running about 290 calories per serving.

I might be doing more decorating soon, in a new place.

Soooo. Yeah. This past month has been a little crazy. In the space of one month we've gone from being fairly certain and content to stay here where we've been, to having many doors opened in another state and multiple reasons to leave here. Talk about a switch!

My husband has his 3rd interview tomorrow and we're hoping for a face-to-face interview next week sometime. If all goes well, we might be moving at the end of September. The place we would be moving is much more urban...a bigger city than what we're used to, so we're thinking of actually living in the city just for the life experience. I've already found a dream apartment in a historic building just a few blocks from one of our favorite places to visit in the city. I'm just hoping it stays on the market until we are able to move! (If.) Trying not to get too excited, but it's also a step towards the future for me because the PA school I want to go to is there. If this all works out, it's going to be amazing. Praying that whatever happens, it's the right thing for us. Anyway, I probably won't be posting much for a few more weeks at least. A) Because I won't know anything for a couple weeks more probably, B) Because I might be mending a bit of a broken heart, or C) Because we're packing up to move!

Sweet Pepper Tuna Cucumbers

I do best with a protein-rich diet when I'm trying to lose weight and I wanted to incorporate a generous dose of veggies, so I threw this together for lunch. It's certainly nice to look at, and it shares some qualities with a really good canape recipe given to me by my friend Melissa.

Sweet Pepper Tuna Cucumbers
2 mini sweet peppers, sliced

1 very large cucumber, sliced
1 small can of Tuna, drained
1 1/2 T low fat cream cheese, softened
1 rounded t capers
1/2 t minced onion
1/2 t chili powder
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t pepper

In a bowl, mix together the drained tuna and softened cream cheese, add capers and onion, then add in all the spices and mix until thoroughly blended. Drop the blended mixture onto cucumber slices, place one slice of sweet pepper on top, then garnish with more chili powder for extra flavor and color if desired. Chill in the fridge until cold, then serve.

Ratings from the Experts*: My hubby's not a big tuna fan, so I took the burden upon myself to eat every last one of these as I sat here writing this post. What a burden it was... I kid, I kid! I give this a solid 9/10 for the fact that it's a tiny bit salty but I think that could be remedied by simply washing the capers and rubbing them off before adding to the mix. But the mix itself was a good blend. The chili powder really gave it a nice flavor and brought it all together.

Gluten Free Play Dough

My son is even more severely gluten intolerant than I am, so I've been leery of letting him play with regular Play Dough since it contains gluten. I looked all over Pinterest for recipes, tried one this morning, and it was an utter disaster. It more closely resembled pineapple chunky oatmeal than play dough. So I switched gears and found a recipe on About.com from the Celiac Sprue Association and gave it a try. It worked beautifully except for the fact that the actual cooking instructions were way off base, so I changed those to tell you a more accurate process.

Gluten Free Play Dough
1/2 c rice, potato, or sorghum flour
1/2 c corn starch
1/2 c salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 t cooking oil
food coloring of your choice

Mix the dry ingredients together well, then add in the wet ingredients, stirring until blended. The mixture will be very very watery and you'll wonder how in the world it's going to thicken up, but it will. Cook and stir constantly on medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture forms a ball. Once the dough isn't sticky to the touch, take it out of the pan and let cool a bit, then knead it more by hand. Let it cool completely before storing the dough a sealable plastic bag.

I love how simple this recipe is. This morning I just brought my son in to the kitchen, gave him a few pots and pans and a couple of spoons to play with while I worked on the play dough. In less than 15 minutes we had a wad of playdough even larger than a regular play dough can carries! I made 2 colors today, but I expect we might add some more colors to the collection next week since my son loves it so much. And that makes me a happy momma. :)

Cheese and Turkey Stuffed Mini Peppers

I have been recovering from abdominal surgery, so I haven't been able to cook much at all (Dr.'s orders... I promise!) Instead I've been stuffing my face with far too much food generosity from my in-laws, and eating out more than I should since I haven't felt much like cooking. I've gained about 5 lbs I think and I've about had it... so it's back on the healthy eating bandwagon today so I don't feel so much like an overstuffed Italian sausage. These little beauties are my new obsession (the peppers, that is). They are Mini sweet bell peppers and they are so great for me since I love bell pepper but can't ever seem to use a whole pepper in a dish. And they also make gorgeous little finger food like this!

I wanted a pop of protein, so I grabbed some cream cheese and roasted turkey lunchmeat from the fridge. The following is the result.

Cheese and Turkey Stuffed Mini Peppers
2 T. Cream cheese
3 mini peppers
2 slices, thinly sliced oven roasted turkey (Land o' Frost is what I used)
1/8 t. garlic salt
1/4 t. Italian seasoning

Slice the tops off the mini peppers and remove any seeds from the interior. Cut the slices of turkey into three portions and stuff one portion in each of the three peppers. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mash together cream cheese with the seasonings until well blended. Smear generous amounts of cream cheese mixture into the peppers on top of the turkey, be sure to fill them to the top! Now, enjoy.


Ratings from the Experts*: 10/10 from me, for snacking it's a filling, healthy snack that packs a healthy protein punch in addition to a nice serving of veggies.

Savory Egg and Cheese in Ham Cups

I saw this recipe on Pinterest (surprise), and knew I had to try it for its simplicity and versatility alone. It's virtually like choosing ingredients for an omelet, but a whole lot easier and prettier to cook. I don't think there are enough fingers in the world to count how many times I've tried to flip an omelet and screwed it up- so then said dish suddenly morphs into Crumbled-Omelet-in-a-bowl, my specialty. These turn out pretty as a picture with no effort at all. They are so versatile too. Want broccoli? Extra cheese? Even cooked sausage added? Go for it!

I'll share what I came up with for ingredients simply for the fact that it was delicious and perfectly seasoned for our taste. A couple of notes: I used two slices of ham for the cups to ensure the cup was thick enough to hold the egg sufficiently; I sliced the veggies I used very thinly so they cooked well and didn't disrupt the texture too much.

Savory Egg and Cheese in Ham Cups
Smoked ham lunch meat (two slices for every cup you want to make)
Eggs (one egg for every cup)
red bell pepper, sliced thin and into small pieces to sprinkle into the cups
minced onion, fresh or dried
Monterey jack w/roasted red pepper cheese, cut into small chunks just larger than shreds (this ensures some of the chunks of cheese will sink into the egg and cook throughout)
garlic salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Spray your muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In your muffin pan, place 2 slices of ham lunch meat over each muffin tin and press down into the cup until the ham forms a little cup. Next, crack open one egg into each ham cup. Season the egg, then add your sliced and minced veggies. Place the pan in the preheated oven for about 5 minutes or until the eggs are set just a bit. Pull them out and add the chunks of cheese on top of each cup. Put it back in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or just until the egg white looks cooked. Leave in longer if you want harder-cooked eggs.

Ratings from the Experts*: 10. Perfect. Easy. Fantastic flavor. Perfect portion sizes. They also freeze and reheat well and are great for taking in the car if you want something portable, just be sure to wrap them in a paper towel or saran wrap after heating.

Chicken Satay

Satay is one of those gold standard dishes that I tend to judge a restaurant by. I've had some realy horrible Chicken Satay that more closely resembled leather on a stick than actual food (usually found at chinese buffets), and I've had some that still makes my mouth water just thinking about it (such as Sakura's Satay- which I had in Paris last year- shown below).

For me, this recipe falls closer on the scale to Sakura's and a bit more even towards the authentic than even Sakura's, which is not a bad thing at all. I must mention that I gleaned this recipe from yet another cookbook find this past weekend. It's called Street Food, by Clare Ferguson. It's a collection of street food recipes from every corner of the world. I was thoroughly impressed by the gorgeous pictures and rich, varied recipes I found... and I got the book for only three bucks!

I didn't really have any issues with ingredients for the recipe thanks to a trip to the Asian market in OKC this past weekend (other than not having fresh lemongrass stalk or tamarind paste), so I think my dish came out pretty close to the book's. I did lack tamarind paste, so I just left it out of the peanut sauce and added a little bit of peanut butter for some consistency, then when my mixture was still too thin, I brought the sauce to a boil, added about a teaspoon of corn starch, and the problem was solved.

Chicken Satays
1 lb. boneless chicken breast
2 T peanut oil
2 T distilled white malt vinegar (I substituted apple cider vinegar for GF purposes)

-Spice paste-
3 garlic cloves, chopped
4 shallots or 1/2 small onion, chopped
1 T coriander sees, crushed
1/2 stalk lemongrass, finely chopped (I didn't have this, but I did have a Thai spice mix with some in it, so I added 1 t. of that mix)
1 t. ground turmeric
2 small, fresh hot red chilies, finely chopped (optional in my opinion)

-Satay sauce-
1 t. fish sauce, toasted on a piece of foil for 1 minute
1 t. tamarind paste (sold in jars- but I didn't have any, so I added some natural peanut butter instead mainly for consistency)
1 oz. macadamia nuts or peanuts, chopped,
1 T brown sugar
1/2 stalk lemongrass, finely sliced (again, same substitution of spice mix here)
4 shallots or 1/2 small onion, chopped
2 small, fresh hot red chilies, finely chopped (optional in my opinion)
1/2 c canned coconut milk

Cut the chicken breasts into thin ribbons about 1 inch wide, then put pieces into a medium bowl. Chop the spice paste ingredients, mixing them all together in a food processor until it becomes a paste-like consistency (if you need to, add 1 T of water to help the consistency). Heat the oil in a skillet, add the spice paste, and saute until aromatic. Let it cool, stir in the vinegar, then add to the chicken. Marinate for about 20 minutes or up to 2 hours. Meanwhile, soak 8 wooden satay sticks in water.

To make the satay sauce, put the fish sauces in a food processor, add the tamarind paste (or peanut butter in my case), nuts, sugar, lemongrass, shallots or onions, and chilies. Heat the coconut milk in a small saucepan to near boiling point, then add to the processor and puree briefly to form a sauce. Preheat your broiler or light your grill until very hot.

Push the meat onto the sticks, threading it on in waves- then grill or broil or cook for about 3 minutes each side until done. Serve with the satay sauce.

Ratings from the Experts*: Hubby gave this (even lacking some ingredients) a solid 10. Better than 95% of the other chicken satay I've had, I gave it a 9, simply for the fact that it was a tiny bit dry for what I prefer, compared to the satay in Paris which is the best experience I've had.