Tag Archives: Quinoa

Creamy Veggie-Stuffed Enchiladas with Spanish Quinoa

I’ve been having some intense cravings lately. Before you start in on the “you must be pregnant” jokes (which are ALWAYS funny, btw), let me remind you that it is LATE March and Minnesota has been having high temperatures in the teens. If that’s not an excuse to treat myself to yummy comfort food, then I don’t know what is.

The hardest craving to ignore? Mexican. The salty, cheesy, and rich combinations just hunker down and warm you up, no matter how frigid it may be outdoors.

The blustery weather has resulted in many-a-Mexican meal for The Beast and I as of late. A few weeks ago we made a Mexican casserole, and then many enchilada experiments followed. In my new favorite variation, I keep things healthy and filling with veggies, thick and creamy Greek yogurt, and a ridiculously easy homemade sauce.

Little-known fact on enchilada sauce: deciding on a store-bought variety can prove to be a tricky task. The first one we tried tasted metallic and full of chemicals (even though the ingredient label looked only moderately offensive). The second option we bought tasted fine, but included red food coloring, because apparently tomatoes aren’t red enough on their own. Finally I took things into my own hands and made it from scratch, and I will never go back. The sauce comes together in 20 minutes, and it is DEEEELICIOUS.

To make our homemade Mexican even better, we always serve it with the simplest and yummiest side ever: Spanish quinoa. I’ve discussed spanish quinoa before (try not to judge my early-blog photography too harshly), but it would be a shame if it were forgotten or ignored, so I must mention it again today. You’ll thank me.
Continue reading →

Fresh Veggie Quinoa Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing

7 Replies

It’s March! That’s the start of spring, right? The Beast and I went on a vacation last week (more on that later…) and on the first day The Beast said to me, “You know what’s nice? When we come home it’ll almost be golf season.” The next day he said the same thing, but replaced “golf season” with “spring,” and then he went so far as to say we’d basically be coming home to summer. Welcome to the mind of a Minnesotan.

We ended up flying home in the middle of a snow storm…welcome to the life of a Minnesotan.

When warm weather becomes such a foreign concept that I can’t even remember what it feels like to walk outside without the cold stealing my breath away, I like to eat something that at least reminds me of summertime. Take this salad, for instance. It’s jam-packed with fresh veggies, bright flavors, and pretty colors…which sounds silly, but when you live in a monochromatic winter world, colorful food helps.

As a bit of a texture freak, I love the multiple crunches that come up as you bite through the raw onions, red pepper, and sliced almonds. Alongside that crunch, you get juicy tomatoes, nutty quinoa, and bright, creamy lemon tahini dressing. It’s so refreshing you might just think summer has a chance of coming around…eventually.
Continue reading →

Brown Butter Quinoa Monster Cookies

4 Replies

Today’s a big day. Today’s the day when I venture into my “late” twenties. No more of this, “I can’t believe I’m in my early twenties!” or “My mid-twenties are flying by!” It’s no longer cute or funny that my automatic, knee-jerk reaction to the question,”How old are you?” is often an immediate response of “18.” Nope, now I’m a girl who’s basically 30. Well in 3 years anyway. This is troubling. This calls for cookies.

My family makes a big deal of birthdays. Within an hour of waking up I’ll get text messages from my family members saying, “Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and at exactly 8:31am I’ll receive a message from my mom, and/or a call from my dad, saying “You’re officially [insert age here]!!!!” Yes, we’re over the top, but I love every bit of it.

The day-long excitement culminates after dinner when we feast on dirt cake, out of the bucket, served with a shovel. Yes, it’s a dessert for kids, but this will be what I eat on my birthday until I’m elderly and diabetic.

Dirt cake may be the birthday dessert of choice, but birthdays don’t include just one treat throughout the day. Waiting for sweets until after-dinner is unnecessary restriction. Birthdays call for treats all. damn. day. So, to fulfill the day-long sugar craving, I played around with monster cookies to create a fun day-of-birthday treat.

I texted my mom about these cookies and she said, “Um…but they are cookies? Crab cakes are called ‘cakes’ but we know they’re not.” This woman has no faith in my experimentations. So maybe I put quinoa in my cookies…what of it? Quinoa has a fun texture, nutty flavor, and it’s so good for you (but that’s not the point here). Normal monster cookies are made with old-fashioned oats, which my mom also would not approve of – “Why are you trying to make a cookie healthy? It’s a COOKIE.” You can’t win with this lady unless you stick to the straight and narrow, so why not make these cookies truly ridiculous in her eyes? It’s my birthday, after all (and in my family the birthday girl always gets her way).

What we have here is a cookie with all kinds of fun flavors and textures. Let’s start with flavors: peanut butter (swoon), dark chocolate in two forms (double swoon), nutty quinoa and whole wheat flour, honey, caramel-y brown butter, and a hit of vanilla. As far as the textures, you get a crunch of both the cashews and chunky peanut, and the hearty chew of old-fashioned oats and quinoa.

To clarify, these are BIRTHDAY cookies, not diet/healthy cookies (I mean really, see the description above). The quinoa and whole wheat flour are there to boost the nutty flavor and complement the cashews and peanut butter. If you want to replace the quinoa with more oats and use all-purpose flour, go for it (but you’re missing the fun, fun killer).
Continue reading →