Quinoa, Sweet Potato, Beans, Dish it!

Yum, yum, yummy!  I love me some quinoa!  How many of you, when you saw that name for the first time, spoke it as it looked, quin-no-ah? Oh yes, I see all the hands. Innocent mistake. For those of you who still don't know the pronunciation, it's keen-wah.  Who knew. Anyway, on with it.

                     

This is too delish!  It has a semi-sweet taste due to the currants, but then I added the sweet peas.  A trick I learned with quinoa, is to go at it with a rampant boil rather than a slow simmer. It cooks much faster. I don't cover it, I keep stirring. If you think its drying out before it's thoroughly cooked, add some low-sodium vegetable broth.  Then I add any veggies, fresh or frozen to add to the taste.  Quinoa can be very blah when eaten alone. The sodium is high in this for me, I wouldn't add salt.

I go crazy buying all kinds of quinoa, and this one looked really good to me.  Next time I'll use the same ingredients, but my own fresh stuff.  Prepackaged just has that added salt that my body doesn't like.

                       

   
This dish was heaven for me as dinner!  Do you ever make a dish you just want to eat night after night? This could be one of them for me. I couldn't get enough, but saved some leftovers.  I have to hide it  from my son, or I'll never get to eat it.  Although, he usually finds it :)

                        

The sweet potatoes were scrumptious!  By the time I took the photo, there weren't many left.

Process:  I poked holes into 4-small sweet potatoes, popped them into the microwave for 5-minutes.  Then I peeled the skin off (and I ate it), cut them up and made a sticky little gravy to pour over them and mix.  SO. GOOD.  I can't get enough of sweet potatoes, and they are an excellent healthy treat.

For the sweet potato gravy I took 1/2-cup of honey, 2-TBL of smart balance (butter), fresh ground pepper, 3-TBL of orange juice (because I didn't have orange zest).  Combine all ingredients into a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.

                         

The green beans were Trader Joes, and they are yummy all their own. I like to put a little lemon juice on them with just a skinny pat of butter, not even a teaspoon.

I l-o-v-e shopping at Trader Joes!  I walked out with a lot of stuff, even meat for the meat-heads, and still have 4 "large" recycle bags (and you know how big they can be) full, for only $130. I am a happy camper!

I mean, look at this!  Pure health & beauty!

                         

What's on your table lately?

Veggie Mix and fixin's

Veggie mixin's and Zucchini bites!

I made the yummiest random put-together dish the other night.  I had many vegetables that had to be cooked before they went bad.  There is nothing worse than having food in your refrigerator, that you can't get to cooking it all and everything goes to waste.  I avoid that at all costs!  So I made this vegetable medley, and it came out delicious!

I took half of a medium onion, with an 1/8 tsp of crushed garlic, and caramelized them slowly with low-sodium vegetable juice.  

I added two sliced and quartered zucchini.  

Added a medium eggplant, cubed.  

Approximately 3 cups of green beans, steamed. 

Fresh mushrooms, apprx 5 medium, any kind will do.

A bunch of cherry tomatoes, halved and/or quartered.

I cook the zucchini first (after the caramelizing), since that may take longer to soften. Although I don't cook it until it's translucent.  I like it to have a substantial consistency.  

As I saute, I add the vegetable juice little by little.  Just to keep things from drying an burning.  

These came out so good!  Nothing like cooking up some veggies and flavoring themselves. I don't add much spice, only fresh black pepper and maybe some tumeric.  

This was my (our) main dish, along with a side of...these!

Zucchini Bites

I had plenty of zucchini that needed to be cooked.  So I took 2-more and sliced them about 1/4" thick.  I threw then into a bag, with 1-T of olive oil, added 1/2-c parmesan cheese, 1/4-tsp of black pepper, and 3/4-c of panko bread crumbs.  Any plain or flavored crumbs will do. Once they were coated, I put them onto a sheet (with foil), placed in a pre-heated 400 degree oven, for 20-25 minutes.  Yum!  

Added note: You don't have to flip the bites, just put foil on your sheet and bake!  

So, you can see in the photo above on the left, as they were, before placed into the oven. 

Uh-hum (as I clear my throat), on the right, is that...after they were cooked.  Do you see something missing there?  Of course you do, that would be my son, liking these zucchini bites.  Very much so.  

I should be ever so thankful that they were that good.  They really were. 

The very next night was a 'what should we have', evening.  Don't you get tired of cooking dinner every night, sometimes?  Just trying to think, each night, what to make?  I do.  If it's just me and the hubster, I can get away with something extra healthy, easy and quick.  On this night I took the left over veggie mix, and added a flavor  ~ the red pepper Raw Muhammara Dip that I have made before!  This turned out so moist and yummy.  The eggplant really adds a nice sweet taste to things.  Especially if it's sautéed a bit.  

  I could eat a bowl of this stuff, as a good hearty meal!  Instead, I put this into a new flat bread I stumbled upon at the grocery store.  It was actually intended for something else, but I can't even remember now.  Either way, it sure did work well with this mixture.  

This flax, bran, wheat flat bread was thin and delicious!  I would definitely try it again.  I purchased it at a Giant Food Store near me.  I heated the vegetable mixture, and using a flat frying pan, with raised bars like a panini pan, crusted the bread just right.  YUMMY! They were perfect.  

After drinking green smoothies all day, some fruit and other raw foods, this ends the evening nicely.  Fulfilling and satisfying.  Sometimes an unplanned meal night, ends up one of perfection! 

What are you cooking up lately?