Roasted vegetables

These photos are pretty old.....but I wanted to share my purple carrots (and white-ish/yellow ones?)! I love the farmers market in the winter - winter veggies are my favorite. And all you really need to do to eat them is chop them up, put some olive oil on them (maybe some rosemary), and stick them in the oven. Mmmm. The only thing I like about the winter. So glad it's spring.

Southwest Quinoa Salad

I have two recipes for southwest quinoa salad...no surprise, since it has many of my favorite foods. Yum. I went a little overboard with the herbs when I made this since I hate throwing away extra food, but, I'm going to tone it down a notch next time.

1 cup quinoa
1 3/4 cups water
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup mint, roughly chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, diced
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (or a 15 ounce can of beans, drained and rinsed)
1 cup corn kernels (fresh or canned)
1 large garlic clove, minced
1-2 juicy limes
1 tablespoon olive oil

Combine the quinoa, water, cumin, salt and pepper in a medium sized sauce pan and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and lower the heat to a simmer. Let cook until the quinoa is soft and water is absorbed, about 13-15 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep covered for 5 minutes. Uncover and let cool. The quinoa can be made a day ahead and kept in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before proceeding.

Place the quinoa in a large serving bowl. Add the mint, cilantro, onions, red pepper, beans, corn and garlic. Squeeze the juice of one lime in and drizzle in the olive oil. Stir gently, taste for additional lime juice, salt and pepper and add more if needed. Serve at room temperature.

Original recipe here

Alternate Southwest Quinoa Salad recipe

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Love this time of the year, when you no longer have to cook everything you eat. This salad is really easy and delicious. I didn't follow the amounts exactly - but I had enough servings for 4 or 5 meals (obviously supplemented with other snacks).

½ cup dry wheat berries
1½ cups water
1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon olive oil

¼ cup olive oil
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

6 cups baby spinach leaves
1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
¼ cup crumbled goat cheese (or more....)

In a small pot combine the wheat berries, water, herbs, olive oil, and salt. Bring to a boil and then cover with a lid and reduce to a simmer. Cook over low heat for 25-35 minutes or until all of the liquid has been absorbed and the wheat berries are tender. Remove the lid and allow the wheat berries to steam for 5 -10 minutes. Cool and set aside.

In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, herbs and salt and pepper for the vinaigrette.

Toss together the cooled wheat berries, spinach, strawberries, and goat cheese. Serve with vinaigrette to taste.

Original recipe here

Blueberry lemon bread

Well, it sure has been a while. My 2013 posting count is pretty abominable (2, as of May!). As usual, I blame it on the doggy. Anyway, I've decided to leave my commentary on these blog posts to a minimum, and focus on the food. No one wants to hear me whine about my poor blogging performance on every post. And, when I look at most food blogs, it annoys me that I have to scroll down a huge page full of blahblahblah by someone I don't know to get to the recipe I want to use. I finally got a new awesome-sauce camera that makes me more excited about taking food photos, so hopefully that will give me some incentive to post. Hooray, back to baking! (and cooking, I guess.)

1.5 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter (melted)
1/2-1 cup sugar (depending how sweet you want it)
1/4 cup of lemon juice
2 tbs lemon zest
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups of blueberries (I use frozen)
1/2 cup buttermilk (I use regular milk with a little bit of lemon juice)

Put everything in a bowl. Mix it up. (Maybe save the blueberries for last, and fold them in.) Scrape into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes until a knife or toothpick comes out clean. Easy peasey. 

(If you want to do it the hard way, click here)

Vegetarian Chili

This chili is very spicy, so you definitely need the yogurt! If you don't like spice, you can reduce the amount of chiles/sauce, or remove it altogether.

1 small butternut squash
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1 15oz. can chickpeas, drained
1 26oz. can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 cup water
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, finely chopped
2 tablespoons adobo sauce
salt and pepper, to taste

Serve With:
plain Greek yogurt


1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Peel and dice the butternut squash. Spread the pieces out on a baking sheet and toss with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Roast until tender and cooked through.
2. In a deep, large saucepan, saute the onion, shallots and green pepper in the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, until they begin to caramelize.
3. Add the squash, chickpeas, chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 cup of water, oregano, chipotle chiles, and chipotle sauce. Season with salt and pepper and simmer chili until cooked through. Add a little more water if it becomes too thick.
4. To serve, spoon chili into a bowl and top with a dollop of Greek yogurt.

Original recipe here

Pasta with Squash, Brown Butter and Rosemary

I love butternut squash. I decided the other day that I could live on just fall produce - squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, apples, pears, beets, figs, parsnips.....the list goes on. I would miss blueberries and raspberries, but not a lot else.

I tried this dish because I wanted and easy recipe for comfort food. And this made the cut. The parmesean melted when I put it on top, and when eating leftovers, there were chunks of cheese that had congealed back together. Sounds gross, but YUM. This is a must-try for a cold winter day.

[I just went back to the original recipe and realized that Rachael Ray started her post with the same 4 words. That's just weird.]


3 lbs butternut squash – peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 onion, chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped rosemary
salt and pepper
1 lb box pasta
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a large bowl, toss the squash, onion, olive oil and rosemary; season with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and roast until the squash is tender, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta until al dente; drain and transfer to a large bowl.

In a small skillet, melt the butter over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 7 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice.

Add the roasted squash, brown butter and 1/3 cup parmesan to the pasta and toss; season with salt and pepper. Top with the pine nuts and remaining parmesan.

[Note: I increased the amount of pasta and cheese significantly from the original recipe. Didn't seem to make sense to me to use 3 pounds of squash with only 2/3 cup of pasta.]

Original recipe here

Christmas cookies

Well, I haven't gotten much cooking done in the months since getting my puppy, but I obviously had to make time for Christmas cookies. I found it works pretty well to schedule a party and set baking goals in order to actually get it done. Making five batches of cookies over the course of a week doesn't sound too difficult...but it was with the dog around and with general holiday stress! I tried a few new recipes, and used a few of my old favorites.

Chocolate Crackles

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Brown Sugar Cookies (I think I used this recipe...but sugar cookies are pretty basic anyway. Had to go with the brown sugar when I ran out of white sugar!)

Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies (these got the best reviews - even though I just used the recipe off of the cinnamon chip bag...)

Macaroons
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
14 oz package shredded coconut
¼ tsp salt
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, coconut and salt, then stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until well blended. Place roughly golf ball size drops onto cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes.