Quinoa Salad

I may or may not have been eating this obsessively for the past 2 weeks.... It is yummy! If you haven't met quinoa yet, let me introduce you. Quinoa is a little grain-like seed and when cooked it opens up and looks like a cross between a mini-pasta and exploding couscous. It really doesn't taste like much, but it's pretty good for you, being relatively high in protein and fiber. This is, by far, my favorite quinoa recipe yet.

Ingredients: adapted from here
* Mix all together in a big bowl
1 15oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 15 oz can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup corn
1 red, yellow or orange bell pepper chopped
1/2 small red onion, diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup cooked quinoa (I found that about 1/2 cup dry quinoa will end up to be about 1 cup cooked)
1 pomegranate (I added this to give it a little bit of sweetness and since it is currently pomegranate season. But I bet you could add mango or strawberries or something too!)

dressing: (whisk all together and pour over the ingredients above)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil

i'm addicted

Cranberry Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits

These are delicious... and currently what I'm stuffing my face with. I've never really baked or cooked with cranberries before, but they are weird little guys. They're light and almost hollow inside! (P.S.  don't try eating them raw. They are not really any good until you put them in some sort of dish. Trust me on this one...)

Well, let's get to the point.

Ingredients: (orignially from here)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks cold butter, cut into pieces
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 425

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda, and stir until combined. If you have a pastry blender, this would be a whole lot less messy, but I just dove in with my hands. Mix in the butter until coarse crumbles remain. Add your cranberries and buttermilk and stir until combined. (I had to use my hands again)

Drop by about 1/4 cup onto a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. (I used my silicone baking sheet which made things super easy.) Enjoy!

Roasted Fajita-Spiced Chickpeas

Chickpeas (or garbanzo beans- that just sounds like a muppet name doesn't it) have been a staple in my pantry since I love making (and eating) hummus.  But I recently stumbled upon a recipe for roasted chickpeas. I've never considered eating chickpeas all by themselves, but this seemed like something I'd like.  AND chickpeas are actually kinda good for you. Ya know, all that fiber and protein? It turns out these little babies are yummy. Nice for snacking, or even on top of a salad!


Ingredients:
2 (15oz) cans chickpeas
2 T olive oil
1/2 tea. salt
1/2 tea. pepper
1/2 T. chili powder
1/4 tea cumin
1/4 tea. paprika
1/4 tea. onion powder
1/4 tea. garlic powder
1/8 tea. cayenne (optional if you like heat)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Drain and rinse chickpeas and pat dry.
• Mix oil, salt, pepper and spices and toss in chickpeas to coat.

• Spread on a baking sheet (lined with foil) in a single layer.

• Bake 40-50 minutes (Shake once or twice through baking)
• Store in airtight container once cool.

Pumpkin Yogurt Pudding

I accidentally bought a ridiculously large can of pumpkin not thinking that its primary purpose was to be used in Pumpkin Spice Lattes (2 Tablespoons at a time...). So I tried to find some other recipe besides pumpkin pie, that would use up some of this pumpkin.  I found lots of recipes for pumpkin pudding, but many of them were complicated and used ingredients I didn't have on hand (including tofu??!!), but then I stumbled upon this beaut.

Ingredients:
2 cups vanilla yogurt (I had a tub of nonfat plain yogurt and so I added a dash of vanilla and a squeeze of honey)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
cinnamon for sprinkling
whipped cream for topping (clearly optional, but mandatory for me...)

Mix yogurt, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Yummmm.

Tamale Pie

I decided to go out on a limb and out of my comfort zone on this one... This recipe calls for Tempeh, pronounced Tem-pay. It's fermented soybeans and it's actually quite gross-looking, but the original recipe touted it as being high in protein and it should be delicious if prepared properly. (have I sold you on it yet??) Well, have no fear. It really was well-disguised in this recipe and my husband actually ate it. Granted, I didn't tell him there wasn't actually any meat in there... he didn't notice:)


Filling:
1 medium onion
1 8oz package Tempeh crumbled (easiest to grate it)
2 tea. minced garlic
1 tea. chili powder
1/2 tea salt
2 tea. apple cider vinegar
1 tea maple syrup
1 14oz can tomato sauce
1 15 oz can beans (I used black) drained and rinsed

Crust:
2/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tea. baking powder
1/4 tea salt
1/2 cup milk
1 T. maple syrup
2 T applesauce
1 cup corn kernels
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400.
• Saute onion for 4-5 minutes
• Crumble/grate tempeh into pan and brown 2-3 minutes (yes, this was a bit weird looking... see the original recipe for great step-by-step pics)
• Add garlic, chili, 1/2 tea salt, vinegar, 1 tea. maple syrup, tomato sauce, and beans and simmer for a few minutes
• Transfer to a 2 qt. backing dish.
• In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.
• In a liquid measure, combine milk, syrup and applesauce.
• Stir wet ingredients into the dry and add corn.
• Spread mix over baking dish mix and sprinkle with cheese.
• Bake 15-20 minutes until cornbread mix is set and chesse is melty!

This was quite good, but I think I'm going to try it next time with some ground beef just to see what happens.  I think I could even be a bit lazy and used a boxed cornbread mix supplemented with some corn kernels... we shall see.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

So I wanted to make myself a Pumpkin Spiced Latte the other day and realized I was missing a key ingredient... the pumpkin pie spice. Kinda important. So instead of putting real clothes on, getting in the car and either driving to the nearest Starbucks or grocery store, I did some searching and found out that I had all the spices that go into the pumpkin pie spice, so I made my own!

All you need is:

3 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

Mix all to combine and store in airtight container... or sprinkle a little on your favorite fall beverage!

Pumpkin Spiced Latte

I'm a big fan of a fancy-schmancy flavored coffee on a nice, lazy fall Sunday so I can relax and catch-up on my reading, TV watching, blogging, cleaning, etc. I saw many different versions of the Pumpkin Spiced Latte floating around lately and I decided to give my friend's recipe a try. I must say, it was delish.

What you'll need:
1 shot espresso (or about a half a mug of strong coffee)
frothed milk (as much as you want- depending on how Latte you like it)
2 Tablespoons canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons brown sugar
dash of vanilla
sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice

Mix and In Your Face, you over-priced coffee establishments;)

Ps. if you don't own a milk frother.... you're missing out. It kinda tricks you into thinking you're having whipped cream when you're not. Love.

PPS. Sorry I've been a blogging delinquent. Spending upwards of 20 hours a week coaching water polo PLUS actually trying to do my real job of teaching middle schoolers is a bit exhausting and as you can see, well, time life consuming.