Recipe: Curried Quinoa

As vegetarians, we have to find protein wherever we can and quinoa (pronouced Keen-Wah) is a great food to find it in.  It is (I think) the only complete protein found in nature that isn't an animal, you don't have to mix it with other foods to get all of the necessary proteins for your diet like you do with, say, black beans and whole wheat tortillas.

One of our favorite ways to cook up this delicious food is to put it in curry.  We made this recipe the other night and I thought maybe ya'll would like to make it for yourselves :)  You can use whatever vegetables please you, like most of my recipes, this one is very easily customizable.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup dry quinoa
2 tbs olive oil (olive oil because I've heard that vegetable oil causes cellulite, does anyone know if this is true?) 
1 chopped onion
2 chopped bell peppers (we used green and red)
1 cup chopped carrots
1 stalk chopped broccoli
2 gloves diced garlic
1 cube of Curry
curry powder to taste
just a smidge of ground ginger

Rinse the quinoa in cold water and save any grains from going down the drain with a fine mesh or coffee filter. The quinoa must be rinsed because it is naturally covered with a substance called saponin that will repel birds and insects.  Rinsing this substance off (and soaking for twelve hours (this isn't necessary, but it does help)) allows for the quinoa to be digested more easily. Do you see the sudsy-lookin' stuff on the top of the water? That's how you know that you've rinsed off the saponin.

Moving on, when you are ready to cook, after the quinoa has been soaked or rinsed, saute the onion, bell pepper, carrots and other veggies in the oil until they are soft

At the same time, cook the quinoa, removing any sudsy saponin (we do this by simply spooning it out as it boils)

As the veggies are softening, add a bit of curry powder and ground ginger to them to let it seep in.

To make the sauce, we break off one of these curry cubes, mix it with some water, salt and flour to thicken it up. Feel free to make your own version of the curry sauce, when we don't have these blocks, we mix curry powder, a bit of milk, egg yolks, salt, sage and ginger together.

After the sauce is prepared, add it to the veggies and let them simmer for 5 or 10 minutes.

Serve the quinoa as a bed for the veggies and sauce and enjoy your nutritious, protein-filled meal!

Quinoa is a great rice substitute, it will mix in with stir fries, soups and salads as well as make a delicious dish by itself, if you haven't tried it, I encourage you to!

Vegetarian Gumbo - A Recipe

Two weeks or so ago Matt asked me to make him some gumbo and I finally got around to it. Now that classes are over and finals are taken care of, I have time to cook again!  I love it :)  I've made some delicious banana bread (or so I'm told, I don't actually like bananas, but my honey loves the bread) and have bought ingredients and supplies to continue making delicious, healthy meals.

Here is the recipe I used/invented for the gumbo, I used mostly what I had on hand and a few "specially bought" items.

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This photo has most of the ingredients, but not all, the beans were in the crockpot, the okra on the stove, rice in the cooker, etc

Ingredients:
Large Onion - Chopped
Green and Red Bell Peppers - Chopped
Scallions - Chopped (I had them on hand, they needed to be eaten)
1 Cup Carrots - Chopped
4 Celery Stalks - Chopped
3 Cloves of Garlic  - Minced
2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 package (4) Tofurky Kielbasa - Cut length wise then sliced
2 Tbs Oil
1 10 oz package Okra
1 lb Kidney Beans (mine were dry so I cooked them accordingly first)
2 Cups Rice
2 Bay Leaves
Garlic Powder
Oregano
Thyme

• Saute the onion and garlic until soft and yellow
• Add Bell peppers, celery, carrots, scallions and tofurky and saute until tender
• Add tomatoes, undrained and heat until boiling
• Season as desired and lower heat to simmer for 45 minutes-ish
• Cook rice on the side
• When the 45 minutes-ish is up, add rice, okra and kidney beans and heat through
• Serve with loaf of delicious bread 

 So clearly this makes a whole ton of gumbo, but its all good because the food is delicious, filling and pretty healthy.  It will also freeze well so you can make some and save it for later to avoid getting sick of it after eating it for a week straight hehe.

Homemade Veggie Sushi

Matt is a massive sushi fanatic. Huge. He could easily live off of sushi alone. Sadly, in this little town, getting decent sushi is impossible so he decided that he was going to make his own. And you know what? Its delicious :)

Here is his first attempt, using seaweed, rice, avocado, cucumber, tomato and cream cheese:

It was so good, very professional looking and tasting, just awesome. Sadly, I can't stomach seaweed, it makes me almost vomit. So the next time he made it, he used lettuce leaves and it was so tasty! I can't express to you how wonderful it is :)

Its ok to be jealous, I know you are, its a natural feeling ;)

Spaghetti Squash

I am a carb-o-holic. I admit it. I love carbs, pastas, breads, crackers, all of it! As Matt and I are undertaking the No Plastic Challenge however, we can't buy pastas like we used to because even the pastas that come in the boxes usually have that little "window" with a plastic covering. I was feeling very deprived of my last of delicious pastas and then we decided to give Spaghetti Squash a try.


We may never look back to be honest. Ever. It is so delicious and much healthier than traditional pastas. We also made our own sauce, again, very simple, healthy, vegetarian and even vegan friendly.

One squash gave the two of us two very full meals. The second meal we decided to warm the "noodles" up by frying them some in olive oil over low heat.

I believe this would be a good meal to prepare with children because scraping the squash into spaghetti-like strands is easy and hands-on. It might even make them enjoy their vegetables ;)

Here is our recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup diced onions
• 1/4 cup diced mushroom
  
• 1 large diced tomato
• 1 clove diced garlic
  
• oregano
• basil
• salt
• pepper

Instructions for Sauce

1. Saute onion
   
2. Mix tomato sauce with diced tomato, diced onion, diced mushroom, basil, oregano, garlic and pepper to taste
3. Heat over stovetop for 5 to 10 minutes
   

Instructions for Squash:

1. Cut squash lengthwise
2. Pierce skin with fork
3. Place cut side down and bake at 350 for 45 minutes
4. Run fork over inside of cooked squash to release spaghetti-like strands
5. Add sauce
6. Enjoy!

If you have any questions please feel free to ask them in the comments below!

Meet Your Meat

So I was shown this video the other day and found it completely repulsive. I mean, I knew the meat industry was bad, but I didn't know it was this disgusting. Needless to say, I don't think I will eat meat again unless I know exactly where it came from and what kind of life it had.

If the video in this post doesn't work, click here to see it.

*Warning: Video may not be suitable for weak stomachs*