I'm back!

I wrote the last post in August right before we left for our trip to San Diego. After a fun and tiring two week trip, we came home and packed our house and moved down the street! We were very excited to buy our home, yet the timing was crazy! The kids were starting school and we were still exhausted from our trip. We closed escrow on August 31st and moved in. I am happy to say that tonight we unpacked the last of the boxes that we have had planned and are ready to get our lives moving again!
It was hard to not get to cook for a few weeks. Having meals brought it from friends and neighbors was a huge blessing, but we have truly gotten out of our grove!
It was nice this week to cook again in my new kitchen.
I thought I would celebrate this post with a fun and unusual side dish.

Cauliflower Rice

Directions:
On your cutting board, cut one head of cauliflower up into large chunks. You then want to put half the batch in your food processor and pulse until the cauliflower resembles rice grains. When it is to that point, dump out the blended mixture and pour on a baking sheet. Pulse the second half the same way and add to the baking sheet.
I then drizzled olive oil, lightly over the top.
I finished with freshly cracked pepper, sea salt, onion, and garlic powder.

Bake at 400, stirring every 5 minutes until the edges start to brown. Enjoy with stir-fry, or veggies, or just by itself. We actually had it with free range, organic, BBQ chicken, something we haven't had in a LONG time and fresh green beans! The kids didn't even ask what it was...they just ate it. I thought it looked like couscous!

Have a fabulous Day!

Amazing Summer Quinoa Salad

Picture is from HERE (but this is what my salad looked like!)

I wanted to make a new quinoa salad...and found this amazing recipe HERE! I doubled the ingredients for the salad and tripled the dressing recipe. Again, no picture..so I found one that looked just like it. I love it, because it is sweet and savory at the same time. We accompanied this with grilled veggies and shrimp and a big green salad. I like this recipe because you toast the quinoa first before cooking it...adds more depth to the seed.. Enjoy!
(Tastes even better the next day):


Ingredients:

1/2 C. quinoa
1 C. water
1/4 C. orange juice
1/4 C. chopped fresh cilantro
2 T. rice vinegar
2 t. toasted sesame oil
1 t. minced fresh ginger
1/4 t. salt
dash of Cayenne pepper
1 small mango, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 C. black beans
2 green onions, thinly sliced

Directions:
1. Toast quinoa in a small dry saucepan over medium heat, stirring often, until it crackles and becomes fragrant, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a fine strainer and rinse well. Put quinoa in pot with water and bring to a boil then simmer with lid until quinoa is tender and water is gone.
2. In the mean time, whisk orange juice (i made fresh o.j.), cilantro, vinegar, oil, ginger, salt and cayenne in a medium bowl. Add mango, pepper, beans and green onions; toss to coat.
3. When the quinoa is finished cooking, add to the mango mixture and toss to combine!