quinoa salad

I love ways to make quinoa! I have really enjoyed finding this grain and love that it is so good for you! There is a great salad that I have come to enjoy more and more each time I make it! 

quinoa salad
what you need...

for the salad...

1 1/2 cups quinoa
1 small red onion diced
1 bunch Italian parsley leaves, chopped finely
1 bunches mint leaves, chopped finely

2 avocados, diced 

for the dressing...

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 lemon, juiced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

what you do...

cook the quinoa according to the instructions (in general, 1/2 cup quinoa to 1 cup water). allow the quinoa to cool

Once cool, add onion, mint and parsley. Mix up the vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and toss well with quinoa. Add avocado last and toss.

best baked beans!

These are the best baked beans that I have had in a while (coming from a baked bean fan)! I have always wanted to do homemade baked beans so while Joe was smoking a boston butt on the smoker, it gave me plenty of time to have the kitchen to myself for bean making. The family enjoyed these over Thanksgiving & my father in law gave two big thumbs up!

Make this "Magic Dust" first as the Where the Cooks Are website advises. This gives the beans that "smokey" taste and the seasoning was spot on. It makes a ton so you could cut this in 1/2 if you were just thinking of trying this once and wanted to conserve spices. I made a double batch of the beans and have enough dust to do maybe 4 more double batches.

Magic Dust:

what you need...

1/4 cup paprika
2 tablespoons coarse salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon mustard powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

what to do...

mix it all in a container with a lid and store :)

best baked beans ever...
what you need...
1 pound dried great northern beans, rinsed and drained
8-12 slices of bacon
1 medium to large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons Magic Dust (see above)
1 1/2 cups water

what you do...
Start the night before. Rinse the beans & pull out any ugly ones that don't meet your standards. Place them in a large saucepan or dish and add salted water (cover them 2-3 inches). Soak overnight. Note: the beans will EXPAND so make sure they aren't going to expand outside of the dish. They need to stay covered with water so give them room to grow.

When you're ready to get going, rinse the beans one last time.  Return them to the saucepan and cover with fresh water by about 4 inches. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1-2 hours or until the beans are tender, but not bursting open. 

While the beans are cooking, whisk the ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, chili powder, Magic Dust, and water together in a large bowl.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook all but two pieces of the bacon in the oven ensuring that its cooked fully. Let the bacon cool after being laid out on a paper towel to degrease a little.  Cook the other two pieces of bacon in a medium saucepan. Remove the bacon & keep the grease in the pan. Add the onion to the bacon grease and cook. Once the onion is almost finished softening, add the garlic. Take a minute & crumble all the cooled bacon.

Pour drained beans into the bowl with the sauce. Add the bacon, onion, and garlic and stir to combine well.  Pour into a 9"x13" baking dish and bake, uncovered, for one hour or until bubbly. 

Bean recipe & Magic Dust Recipe from: www.wherethecookiesare.com

spicy baked sweet potato fries

so joe & i try to avoid white potatoes at all cost and i would never have said i am a sweet potato person. i am however a "fry" person and given that we [with very, very rare exceptions] gave up fried food that doesn't happen too much either! however, on two recent instances i have had baked sweet potato fries and loved them!

this week we recreated the magic and tried to get some lessons learned from our past two experiences.

one thing is that sweet potatoes once you cut them all up make a lot of fries. below is two moderately sized sweet potatoes and their fry offspring!


what you need:
-2 sweet potatoes
-extra virgin olive oil
-salt
-pepper
-seasonings of your choice (crushed red pepper, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder...or all of the above)...i would recommend no more than 1 TBSP total of all flavors combined. it looks like a little but the cornstarch holds it on big time!
-3 tablespoons of cornstarch

what you do: 
this is where it got a bit interesting...cut the ends of the potatoes off so that you don't have odd shaped ends and then slice to about 1/4" by 1/4" and the length of the potato...easy enough. then for at least an hour [& up to overnight] soak [yes...in water...] the cut fries.

preheat oven to 450 degrees. pat off with paper towels after their good soak. line 2 baking sheets with foil and spray with cooking spray. put in a big ziploc the fries, oil, salt, pepper, cornstarch & spices. shake well.

line neatly [not all on top of each other] on a baking sheet. put on the top rack of your oven for 15 minutes then turn the fries and do 15 more.

if they're getting too crispy too quickly, turn down the oven a bit to 400 or 425...we all know how to monitor the cooking process! they very suddenly get cooked and sometimes too much at the end so pull them out before you get them charred!

one caveat that most don't know about sweet potatoes is their nutritional benefits. 1 cup of sweet potatoes can has 2 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber and virtually fat free. many mommies to be are mindful of certain vitamins, including vitamin A which these are loaded with.  if you're watching out for that, be mindful of where else you're getting it that day [if you have it included in your prenatal vitamins, other foods like broccoli & spinach, etc]. the recommended daily intake is about 2500IU and 1 cup of sweet potato has upwards of 6000IU