Toasted Pinenut Quinoa Salad

This is a super simple, super easy salad recipe I made up on the fly when I wanted something really quickly and fresh for lunch.  Quinoa is one of my definite go-to grains to cook when I don't want any fuss.  So,  I opened the fridge, saw what was available and decided on this.  I had a small container of toasted pinenuts left over from a class from a couple weeks back and decided to use it up.  (I know there's the scary thing with pinenut mouth going on right now, but these were definitely organic and definitely real pinenuts - they should be at $30 per pound!).  You could (and probably should) add some chopped parsley or cilantro for color, but I didn't have any. 

Toasted Pinenut Quinoa Salad:

Serves: 4 large servings or 6-8 small servings

2 1/2 cups cooked quinoa

2 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 pinches cayenne pepper
1 garlic clove, minced

1 roma tomato, chopped, about 1/2 cup

1/2 cup small diced red onion

1/3 cup toasted pinenuts

1.  In a medium bowl, add the olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and minced garlic.  Toss ingredients to coat with a rubber spatula. 

2.  Add the cooked quinoa, chopped tomato, onion and toasted pinenuts.  Toss ingredients to coat again.  Season to taste with additional salt, lemon juice or olive oil, as needed. 

3.  Serve cool or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

-Koko

Hubby's Invention: Noodle Vegetable Soup

This is something the Hubby made for me several days ago when I was working late.  Until we get a couple more people in the department I am working in, I have been and will continue working crazy shifts that span all hours of the day.  Some days I do not finish work until 8 or 9 pm and will not have eaten all day, so my loevely Hubbs will make a nice dinner for me.  What a sweetie!  This time was a variation of a soup that he makes pretty often.  I love that he put slices of the corn on the cob in the soup - that was really fun to eat (and messy!)

Noodle Vegetable Soup

Serves 4

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 celery stalk, sliced in half down the middle and chopped

4 sprigs cilantro, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 corn on the cob, sliced into 4 circles

1 potato, peeled and chunked

filtered water to cover

unchicken boullion

3/4 cup thin pasta, broken into pieces

black pepper to taste

1.  In a medium pot over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and allow to become hot.  Once the oil is hot, add the onion, celery, cilantro and garlic.  Cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant. 

2.  Add the corn on the cob and potato and stir.  Add enough filtered water to cover all of the ingredients, plus 2-3".  Add the unchicken boullion and bring contents to a boil.  Once the contents are boiling, lower heat, and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes and corn are tender. 

3.  Add the pasta and stir into the simmering soup.  Cook for about 8 or so more minutes, or until the pasta is cooked through.  Serve.

Enjoy!

-Koko

Spicy Lime Tofu with Roasted Mushroom Risotto, Green Peas & Salad

Hello everyone out there.  Hope everyone is doing well.  I have been insanely busy with my new job - it's taking up the vast majority of my time, and what little time I have left is taken by the Hubby either by cooking dinner for him (well, us really), working on our cafe plans together or trying to have enough time to go on a date.  This unfortunately leaves me little time left to blog about all of the tasty things I am still making on basically a daily basis.  I definitely still want to share the delicious things I am doing, and I hope you are still wanting to see them, however, there is no way with the way things are currently going, that I will be able to write as thorough of posts as I have in the past.  I am thinking of doing something similar to the blog What The Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway, in that I would share menus and pictures, and when time, recipes and stories.  I think that is what is going to work the best for now, but it could always evolve from there and maybe eventually go back to a recipe for each post.  We'll see.  Until then, thanks for checking out my blog and enjoy through pictures the tasty things I am making for the Hubbs and I, or what I am preparing professionally or privately.



Dinner Tonight: Roasted Mushroom Risotto, Spicy Lime Tofu,
Mixed Green Salad and Green Peas.  Tasty and simple,
though the risotto was definitely time consuming!