Lately I’ve been feeling that the quinoa salad recipes I make for the family on a regular basis have gotten a little…redundant. Not that they aren’t super yummy, but when you eat quinoa as much as we do after a while it can get a little boring. So, I decided to liven things up a bit! This Thai Black Rice & Quinoa Salad is flavor packed and just what I was needing to mix things up. It had the hubby saying “This is really good” (as if he’s surprised…..hmmmphh–foot stomp!) multiple times every time I served it.

I really loved the way the herbs, mango and pepper played against each other to create a slightly hot sweet and spicy dish.  If you want to turn up the heat a bit, you could always drizzle it with more hot sauce.  (We found it perfect as written.)  On the other hand, if you shy away from heat you may want to use less hot sauce and omit the crushed red pepper.

Now be warned – this recipe makes a lot! It’s perfect for those of you who are looking to cook lunches ahead but if you are single and eat lunch out you may want to half the recipe…or else you could find yourself getting bored with it before you have eaten it all!

Recipe adapted from Clean Eating Magazine.

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It’s not often that I tell you that you really have to try a recipe…but you really have to try this one.   It reminds me a bit of something you would get at a restaurant and later find out that it has 800 calories and 30 grams of fat.  In fact, it was so yummy I actually got nervous when calculating the nutritional information.  (Whew, thank goodness it only has 341 calories – 381 if you cook in oil.) It was such a hit at our house that I’ve already got it on next weeks menu.

The inspiration for this recipe came from this recipe which I found on Pinterest.  (Who else is completely obsessed with Pinterest?)

I had originally planned on just making a version of the original with quinoa, but once I got in the kitchen I got creative and changed up the spices quite a bit. I also added corn, which I thought was a great addition. Next time I think I’ll add in a little diced avocado!

This is a fun recipe that you can adjust to your own tastes. Roasted red peppers would be nice in place of the bell pepper. You can use more or less cheese.  For those who don’t want to use sour cream, this would still be delicious without it.  If you don’t have nutritional yeast, you can easily leave it off but I do like the cheesy flavor it gives.

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Today’s Quinoa Burger is a protein packed meal that will please herbivores and carnivores alike.  It happens to be my husbands new favorite veggie burger recipe, and I often make a double batch just for him.  With over 30 grams of protein per serving, its an ideal hungry man’s dinner, veggie style!

Now, my apologies to those of you who are gluten free.  This recipe does have vital wheat gluten which gives it a texture that is amazing!  Stick with me because I have a new gluten free quinoa buger/quinoa patty coming up in a few days which I actually like better than this one.  (Hubby would disagree, though he liked the quinoa patties too!)

An interesting note about this recipe is that it is very versatile. I made it a few weeks ago with leftovers from this recipe (I cut the sausage up fine) and it was out of this world! Here I’ve used plain cooked quinoa and it was still fantastic.  We love the flavor from the liquid smoke, but if it’s something you’d rather not use you can leave it of or substitute Worcestershire Sauce sauce in its place.

This recipe was modified from Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites.  I love the book but my one complaint is that it uses things like TVP.  You can read more here about why TVP may not be something you want to eat on a regular basis.  We tried it prior to knowing that it wasn’t so good for you and both of us didn’t like how we felt afterwards.  Luckily, quinoa works just as well in many cases, this recipe being a case in point.

I’ve used my new, amazing, wonderful Griddler (the one that was on my Christmas list ) here, which allows me to cook without oil.  I’ve listed other options below.

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January is always a busy time around here and I can’t help but get a little excited by all the activity. Traffic spikes pretty dramatically thanks to everyone trying to start the New Year off with healthy eating. If you are new around here, I’d like to give you a heartfelt welcome. Please take the time to join in the conversation on Facebook as well as to follow me on Twitter. And, if you’ve been around a while I would like to thank you for your continued support.

We’ve made some changes – including rebuilding the website from scratch – over the last few weeks. The result is a faster website, but a few people have been reporting errors in viewing the website such as ads covering content (which means you are viewing a cached version of the site from when we were in the rebuild process) or getting the pop up when they are already on the mailing list or have already clicked the “no thanks” button in the ad. If you are having issues viewing the site, please do report them to me as we are working to correct everything but it can be challenging when we don’t know what is going on. (But be nice – my tolerance for mean people is very low.)

Regarding the pop up, you can go to this page to stop it. You will need to do this for each device that you view the site on. (i.e. your computer, iPad, iPhone…) Depending on your settings, you may need to hit Control – R to refresh your browser. Again, let us know if you are having any issues!

Now, on to today’s recipe! This is an easy to make and very versatile. I actually used the leftovers from this, chopped the turkey up smaller and made without a doubt the best veggie burger I’ve ever put in my mouth. Of course, I was just playing and didn’t write a thing down. SIGH..

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One of my goals for this year is to really master my eating. I think Gena over at Choosing Raw said it best when she talked about discovering our “eating identity”.  What I want to do is to figure out how I am happiest eating in a manner that has nothing to do with dieting and everything to do with eating in a sustainable and healthy way.

We all have things that we “can’t give up” as well as thing we can.  For me, I’ve already ditched soda, meat, milk, seafood, eggs, cheese, GMO foods and anything that has ingredients like cellulose or high fructose corn syrup.  I’m working on reducing oil in my diet, and not eating so many Gardein products in favor of “real” food.  I also have plans to eat gluten free for at least two weeks to discover if I can tell a difference in how it makes me feel.

So what are the things I feel like I just can’t give up? For me bread, pasta and wine are three things I just love. I’ve tried ditching them from my diet and what usually happens is that I do good for a week or two and then feel so deprive that I find myself eating large portions of pasta every night for a week.  With wine.  And bread.

So, rather than deprive myself, this year I’m going to be coming up with some healthy pasta and bread recipes that I can eat in proper proportions. By not depriving myself I’m hoping to avoid those periods where I completely fall off the healthy eating bandwagon for a week or more at a time.

Today’s recipe is a healthy pasta dish that can be made completely oil free if you desire.  One thing that you will want to keep in mind that to keep pasta oil free, it is best if you are planning on eating it right away as it can stick together if allowed to sit too long.  Still, even if you do choose to add oil to this dish it is still light and can easily be part of a healthy nutrition plan.

What about you?  Do you have a strategy to keep you on track all year?

Inspired by Vegan Yum Yum

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Today I’ve got an easy to make and super healthy recipe for you that is perfect for your New Years resolution. The recipe began with a reader asking me if it was possible to convert it to a gluten free recipe, which I was happy to do.

Unfortunately, this request came several weeks ago and the last few weeks have been filled with challenges for me. First there was my son’s 7th birthday – which rocked. And then I got sick. And then Christmas and New Years, both of which I was still sick for. Although I’ll admit that sitting on the couch watching Chopped all day has been a nice break, I’m a bit frustrated because I had so many plans for the New Year – both personal and professional- and I’m feeling a bit behind.
For starters, I’d planned to do a post on my goals for the year, as a way to make them public and hold myself accountable. Unfortunately, I’m still ironing out exactly what it is that I want to accomplish this year. I’d also planned to restart P90x, but I think its best to wait until I can actually go an hour without a massive coughing attack to do so.

Although I hate feeling “behind”, I think there is an important lesson it in, so I’m trying to appreciate that. This time of year, we all have great intentions on how this year is going to be “the year”. Then, at the first time that something goes wrong we give up and go back to our old habits and give it all up.  I don’t know about you but I’m tired of beating myself up for not being perfect or for not being able to accomplish something in the exact time frame I had in mind.

So, I’d like to encourage you to step back and realize that change can take time and that you are much better off accomplishing your goals in a slow but steady process rather than killing yourself and burning out in the first two weeks of the year. I don’t mean not to give it your all, but rather to realize that whether you start working on something on the 1st or 15th isn’t really going to matter in the long run. It’s that you DO start and more importantly that you finish strong.  And know that life will get in the way, because without a doubt it will!  What leads to success is taking a brief pause to reflect on what isn’t working, STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP, and then to get back to the task at hand.  Ok, enough of my daily soap box.

On to the Sweet Potato Quinoa Falafel!

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If you would like to find a low calorie and guilt free alternative to meatballs, I’ve got a real treat for you!

One of the most shocking things I’ve found since going vegetarian and then vegan is that I really don’t miss anything. Seriously.

I thought for sure that giving up cheese was going to be a big deal for me, but honestly it wasn’t an issue at all. I am constantly making nut cheeses and have found that they are positively addicting. (Besides after watching Earthlings cheese has lost its appeal.)

And though I’ve always been a huge fan of meatballs, I don’t miss them a bit thanks to these amazing meat-less balls!  These are great to make “meatball” subs, spaghetti, crumbled on pizza, added to a salad or even just eaten alone.  I’ve even been known to eat one cold straight from the fridge on occasion.  (Though they are determinately better with sauce)

Now a couple of notes about these. They do tend to be on the dry side and if you think this will bother you feel free to add in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. I have been trying to watch the amount of oil in my diet and I enjoy them just fine without the oil.

Secondly, I’ve used vital wheat gluten here because the boys really love the texture it gives. I love it too but since I know a lot of you are gluten free (something I will be testing in January) I want to note that I have tested this recipe without the wheat gluten and it does work.

The inspiration for this recipe came from the amazing SpaBettie who is a constant source of inspiration in my kitchen.

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I don’t know about you but when I get busy with the holidays the last thing that I want to think about is what is for dinner. Sure, I spend hours planning special dinners, but those day to day meals can really be annoying.  One thing that saves our family time and again is my habit of keeping a stocked freezer.  One thing that you will always find – this quinoa pizza crust.

If this recipe looks a little familiar it is because it is a modification of another quinoa pizza crust I posted earlier in the year.  A recipe in Cooks Illustrated inspired me to try to create a pizza dough crust that used both hot cereal mix and quinoa.  We love it so much and over time I’ve tweaked it to create a crust that never fails to please.

What I love is that the recipe makes three crusts, saves well in the refrigerator and also freezes very well.  If I know I am going to have a busy day I take a crust out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw in the fridge.  I typically will bring it to room temperature before cooking, but I’ve skipped this and the results were still good.  Most of the time I make a double recipe, so my efforts yield six pizza crusts.

Get creative with this one!  We make Mexican pizzas, veggie pizzas and sometimes I use the dough to make cinnamon sugar bites for the boys!

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If you have been reading long at all, you know that I love my foods spicy and with lots of kick. My boys  on the other hand aren’t nearly so enthusiastic.

My salads are not-so-affectionately referred to as “stinky salads” and the boys run the other way whenever I’m eating one.  I sometimes wonder if  Christian (my 5 1/2 year old) has a future in Hollywood with the way he carries on about how bad my homemade balsamic vinegar dressing smells.   (Kinda hurts my feelings….)

Speaking of hurt feelings, before they will eat anything I give them it is always eyed suspiciously for pepper, onions, garlic and traces of anything green I might have tried to sneak in.  (Where’s the trust?)

Let me tell you, the deceptively delicious movement worked when they were toddlers but now they are food detectives who demand food on their terms.

I know that most people are against preparing one meal for the kids and one for the adults, but I must admit that most everything I eat is pretty spicy for the early grade school set.  And I am ever so grateful that their loud complaints are not crys for junk food.  (If you want to see something funny listen to me tell my boys we are going to stop at a fast food restaurant for lunch.  They respond with a violent no as if I’d just told them I was getting rid of the iPads, Wii and all of their Legos.  Other funny moments are near weekly calls with my parents where Alex (aka the commander) gives them lectures on all the things they are eating that are bad for them.)

Given that I’m not interested in eating bland food and they are not (yet) interested in spicy food, I find that more often than not I am making two meals.  Sometimes three because the boys don’t agree on much of anything when it comes to food.  The exception?  These quinoa fritters!

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This is one of my favorite quinoa recipes when the weather gets cold. Most of the year I’d much prefer a light quinoa salad, but as the temperatures drop I really enjoy this hearty quinoa casserole! To me, it feels special enough for a holiday and reminds me of a very delicious rice stuffing.

The original inspiration for this recipe was a Vegetarian Times recipe for stuffed apples. I made it and we enjoyed it but I have found that though I like cooked apples I much prefer them cut up small. I will typically cube two of the apples and shred the other two.  If you want to try the stuffed apples, just make the filling stuff and bake.  For me, I really like the ease of a simple quinoa casserole.

One thing to note is that due to the time it takes to cook the rice, prep time is longer than with most quinoa recipes. I’ve found that I can make this ahead of time however and have it ready to pop into the oven when I’m almost ready to serve. It holds up well enough to make a day ahead of time and the leftovers are delicious!

By the way, if you haven’t already gotten it you can still pick up my new ebook, The Best of Cooking Quinoa for $4.99. It has over 300 pages of quinoa recipes all with nutritional data and with tons of photos. You can can get it along with Quintessential Quinoa, my ebook of all original recipes NOT on the website, for just $12.99.

Order one or both here. Through the holidays we will be offering gift options so this is a great way to give the gift of health.

Recipe inspired by Vegetarian Times

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