Friday, October 23, 2009

If Heaven is Real, it's Made of Quinoa Soup


I wish I could take credit for this soup, but it's not my recipe. I nabbed it from bread-and-honey.blogspot.com. I changed a few very small things, but of course, I didn't write them down. You can't go wrong with this soup. It is the ultimate "this will heal you whilst you're sick in bed" soup. I ate 6 bowls of it in one evening. Phenomenal. I added a shake of red pepper flakes and paprika, because I'm Greek and add paprika to everything.

About 8 cups of chicken stock
A heaping plateful of mushrooms, chopped into bite-sized hunks. (we used shiitake, portabella, and criminis)
1 yellow onion, cut in half then slivered
a few cloves of garlic, finely minced
Juice of half a lemon
Brown mustard (something fancy, if you've got it. Stone ground whatever.)
Large handful of fresh spinach
1 cup of quinoa
Fresh Thyme
Hunk of butter (Stacey used Smart Balance)

In a large stock pot, saute onions & garlic with chopped mushrooms. Squeeze in juice of half a lemon, a generous squirt of brown mustard, and throw in a chunk of butter. Stir frequently while sauteing, and when everything begins to cook down and soften, add 6 cups of chicken stock, and a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

In another pot cook 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of chicken stock. Keep to the side until the end.

To the soup pot, add 2 whole chicken legs (thigh & drumstick, bone-in, skin removed.) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, skimming the soup every so often. When meat is cooked, remove chicken legs, shred meat, and return to pot.

Add cooked quinoa, a handful of fresh spinach, and more mustard and lemon juice (and zest, if you'd like) to taste.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

It's Not About the Salmon


...it's about the quinoa pilaf in this picture. The salmon is just a simple marinade of tamari, honey, shallots, five spice and rice wine vinegar. I may have added a few more ingredients, but I don't remember. You can't screw it up.

Anyway, the quinoa takes the cake! While I toasted a handful of organic pine nuts, I sauteed shallots, red onion, shiitake mushrooms and hit it with a bit of garlic and white wine. I removed it from the heat and threw in the nuts and flipped it a few times to combine. I added the wonderful mixture to quinoa that was cooking in organic free range chicken broth about 5-7 minutes before it was finished cooking. If my 20 month old son screamed for more quinoa pilaf and Jesse, Maximus and I ate about 6 servings of it, you know it's a winner. I'm sorry I never measure anything. I'm trying.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Open and DIVE IN!

Don't open it, I'm kidding. This is the most disgusting thing on the planet.

Limited Resources

I've had a difficult time finding certain kinds of sausage here in Lincoln. I don't know why most stores only sell breakfast sausages and brats. Ew. Anyway, I managed to locate some Smart Chicken sausage the other day. I removed it from it's casing and created spicy chicken sausage with fire roasted tomato, portobello and garlic sauce over whole wheat bucatini. It was divine. Spicy, sweet and balanced. And who knew Target sold whole wheat bucatini?! I found it on the end of an isle on clearance and grabbed it.

And finally...at last...I got my hands on some whole wheat panko. I don't know why whole wheat anything is hard to find.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Boo!


Relax, they're just organic banana bran skull muffins with dark chocolate features.