ONE SEXY SALAD!

ok ok, seeing as thought I've had so much interest in this salad since posting its deliciousness on facebook a mere 24 hours ago, here's the recipe!  It is now my salad of 2011 - meaning any barbecue, potluck, bring something food event we're invited to in the next while will have this salad.  Its the perfect summer meal - light and fresh with a good crunch and quite filling!

Quinoa Salad with Apples, Pecans, Dried Cranberries and Gouda
serves 6 as a main course or 10 as a side dish

1 1/2 c quinoa (1 box)
Sea Salt
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lrg red onion - quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 c. arugula, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 c. gouda, finely diced
3 celery ribs, thin sliced
1 large crisp apple (Fuji/Pink Lady/Gala) chopped into 1/2 inch dice
1 c pecans coarsely chopped  (the recipe called for walnuts, but I like pecans better!)
1 c. finely diced fennel (anise) *optional
3/4 c dried cranberries
3 tbsp sherry vinegar (I didnt have any so I used a mix of apple cider and red wine vinegars)
fresh ground black pepper

Rinse quinoa with water.  Drain.  Bring  2 1/2 c. salted water to boil over medium-high heat.  Add quinoa and simmer on medium-low, covered, until the quinoa is tender, but still has bite, about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and let rest for 5 minutes, then fluff with fork.  Let cool.

While the quinoa is cooking heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and pinch of salt.  Cook, stirring frequently, until tender and brown around the edges (6-8 minutes).  Add the balsamic vinegar and toss with the onions until the vinegar cooks away, about 1 minute.  Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large bowl (and believe me, you'll need one!) mix the quinoa, onion, arugula, cheese, celery, apple, pecans, fennel, and cranberries.

In a small bowl, whisk the remaining 3 tbsp olive oil with the sherry vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt and a few grinds of pepper.  Add the dressing to the salad and gently mix it in.  Let rest a moment, then season to taste with salt and pepper.  Add more olive oil if the salad seems dry.

I've had this for lunch today and as a side for supper with the family tonight and have it in my reusable lunch container for tomorrows lunch and still have about 1/2 of the salad left!  IT IS SOOOO GOOD!   Probably the best thing on the menu since the week of  Gwenyth Paltrow's Spaghetti Limone Parmaggiano!


...and yes...it was THAT good....lol!

The Incredible Shrinking Husband!

I am so proud of my hubs!  Not only is he a fantastic dude who 'gets' me, lets me know when I've crossed the line, lets me cross said line every once in a while, is a wonderful daddy to our wee dude, but the man has also lost an incredible amount of weight in the past year or so...

60 LBS!

The thing that ticks me off though is that he's done it by eating sandwiches and cookies every day!  Seriously, if I did that I would put ON 60 lbs!  He's made a few changes to his diet (bread is sprouted grain and made without flour, buys whole roasted chickens for his sandwiches every week, eats apples every day and has cut down on the pop), but other than that, his diet is pretty much the same.  I've changed my cooking habits as well, and we eat a lot more fresh ingredients (hint:  shop the perimeter of the grocery store!), but still!  60 LBS!  Way to go HUBS!

(he still snacks though too...he'll often mention that we dont have any 'snack' food in the house...right now we've got chips in the cupboard for that very reason :).  But they're low sodium potato chips so even THATS healthier!

The one major thing I've changed for him is that instead of him going to the bakery counter or the cookie aisle and buying cookies for the week, each Sunday night I fire up the oven and bake him homemade cookies.  (I think thats why he finally relented after 3 yrs of pestering and finally bought me an oven.  Seriously.  Didnt have an oven for the first 3 years we lived in our home...long story...).  I promised I would bake him cookies and voila!  BRAND NEW OVEN!  LOL!

I've had a lot of people ask me for the recipe for the cookies so I'll share it here.  Its a variation on an old Dad's cookie recipe.  Here you go:

The Cookie:
1 c butter softened
2 c brown sugar
2 eggs
4 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 c unsweetened coconut
2 c rolled oats (DO NOT USE QUICK OATS!  WHOLE GRAIN OATS ONLY!)
1 c chocolate chips
2 c whole grain flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix first 7 ingredients in stand mixer in order given.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Place flour and baking soda/powder in sifter and sift half into wet mixture.  Gently combine.  Sift in the rest of the flour mixture and stir to combine again.  Dough will be very stiff.  Do not add more liquid!  Drop by spoon full onto cookie sheets and bake for 13 min.  Remove from oven and cool.  Place in airtight container.

You may look at the recipe and the directions and go 'meh, pretty straight forward', but you need to be careful.  When cooking with whole grain flour you need to increase the liquid content because the grain of the flour is larger and more dense than regular white or whole wheat flour.  I've doubled the amount of liquid in this recipe and the 4 tbsp is a generous one.  Also, when cooking with whole grain flour you need to sift it really well because of how dense it is.  You need to incorporate air back into the flour and this is done by aerating it in a sifter (plus its a great way to combine the baking soda/powder).   When mixing it you need to be gentle when incorporating the sifted flour as to retain all the air you've worked so hard to get in there.  Thats why you sift half, gently stir (don't use a stand mixer for this one, its too rough on the dough), and then add the other half.

Some other variations I've done is sub in Agave for brown sugar.  It worked well, cookies were more cake like, but after doing some more research on agave, I'm hesitant to use it again.  I usually use demerara sugar (less refined, but is still a refined sugar), but this past week I subbed Sucanat in for the sugar and that went really well.  Sucanat is the unrefined raw sugar straight from the sugar cane plant.  It measures 1 for 1 in recipes and is an excellent substitute for refined sugars.  Don't know if I'll use this every week because it is quite pricey ($6 for 454g), but well see.  I could sub in super healthy chocolate chips but those are even more expensive  ($8 for 250g!), but its worth a try once right!

I havent figured out this weeks menu, but here is a recap of the past few weeks in our kitchen:

Summer corn fettuccini - was good, but not as good as I had hoped...

Burly Man Sized Chicken Cheddar BBQ Burgers - Another burger home run!  YUM!

Vegetable Red Thai Curry with Chicken - this is the one that was too hot for the boys so they opted out for sandwiches, but it was just the right amount of heat for me.  My mouth wasnt on fire, but it was warm!  I asked one of the girls I work with if I could find non-spicy red curry paste.  She suggested cutting back on the spice next time altogether.  I think thats what I will do...

Guacamole salad - the hubs is getting tired of meat free Mondays.  After this meal I promised him that if I make salad for a main dish during the week it will have meat in it.  Just not enough to fill up a construction worker after a long day in the shop!

Red Lentil Dal with winter veg - was too heavy for the sunny June Monday that I made it on.  Would be better for a fall or winter meal.  Froze the rest and its now in the deep freezer!

Canadian Cheeseburger - was the first time I had a burger flop.  Was ok, but I dont know if it was the beef or it was because there wasnt any extra spices in it besides bbq sauce, but the hubs wasnt a raving fan over this one.  Found that one interesting!  His palate is broadening!  HE WANTS SPICES!  lol!

Beef and Broccoli - this time the wee dude picked out the beef and kept asking for more beef before he ate the broccoli.  Ahhhhh...little dude....


Until next time!  Happy Cooking!