Greek Stewed Cauliflower

Greek flavors involve savory and more traditionally sweet cinnamon and orange zest.  And a dose of salty in the olives!

So I did almost no cooking this weekend-  yesterday I was busy doing a little 4 hour class at the tech school in Phillips and then I got outside and snowshoed twice.  This morning I went for a long walk, then hit the gym and then went snow shoeing.....  yikes.  So, I discovered a decided lack of food that I can use for lunch this week and had to rectify that.

I had seen a recipe on my Pinterest board, or rather I saw that someone had repinned this recipe and it gave me an aha moment.  And I had some quinoa left in the frig, so I had everything allllll ready for dinner.  Woo hoo!!

Oh yeah, I lied, btw.  I made blueberry muffins before lunch.   Sort of forgot about that.  That recipe is right here--  I made a slight adjustment, didn't have enough oatmeal, so I used oat bran to make up the rest of it.  AND for some insane reason there was no cinnamon in the recipe.  CRAZY TALK.  There was cinnamon in mine.  I had one today, and have another planned for tomorrow and have half in the freezer.   The MA on the other hand, has had more than one, which is why half of them are hidden in the freezer.  

Blueberry muffins!

Ok, so this went together super fast, just chop up what needs to be first then it is as simple as 1, 2, 3!

 Chop the cauliflower, onion, prepare the garlic for pressing and plan to slice the olives later.

Literally dump everything into a pan (after you quickly saute the onion and garlic)  except the olives and cook down for about 15 minutes.  Then simply add the olives, add salt and pepper to taste and serve over rice or quinoa or whatever you want!

Greek Stewed Cauliflower

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 onion (chopped)

1 head cauliflower (chopped)

Zest ½ Orange

1 cinnamon stick

1  can crushed tomatoes or diced tomatoes

1 – 15 oz can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon celery seed

⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup kalamata olives (chopped)

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Heat oil in large pan and saute the onion until soft.  Add the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds.  Add  cauliflower, zest of orange, cinnamon stick, tomatoes and tomato sauce, oregano, celery seed and red pepper flakes.  Cook down until cauliflower is tender.  Remove cinnamon stick and add olives and salt/pepper.  Serve hot over rice or other grain.  YUMMY!! 

Now that was a great way to end a busy day!  And pretty joyful, too!

Fruit Salad and Muffins!

I have been doing a little cooking and baking lately. I have been trying to make things that only involve a small amount of heat, however, considering the weather and all.

So, over at the Sunday Baker, my dear friend Tanya recently made berry muffins that were flourless.  Now, I have nothing against flour, really, bread type things are a serious weakness of mine!  But these sounded really good, especially considering it has so many wholesome, clean ingredients in them.  The other thing I made was a Quinoa Fruit Salad.  This is prime fruit season and I have recently been on a quinoa kick.  Quinoa is a grain that has a lot of protein in it, and it is different and blends well with a lot of flavors.  And the dressing of lime, honey and mint sounded so refreshing, had to try it out.

Ingredients include applesauce, maple syrup, fruit and oats.  I opted not to use the white chocolate chips that is in the original recipe

I used 2 whole eggs for the extra protein

MY FAVORITE breakfast item in the world!!!

Mix all ingredients except for the fruit

 I found a cool, easy way to skin a single peach or two.  MICROWAVE 3 cups of water until it is boiling, about 4 minutes.  Drop the peach into the water and leave it in there for about 3 minutes.  Remove from water and slip the skin.  I found when I did the second one that you need to reheat the water to boiling again.  2 peaches makes about 1 cup.

Slip the skins form the peaches

Divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups

Bake until golden

Peach Oat Muffins

This recipe has oats, applesauce, yogurt and maple syrup as the main ingredients.  You can change the flavor of the muffins by changing the yogurt and fruit!!  Tanya's muffins --HERE-- are berry, I had peaches and peach yogurt so that was an easy decision!

2-1/2 c. quick or old fashioned oats

1 (6 oz.) container Chobani (or other brand) Greek Yogurt

1/2 c. pure maple syrup

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

2 eggs

1-1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. baking powder

1 c. chopped peaches (or other fruit)

  

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners. In a food processor, add all of the ingredients except for the peaches (berries). Pulse until it becomes a thick, malt-like batter. Pour into a mixing bowl.  You can also mix the whole thing in a mix master.

2. Stir in the fruit, reserving a small amount to add to the tops for a pretty touch, if desired. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling almost to the top.

3. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a soft golden color. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to cooling racks. 

I put these in the refrigerator overnight and they are YUMMO cold with a glass of almond milk for breakfast....

Quinoa Fruit Salad

This fruit salad was originally posted at one of the blogs I follow, called Two Peas and their Pod.  They have some really great food on here, worth a look to see!  I pinned it on Pinterest recently, and there was a lot of people interested in how it turned out.  It was really tasty. 

The dressing for this salad is simple, honey, lime and mint.  SO good, so refreshing.  I used agave syrup as I had no honey- weird but true.  Agave syrup is great too!  It is after all the made from the same  plant as my buddy 1800

Red quinoa- simple to make in the microwave

Dressing with mint and lime

Fresh Fruit-I used peaches strawberries and blueberries

Fruit with quinoa underneath

Lovely with a little mint garnish

 Quinoa and Fresh Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

1 cup of red Quinoa- cooked according to box directions.  Rinse several times first.  Will make 2 - 3 cups of the grain, cooked.

Fresh fruit of your choice- about 3 cups total.  Can add more.

Honey-lime-mint dressing:

3 Tablespoons honey (I used agave syrup)

1 lime, squeezed

2 Tablespoons fresh mint

Stir together dressing ingredients.  Add fruit to quinoa and dress the salad.  Tastes wonderful right away or the next day when the flavors blend a little.  You could halve the recipe for a small family.

2 more great ideas for a vegetarian way of eating- or not!  

2 more joyful things to make!!