Roasted Pumpkin and Quinoa Salad

Since Kat just got her braces a few days ago, I have been trying to make some healthy, yet yummy meals to help her adjust. So I decided to make something a little outside the box. I don't usually make salads without...well, lettuce, any kind of lettuce, but this "salad" had roasted pumpkin (soft), quinoa (soft) and feta cheese (pretty soft). Which made it a perfect addition to my meal plan this week.

This recipe is from Donna Hay's Fast, Fresh Simple. It's one of my favourite cookbooks. The original recipe calls for couscous, but I really don't like couscous, plus I had some leftover Cilantro Lime Quinoa from a couple of nights ago, I just changed it up a little.

Roasted Pumpkin and Quinoa Salad
(adapted from Donna Hay's Fast, Fresh, Simple - Roasted Pumpkin and Couscous Salad)
1 small green pumpkin (buttercup squash), cut about 1/2" slices
olive oil
2 cups Cilantro Lime Quinoa
juice from 1/2 a lime
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced (more for garnish)
1/2 cup feta cheese crumbled
** Honey Cumin Dressing
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

- Preheat oven to 400F. Place pumpkin slices on greased baking pan. Roast for about 15-20 mins until soft and slightly golden. Turn pumpkins half way thought roasting time.
- Heat quinoa over medium high heat until hot, about 3-4 mins. Remove from heat. Sprinkle mint leaves over quinoa and stir well. Keep warm.
- For dressing: Whisk together honey, ground cumin, olive oil and red wine vinegar, set aside.
- When pumpkins are soft, remove from oven. To plate, I did about 3 layers of quinoa and pumpkins, then topped with feta cheese and more fresh mint.

This can either be eaten warm or room temperature, either way you won't have any leftovers. There was enough for 2 servings. I made this for dinner and it was filling, but not for long. I found that I was hungry again in a few hours. So it would be perfect for lunch. Now that I'm thinking about this dish again, I'm craving it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go check if I have an mini pumpkins in my kitchen. LOL

Do you have a great meal salad recipe? I would love to try it. :) 

Mexicali Sliders

Tonight's dinner was Chloe Coscarelli's Mexicali Sliders. I made these a couple of weeks ago, but only made the patties. Tonight, I actually made the Sliders with the Spicy Mango Sauce too. It was amazing. Adding the Mango Sauce added another level of YUM to these Sliders!

Roasted Potato Salad with Feta and Peas

Tonight's dinner was a simple easy meal. I made spaghetti and meat sauce, but to jazz it up a bit. I made a Roasted Potato Salad with Feta and Peas, as our side, another recipe from Donna Hay. This time the recipe is from Fast, Fresh, Simple. This is my favourite Donna Hay cookbook. I have cooked a handful of the recipes and all of them have turned out amazing. Most of the recipes are super quick, with very little prep work. An excellent resource, if you are hard pressed for time but still want a amazing meal. :)

Pad Thai with Tom Yum Soup

Tonight's dinner was super simple and very yummy, especially with jarred sauces. I used Tom Yum Soup Paste by Por Kwan and Pad Thai Sauce by Pantai. Both you can find at your local Asian grocery store.

Pad Thai and Tom Yum Soup

Mexicali Patties with Coconut Lime Quinoa

I love, LOVE Chloe Coscarelli! Ever since I saw her on Cupcake Wars. Yes, she was the smiley adorable one, who won with Vegan, yes that's right, Vegan cupcakes! She is who inspired to bake mostly vegan cupcakes and other treats. Since then, I have dabbled with vegan cuisine. You can see my blog is full of random recipes I have tired and thrown together. I have been trying to cook more vegetarian and vegan meals, ever since I saw Forks over Knives and now Earthlings. Both AMAZING documentary about food. Next on my list, are Black Gold and Vanishing of the Bees.

Anyway, back to Chloe. :) I have made many of her desserts and a few meals, but the Mexicali Sliders scared me the most. Mainly, because I was really worried it would be too dry. Well, I am pleased to announce it wasn't. It was delicious, just like all her other recipes. I did make a few minor changes. I made them gluten-free, for starters, skipped the Mango sauce and added my favourite vegan cheese, Daiya (in Pepperjack).

Mexicali Paties with Coconut Lime Quinoa, Guacamole, Salsa
and Vegan Sour Cream

Onward to Christmas!!

Well, tomorrow will be the start of a new and final month of this year. I can't believe this year has flown by. It seems as though every year I get older, the years seem to fly by faster. There is not enough hours in the day to do everything on my daily to-do list. *sigh*

Christmas is coming up quick. I thought I was close to finished my Christmas shopping, but I always find myself totally stressed out a week before Christmas, frantically wondering if I have Christmas presents for everyone, are they all packed, wrapped and labeled. This year, there will be one more thing on my list: Baking. I have always admired my mother-in-law with all the baking she does every year. This year, I have decided to do some of my own baking. I haven't actually decided on what I am going to bake but I hope they all turn out. :)

Anyway, before Christmas I will be doing lots more cooking, but here are some of our lovely dinners. Hopefully, I'll have time to post recipes to these yummies soon. Yes, the little ones have been relentless. Everyday, Alyssa tells me it's Chirstmas. *sigh* I think she's excited or something! LOL! Needless to say, blogging has been put on the back burner.  :(

Beef Pho with well-done and rare beef, beef and squid balls,
mint, Thai basil, bean sprouts, green onions, and coriander

Deconstructed California Roll with Tamigo

Pork Consommé with Chayote, tofu and
King Soba Organic Pumpkin, Ginger, Brown Rice Noodles

King Soba Organic Buckwheat Ramen Noodles stir fry with
tofu, carrots and mushrooms

Congee with Kimchi

Happy Cooking!! :)

Slow Cooker Pasta Sauce

Over the weekend, I made two lasagnas for my husband. Since I had to make tons of pasta sauce, I thought it would be nice if I could just make it in the slow cooker. So I gave it a go...well, it turned out amazing!  I am so happy it did. Whenever I need to make a ton of pasta sauce, I will be throwing it all in the slow cooker and leaving. :)

My beloved Slow Cooker. It's huge - 7qt!! LOL! 

Vegan Gluten-Free Eggplant Lasagna with Romanesco Broccoli topped with Herb and Chives Cheddar Cheese Sauce

Yesterday, my mom gave me a very odd looking vegetable. At least, I think it was a vegetable. Originally, I thought it was a cauliflower, but after much Google searching, I found it is actually a cauliflower called a broccoli, a Romanesco Broccoli. Make sense? Nah, at least not to me. LOL!

Happy National Sandwich Day!! :)

National Sandwich Day would have be my husband's second favourite unofficial holiday. Second, only to National Grilled Cheese Day. My husband loves his sandwiches so much, I decided to create two sandwiches for this wonderful occasion. :)

For my first sandwich, I combined two of his favourite meals, Grill Cheese Sandwich and Lasagna. Best part for him was that I used Udi's Gluten-Free bread. I would have used some Daiya Cheese and Yves Veggie Ground, but I didn't have either. (Note to self: stock up on some Daiya and Yves!! ) I just used some ground turkey and regular cheese. This recipe is definitely going to be added to my dinner rotation. So, GOOD!!

"Lasagna" Grilled Cheese with a side of salad

Vegan Mushroom Tacos

As a last minute dinner, I decided to make some simple tacos. At first I was going to use the ground turkey I have sitting in my fridge. Instead, I opted for Vegan tacos, mainly because my wonderful mushrooms were looking like they were on their way out very soon. So Vegan tacos it was! :)

I love tacos, especially because I get to top the tacos with whatever I want. I tell my daughter, it's a la carte. Sounds fancy: Vegan Mushroom Tacos a la carte. LOL!

Kat loves tacos too, but tonight was a fight. She didn't want Vegan tacos. I told her I was going to make it out of ground turkey, last minute I didn't use the meat. She loved the tacos and I didn't have the heart to tell her there was no meat. Oh well, she'll know soon enough, when she reads this blog post. LOL!

Gluten-Free Quinoa Southwest Burritos

I think I mentioned before how I love cabbage rolls. For about a week, I have been trying to put together a vegan lentil filling for cabbage rolls but I couldn't concentrate. My mind keep wondering to my favourite Quinoa and Black Bean recipe, so instead of fighting my instincts, I decided to create a different  flavour of cabbage roll, not 100% vegan, but vegetarian. My husband doesn't like cabbage so I put the filling in some tortillas. (I guess, they would be burritos for him.) To make the "burritos" gluten-free, I used cabbage leaves for the rest of the family. Boy was it good!! :)

Wrapped with Cabbage

Wrapped with Tortilla

Greek Ribs with Potato Cauliflower Mash

My sister-in-law has been raving about Greek Ribs and Cauliflower Mash! I just haven't had the time to throw it together. This week, I made a meal plan which included them. Yes, I made another meal plan. I'm actually enjoying it a lot more then I use to, go figure! LOL!

 

Meal Plan - October 10-14

As you all know, I really hate to meal plan, but this week was a different story. I actually enjoyed it. Weird..I guess there is a first time for everything. :)

Last weekend was our Canadian Thanksgiving. I love holidays, I just hate all the stress involved in the holiday. This year was pretty laid back, thank goodness!! So Monday was a holiday and we just had some leftovers for dinner. Yay! A simple meal for once. :)

Tuesday was turkey Tuesday. Although, we just had turkey on Saturday, I had some ground turkey in my fridge and I had to use it or it was going to be tossed in the trash. I HATE throwing out food. HATE IT!! So I started looking up some recipes, and stumbled upon this great one, Cranberry Turkey Meatballs. They were making my mouth water at just the thought of them. I did make some changes, but boy were they ever good!!

Thanksgiving Meatballs served with
mashed potatoes and Swiss chard topped with some yummy gravy.
(Mashed potatoes, Swiss chard and gravy were
left overs from Thanksgiving.)

Wednesday was another leftover day. This time it was left over butternut squash ravioli filling and roasted chicken. I'm not a big fan of leftovers, but my meals are getting better, so my leftovers are getting better too. I guess I should have thought of that way sooner. LOL!

Meal Planning

Although I love to cook, I really hate meal planning. I really REALLY hate meal planning.

Problem is: Not only do I love to cook, I love to eat! I only like to cook what I want to eat. So there is no planning around that. Plus, I cater around my kids and husband too much. Plus, near the end of the week I have to start planning my meals around what is going bad first. So many factors. :(

At least, I know what they like to eat. They have pretty simple tastes. At the same time, Kat's favourite food is sushi. Alyssa and Logan  both love Vietnamese food, especially vermicelli. Garrett loves his comfort food. This is actually his favourite season.

Garrett loves the fall and winter months because he loves Chili, Sheppard's Pie, Beef Stew, etc. You know, all the stuff mom (well, not my mom, seeing that I'm Asian) use to make to warm up the house. I know my mother-in-law did at least. She used to make lots of stews and other hearty meals in the winter. My favourite one she makes is her Lazy Man's Cabbage Rolls (basically cabbage rolls, just not nicely wrapped up). Funny thing, it is my husband's least favourite of his mom's stews. He doesn't like anything that has cabbage as a main ingredient. Needless to say, I never make this at home.

Butter Chicken

I love LOVE Butter Chicken! It is my favourite Indian dish. I really enjoy Indian food, however it is was the only cuisine that gave me grief in my own kitchen. I can make pretty okay curries. I have never made a successful Butter Chicken recipe at home. Most of the time, I finish the recipe and we end having pizza or a really quick pasta. Yes, it ends up that bad! Not this time!

Squash Day

Today was my ode to squash day. :)

On the menu today was Pumpkin Syrup, Homemade Butternut Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce, and Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes topped with Cream Cheese Buttercream, Pumpkin Syrup and Cinnamon. It was a pretty aggressive cooking day for me, especially making homemade ravioli.

The Pumpkin Syrup took longer then expected, so I was a little discouraged. (We didn't get to eat it over our pancakes.) But I sucked it up and on with the next recipe, homemade ravioli. I have been looking forward to this dish for a while. Making the pasta was pretty simple, a little time consuming, but worth the time and effort. I love fresh pasta, but always thought it was too complicated to make it at home. I decided to do the "easy" method and use my food processor. Never again! It wasn't any easier. I still had to kneed the dough, so not much time saving. Here's a YouTube video I found, which made pasta making not so scary. But here's my finished product. :)

Spaghetti Squash with tomato "meat" sauce

I just finished my dinner. I could not wait to write this post. I have been meaning to make this for a couple of weeks now, but haven't had a chance. However, I was determined to make it this week. (I think I can, I think I can!)

Well, let me tell you how yummy it was. So so...yummy! Alyssa and Logan really enjoyed it. Kat, not so much. She didn't really like the texture of the noodles. Whoever said that Spaghetti Squash tastes just like regular pasta, LIED!! The texture was like tender crisp green beans, so there was still a crunch to the "noodles". I didn't mind it, neither did the little kids. Logan had two bowls of it. :)

Spaghetti squash after I roasted it in the oven and
scrapped the flesh.

Spaghetti squash with tomato "meat" sauce

Update - Quinoa Veggie "Meatballs"

I was so obsessed with my "meatballs" I couldn't sleep the other night. So guess what we had for lunch on Tuesday? Yep, that's right, VEGAN Quinoa Veggie "Meatballs". They were so good. Kat wasn't such a fan, she said she missed the meat, but Alyssa and Logan both enjoyed it. :)

I double my recipe and omitted the egg and used 1/4 cup rice flour. Yum! I didn't even notice the difference, but it did make 33 "meatballs" more then double what I had the night before. Oh well, more yummy-ness for tomorrow. :)

My little "meatballs" before heading into the oven.

Quinoa Vegetarian "Meatballs"

I have been looking for a good quinoa "meatball" recipe. I figured since it is so tasty and filling, quinoa would be a great alternative. I have seen lots of recipes for vegetarian "meatballs" which use chickpea and black beans, but   after all my searches, I have found only one recipe which uses quinoa. I have seen many blogs which reference The Small Boston Kitchen and her Quinoa Veggie "Meatballs". Of course, I had to try it! :)

Dinner - Vegan Food Night

I am really trying to stick to my weekly meal regime, but I'm finding it harder then I first thought. Mainly because I am truly out of ideas for dinner sometimes. My husband really doesn't like having the same thing every night. For example, we had quinoa two nights in a row, that was enough for the week. Even though, I made two different recipes but using quinoa. Oh well, there are other options, I guess. ** After reading my blog, my husband advised me that I was incorrect in my statement about him not liking the same thing two nights in a row. He said that if I made homemade lasagna every day of the week, he would gladly eat it every day. Geez!! Is that a hint and a half or what!!?? :) **

Tonight was Vegan food night. I actually really like vegan night because there are so many great recipes. I truly love finding new and yummy recipes, then making them my own. As a mommy of one teenager, and two rowdy little ones, it's tough sometimes to plan and execute vegan meals. Seeing as today was Sunday, I had a little more time. Yay!

Vegan Butternut Squash Mac 'n Cheese with a side of
Vegan Eggplant and Zucchini Sticks.