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. :) 

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

Recipe - My Vegan Weekend

Well, this past weekend I decided to make as many meals as possible which included Daiya's Vegan Cheese.

On the Friday, I made Grilled Cheese, Scrabbled Eggs topped with Cheese, and crescents filled with Cheese. All were so fantastic.

Grilled Cheese

Scrabbled Eggs topped with Cheese

Cresents filled with Cheese

On Saturday, I made Vegan Pizza. All of the topping ingredients were from my local farmer's market. Another huge success!

Farmer's Market Veggies and Vegan Cheese on top of a Homemade Crust