Quinoa Black Bean Salad - Combined

When I was planning my menu this week, I knew I wanted to make Quinoa Black Bean Salad.  But I discovered that there were two yummy looking recipes on the blog to choose from.  So I took a little from one and a little from the other - and this is what I got!

mine didn't look exactly like this...but you get the idea

INGREDIENTS

1 cup quinoa, washed and drained
1 ¾ cups water
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of 2 fresh limes
1 teaspoon cumin

1 clove garlic, minced
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half (optional - I didn't use any this time because fresh tomatoes are on "baby no like" list since I've been pregnant)
1 red bell pepper (I like it cut small)
1 avocado cut into chunks
5 green onions, finely chopped
Salt (pepper – optional) to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1 Wash and rinse quinoa. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in medium saucepan over medium heat.  Once hot, add the rinsed quinoa and toast for a minute or two.  Add water, stir once, cover and simmer with a lid on for about 20 minutes.  Watch it though and turn it off as soon as the liquid is absorbed!

 2 In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lime juice, cumin, salt, and garlic.

3 Combine cooked quinoa, beans, red pepper, tomatoes, and green onions in a large bowl.

4 Drizzle dressing over salad.  Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired.  Can also add cilantro and/or red pepper flakes.


As a note - this is great as a side dish to a meal (one of the boys declared it tasted like guacamole), but also keeps well in the fridge for a healthy, protein packed lunch or snack. 

Teriyaki Chicken Wrap

This was a little lunch time experiment.  A successful one.  We are going to have this for dinner tonight since I am the only one who ate it for lunch today and it is delicious!!

Rice, cooked.  (I used sushi rice, but you can use whatever kind you like.)

Soy sauce ... I added a few drops to the rice.

Easy Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

Avocado, sliced

Spring onion, thinly sliced

Lettuce, shredded

Sesame seeds

Japanese mayo

Flour tortillas

Just heat your tortillas.  Fill with rice, chicken, avocado, spring onions and lettuce.  Top off with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and a drizzle of japanese mayo.  I didn't try it this time, but I imagine my husband and son will add sweet chilli sauce to theirs tonight ...

Done. 

PS. If you plan this for the night after you make Easy Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken, you will have a super simple dish.  Minimal prep work.  Minimal clean up.  Maximum taste and enjoyment!

Savory Muffins: Mexican

 

The kids, finally, talked me into letting them take sandwiches to school for their lunches.  At the beginning of the school year, I relented ... instead of leftovers, they could make sandwiches.  I guess they grew tired of them real quick because now we are looking for other options!! (just not leftovers!) I have been thinking that savory muffins might be a good bet.  Jono is home sick today and has taste tested these and given his thumbs up.  We will see what Alia thinks when she gets home in a bit. 

I tried to make these a bit 'mexican' ... will play around with different flavors and ingredients in subsequent batches.  I think the options will be endless!

what i used.

'dry' ingredients

4 cups self raising flour

1 cup chopped ham

1 cup grated cheese (I used half mozzarella and half tasty (white cheddar))
1 spring onion, chopped

1 cup canned corn, drained

1 (4oz) can green chiles

1/2 cup sliced green olives

a hand full of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped

salt

pepper

 'wet' ingredients

3/4 cup olive oil

2 cups milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

what to do.

Pre-heat oven to 180C/375F.  Line muffin tins with cupcake papers ... or grease.  Whichever is your preference.  I use the papers. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Then add the wet ingredients to the dry.  Gently stir until just combined.   Don't over mix or your muffins will be tough.  (but make sure you get all the flour down at the bottom ... no one likes a bite of unmixed flour in their muffin!)  Bake in oven until golden.  Mine took 25 minutes.  In hindsight, I'd probably leave them another 5 minutes next time ... they are cooked but only just! 

I'm going to freeze these in individual ziplocks so they are easy for the kids to grab when they pack their lunches!

Fruit Salad For Lunches

I remember, years ago, thinking that a friend of mine was brilliant because she made a fruit salad at the beginning of the week and she and her husband ate it all week long. I have finally started doing it from time to time. I'm not sure why I don't do it every week because I love it when I do !

Especially when there is such a wide variety of yummy yummy fruit available !!

I just chop it up when I'm making lunches on Sunday night, store it in a big tupperware and each night when I make lunches, I scoop it into our individual tupperwares for taking. One time I stored it in the individual tupperwares on the Sunday but it took up way too much room in the fridge ...

Creamy Parmesan Mustard Chicken Pasta

Ok, so you all know that we are eating no preservatives, no additives, no white flour, sugar etc this year. Well, when I don't have leftovers, and I've run out of bread, I have to cook something for lunches the next day. I could probably MAKE more bread but I'd rather cook ! I whipped this little beauty up at the beginning of the week and it lasted the four of us 3 lunches ! I'll tell you ... whole wheat pasta fills you up quicker and therefore stretches a lot longer than regular pasta !

Here's what I used ...
1 chicken breast
2 big handfuls of baby spinach
1 red onion, sliced thinly
3 cloves of garlic, I think I slivered them
1.5 tablespoons whole grain seed mustard
3/4 cup thickened cream
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1 bag of whole wheat penne pasta

Here's what I did ...

Boil the pasta.

While that's boiling, sautee your onion and garlic, til onion is not raw and the garlic smells yum. Add chicken (and salt/pepper to taste) and cook til no longer pink. Add flour. Stir to coat chicken. Add cream, mustard, parmesan cheese and spinach. Stir to mix it up and cook for a few minutes while the cream thickens, cheese melts and spinach wilts.

Drain pasta and add to fry pan ... or if your frying pan isn't a really cool, really big, electric one that your brother in law gave you for Christmas, add your chicken sauce to your pasta !

I'm submitting this to Cooking Thursday ... hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. For more great recipes, check her Cooking Thursday posts each week !!

Rice Balls

Sent these in the lunches the other day.
Want to know how to make 'em ?
I've posted the 'how to'
before ... here.

I love gadgets ...

My mother in law gave me these cute little soy sauce holders years ago. They are perfect for sending with sushi lunches. However ... I've always had difficultly getting the soy sauce into them. When I was last in the States, I found a tiny little funnel at The Container Store. I bought it, brought it home, unpacked it and haven't seen it since. I think it must have gotten thrown away by accident. It was really tiny.

Anyway ... one morning, after pouring soy sauce all over my counter yet again, I had a flash of brilliance !! You know those little syringes that come with kids medicine ? Well ... I've got a bunch of them and they are perfect !! You just suck the soy sauce up into the syringe ...

and then squeeze it down into the bottle !!



Works wonders and now, these are not only handy, they are easy too ...

{lunches}

Lunches ...

But first ... dinner dishes.
I've always hated doing the dishes after dinner.
Ok, ok ... I always hate the dishes.
But especially after cooking dinner.
I cook dinners that take a bit of effort ... sometimes a lot of effort.
I do it because I love it.
But to have to do the dishes after has always been so discouraging.

A couple of months ago, Rory started doing the dishes after dinner !
Just out of the blue, he suggested that I have the dishwasher emptied before dinner
and he'd take care of the cleanup after dinner.

I'll tell you what ... it is wonderful !
I wake up every morning to a shiny clean kitchen and I didn't have to clean it !!

One thing that Rory has always hated doing is packing his lunch.
We've tried different things but really ... he just wanted me to do it ! :)
I don't mind doing it but the problem always was that I would be too tired after cooking
and then cleaning up to even think about packing lunches at night
and he leaves WAY TOO EARLY for me to do his
in the morning.

So ... this week, I started doing all of our lunches, at night.
And it works wonderfully !!

There's no scurrying around in the mornings anymore !!

And I pack much healthier lunches this way !

Here's the whole lot so you can see ...



I made a big fruit salad at the beginning of the week. It lasted three days.
This is the first time I've done that, I'll definitely be doing it again.
It was so easy to just grab the big container and scoop it into each of our boxes !

I also try to incorporate as many leftovers as possible.

Here's the kids lunches for tomorrow ...
The spaghetti is leftover from earlier in the week.
The foccacia from last night's dinner.
They have fruit salad,
"greek" salad ... it's just tomato, kalamata olives, feta cheese and yellow bell pepper chunks,
a hard boiled egg, and a yogurt.



My lunch is similar to the kids, except I'm having leftover spaghetti with the leftover sauce.
And I'm having crackers instead of foccacia. And no yoghurt.

Rory needs a much bigger lunch.
He works loooooooooooooong hours.
He has lasagna that I pulled out of the freezer.
A ham sandwich.
The tomato/lettuce are to put on the sandwich at work.
(I keep 'em separate ... who likes a soggy sandwich ?!)
Fruit salad, hard boiled egg, crackers, and a bar.



And here we are ... all stacked up in the fridge, ready to go in lunchboxes in the morning !

A new series ...

Does anyone else get tired of putting the same old things in their kid's lunch boxes ?? I'm so on the lookout for new things to give the kids ... homemade things that travel/keep well !!

I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to post a series of lunch box ideas ... would you like to join me ?? Go ahead, grab the "what's for lunch...?" above, post to your blog and then link back here, or post right here if you are an author ! I'd love to see what you put in your kid's lunch boxes ! Or your husband's lunch box .... or your own lunch box ... or your neighbor's lunch box ... I'm not really picky about who the lunch box is for ... I just want to see what is in it !!

Here's a different sandwich idea that my kids love. I don't often keep cream cheese in the house, but when I do have it, they love this simple, refreshing sandwich. Cream cheese and sliced cucumber. Try it, you'll like it !!

Ps ... how do you like the lunch box drawing ?? Yep ... it was me ! Hidden talents, I tell ya !!

Lentils for Lunch

This was a very acceptable way to eat lentils !

~

The original recipe was from a Woolworths Fresh Magazine and was called Lentil Wraps. I modified it and I'm going to post my modified version.

~

3 slices multi grain bread, roughly chopped

1 tsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp turmeric

2 X 400g cans of lentils, drained, rinsed

1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

1 egg, beaten

2 tbls multigrain flour (or whatever flour you have on hand)

Lebanese or lavash bread, to serve

(The original recipe also called for hummus and tabouli to serve, I used neither.)

1. Process bread in a food processor until breadcrumbs form. Put one cup of breadcrumbs into a large bowl.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan over med heat. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes or until soft. Add garlic, cumin and turmeric and stir until well combined. Cook for 1 minute. Cool.
3. Add lentils, coriander and onion mixture to food processor. Process til well combined. Transfer to bowl with breadcrumbs. Add egg and flour and stir until combined. Original recipe said to make 16 small patties and fry them. I just dumped the whole mixture into a med hot fry pan and cooked, turning often, til it was a bit crispy ... but not too much so.
4. If you are using the hummus, spread it on your your bread and top with tabouli and 4 lentil patties ( if you did the patties ! ) I put sliced tomatoes, fresh baby spinach and sliced red bell pepper on mine, topped that with the lentil stuff. Roll to enclose filling. Cut in half to serve.
5. That's where the original recipe stopped. I tried it but the bread was a bit dry ! So ... I got out my handy dandy sandwich press and toated that puppy ! That made all the difference ! I enjoyed this lentil lunch ! I'll be having leftovers tomorrow ....