Harvest Grains Salad

Spring...
Has..
Sprung!

During my weekly grocery shop yesterday at my fave- Trader Joes- the demo lady was preparing this delicious dish. This salad comes together quickly with a few ingredients.

I had never used the Harvest Grains blend from TJs- totally sold! Israeli cous cous is chewy goodness.



Harvest Grains Salad

Ingredients:
1 bag Harvest Grain blend
1 bag green onions/scallions
1 jar fire roasted red peppers- I just used a fresh orange bell pepper
1 bag ABC trek mix- almonds, blueberries, cherries, and golden raisins
1 lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare harvest grain blend according to directions using water. Set aside.

Slice green onions and bell pepper. In a large bowl, combine the ABC trek mix, harvest grain blend, green onions, and bell pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and add the juice of one lemon. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Stuffed Peppers

This has got to be one of my favorite weeknight dinners. It's cheap, it's fast, and it's super filling. You'll definitely meet your 5-a-day veggie quota with this simple supper.

It's also easily adaptable to what you have in the house.

Some suggestions for substitutes:

Salsa or chutney for the marinara
Rice or millet for the quinoa
Artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, sauteed onions, corn, beans, diced tomatoes, pickled jalapenos for the olives
Any kind of melty cheese for topping- swiss, cheddar, muenster, monterey jack. Feta and goat cheese are also super tasty mixed into the filling.

You see where I'm going here- the options are endless! You could even get really crazy and try an Indian-inspired stuff pepper and add garam masala and some golden raisins the filling! Maybe mix in a little prepared korma sauce- I die!

This version is Italian-inspired with the pepper jack cheese adding some Mexican flair- bringing a little fusion to BettyCupcakes!

My latest cast of characters: yellow bell peppers, nutritional yeast, olives, quinoa, marinara sauce, basil, ground black pepper, and pepper jack cheese. Not pictured- red pepper flakes, a last minute addition. You know me- I like to keep things spicy up in here!

There's no picture of this step because it's boring, but start your quinoa over medium heat. Oh, and preheat your oven to 400.

In a medium bowl, mix your marinara sauce, nutritional yeast, red pepper flakes, basil, and ground black pepper. Skip the salt- the olives add plenty!

Slice up some olives or other filling items.

Stir 'em into the saucy mixture.

Grate up some cheese and toss it in, too. Set aside.

Time to hollow out those peppers. Grasp firmly and insert knife at the top, about an inch. Move the knife around in a circle creating a hole. You want to take off the stem and a bit of the ribs. Pretend it's a pumpkin.
If your bell pepper is wobbly, just slice a bit off the bottom to make things even stevens.


Place into a loaf pan.

The quinoa's cooked now. Please ignore the thermometer- we've been sharing some nasty bugs this winter! All better for now (knocking on wood as we speak).

Add two to two and a half cups of the cooked quinoa to the sauce mixture. Taste and add quinoa, if desired.


Fill up your peppers. Really get the mixture in them and then overfill by a bit. Don't skimp!

Top with more cheese. (Is anything in this world not made better by the addition of cheese? Chew on that nugget, kids.)


Bake at 400 until peppers are soft and cheese is melty and browned ~ 25 minutes. Side suggestion- roasted broccoli. Delish!

Stuffed Peppers
serves 2

2 large bell peppers
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups water
1/2 cup marinara sauce
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes, optional
10 kalamata olives, sliced
2 oz. jalapeno pepper jack cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400.

Cook rinsed quinoa in the water until done- approximately 20 minutes. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine marinara sauce, nutritional yeast, basil, black pepper, red pepper flakes, olives, and half of the cheese. Stir well. Set the rest of the cheese aside.

Add 2 to 2 1/2 cups of the cooked quinoa to the marinara mixture and stir well to combine. Taste and add more quinoa if desired. Otherwise, save the remainder of the cooked quinoa for another recipe.

Hollow out the peppers by cutting around the stem. Remove the stem and carefully remove any large ribs inside while leaving the pepper whole. Cut a small slice off the bottom, if needed, to make your pepper level so it won't tip over while baking.

Fill peppers with quinoa mixture to the brim; overfill just a bit. Top with the remaining cheese.

Bake at 400 for 25 minutes, until cheese on top is browned and peppers are tender.

Simple Saturdays Quinoa Salad

Simple Saturdays will feature easy to make, easy to eat recipes. For the first Simple Saturday post, get ready to whip up a tasty vegetarian dish.


For dinner last night, I served this delicious quinoa salad alongside some roasted sweet potatoes. They are SO good they deserve their own post, so look for that later.

While working on the quinoa salad and sweet potatoes, I added the vegetable peelings to my compost bin. We transfer this bin into the larger one outside where we make our own dirt! How cool is that??

This is what the compost bin looks like when you bump it off the counter. See all the items you can compost! I spy: coffee grounds and filter, eggshells, and sweet potato peelings. Makes great dirt and an even better mess on your kitchen floor!

I spent last week visiting my home state of Texas and enjoying all the pork products and salt the Lone Star State has to offer! Cream gravy atop a fluffy biscuit beside crisp, thick bacon is enjoyed by cowboys and cowgirls alike.

After a week of indulgence and conservative politics, nothing restores your sense of virtue and liberal self-righteousness better than a hearty vegetarian meal. To enhance the granola vibe, turn on some Jack Johnson, slide into your Birkenstocks, and embrace your inner dirty hippie.

Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
2 small bell peppers, diced
2-3 oz. goat cheese
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp chives, chopped finely
salt & pepper to taste

In a fine mesh strainer, rinse the quinoa thoroughly. Combine quinoa and water in a medium saucepan. Cover and bring to a rolling boil. Then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook 15-20 minutes until the water is absorbed.

While quinoa is cooking, dice up the bell peppers and crumble the goat cheese in a bowl. Once the quinoa is done, put it on top of the bell pepper and goat cheese. Drizzle the quinoa with olive and squeeze the lemon juice on top. Add in chives and toss to combine. The heat of the quinoa will melt the goat cheese and create a creamy dressing for the quinoa and peppers. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You won't need much as the goat cheese, olive oil, and lemon juice add lots of flavor.

Salsa Chicken & Sweet-Sour Peppers

While I gravitate to multiple step, complicated recipes, sometimes it's nice to throw dinner in the oven and sit down while it cooks. Adventures in the kitchen are good for lazy days, but sometimes you need to get food on the table RIGHT NOW.

Three ingredients, thirty minutes, 1 pan.

Ready? Of course you're ready.

Salsa Chicken

1 1/2 cups of your favorite salsa (I used Roasted Garlic Salsa from Trader Joe's)
2 defrosted, trimmed chicken breasts
1 cup shredded light cheese (I used a mexican blend)

Preheat oven to 350. Get out an 8x8 Pyrex baking dish. Don't grease it! You don't need to. I said this was easy!

Add the chicken. Here's a helpful tip- just defrost the chicken in this pan. That way you have even less to clean up.


Top the chicken with the salsa. Layer with cheese. Make sure the chicken is fully covered- any exposed parts may burn.

Bake for 30 minutes or until juices run clear and the top is golden brown.

I serve this alongside Sweet-Sour peppers. Again, this couldn't be simpler and requires minimal supervision.

Sweet-Sour Peppers

2 medium bell peppers, sliced into strips
1 medium red or white onion, sliced into strips
*Note: Try to keep all strips the same size so they'll have a similar cooking time.
Salt
Vinegar- I used white balsamic, but you could use regular balsamic, apple cider vinegar- plain white vinegar would work fine, too.

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a saute pan (the one with sides). Chop up 2 bell peppers and 1 medium onion. Toss them into the pan and season with a three-fingered pinch of salt ~1/4 tsp. Saute until soft and a bit brown. Add in roughly two tablespoons of vinegar- twice around the pan in Rachael Ray measuring. Let it bubble and reduce to fully coat the veggies. Cook another 2-3 minutes and serve hot.

This meal feels like cheating because it's so easy, but it always satisfies. Get creative and swap the salsa for pizza sauce for Pizza Chicken or chutney for Indian Chicken. This recipe practically begs for improvisation- enjoy!