at home with ann

I've been in a lunch rut.  On a good day I'm eating hummus wraps, on a more hectic one I'm enjoying grilled cheese crusts and the ends of a green smoothie.  While I spend our lunchtimes running back and forth to the kitchen and keeping an eye on the baby to make sure he doesn't try to eat an entire pear in one bite, it's nice to have real food in front of me when I do sit down.  I try to keep the afternoon snacking to a minimum, as it's all too easy to inhale half a bag of cashews without noticing, and this combination of protein, veggies and healthy fats keeps me full and up for toddler level sprinting races. I love this sauce.  I posted about it way back in the beginning of my blogging days as part of a lentil recipe.  Today I used it on quinoa and vegetables, but it makes a great dressing for salad or any grain or bean. Lemon Tahini Dressing From Oh She Glows 1/4 cup tahini 2 garlic cloves 1/2 cup lemon juice 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional) ko...

While I do still make food that isn't quite baby friendly (this week's mouth burning chipotle corn chowder, for example), I prefer to make one meal that we all enjoy.  It makes me so happy to eat with my little guy and see him try new foods, even if he mooches off my plate.  These quinoa pizza bites were popular with everyone.  I love quinoa, but on it's own it can taste a little bitter and boring.  The herbs give it good flavor, and dried oregano always makes me think pizza.  These were easy to make, although a spazzy potholder move resulted in yet another burn on my wrist.  My cooking theme of the winter has been, how many things can I break or injure myself with in the kitchen.  Must slow down.  C and I will be having the leftovers today, and I can't resist anything that comes out of the mini muffin tin.  Easily customizable to suit your tastes, I can even see serving these as party appetizers if made bite-sized. Quinoa Pizza Bites...

I make these recipes for Colin, but grown up people might like them too! Colin was never big into baby food purees.  I fed him one jar of food back when he first started eating solids, mostly so that I could have the cute mini jar to use for lotion.  I think those "complete meals in a jar" are kind of creepy.  Chicken dinner puree?  No, thanks.  For the most part he has eaten fruits and vegetables, either raw, steamed, roasted or sauteed.  A few things have been big hits and I use them as staples: broccoli and roasted sweet potatoes.  He's big in picking things up himself.  We can get into ruts, however, one of which resulted in his eating an entire roasted butternut squash over a two week period. He likes to help in the kitchen, which means he wants to see everything that's going on and touch it.  Cooking with one hand while holding him with the other can be a bit of a challenge.  Sometimes I can convince him that the view from his c...

It's that time of year when we have more tomatoes, corn and zucchini than we know what to do with.  We got 8 ears of corn and several pounds of tomatoes in our CSA pickup last week, so our meals have been all about corn, tomatoes, corn and tomatoes.  On Saturday we made homemade pizza (using this dough ) and topped it with fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella, corn and basil.  I really liked the addition of the corn on pizza, but I would recommend leaving the basil off until after baking because ours got kind of toasted. We were at the beach, so we used cookie trays instead of the pizza stone for baking, and we could totally tell the difference in crust crispiness.  Pizza stones are well worth the investment.  Also, taking crappy pictures with the flash in bad lighting doesn't do it any favors, but I wanted to give you an idea of what it looked like. Sunday night we had burgers, topped with tomatoes, and grilled corn on the cob.  I asked Jon to grill all t...

As far as I'm concerned, you can never have too much quinoa.  At the market the other day I was trying to decide between buying barbecue ribs for dinner or a giant bag of quinoa.  While I like ribs, I knew I'd get much more mileage (and nutrition!) out of the quinoa, so I did the virtuous thing.  This hasn't stopped me from dropping not-so-subtle hints to Jon about the barbecue stand I want to try, however.  I'll wear him down eventually.  Add anything you want to quinoa, stir in some sort of sauce or dressing, and you have a meal.  Perfect for summer.  This is a combination of fresh summer vegetables topped with the amazingly delicious Lemon Tahini Dressing from Oh She Glows .  We had this on it's own as a light entree one night, and the leftovers as a side dish for burgers.  And, you know me, I topped mine with goat cheese, but that's entirely optional.  Summer Quinoa 1 cup dried quinoa, rinsed 1 3/4 cup vegetable broth 1 larg...

Sometimes you need dinner to be simple, healthy, and able to be prepared hours before you eat.  This fit the bill on all counts.  My new love affair with mushrooms continues.  Leftovers are excellent, even eaten standing in front of the fridge holding a fork.  Balsamic Roasted Eggplant and Mushrooms with Quinoa based on Eat Live Run Ingredients: 2 medium eggplants (or one large) 16 ounces mushrooms, sliced (I used crimini) kosher salt 1 cup dry quinoa 1 3/4 cup vegetable broth 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 2 tsp dijon mustard 1/3 cup warm water 1 clove garlic, grated 2 Tablespoons olive oil 4 green onions, chopped Directions:  Using a vegetable peeler, peel long strips on the eggplant so that it looks striped. Chop eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes and put in a colander in the sink. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and let sit for an hour.  This draws out some of the liquid and also takes the bitterness out of the eggplant. Preheat oven to ...

We went to New Hampshire to celebrate my Mom's birthday this past weekend.  The plan was for everyone to help with cleaning up their yard, pruning, weeding, and planting for the summer.  Everyone else worked very hard and I stood around chatting with my sister and held the baby.  I did do some cooking, though.  We had salmon for dinner, and I brought along this Spring Vegetable Quinoa.  I'm not even sure if mushrooms are Spring vegetables.  I have absolutely no idea when mushrooms are in season, but, as you know, I've been on a mushroom kick lately, so in they went. Spring Vegetable Quinoa Ingredients: 2 cups quinoa, rinsed 4 cups vegetable broth (I think you could cut this down to 3 1/2 cups, mine was a little soupier than I wanted.) 3 small shallots, sliced 1 small onion, chopped Olive oil 16 oz. mushrooms, sliced 1 bunch asparagus, sliced into 1-2 inch pieces 1 cup fresh spring peas (or 1 cup frozen peas, thawed) 3 green onions, sli...

This is just a variation on the quinoa recipes I've shared before, but it's so good.  Plus, the addition of the roasted butternut squash is great and fall-ish.  I'll give rough estimates for the quanities of the ingredients, but really I just added until the ratios looked good.  I have a whole bunch of leftover butternut squash, which I've been eating on salads with apples all week.  Of course, you could always make the best risotto with it, too.  Fall Quinoa Olive oil 1 onion, chopped 1 garlic clove, chopped 1 cup quinoa, rinsed 2 cups vegetable broth or water 2 cups (or one can) chickpeas 2 cups roasted butternut squash 1 apple, chopped 1/2 cup dried cranberries goat cheese In a saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onion for about 3 minutes until softened. Add garlic, cook for one minute more. Stir in quinoa, cook for one minute, stirring. Pour in broth or water, reduce to simmer and cover for 20-25 minutes, or until liquid is ab...

This was just a basic stir fry, with a couple of interesting additions.  First, instead of using rice or noodles, I supplemented the vegetables with quinoa.  A slightly different texture, but also very high in fiber and protein.  And gluten free, if you care about that sort of thing.  Second, instead of cooking the quinoa in straight water, I took an idea from Veganomicon and cooked the quinoa in a combination of water, pineapple juice, and soy sauce.  It added another flavor dimension, a little sweetness in the background. The rest of the stir fry was pretty basic, lightly sauteed and steamed onion, bell pepper, broccoli, and swiss chard (I added this in because we had a bunch in our CSA and, try as I might, I don't really like it.  I know it's super healthy, so stir fry is a good way to use it to create some bulk and add nutritious vitamins.) I seasoned the vegetables with a drizzle of sesame oil and ginger rice wine vinegar.  Once the quinoa was ...

If you've been reading for a few months, a form of this quinoa may look familiar to you from back in February .  For that meal, we had it as a side dish, but today I changed it up a bit, and added some protein in the form of chickpeas to make it a light meal.   Apple and Cranberry Quinoa with Chickpeas adapted from Oh She Glows Ingredients: 1 cup uncooked quinoa, washed well 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 cup chopped onion 1 cup diced carrot 2 cups vegetable broth or water 1/4-1/2 tsp kosher salt, to taste 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 1/2 cups diced Granny Smith apple, not peeled (one large apple) 1/2 cup dried cranberries black pepper, to taste Directions : Rinse your quinoa.  Don't skip this step!  For reasons I can't recall right now, it's very important. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in pan over medium heat.  Add chopped onion and carrots and sauté until the onion is translucent.  Add broth, quinoa, chickpeas, salt, pe...

All the snow finally melted from our yard this week.  My tulips and daffodils are growing inches every day.  Spring is coming. One of my favorite things about Spring cooking is finding good asparagus on sale.  The beautiful, thin, green stalks give me hope that it will be warm soon. Lemon Asparagus Quinoa Ingredients: 1 cup uncooked quinoa 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 small onion or shallot, chopped 1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1 inch segments 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1/2 lemon, juiced salt and pepper parmesan cheese Start by cooking the quinoa.  Bring two cups of water to a boil in a saucepan, add 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, the quinoa, and reduce heat to simmer.  Cook for 15 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa looks partially translucent. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a frying pan.  Preferably one with a lid.  Add in chopped onion and saute about 5 minutes.  Wash and trim asparagus and cut into 1 ...

I like to try cooking new things on Sunday nights.  I have the entire afternoon to work on it if I need to, and it's one of two nights a week we have dinner together, so I like to make it a little fancier than normal.  Many of the dinners I normally cook are one-dish meals, so this is a time when I can expand a bit.   I don't cook meat very often, but in my continuous efforts to improve my skills, I am trying.  This was my first time working with a pork tenderloin, and it was very easy.  I found the recipe on the Food Network, and it appealed because the glaze sounded good and was made up of all things I had in my pantry. Pork Mediallions with Balsamic-Honey Glaze adapted slightly from Food Network Ingredients For the balsamic-honey glaze: 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary, or 1 teaspoon dried 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 3 tablespoons honey 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoons Dijon mustard Salt and freshly gro...