A Green Bean, Tomato and Quinoa Salad My Mom Would Love

Like everyone, I have very specific memories about certain foods from my childhood. Not always food that I ate but food that reminds me of other people.

As I was making this salad I realized it reminds me of my mom. And perhaps that is fitting with Mother's Day right around the corner.

During the summers of my childhood I remember my mom's favorite meal being a baked potato, green beans, and sliced tomatoes fresh from the garden.

She loves this meal even today.

My Vegan Lunch

So here you go mom, an update on that dish:

Ingredients:
1 cup dry quinoa
4 Garlic Cloves
Chery Tomatoes
Sunburst Tomatoes
1/2 a White Onion, Caramelized
Lightly Steamed Green Beans
Handful of Parsley
Balsamic Vinaigrette
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Makes 5 servings
Calories:  225

Carnivore's Lunch with Mozzarella, Chicken, Sriracha Crescent Rolls

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Super foodists (should that be hyphenated?) of the world unite-I'm finally on board with quinoa!

You know you want to eat this!

And, yes it calls for double exclamation points.

Recipies that I sourced:

Cooking Light

Sousstyle


My version stayed truer to the Cooking Light recipe with the following changes:

No onions
No raisins
Used cilantro instead of mint
Used Roma tomatoes, 1 per serving

The recipe made roughly 5 servings.

The Carnivore's Plate:

Quinoa Tabbouleh served with Chicken Broccoli Cheddar Crescent Rolls.

*first time he's said "Kim, that looks really good." when I handed him his plate-SUCCESS!

serious cucumber addiction happening here

The Vegan's Plate:

Quinoa tabbouleh served with sliced cucumbers, steamed brocolli, and cilantro jalapeno hummus from Trader Joe's.

So. Good. So. Filling.

Pantry Panic Inspired Shrimp Bowl

As a treat this week I suggested The Carnivore get Thai takeout from a great Thai place we found in Omaha.

They have this Chicken Popeye dish with a peanut sauce that he loves.

I suggested this for last Sunday since I was working on breaking my juice cleanse and only eating a small amount of raw veggies. But, of course, we both forgot that they are closed on Sunday.

This is the 2nd time we've forgotten and I found myself wondering what in the world I was going to fix because other than what I purchase for our meals each week there is literally no other food in the house.

I did find 1 can of corn and 1 can of black beans hidden in the back of the pantry that I overlooked. Thank goodness!

Using the canned goods and what I had on hand I was inspired to make a Shrimp Burrito Bowl of sorts.

Ingredients: steam shrimp, white rice, corn, cilantro, roma tomatoes, jalapenos, avocado.

I had some of the corn and tomato mixture but I wasn't up to rice and beans yet. And I'm going vegan for the summer so no shrimp.

Easy. Simple. Delicious.

Black Beans and Rice on the bottom

Somewhat Homemade FroYo

I have an ice cream addiction. Seriously, it's like a sickness. A sickness that I'm trying to break.

When I get stressed I don't crave comfort food, I crave sugar. A nothing makes me feel better faster than a sundae, milkshake, blizzard, or pint of Ben and Jerry's until the regret sets in for consuming that high calorie, fat loaded treat.

If I had a favorite ice cream it might not be so bad. But I haven't met an ice cream, frozen custard, or gelato that I didn't like. Especially if it contains chocolate. Not ever.

There have been times when prying the ice cream and spoon from my hands wouldn't be enough to stop me from eating the dessert. Seriously. Sometimes the cravings get real bad ya'll.

But, with this lifestyle change foods like this are something that I only want to have occasionaly and only if I make them.

Enter again another selling feature of our juicer. It will turn frozen fruit in to a sorbet. We've tried this twice with varying results since purchasing the machine.

Attempt #1: Frozen Banana and Strawberries

We simply ran a sliced frozen banana and about 1/2 a cup of strawberries through the juicer with the blank screen in.

The Carnivore found the banana slimy. I thought the texture reminded me of half melted ice cream, which I didn't mind. The strawberries were a bit tougher for me to deal with due to the ice like texture. The Carnivore preferred the strawberry texture. Overall, in a pinch a frozen banana might satisfy me but I was a little let down.

Attempt #2: Greek Yogurt, Strawberry, Banana, and Honey Mix

I wanted to improve the texture and consistency of the frozen treat. I tried this by mixing some Greek yogurt with the ingredients listed above. Then I froze the mixture in to "logs" using sandwich bags. Once frozen I cut the "logs" in to pieces that would fit in the juicer.


The Carnivore liked the result this produced but I'm still not entirely satisfied. I'm going to keep working on it. It was still a bit too crunchy for me. I would eat this again but I'm still looking for a replacement for the creamy texture of ice cream.

Quick Weekend Salad with Arancini Rice Balls

I somehow forgot to plan food for this weekend. Opps!

Since grocery shopping was happening this Sunday I had to come up with a few meals with what I had on hand in the house, which wasn't much.

Luckily, there were a few treasures in the freezer. Last week I bought a package of frozen arancini rice balls from Traders Joe's. It was an impulse purchase that I'm glad I made. I used the rice balls (rice, bread crumbs, basil, fontina) to make the side salad we'd had all week a bit heartier and that served as lunch on Saturday.

On Sunday before heading to the store I made the same salad again and served it with a cup of chili that I made a few weeks ago. Thank goodness for making chili in bulk!

I wish I had taken a picture of it but if you've seen one bowl of chili you've pretty much seen them all. Mine might be a little different because I started using beef stock for my chili base instead of tomato juice. I made chili a lot in the winter and changing the base was a way to switch things up so we didn't get bored.

And, we did try a few different juices this weekend.

Carrot Apple Ginger

The carrot and apple make this a sweet juice but the ginger makes it amazing. The more ginger the better!

Watermelon Kale Mint

I think this juice tastes like Spring. It tastes fresh without any of the individual ingredients overpowering the blend. I did juice the watermelon rind but cut off the outer skin because it wasn't organic. The Carnivore felt the rind taste was overpowering but I didn't notice it after the first sip. He claims I have weird taste buds.