Quinoa

I know. I'm long overdue for a new post. The good news is my busy month is almost finished. I've been doing a regular work week plus Saturday counselling training from 9-5 for the last two Saturdays. Home cooked meals worthy of posting have been few and far between.

The weather in Winnipeg has been phenomenal. It dipped a little cooler on Friday and Saturday but yesterday it started warming up again. Ryan and I took a long walk all afternoon along the waterfront and then stopped at The Forks to pick up some local honey, some sun-dried olives, and pork buttons - oh right, and some delicious fudge. We haven't had time to go to Frigs during the week so The Forks market is the next best (and closest!) thing. I had lots of choices for veggies because we got some great items in the box this week and we doubled our oranges, bananas and apples and it turned out to be the perfect amount.


As soon as we walked in the door after our day out I was ready to get started. We were both starving. I made a quick rub for the pork buttons and popped them in the oven at 350 and put the timer on for 40 minutes. While they started to cook I got the side dishes ready. I ended up roasting a bunch of veggies, sticking them in the oven on a staggered time-line so everything would be finished at once. My parents had me over for a turkey dinner on Friday and my mom gave me all the cranberry sauce. We had one granny smith apple left so I fried up the apple and tossed in the cranberry sauce to go with the pork. It was very tasty.

All day long I had this great idea for a side dish that would also get rid of a few pesky leftovers. Luckily, it turned out delicious. It was another pantry raid recipe but I would make it again the very same way.

Roasted Veggie Quinoa

• 3-5 red chard stalks, leaves and chard separated - stalks chopped into 1 inch pieces
  
• 1/4 of a butternut squash, cubed with rind cut off
  
• 8-10 asparagus spears, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 pinch nutmeg
  
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup feta or goat cheese
• 1/2 can of chickpeas (or more if you like chickpeas)
  

Preheat oven to 375. Take your chopped chard, squash, asparagus, green onions, and garlic and mix in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, nutmeg and cayenne pepper. Mix well and ensure all veggies are well coated. On a baking sheet place only the squash and put in the oven for 30-35 minutes. When 15-20 minutes remain add remaining ingredients and roast together.

While your veggies roast, take 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of quinoa and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 15 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork and add set aside red chard leaves torn up into bite size pieces. Mix around and let sit 5 minutes.

When roasted veggies are finished, combine in a large bowl with the quinoa and chard leaves and add the chickpeas. Add 1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and mix well.

The last two weeks also gave me some great veggies to use for chicken stock. I tossed in cabbage, celery, squash, onions, garlic, green onions. When Ryan and I walked in from work yesterday after it had been on the stove all day it smelled like delicious chicken soup. I'm going to have to make some tasty in the next couple of days.