Kitchen Adventures! - Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bites

Hello again. I think it is time for another foray into the kitchen. This time I decided to try out a quinoa dish. To be honest, I had never made anything that involved quinoa before trying this dish out. In fact, I had a hard time figuring out how to pronounce it for a while there. But, through the powers of Pinterest, I found a recipe that was a daring enough to try out.

The ingredients were very simple: quinoa, broccoli, cheese, eggs and garlic. And the recipe did not take a lot of prep time at all. Which, for me, is an extra plus. As for taste, I was very happy with it. It is very light and the paprika gives it a smoky flavor. For being my first introduction to quinoa, this wasn't bad at all.

I made this  dish in a mini muffin pan, so I had bite size bites. But I'm sure that if you wanted to put the mixture in a normal sized muffin pan, it would work as well. Made it as a side dish for my family's holiday dinner and they really seemed to enjoy it. Even saw some family members packing up what was left over to take home with them.

Definitely will be making these again. If you would like to try this recipe out for yourself, you can find the recipe here: Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bites from Alida's Kitchen Happy Cooking!

Kitchen Adventures! - Lemon Zinger

If you go back to some of my earlier blogs, you will see there was a moment in time where I was inspired by the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." A man changed his life with one juicer and goal. I decided I would try and do the same. I wasn't as successful. I tapped out before reaching Day 3. However, that didn't mean that I packed my juicer up and called it quits. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Instead, I started researching. There is a vast number of juice recipes out there and I decided that I would try a couple. I mean, I bought the juicer already. I should get some use out of it. I found a few ebooks that went on sale for free. And I did some digging around the internet for recipes that looked interesting. That was how I came across the Lemon Zinger.

Recipe

 2 apples

1/2 lemon

2 medium carrots

1 thumb of ginger

This recipe quickly became one of my favorites. It has a very bright and citrusy flavor. It tastes somewhere between drinking freshly squeezed orange juice and homemade lemonade. I personally used red apples in this juice, because they were sweet enough to balance out the tartness of the lemon. What I like about this simple recipe (aside from how good it tastes) is that it is made from ingredients I normally have in my refrigerator anyway. So no tacking on any extra costs to my grocery bill. If you own a juicer, I definitely suggest giving this a try.

Kitchen Adventures! - Cranberries and Edamame

If the title didn't tip you off, I was trying out something different in the kitchen. I recently got the book Healthy Snacks for Work by Daniel Amos. It has a number quick and simple recipes for snacks that cater to people with busy lives. I figured leafing through the pages of this book couldn't hurt. I came across a recipe that involved cranberries and edamame. It just so happened that I had those two things in my kitchen at the time. So I tried it out. 

The bag here says mukimame, but that just means it is shelled already. Which is fantastic, because I want to do the least amount of work possible. So the edamame is put on a baking sheet with a little olive oil and baked until they are cooked thoroughly. Then it is mixed with the cranberries, add a dash of salt and voila! Finished!

I liked how easy and quick it was make. I also like the salty/sweet combination. What I did not like was the texture of it. I guess I was expecting something that had some crunch to it, but this was quite the opposite. The edamame had a really soft texture, almost a little mushy. It kind of turned me off. All in all, this wasn't bad. I would do it again. Maybe play around with some different fruits, like dried blueberries. Any of you guys have healthy snacks you like fixing?