Quinoa Stir Fry

I will have to say this isn't the most attractive dish I have ever seen.  I am really running low on stuff in my fridge!!!  I should have poured the sauce and veggies over the quinoa and that would have looked a lot more bright.  But it is really fast and tastes really yummy! It's pretty healthy, but I have to say - Not extremely, but a little high on the sodium side. You can make this with rice too - I just hadn't pulled out my quinoa in a while so I thought that I would. I get mine in the bulk section at Winco, it's a seed that packs a complete protein - Just like meat! 

Put quinoa in a strainer - You can't skip this step or it will taste NASTY - believe me I have done it before.  Quinoa comes with this powdery film that tastes disgusting.  But with a quick rinse it's all gone and you have yummy tasting goodness. 

I really really rinse mine though - Because I just don't want to chance anything being left on there.  It will ruin everything! 

After it is rinsed I put in one cup quinoa with two cup chicken broth on high.   When it starts boiling turn it down to low - Just like rice. 

This is how I make the sauce for my stir fry. Take some chicken broth. 

Add some soy sauce. Low sodium.  This could be optional if you really wanted to watch your sodium - soy sauce can be scary for those with high blood pressure. 

Mix them together. 

Add Garlic. 

Peel fresh ginger with the side of a spoon. 

See I used almost the whole thing. 

Mix it all up with any other spices you want. I just added those two things though. 

Add a heaping spoonful of corn starch - maybe two if you want really thick sauce. 

I added a small tablespoon full and the sauce was a little thin, but it was okay after it was mixed in with everything. 

Make sure it is well mixed when you add it to your stir fry - It will look all milky.

Chop up whatever veggies you want/have.  I also like water chestnuts.  I didn't really have very much - Usually my stir fry has way more color than just green.  Cut your chicken or whatever meat you want into really thing strips. 

Oil a pan. 

When it is hot, add the chicken. 

It will cook up really fast. Asian cooking has a lot of focus on efficiency - not like this is real Asian cooking by any means. 

Add you veggies, soften a little, and then add your sauce. 

Cover to allow veggies to steam. 

Uncover and allow sauce to thicken. 

To see that quinoa is done - look for the little tails to separate and the seed to be the same color  all the way through - If there are white dots in the center it isn't done yet.  Mix with veggies! Yumm all done. 

Mini salmon balls, indian cauliflower, and grapefruit green salad.

This was really yummy and satisfying! I had my worries about it, especially when I saw what canned Salmon looks like. I also worried that the salmon balls would turn out hard because I did them in oven and didn't pan fry them.  I wanted the salmon balls to be cute and fun to eat - and they were! The lemon made the extra tasty. I made my own dressing for the Salad and that was also wonderful.  I have to say, I like all the dishes they have out there for cauliflower, I never thought I would like it so much or that it was so versatile.  I have looked at many many things for cauliflower and it has really made me think of this vegetable in a different way.

This is the Salmon I used. 

It looked pretty scary - all the skin and bones was still there!!! ahhhh.  It was a little gross but I just scraped off the skin with a spoon and found the places with the bone and took them out... I am sorry to say I think a few bones escaped. 

I just crumbled it up and went through a few times with my hands to make sure all the bones were gone. 

I then added one celery stock chopped up really small,  a half a can of water chestnuts - also cut up real small, and a handful of fresh chopped parsley.  Dill would also be beautiful in these little balls.  Followed by about a tablespoon of dijon mustard and two eggs whites.  I try to avoid egg yolks where it is possible to still get a good product because one egg yolk contains about 86% of your daily cholesterol and you should try and only eat a total of 6-7 whole eggs in one week.  You can have as many egg whites as you want though - well within reason. 

Mix it all up with about 1 3/4 cup of bread crumbs.  I used two slices of bread, a little bit of flax seeds, and a handful of  almonds like I normally do and used the whole thing. 

Spray a baking pan with olive oil. 

Roll these into little cute balls.  I thought they would be fun as balls, but my original plan was to make them into to salmon patties.  You can do either, just make sure they are all about the same size so they get done around the same time. Put them in a 450 degree oven. 

Chop up two tomatoes, 1/2 bell pepper and whole head of cauliflower.  I just removed the green parts from the head and then just cut the whole head in slices, it saved on time and was a new look for cauliflower. 

Heat up some oil - I added butter because I thought it would help with the browning but in hindsight I really didn't need and it didn't add that much to the flavor, so just skip that.  I used Canola Oil this time.  I then grated up some fresh ginger and added a large tablespoon of minced garlic. 

I mixed it all up and then added Paprika, ground coriander, and cumin. 

Allow it to get all fragrant, it seriously smells so gooood! 

Add you tomatoes, peppers, and cauliflower.  Stir and coat with seasoning as best you can.  

Add chicken broth and wine, if desired, into pan.  Add enough that there is about 1/2 inch of liquid on the bottom of the pan. 

Cover and allow the cauliflower to steam and get soft.  When it is soft, remove the lid and allow the rest of the liquid to evaporate and everything to get browned.  This take awhile - so it would be a smart time to do your salad. 

I know I did this with an orange, but just in case you didn't want to look back.  Cut off the top and bottom so  you can clearly see where the fruit starts. 

Cut off the peel.  As you can see I sucked all the leftover fruit off the peels - It was so good and grapefruit smelled so wonderful.  

Cut out the sections. 

I did two grapefruits so I could eat what was left over and then squeezed the juice from the skins that were left over after taking out the sections. I put this in a separate bowl to make my salad dressing. 

So I just added Balsamic vinegar (about 1/8 cup), olive oil( about 1/8 cup, maybe a bit more), flax seed, some salt and pepper, and some honey (about a Tablespoon). 

Just whisk it all up. 

When things start sticking to the bottom and getting a nice brown color on them, it is done! I could have and should have waited longer to get more browning on the Cauliflower  - but I was anxious and my in laws propane stove is slow to brown because it doesn't get very hot. 

Top Cauliflower with cilantro if desired and have your salad with whatever greens, veggies, and nuts you like.  I had red peppers, summer squash, the grapefruit, and almonds. 

I also added some lemon wedges for the Salmon balls. There you have it, yummy stuff. 

Baked Chicken Parmesan.

So, I've never really had real chicken parmesan, I assume it's fried.  Anyways it's really easy and of coarse - Super healthy! I tried to cut out a lot of fat from this meal after my husband started giving me looks of "Honey - you call this healthy with a half a bottle of olive oil drizzled all over it?"  So I am going to do my best to try to stop using so much delicious olive oil... I guess it will cost me a lot less too. But I am still sad. 

I used three slices of whole wheat bread (Nature's Pride), a handful of almonds and flax seed.  I like the flavor and the crunch the seeds and nuts give it.  I made waaaaayyy too much for just two chicken breasts though, you might even get away with just one slice of bread if it's just two breasts. 

I ground it all up in my handy food processor and then added some seasonings - Basil, Thyme, Oregano, and Rosemary.  You could add just a Italian Seasoning mix if you have one, or really anything you like! 

Place it on a plate for easy covering. 

I use one chicken breast for every two people, I cut it in half and it is more than enough.  Those chickens are so oversized these days - You defiantly don't need a whole breast to yourself! 

Cut the breast in half, like this. 

Like you are butterflying it, but then cut it in half. 

Like this! 

Cover with plastic wrap or wax paper, whatever you have.  I just didn't want to get meat juice on what I used to pound them with. 

A rolling pin is my weapon of choice, but anything heavy will do - If you had a meat mallet that would be cool to use.  

Smack them into thin pieces of meat. 

This is my set up, some canola oil in a bowl, pastry brush, my bread crumbs and the pan they go in afterwards.

Excuse my finger and my husband's leg.  I know it's a sexy leg, but if I catch you staring at it, I will have to beat you up.   Brush on oil on one side of the breast, lay it in the bread crumbs oiled side down and then brush the other side.  I used butter the last time I made this and everything turned out better - The crumbs stuck better, they ended up crisper, and the flavor was better.  But this turned out okay too.  

After you cover both sides in the bread crumbs place in your pan.  You may have to press the bread crumbs on a little.  Place in a 375 degree oven.  

I also had some butternut squash - so here I show how to cut up a butternut squash into cubes.  First cut the top part off of the bell part. 

Next cut the top part and the bottom part off, this step next make it easier to stabilize while you do the rest. 

Using a vegetable peeler or a knife remove the tough outer skin.  The one on the right I used a peeler and it saved a lot more flesh, but it was taking forever because I had a wimpy vegetable peeler so I just cut off the skin on bell part. 

Cut the bell part in half, where all the seeds are. 

Remove all the seeds with a spoon. 

Slice in strips. 

Cut in cubes.  I did put oil on this - it is here where my husband looked at me weird as I happily doused it in olive oil haha. I blotted a lot out and then just salt and peppered it.  Put this in with the chicken.  It would be smart to do this before the chicken because I waited about 10 minutes for this to finish after the chicken. 

I cheated on the sauce, I just cut up some tomatoes. 

And mixed it with this bottled sauce.  I like this sauce because it is a fair  price, comes in a bottle, and has no high fructose corn syrup.  You can compare to get the best sauce for you, I bet there are better sauces they just cost a little more.  

I put this one low and let it simmer while dinner cooked, as the tomatoes softened I squished them down a little. 

Grate just enough cheese to sprinkle a top your chicken - This was actually two much for what I had. 

For the asparagus, head up some chicken broth, just a little to steam the asparagus, add some flavor and keep everything from burning.  I heated this up after the chicken looked like it was almost done, as the asparagus takes like two minutes. 

When the chicken is almost done, take it out and cover it with tomato sauce and sprinkle the cheese on it.  Return it to the over so the cheese can melt and get all bubbly. 

You can put garlic in the chicken broth if you want. 

Add the asparagus. 

Cook it until bright green and turn off the heat. 

I had left over spaghetti so I got enough for three people - Derek and I and then for his lunch tomorrow.  It's Barilla whole grain - a really healthy trade for normal, more protein, vitamins, and fiber! 

Cover in the hot sauce from the stove and it will warm up the noodles, unless you just cooked them - Then they are already hot! 

Pull it out when the cheese is ready - I could of let it go until the cheese started to brown, but I didn't want the chicken to be overdone. 

Using the bowl to mix the spaghetti with the sauce will keep your plate clean and looking prettier than mixing it on the plate, but you could also just pour the sauce over the pasta too.  To make sure the butternut squash is done, just poke it with a fork, and if it goes in easily it is done.  

Yumm... Derek and I ate about 1/4 of this plate - Too much fiber.  So you could definitely only have about 1/2 or 1/3 and be full.  Well I guess it depends on how big of an eater you are!