Sauteed Kale with Shrimp and Wheatberries

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Andrea

One pot meals are my favorite. When I cook dinner, most nights I play a game with myself to see how I can reduce the number of pots and utensils I have to use. This makes cleanup faster and easier!

My goal is to try and only use one pot. Sometimes I’m successful and other times I’m not but at least I gave it a try! Wheatberries are a new obsession for me. I love them! They cook up fast, can be made ahead, and the chew factor they have is outstanding.

Little nuggets of goodness! They are a lot chewier than brown rice and have a more intense slightly nutty flavor. I can purchase these in the bulk bin section at my local Whole Foods.

Place some wheatberries in a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for a few minutes, maybe 10, until they are softened and chewy. Not crunchy but a lovely soft chew to them.

Multigrain Pancakes

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Andrea

Our most recent breakfast outing had Scott and I sharing a plate of multigrain pancakes. These were new to the restaurant and I definitely wanted to give them a try. They were delicious and full of wheat germ sprinkled on top. Fluffy and huge making it the perfect thing to share over coffee and conversation.

However I wanted to make my own and you all know that I love me some pancakes. First chance I had, (the following Sunday actually), I made my own batch of multigrain pancakes and they were fab!

Andrea’s Muligrain Pancakes

1C Buckwheat flour

1/2C White Whole Wheat Flour

1/2C Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

2 Heaping TBSP of Ground Flax

2 Heaping TBSP of Wheat Germ

2TBSP Brown Sugar

1tsp Baking Soda

Sprinkle Cinnamon

2 1/4C Apple Cider

Heat griddle over a medium heat. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk together. Add in the apple cider and gently stir folding and combing everything. Grease the griddle by your method of choice and drop by spoonfuls some of the batter onto the griddle. When bubbles start forming in the middle (about 2-3 minutes), flip the pancake over, gently. Finishing cooking on the second side, about 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and serve!

Butter and maple syrup went on top of my pancakes and I could not eat them quick enough. Fluffy, sweet, and full of multigrain goodness, I was in pancake heaven. Next time I might use half white whole wheat flour and half buckwheat flour. I may reduce the sugar just a touch as well.

Late Night Pasta Toss

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Andrea

Scott: I think you should post about this.

Me: Post about what?

Scott: Dinner.

Me: What? Like what we’re eating right now?

Scott: Yes.

Me: But it’s nothing, just some veggies and pasta.

Scott: Right.

Me: ‘Splain yourself.

Scott: Well, what did you do?

Me: I made an easy and quick dinner because it’s crazy late and we need to eat.

Scott: Exactly. Maybe people would be interested in this. Maybe folks want to know how to just put something together quickly when they don’t have a lot of time. Or when it’s late and they are hungry but still want something healthy. This is a good example of that.

Me: Well I’ll try. I did just toss this together, no exact measurements or anything.

Scott: That’s the point!

This was the conversation that Scott and I had last Wednesday when it was late, we were hungry, and I needed to put some food in our bellahs. I attended that canning class and my original plan was that we would eat dinner before class. That didn’t work out and I didn’t have a Plan B. So when we got home and it was after 9pm, I needed to put something together quickly to feed us.

Farmstand Green Bean salad with wheat berries

Posted on August 11, 2010 by Andrea

This summer has been notable for two reasons: heat and farmer’s markets. Because of the heat, I have only wanted to eat a lot of cool things. The HQ has been seeing various kinds of salads for meals this summer. We have also been frequenting Farmer’s Markets because local towns have picked up hosting mid-week markets which fits our schedule a little better.

I noticed a lovely batch of green beans on a recent trip to the Farmer’s market and I had to have some. I’m not the only one in this house who loves green beans, Rocky loves them too. I picked up enough for all of us to enjoy!

Green beans are a bean that I have always been in love with. I don’t care how you serve them up, I will eat them. That includes fried green beans although I won’t eat as much of those as I will other variations.

I knew I wanted to do something different with these green beans and then it occurred to me that I could probably make a nice ode to summer salad out of them. I walked through my kitchen looking around to see what else I could add to the salad and I stumbled upon some wheat berries. I had yet to use them in anything and figured now would be a great time to try them out. Fresh veggies and whole grains? Perfect combo!

Cheddar Dill Buttons

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Andrea

The first time that I came across the concept of cheddar and dill, I was watching an episode where Ina made some cheddar dill scones.

Oh?

I love dill very much. It is probably my very favorite herb and no I’m not kidding you. I also love really great cheddar and combing the two seemed like a great concept. While I didn’t really want a scone to snack on, I did think that this could be transferred to a great biscuit.

The first time I made this was years ago using a drop biscuit method. I used really poor cheddar, factory farmed milk, and some Bisquick. Oh yeah totally not something that would be considered healthy but instead more likely to be found as an option at The Red Lobster. You know what I mean.

Now I have several years of baking under my belt which has given me more experience and new techniques that can be applied to many different things. My outlook and choice of ingredients have also greatly changed since the early days. Now I like to keep things simple, more homemade, and incorporating more whole grains into the mix.

The Joy of Overnight Oats

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Andrea

If you’ve been reading here for any length of time then you know that I love my oats.

Probably a little too much. Oats bring me joy! And comfort and a full belly. I eat oats everyday in some shape or form. Typically a bowl of oats that I just made but I also have been known to inhale oatbran and a yogurt mess with granola often as well.

Recently with the very hot temperatures we’ve been having and the ridiculous amount of humidity that has made itself known, the idea of a hot steaming bowl of oats is less than appealing. All I want is COLD stuff. I don’t mind hot coffee but everything else must be as cold as it can get!

Even making and eating dinner is not so much fun because I don’t want to deal with the hot and my appetite has gone down a bit as a result. Anyway, I needed to solve this problem somehow because I have to eat breakfast. If I don’t eat breakfast, I can become cranky really quickly. And after an 8 mile run, food is very important. I thought about cereal and even bought some but have yet to open the box. Cereal just does not have enough staying power for me. I wanted the completeness of oats without all the hot.

Read more on The Joy of Overnight Oats…

Chocolate Quinoa Bread

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Andrea

It’s the end of the month which means we are wrapping up Quinoa Month! What better way to end the month than with some chocolate!

I originally set out to make brownies but this experiment turned out a lot more quick bread-like and not so brownie-like. However it’s still super tasty and full of chocolate goodness!

Andrea’s Chocolate Quinoa Bread

1C Whole wheat pastry flour
1/2C Unbleached All-Purpose flour
1 1/2C Cooked quinoa
1/4C Cane sugar
1/4C Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2tsp Baking powder
1tsp Baking soda
1/2tsp Ground cinnamon
1TBSP Ground flax
Pinch salt
Pinch cayenne pepper
1/2C Crushed walnuts
1/2C Dark chocolate chips
1 1/4C Soymilk
1/2C Coffee
2tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a brownie pan or 8inch square casserole dish with nonstick spray, set aside. In a medium size mixing bowl combine the soymilk, vanilla, and coffee. In a large mixing bowl combine all other ingredients except the walnuts and chocolate chips. Whisk to get all ingredients combined and fluffed. Add in the nuts and chocolate chips, then add in the soymilk mixture. Gently stir until everything is combined and then add the mixture to the baking dish. The batter is a bit thick so make sure that you even it out with a spoon once it’s in the baking dish. Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Quinoa Cornbread

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Andrea

I love cornbread and I mean LOVE it. Like real love and not just like-like, you know? I’m also really picky about my cornbread. I like it sweet, not too sweet, but it definitely needs to have some sweet background to it. I also do not like things in my cornbread.

Things include:

Corn
Jalapenos
Bacon
Green onion

And any other variety of “things” that have the potential of throwing off the texture of the sweet divine bread. Also? Do you know when I like to eat cornbread?

For breakfast or for dessert. Although if you ask me to pick a favorite time, it’s going to be with breakfast because sweet cornbread goes amazingly well with morning coffee.

At least in my world it does.

When I discovered that I could make cornbread on my own, goodness I was ecstatic! We rarely had cornbread at my parent’s house growing up. In fact the best memories I have of eating cornbread were the little mini loaves that you got with your Boston Market meal. I know, isn’t that totally sad? What a bummer of a memory! The upside is that the majority of the time that I ate Boston Market were with Scott because we didn’t have a Boston Market in my little rinky-dinky town I grew up in. We didn’t even have a Boston Market where I went to college. Boston Market didn’t become a common establishment known to me until Scott and I moved in together after college. Our first apartment in the very first town we lived in together had a Boston Market.

Quinoa Spice Cookies

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Andrea

Naturally when I started playing around with quinoa, I immediately went the dessert route. ”Hey I bet I could make cookies. How awesome would that be? Protein powered cookies!”

This was actually my first baking experiment with quinoa. I wanted something that sort of reminded me of fall, cozy times, and early sunsets.

These cookies totally deliver and are actually one of the few cookies that get better with time!

Andrea’s Quinoa Spice Cookies

1.5C Cooked Quinoa

1C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour + 4 TBSP

2tsp Cinnamon

1/2tsp Allspice

1/2tsp Ground Clove

1/2tsp Baking Powder

1/4tsp Baking Soda

2TBSP Sugar

2TBSP Ground Flax

1/2C Dried Cranberries

1/2C Crushed/chopped Walnuts

1C Soymilk

2TBSP Molasses

2tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. In medium sized mixing bowl, combine soymilk, vanilla, and molasses. Whisk until combined, set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine all remaining ingredients. Mix until everything is combined. The flour will start to coat the quinoa. Add in the liquid mixture to the quinoa mixture slowly. Stir until everything is combined. If the mixture seems thick and like you might need more liquid, add a splash more of soymilk.

Quinoa Pancakes

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Andrea

For those of you that read Mama Pea’s blog, you got a sneak peak of these babies last month.

I had a bit of leftover quinoa that I needed to use up and wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it. Seeing as how it was Sunday and Sunday Breakfast time, I decided, what the heck, and tried making pancakes out of it.

I was really pleased with the way these turned out! Healthy pancakes with added protein punch? I’ll take it!

Andrea’s Quinoa Pancakes:

1 1/2C Cooked Quinoa

1C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

½ tsp Baking powder

1tsp Ground cinnamon

1TBSP Maple Syrup

1 1/4C Soymilk

2TBSP Wheat Bran

2TBSP Ground Flax

2tsp Vanilla Extract

In a small mixing bowl combine the soymilk, vanilla extract, and maple syrup. In a large mixing bowl, combine all other ingredients. Gently add the liquid mixture to the quinoa mixture. Stir just until everything is combined.

Heat a griddle over medium heat. Brush with light olive oil and drop pancake mixture by the spoonful onto the griddle. Amount is up to you and what size pancakes you want to make. Cook for about 4 minutes on one side or until the middle starts to pop with air bubbles. Gently flip and allow to finish cooking on the other side. About another 3 minutes or so.