Scraps and Snippets ~ Quinoa Muffuletta...Fun with Quinoa Part Two

Quinoa and Easter.

I took this cold quinoa muffuletta salad to one location and the ring to the other.

Follow the directions below for the basic quinoa to make either dish. The amount of cooked quinoa will be slightly over 2 cups.
1 Cup quinoa
1/4 Cup dried mushrooms
1/4 Cup diced onion
2 Cloves garlic minced
2 Cups veggie broth

Toss all in a pan and bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer and cover and let simmer about 15 minutes.

The ring recipe is here. 

Cold Quinoa Muffuletta Salad

Dressing: 

3 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP olive oil

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon of agave or maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon of yellow or brown spicy mustard

dash salt

Mix well. 

Add the following:

1/2 Cup chopped mushrooms

1/4 to 1/2 Cup chopped green olives

1/4 to 1/2 Cup chopped kalamata olives

1/2 Cup shredded kale

The dressing 
The cooked quinoa mixture

Mix well. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Quinoa Ring...Fun with Quinoa Part 1

First prep the quinoa to make enough for two separate dishes. This amount makes a quinoa ring and a medium sized side salad. I'd definitely cut it in half if you only want to make one or the other. The amount of cooked quinoa will be slightly over 3 cups. If you want to make just the ring follow the directions in the parentheses and this will make approx a cup.

1 1/2 Cup quinoa (1/2 Cup)

1/3 Cup dried mushrooms (2 TBSP)

1/3 Cup diced onion (2 TBSP)

3 Cloves garlic minced (1 clove)

3 Cups veggie broth (1 Cup)

Bring to a boil, turn down to simmer and cover and let simmer about 15 minutes.

Split the cooked amount into thirds into two separate bowls (one of them can be the pan) 1/3 for ring, 2/3 for salad. The salad recipe is here. 

To make the Quinoa Ring you also need the following. 

1/4 of a container of vegan cream cheese (2 oz or 2 TBSPish)

1/4 Cup chopped mushrooms

3/4 teaspoons garlic powder

1/2 TBSP finely chopped onion

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 TBSP nutritional yeast

Add all these to the smaller amount bowl full of the quinoa and mix all together very well.

Crescent rolls (1 can, make sure it's vegan) You could also use your favorite pizza dough and make this a pocket or calzone. 

To make a crescent roll ring separate the 8 triangles of dough. Lay each of the  longest pointiest ends over the rim of a large pie plate or round baker. The shorter two point ends will overlap each other and there will be a hole in the center. It's going to look kind of like a stick drawing of a sun. Press the overlapped edges in the pan together. 

Scoop the quinoa filling onto the flat inner circle of dough. Then take each outside point and pull it over the mixture and tuck it slightly under the inner ring of dough. 

Bake at the temperature called for on the can (or in your pizza dough recipe) Bake approximately 4 - 6 minutes longer to make sure everything is done. You want it golden and cooked through. 

Serves 8 slices.   

Scraps and Snippets ~ Carrot Cake Truffles

Carrot Cake Truffles

3 small carrots (remove the ends, peel and chop)

1 1/2 Cup nuts (I used pecans)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

12 Medjool dates (pits removed, of course) 

1 tsp vanilla

Dash salt

flaked coconut or powdered/crumbed nuts

Place carrots in food processor, add nuts and dates and process. While running add cinnamon, salt and vanilla.  Process until mixture is uniform and sticky. 

Roll into balls and roll in coconut, nuts or both. 

Chill a couple hours before serving and keep in fridge. Makes about 20. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Orange Maple Tempeh

I had to take a meatless dish to Easter dinner. The omnivores in the crowd were going to be chowing down on ham with a sweet mustardy sauce, and though that doesn't tempt me I wanted to offer something with some bite and some similarities. 

Enter tempeh, Now, this shouldn't really appeal to omni's. Tempeh is fermented grains and tofu, after all. I mean, no omni is going to order this off a menu if they could have meat instead. 

But. Can I tell you that omni's gave this a try, and two thumbs ups? I just did. Scout's honor. 

Make this the night before (or at least an hour so the marinade can soak into the tempeh.) 

Orange Maple Tempeh

2 packages tempeh (I used TJ's)
3 cloves chopped garlic
3 - 4 carrots cut into sticks
1/2 to 3/4 Nuts (optional)

Glaze
2/3 Cup orange marmalade (I used Trader Joe's)
1/4 Cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 Cup maple syrup
Mix together and set aside until ready. 

Cut tempeh into chunks, squares, triangles, rectangles, strips. Place in a steamer basket and steam for 10 minutes. Tempeh should be double the thickness. 

Oil a 9 x 13 pan. 

Toss garlic chunks, tempeh pieces, carrot sticks and nuts if using into the pan/dish.

Scoop marinade/glaze over the tempeh pieces and drizzling over the dish. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.  When ready, heat the oven to 350 and bake for 25 or so minutes. You want the carrots tender and the marinade to caramelize. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Lightning Predictions and Other Stuff

Easter dinner on my side of the family was held at 5:30 at my aunt and uncles. Wow. Am I the only one who is completely bored by that sentence? I feel the need to throw some pirates or riots in there to beef it up. 

Here we go: A wild-eyed family member shrieked through Easter dinner. The shrieks were intermittent, sneaking up on us like a stealth bomber, leaving behind casualties (something fell, not sure what it was) and frayed nerves that zinged into an occasional shudder or tic. 

Dinner started with a bathroom sit-in. I believe in a Hulk type frenzy the hero of the story made himself a safety fort (aka lair) by pulling a drawer out and blocking the path to the toilet. The bathroom door was open so we all could get the full effects and vibes exuded into the main area where some of us were seated waiting to enjoy our meal. I made the mistake of making eye contact. The father of said rebel stated, "you now have two angry eye shaped holes in your soul." 

This is what can happen when sugar is involved. Public Service Announcement: sugar highs have an opposite and I think we should just call those "sugar uglies." 

In between the sugar stand-offs the adults were able to have lovely conversation. (In case any family members are reading and feeling bad about their children's behavior, I'm exaggerating for my own amusement. A few holes in my soul are totally worth a good story...don't tell the others about the exaggeration thing, K?)

Before dinner we enjoyed a few minutes of lovely weather while the children gathered those evil plastic eggs filled with fuel for epic meltdowns. A table was ready for half the group on the patio since it was supposed to be nice. We had gotten forecasts for rain in the afternoon but they moved it to 7:00 p.m. Just as people got seated the sky started looking a little stormy. In the distance there was a little lightning action in the sky. The adult consensus was that the storm was a ways away. My cousin/nephew (father of above mentioned rebel) looked at me.  "So, Kelly, do you think it's safe to sit out here with the lightning?" 

"Me? You're asking me?" I said. After all, I'm the mid-generation in the group. Two grandmothers and an aunt who dabbled in decades of safe living and plenty of warning spouting were right there. Two grandpas, too. I don't have little kids or grandkids. And...this nephew/cousin is a man-child (my son's age) who at one point thought I kept heads in my freezer. But that's another story. 

"He said. Yes. I think you can make this call... and you have a blog." 

So I told him the lightning was very far in the distance. That I thought it'd be safe. Five minutes later the wind picked up and sent them all into the house. Then it rained. 

I reminded them all that he'd specifically asked about the lightning and that lightning had not hit the patio. And that I'd probably be blogging the story. I can't help but think that soul hole-puncher kid was a consequence to the whole weather forecasting debacle. Shudder.  

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Planting One On ...

Gotta do some gardening stuff soon. Like this weekend. Just because it snowed last Monday doesn't mean it will snow again. Right?

Here are some very interesting Infographics I found. So I'm sharing.

One I couldn't find on the website source is one I stuck on Pinterest. It's regrowing veggies from organic root bases. 

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Graphs.net.

If you click on this one it should take you to other more interesting ones. It didn't let me embed them separately. 

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Graphs.net.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Graphs.net.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Using Time Wisely

You know how they (let's not get into the discussion about who they is) say using your mind for things like puzzles and figuring "stuff" out is good for it? Yeah. That's what this is about.

I don't think "they" recommend that you use this technique when procrastinating. But that's beside the point. That's how I roll.

Anyhoo, while working on my mental cognition I was perusing Bored Panda to discover more tools for keeping my brain elastic and found Momo. How cute is Momo?

See my momo - Lola and then go visit Momo and work that brain.