Quinoa and seafood teriyaki stirfry

MM I love throw together meals that turn out amazing! This was my lunch adventure on the rare days my kids get mac n cheese. Also a great way to use up left over quinoa. You don't have to add the seafood but I am the only one in my house who likes shrimp so I take advantage of the cooking just for me moments. This will make one lunch sized serving but obviously you can add more for a whole family meal.

Ingredients

3 stalks asparagus chopped
2 green onions ends and stalk, diced
1 cup chopped broccoli
1 clove fine diced garlic
1 cup crab meat
1 cup shrimp
1/2 cup quinoa (precooked!)
2tbs olive oil
Teriyaki sauce to taste

Directions:

In wok heat oil
Add veggies and cook until half done (I like mine a bit crisp still)
Add seafood cook until shrimp turns nice and pink
Add quinoa and teriyaki sauce
Heat until warm through
Drizzle with more sauce if you like and serve

Borscht and beet painting

I loath beets but I love borscht. It's the dill 100% I could eat dill by the spoonful I swear. So really I should just call my borscht dill soup to be completely honest. Although borscht is fun to say and makes me feel smart. Anyway if you love dill you will love my borscht and if you love dill and beets you will really love it :)

Ingredient:

3 beets
3 carrots
3 stalks of celery
3 cups cabbage
3 cloves of garlic
3 potatoes
1 lonely onion
1 bunch of fresh dill
1 can of diced tomatoes
tomato paste* (optional and I left it out this time even though its in the photo because I honestly had no room in my crock pot it made no difference to the taste so I am going to deem it unnecessary)
3 cups water
salt/pepper to taste
dry dill to taste

Beet painting - One toddler, pile of beet peels, piece of paper (and some stain remover)



This is what I really love about this soup. It is so cheap to make and its a great way to use up veggies. It's also a good vegetarian meal if you add some biscuits or buns with it.

Directions:
Peel, wash, dice, chop etc all veggies including the fresh dill and garlic.

This is when you introduce the beet painting to your rambunctious toddler to keep him busy.

I don't obsess over the size other then the carrots because they take so long to cook I make them on the small size. You can also shred them to speed the process.

Place in crock pot and top with tomatoes and three cups of water

Cook until the veggies are soft, I cook mine all day (8-10 hours) on low
Once veggies are fork soft I use my braun hand mixer to puree. A food processor or blender would also work.



Once its all pureed then I season with salt/pepper and more dry dill to taste then I cook it another hour or so to let the flavors really blend checking it from time to time to adjust the seasoning.


Serve with sour cream and more dill if you like it as much as I do

And proudly display your beet art!

The cookie experiment ~ lazy chocolate nutty muncher cookies

Most people who know me well know that the one thing I love more then cooking is a bargain. I normally cook from scratch but when I saw Duncans Hines Devils food cupcake mix on sale for .24 cents a box well I couldn't resist. So I bought oh 20 boxes. So far we have made cupcakes with them, go figure. But I have always heard you could make cookies with the mix so this was my first attempt. I decided to attempt to healthy them up and give them more of a crunch. So is born the lazy nutty muncher chocolate cookie. Something so easy needs a long name, right?

Ingredients (are you ready for this?)

1 box cupcake mix (or I am sure regular cake mix would work too)
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
Nutty stuff: In this case I used 1/4 cup each of sunflower seeds, slivered almonds and golden raisins



Dump everything in a bowl. No really that is what I did see photo evidence.



Stir (I know very technical)


Drop spoonfuls on parchment lined pan, or oil it - I figured I would up the lazy factor of these. Now mine made 19 cookies, I figured the points (for weight watchers) at 2 points each for 20 cookies. Now if you left out the nutty part you would have 1 point cookies.

You could also stretch it to 24 cookies because mine spread quite a bit and some were rather large. In which case I would count even the nutty ones at 1 point because I grossly rounded up to make an even 2 points.



Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Okay you need to keep an eye on these they burn easily. I would check them at 8, I took them out when they were firm on top and they were already starting to brown too much on the bottom.

(and as an added bonus for my American friends you now know that
"petits Gateaux Au Chocolat Noir" is Devil's food cupcakes in french)

Curried coconut pork loin

I wanted to make something crocked with pineapple and coconut and think it was a success. The coconut flavor is very mild and not overpowering. It has a nice sweet and spicy taste without being sour. Perfect over rice :) I made it with pork but it would be great with chicken too.

Ingredients

1 large pork loin, trimmed of fat and cubed (really any kind of pork would work as long as its lean)
1 can pineapple tidbits drained (save liquid!)
1 cup light coconut milk
1 large green & 1 large red pepper diced
1 white onion rough chopped
1 finger of fresh ginger fine chopped or sliced (or powdered would work too)
3 gloves garlic diced
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon of red chili and garlic paste - or to taste (omit if you don't want it spicy)
1/2 teaspoon srarchi hot sauce - or to taste (omit if you don't want it spicy)

Directions:

Prepare and add veggies and pineapple to crock.



Trim and cube pork leave on cutting board or put in small bowl. Add all spices to the flour and mix well.


Dust over pork and toss to coat well. Put flour coated pork on top of the veggies in crock.



Mix 1 cup reserved pineapple juice with 1 cup coconut milk add the chili paste and the hot sauce mix well and pour over top the meat and veggies. It will seem like a lot of liquid but it thickens perfectly.



Cook on high 1-2 hours until it is good and hot, turn down to low for 3-4 hours. Or this can be cooked on low 6-8 hours or to speed things up on high for 4 hours.

mmmmmm serve with rice

weight watchers points - 12 servings in a 6 quart crock pot (2 cups each serving) 5 points a serving (without rice)
with rice (1 cup white or brown) 10 points

Dairy free lightened up rice pudding

I didn't get a picture of this because everyone ate it too fast but thought I would post it anyway. Next time I make it I will be sure to snap one quickly.

Ingredients

3 cups cooked white (brown would probably work too) rice

3 cups vanilla almond milk

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3 egg whites

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves (to taste)

teaspoon of vanilla

Directions

In sauce pan add rice, egg whites, milk, sugar, spices, vanilla and stir well

Over med heat bring up to a boil add raisins

reduce heat to simmer and simmer until thickens (about 15-20 minutes)

Damn good Salmon

This is a version of a dish called profanity salmon. I got told since I changed it so much I should rename it and make it my own so I am just going to call it Damn Good!

Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise

3 tablespoons teriyaki sauce

1 teaspoon sraraci hot sauce

1 (1 1/2 pound) salmon fillet

salt and pepper to taste

1 green and 1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 onion, finely chopped
Phylo dough (2 sheets per fillet)
olive oil

Preheat oven to 375
Clean and prepare your fish. I kept the skin on but I would probably remove it next time because the dough on the bottom is inedible unless you like fish skin which I don't.

Make your sauce by combining hot sauce, terriaki sauce and mayo

Slice your peppers and onions

It's important to have everything ready before opening your dough as it dries out quickly. Cover any you are not using with a slightly damn tea towel or paper towel helps prevent this.

Lay one sheet of phylo dough on the counter top. If your dough is sticky lay it on a sheet of parchment or wax paper. With a pastry brush lightly brush sheet with oil. You don't need very much. Layer a second sheet on top the first.

Lay your salmon fillet in the middle of the sheet, top with 2-3 spoonfuls of your sauce, top with peppers and onions and fold your dough around it into a pocket. Don't worry if you rip the dough its forgiving once its baked.

Gently transfer to a parchment lined bake sheet (or lightly grease your sheet)

Bake for 25 minutes

Almost non-dairy strawberry cupcakes

Ingredients (this makes 2 dozen so for 1 dozen half everything)

4 cups flour

1 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup vanilla almond milk (the sweetened kind if using unsweetened add 1/2 of sugar more you could also use normal milk if you want a dairy version)

1/2 cup olive oil (or cooking i prefer olive though)

1/2 cup strawberry yogurt (any would do really)

2 eggs + 4 whites (I use egg beaters egg whites if you just want to use eggs just use 4)

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup diced fresh strawberries

pink or red food coloring (optional) - I have to admit I added it because the olive oil and the yogurt gave them a greenish color if your okay with that omit.

In large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking baking powder, salt - mix well

In smaller bowl add milk, olive oil, strawberry yogurt, eggs, vanilla and strawberries and stir well.

Add wet to dry and mix only until combined.. try not to over mix.

Pour into lined or greased muffin tins - I filled mine right to the top and had enough mix.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean)

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