Celebrity Pesto Quinoa Salad

You know how sometimes you pull out all the stops when you make a dish? Well, that happened to me yesterday because I knew I was serving Dr. William Sears and his wife Martha at a brunch. If you don’t know who Dr. Bill is, you either do not have kids under the age of 25 or you have been living under a rock. Dr. Bill literally wrote the book on babies. He called it, wait for it, "The Baby Book" and it has a photo of babies on the cover. He and Martha have written somewhere around 50 books, on kids and health, that have been translated into several languages.

1 cup quinoa

1.5 C water

4 large swiss chard leaves, cut into ribbons

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon ground pepper

1/8 C freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 C chopped arugula

1/2 C fresh basil leaves, chopped (a BIG handful, then you chop them)

1 red bell pepper, chopped

16 or so baby carrots, cut into coins (or chop up 2 large carrots)

1 C chopped red onion

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

½ C Dreamy Pesto Sauce

Knowing that royalty might eat my salad I took a little extra time to make my quinoa fabulous. First, I soaked my quinoa in filtered water for about 15 minutes while I harvested chard, basil, arugula, and bell pepper from my Garden. HighOnHealth.org has a great article on soaking quinoa. And, then went to town chopping and chiffonading (that should be a verb) my veggies and fruit. Yes, bell peppers are technically fruit because the seeds are INSIDE. Strawberries are the only fruit with the seeds on the outside. We’ll save that debate for another day.

Probably the biggest secret is the massaging of the chard to break its fibers down while I prepped the other veggies. And, you’ll want to make this salad a day ahead of time to let the flavors marry. In the morning you can say, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” Certainly because you‘re gonna a party when you eat the salad.

I like al dente, so I use 1.5 cups water to cook the quinoa. If you want more flavor, use veggie broth or “No Chicken Broth” by Imagine. Oooh! How about wine? Use a white or you will have an odd color grain. Let the quinoa cool by fluffing it with a fork or large spoon many times until you do not see steam rising any more.

Mix the cooled quinoa with all of the ingredients. The salad will take on a light green hue because of the pesto sauce.

Dreamy Pesto Sauce

     I’m embarrassed at how easy this pesto sauce is to make, in fact how easy pretty much ALL pesto sauces are to prepare. Pesto is just the Italian word for “pounded” but it sounds so much more elegant. Something to do with grinding the ingredients with a mortar and pestle. Fortunately for you, we have electronic devices to make that whole process go at light speed. 

4 C fresh TG basil leaves

4 medium cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

¼ C freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 C shelled walnut pieces

1.5 C grapeseed oil

¼ C nutritional yeast flakes

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

then,

5 pitted black olives and a little bit of the brine (1 teaspoon?)

        Take the bushels of basil leaves from your over-productive plants (that's a US quarter for scale) from your Garden and shake off any spiders that may have come along for a ride.  I always seem to bring friends in from the Garden. Then they freak out as I have completely disrupted their fine day outside, ripped their home apart, and transported them to a harsh environment. I feel a country song in the making.

         Layer your ingredients (except for the olives) in the exact same order in your high speed blender.  Basil first and pepper last. You get it. Secure the lid (double check or your walls will have a green splatter effect other people pay a year’s salary to achieve). Push the button for Sauces/Dips.

         You probably questioned your high speed blender's ability to suck the leaves from the top. But, magic! You now see a light green goop inside the blender pitcher. You really could just stop there and have pesto. You’d still see tiny bits of green and light brown together. But, take this one step further.

         Add the olives and brine. Put your cover on the pitcher. Push the Sauces/Dips button, again. Now your sauce is dreamy – no bits visible. The texture completely changed.

Be sure to refrigerate this sauce in the best container that matches its volume. You don’t want the oxygen in the gap between the top of the sauce to the bottom of the lid to be mixing with the sauce. Your forest green will transform quickly to a fatigues green. I never could have served in the army because of their color choices. That, and I am wimpy and scared of dying. I salute all who serve their country and leave the comforts of their home to bring peace to others.

         This sauce is suitable for mixing with hot noodles, spreading on your sandwich, mixing with your salad, or drinking. Wait, not drinking. I meant to type, “drizzling on a roasted portabello.” Yeah, that’s what I meant to type.

Why I Love my BlendTec Blender

     

     I am a Costco junkie. That $50 gets me in the door at least once a month. They know it, too. I am there so often that certain people smile extra big when they see me, like I am a long lost friend who showed up for the free buffet at a wedding.

     So, when BlendTec came a visiting I stood and watched the demonstration. Then, I saw VitaMix come through with the same product (essentially, though I am frustrating their product engineers right now) except for the fact that Vita Mix had a plunger and a rotary dial and BlendTec did not. 

     Did I buy the BlendTec the first time I saw it? Heck no! I had to go home and research the poop out of it. And compare prices on craigslist and amazon.com. I read reviews by supposed real people on the BlendTec and the Vitamix. I talked with my friends who owned one or the other. I investigated in local restaurants and coffee shops to determine WHICH brand they used.

     I came up with this: they are the same machine. And I don't want to have to wash a plunger. Ergo, (I've always wanted to start a sentence with that) I purchased the BlendTec. 

     I have 2 very important tips for you. 1) Be sure the power button is ON - that little button on the back. Whilst cleaning, I turned it off and put away the base. Brought it out a month later because I didn't know how to use the BlendTec in my every day life, and plugged it in. No worky. Did I tell my engineer husband that I broke an appliance that cost the same as a dishwasher? No. I figured I burned the motor trying to blend something to chunky and forgot about that. For another month I debated bringing it in to a repair shop. Once day, by chance, I plugged it in and gave it one final try. Picked it up, looked all around, talked to it like I do my computer sometimes. What's this button? Ta-da! The screen came on and told me how many times I had used it. The heavens parted and I resumed my blending frenzy. 2) Rinse your pitcher right away or food gets stuck on it and you end up using the scratchy side of the sponge and 7 years later the pitcher is no longer totally see-through. Imagine scrubbing the daylights out of a plastic glass for 7 years and you know what I mean. 

Best Box Pancakes Ever!

On a whim I bought a box of Aunt Jemima's pancake mix - not the just add water kind. The one where you actually add oil, milk, and eggs. I usually shy away from prepackaged stuff, but my kids were especially cute and endearing that day.
But I tweaked it because I can't follow a recipe verbatim. The first time I made it, I subbed Basil infused olive oil for the oil, Vanilla Silk for the milk, and used regular eggs.

Today, I subbed Lime infused olive oil, Vanilla Silk, and EnerG egg replacer.
Oh my gosh. No syrup required.
Then follow the rest of the instructions on the box.
Let me know when you make it!

White "Minestrone" with Mushrooms

Serves 12 first course or 6 main course
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 swirl of olive oil (1 1/2 teaspoons)
sea salt
1 bag Bella mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup carrots, sliced
2 cartons (64 oz.) of Imagine 'No-Chicken Broth'
1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 yellow squash, chopped
25 oz. garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup couscous
3 cups spinach, chopped

Saute: onion and garlic in olive oil in a pan over medium heat for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt to sweat the onion and garlic and make them brown faster.

Add mushrooms and saute for 5 more minutes.
Set aside till later. [Or, do the steps above and below simultaneously in two different pots - get wild!]

Boil carrots in 'No-Chicken Broth' in a large pot over medium heat for 5 minutes or until carrots are partially cooked. [Like they are thinking about being tender. Always start with your hard veggies first. They take the longest to cook.] Reduce heat to medium.
Add zucchini, yellow squash, and beans. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
Turn off heat. Add couscous and the onion/mushroom mixture and cover for 5 minutes.
Add spinach and stir. Serve immediately or the couscous with thicken your soup.
The couscous turns your soup into gelatinous goo overnight. Unless you are trying to make what looks like an aspic.

Balsamic Orange dressing

At a cooking demo at my friend's home, I whipped up this tasty dressing. Just five ingredients.
Balsamic Orange Dressing - makes 1/2 cup
4 oz. olive oil
2 oz. balsamic vinegar
2 oz. fresh orange juice (high pulp)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 squirt yellow mustard (for 2 seconds)

Whisk all together and toss with your favorite greens, bright veggies and fruit. I like to top with toasted coconut and nuts.

Gardein - an honest review

So, last night I tried the much hyped meat replacement product Gardein. I've been looking for a chicken substitute for some time. I bought the "best seller" Mandarin Orange Chicken, thinking it would be the best. Most popular = best tasting.

I read the directions on the bag 2 or 3 times to make sure I didn't mess it up. I didn't even tweak the recipe, which I normally do. The instructions looked simple enough. Surely I could do it!
All I had to do was defrost the sauce bag in a bowl of warm water and crisp up the chicken things.
Heated up my stone coated frying pan, added a swirl of olive oil, tossed in the frozen, pretend chicken breast pieces.

I took much care to make sure that the pieces browned and got crispy without overcooking (that was the big warning on the bag).
Last 30 seconds, I squeezed the sauce into the pan with the rather flat Gardein and heated away. I felt very successful as my kids were wandering in the kitchen and asking, "What are you cooking Mom? It smells like chicken!" Yes, they were incredulous because I haven't cooked meat in my home for many months.
Like the package suggested, I served the Gardein with steamed broccoli and rice - brown with vegetable broth. Dinner looked fabulous! All the right colors - even the kids were excited!

Then, nobody wanted to be the one to take the first bite. "I'm waiting until YOU try it." Mikey from the Life cereal commercials doesn't live with us, so we couldn't make him the guinea pig. Finally the younger tasted it and screamed, "yuck! I am giving this a zero" on a scale of 1 to 10. And, yes, she spit it out. Mind you, she hasn't spit out food for 4 years. The older kid tried the Gardein piece solo and declared, "I give it a 2, but don't make it again. Love the rice and the broccoli, Mom." Trying to let me down easy, I suppose.
Skeptically, I stuck a piece in my mouth. The sauce was tasty. I liked the crispiness of the "meat" but not the texture inside. It was like (I'm grasping as descriptive words here) chewing on a dense pound cake, but little wetter. I'm sorry, but when I feel like eating chicken, I do not want to eat cake all of the sudden.
I determined that it wasn't horrible; the kids agreed; and that it was emergency food. After explaining to my little one WHAT emergency food was - in a bind we could, feasibly, eat it, they agreed. So then we tried combining the Gardein WITH other food - rice, broccoli, or all together. A little better. The older one bumped up her number to a 3, the younger gave it a 1. We tried sprinkling more soy sauce on. No dice.
Then Daddy came on the scene. The younger one warned, "It's emergency food, Dad! You may not like it!" The older, "yeah Dad. I gave it a 3." Way to keep him objective. Great job. So I chimed in, "it's not awful, but it's not good, either." That really worried him because usually I am the positive one about trying new food.
He smothered his with soy sauce and bottled ghost chile sauce and said it was fine.
>Note: ghost chile sauce is so hot and strong that you can not taste anything else but the chile.<
He ate all of his Gardein. I bargained with the kids to eat more of theirs so they could eat a Cutie clementine. I ate mine, but only with rice or broccoli. We still had a few pieces left in the pan. Hubby offered to give them to the dog. I screamed, "No! She's probably allergic to them!"
Hubby countered, "great, we can't give it to the dogs but we're making our kids eat it. Nice."
We have 3 more bags of different Gardein things: beef tips, chicken piccolini, and chicken tenders. I'm going to wait a few weeks before I subject my family to another experiment like that one.