Quinoa Salad with Raisins

I can already here you on this one. "Walkers, we're cool with fajita salads and magical hamburgers, but we're not on board with you guys on quinoa, whatever that is."

And to that, I say this: Beep-beep, everyone. All-aboard the QUINOA EXPRESS, suckers.

Because, and this is strictly Real Talk here, this recipe is extremely light and delicious, and is the kind of thing that crackers and spring days were made for.

I'll admit, I wasn't ready to roll on this, but sometimes a meal is far, far greater than the sum of its parts. You're telling me that some weird grain crap, mixed with raisins (nature's candy, if you're a hippie), garlic, pine nuts, and other weird random stuff, produces something as glorious as this?

But it did. And I tore through this salad with The Quickness. I mean, seriously, it was gone in no time. As I alluded to before, serve it cold on crackers and it becomes The Perfect Snack. (DW)

1 cup quinoa (this is a grain, which kind of reminds me of couscous)
¼ cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced or sliced
1/3 cup fresh chopped parsley
¼ cup raisins
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Salt & pepper, to taste

Place quinoa in dry saucepan and cook over medium heat until toasted, about 2 minutes. Add 1 ¾ cup water (or chicken stock) to pan and bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until most of the water has been absorbed. Remove from heat, and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast pine nuts in skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned. Remove the toasted pine nuts from the pan and set aside. In the same pan that you just used for the pine nuts, and the olive oil and garlic. Sautee for about 1 minute, or just long enough to bring out the garlic flavor, but not to burn it. Set aside the garlic, reserving the oil as well.

Add cooked quinoa, toasted pine nuts, remaining olive oil, garlic, parsley, raisins, lemon juice in a bowl and mix with a fork to fluff the quinoa. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can serve this salad warm or cold. (AW)

*This recipe is courtesy of The Food Network Magazine- April 2010

Turkey Pesto Burgers

You guys, turkey is the best meat there is.

I know, it's kind of a weird argument to make, and I'm not 100% sure I'm really willing to back this up, but I'll be danged if turkey, this magical, lean, somewhat-crumbly, always-tasty meat hasn't become a favorite substitute in the Walker household.

Seriously, we're becoming one of those weird, cult-like families who cooks everything with venison or ostrich meat or something. Except it's turkey, and it's freaking excellent, yo.

I can't wait until you guys try this leaner, healthier version of a hamburger and tell me how awesome it is, and I'll be all, "yeah, I know, jerk. I eat turkey burgers all the time."

OK, that might be a harsh reaction, but that's what good food does to us, right? (DW)

I will admit, I generally don't like turkey burgers. I don't know why, but I like regular hamburgers so much better. That was, until I found this recipe. The pesto, garlic, onion, and cheese make this recipe. I serve these burgers with sautéed mushrooms and garlic fries on the side.

3 lbs ground turkey
3 slices of bread, crumbled
1 yellow onion (use can use shallots as well), minced
3 eggs
3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
6 tablespoons pesto
3 cloves of garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Form into patties. Grill or pan fry until juices run clear, and turkey burgers are cooked thoroughly.

*The recipe originally came from a freezer meal website, therefore it makes a lot of turkey burgers. I make the full recipe, and then freeze them to use later. If you don't want to make this many burgers, just reduce ingredients proportionately. (AW)

Homemade Chicken Stock

Over the last few months, I have begun to make my own chicken stock. All I keep thinking is “Why didn’t I try this sooner?” Homemade chicken stock taste amazing, is easy to make and freeze, and so much cheaper than buying it. Every time that I buy a rotisserie chicken from Costco, I make one or two dinners with the meat, and then I make about 18 cups of chicken stock to freeze. And the best part, the chicken only cost me $5.00!

15-20 cups of water
1 rotisserie chicken, with most of the meat removed
Handful of baby carrots or regular carrots, chopped
3-5 celery stocks (you can include the leaves)
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons of Paula Deen’s House Seasoning (recipe below)

In a large stock pot, add your chicken (just throw the whole chicken in there, no need to remove the skin), carrots, celery and onion. Fill the pot with water until it is almost full. Add the house seasoning, and mix. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 3-4 hours. The longer you let it cook, the more flavor you will have. Once cooked, remove from heat, and strain chicken stock through a colander to remove the chicken and vegetables. Cool the broth for a for a few hours before freezing. Store in freezer safe containers (I usually freeze with 4 cups of broth per container). (AW)

Paula Deen’s House Seasoning
1 cup salt
¼ cup black pepper
¼ cup garlic powder

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Grilled Chicken Fajita Salad

Happy Cinco de Mayo, Fellow Food Nerds! To paraphrase my favorite Salt-n-Pepa song, Let's Talk About Salad.

Salads are always exciting for me, because I feel like if I'm ever going to be healthy, salad is the Magical Gateway thru which it will happen. Then I eat too much of it and feel sick.

Amy thought this up with her amazing Food Brain. She seriously blows my mind with her imagination. This is a nice diversion from the typical taco salad one would serve when in the mood for something mexican and light. (DW)

2 chicken breasts
Fajita seasoning (I use Wildtree Fajita Seasoning)
Green bell pepper
Onion
Mushrooms
Lettuce, torn into pieces
Carrots, chopped or shredded
Cucumber, chopped
Avocado (We didn't put avocado on our salad, instead we made guacamole out of it, but I think avocado would be good on the salad)
Ranch Dressing (I mixed in a teaspoon of fajita mix with the ranch, to give it a little extra flavor)

Marinate chicken breast with the fajita seasoning for at least 1 hour. Grill chicken breast, bell pepper, onion, and mushrooms until cooked. Cut cooked chicken, bell pepper, and onion into slices. Serve chicken and vegetables over a bed of lettuce, carrots, cucumber, and avocado. Top with ranch dressing before serving. (AW)

Happy Birthday Cole!

My sister and nephews were here visiting from Alaska for the last month. My oldest nephew, Cole, was celebrating his 3rd birthday while he was here. His favorite things right now are dragons and dinosaurs. So, of course I got this crazy idea to try to make him a dinosaur cake for his family birthday party! Surprisingly, it actually turned out pretty good (and by "good", I mean it at least resembles some sort of dinosaur/lizard creature).


Here is Cole checking out his cake!


*I got the template from the Betty Crocker Website. (AW)

Farm Fresh to You Friday!

Happy Friday! I hope you are able to get outside and enjoy the sunny, warm weekend that is expected around the Bay Area. I hope the rain is over, and the sun continues to shine until October!

Here is what came in my Farm Fresh to You delivery this week: Crimini Mushrooms, Artichokes, Navel Oranges, Avocado, Zucchini, Cucumber, Sweet Potato, Strawberries, Lemons, Parsley, Celery, Butter Lettuce, Broccoli, Spring Onions, Green Bell Pepper, Carrots.

Seriously, I love my Farm Fresh to You deliveries. I get mine every two weeks, and it is amazing. I always ate vegetables with dinner, but now, I eat a lot of vegetables and even fruit. And I love it. It really forces me to get creative with my dinners and try new things. This week I think I will try some sort of Fajita Chicken Salad with the onions, bell pepper, butter lettuce, and avocado with a homemade fiesta ranch dressing.

Enjoy your weekend! (AW)

Pan Fried Zucchini with Shallots

I didn't like vegetables growing up. Maybe it's because they looked like they wouldn't taste good. I don't know. But something happened like 10 or 12 years ago, and now I like vegetables and eat so much that I feel like I'm making up for lost time.

I seriously love this recipe, and I love how Amy insists on having side dishes. I'd be happy with one dish meals, but I'm learning that variety makes for a much more enjoyable meal.

This zucchini is one of the tastier things you'll ever have. I don't know what it is, but texture and taste-wise, this is a complete victory for vegetables everywhere!

(I have some vegetarian friends, and they always seem so sad; maybe if they tried this dish, they wouldn't be so mean all the time?) (DW)

Growing up my Dad did the majority of the cooking in our house. At every meal, we always had a meat, a vegetable, and a carbohydrate (potatoes, bread, rice, or pasta). Therefore, that is the way I tend to cook as well. Here is how he used to prepare zucchini for us. When I saw that I got zucchini and shallots in my food box this week, I knew I wanted to make this dish. I served it with tortellini and bread.

Olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
4 zucchinis, sliced
Garlic powder
Salt
Parmesan cheese

In a frying pan, heat a little bit of olive oil. Add shallot and cook for about a minute, or just until they start to get tender. Add zucchini slices, garlic powder, and salt. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the zucchini is to the desired tenderness. Add parmesan cheese on top, just before serving. (AW)