Kale and Quinoa Pilaf

I'll admit, I was pretty hesitant about this recipe; kale and quinoa are not the two most flavorful foods.  But, I have to admit, I was wrong.  This dish was really easy and pretty tasty. 

A few suggestions:  Pine nuts are expensive, like REALLY expensive.  Buy them in the bulk section at Whole Foods.  Don't be scared by the $30/lb price, you only need about $2 worth for this dish.  

I used extra virgin olive oil instead of toasted walnut oil like the recipe suggests.  Next time I'll try the walnut, or at least a flavored, oil.  The evoo doesn't do much for the dish.

I also used only half the lemon and it was the perfect amount.  A full lemon would be overpowering.

Last but not least, I would suggest letting the dish cool a few minutes before adding the goat cheese.  Once the warm quinoa and kale hits the goat cheese it immediately melts.  

Enjoy!

Serves 2-4

• 2 cups salted water
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 bunch lacinato kale, washed and chopped into 1" lengths
• 1 meyer lemon, zested and juiced
• 2 scallions, minced
• 1 tablespoon toasted walnut oil
• 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
• 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
• salt and pepper

1. Bring the water to a boil in a covered pot. Add the quinoa, cover, and lower the heat until it is just enough to maintain a simmer. Let simmer for 10 minutes, then top with the kale and re-cover. Simmer another 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and allow to steam for 5 more minutes.
2. While the quinoa is cooking, take a large serving bowl and combine half of the lemon juice (reserving the other half), all of the lemon zest, scallions, walnut oil (you can substitute olive oil if you desire), pine nuts, and goat cheese.
3. Check the quinoa and kale when the cooking time has completed -- the water should have absorbed, and the quinoa will be tender but firm, and the kale tender and bright green. If the quinoa still has a hard white center, you can steam a bit longer (adding more water if needed). When the quinoa and kale are done, fluff the pilaf, and tip it into the waiting bowl with the remaining ingredients. As the hot quinoa hits the scallions and lemon it should smell lovely. Toss to combine, seasoning with salt and pepper, and the remaining lemon juice if needed.

My New Obsession

I know most of you have probably already jumped on the kale bandwagon, but for those of you who haven't, let me introduce you to my new obsession...kale chips! 

Kale chips are so easy to make and equally as tasty.  They are the perfect substitute if you're craving potato chips (well, not perfect, let's be honest). 

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch lacinato or red Russian kale, rinsed and dried
olive oil
sea salt

PREPARATION:

1. Heat oven to 350-375°F, depending on your oven. The kale chips burn quickly, so keep the temperature on the lower end if your oven tends to get hot or have hot spots.

2. Clean kale and remove the thick stem by folding each leaf in half lengthwise and cutting it away. Make sure kale is quite dry.

3. Pour a little olive oil into a dipping bowl. Dip your fingers in the olive oil and rub over each kale leaf, front and back.

4. Arrange kale on several baking sheets making sure not to crowd the leaves. Sprinkle sea salt over the top. You can also spice it up by sprinkling smoked paprika, cumin, or curry on before baking.

5. Bake for 5-7 minutes, keeping an eye on the chips to make sure they don’t burn. Turn the chips over and then bake for another 2-3 minutes more. You may need more or less time depending on your oven. The chips are ready when they are bright green ; discard any brown ones as they are burnt and quite bitter.

A little piece of advice:  a small amount of olive oil goes a LONG way!  Also, they don't store very well, so I suggest only making what you plan on eating at that time. 

Clean Eating

I'm on a 'clean eating' kick and thought I would pass along any recipes I find success with.  By success, I mean recipes I find tasty and somewhat easy to make.  

I found the Easy Red Bean and Quinoa Chili recipe on the barre3 website and decided to try it this week. The word "easy" is in the recipe, so you know it can't be too difficult!  This recipe was SUPER easy and quite tasty.  The chili took less than 40 minutes from beginning to end.  You have to love that! You can have a fresh, healthy dinner in under an hour.

RECIPE 

EASY RED BEAN AND QUINOA CHILI

2-3 Servings

INGREDIENTS:
1 can organic red beans (we prefer Eden’s Organics)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 cups organic sugar-free tomato sauce
1 cup water

PREPARATION:

1. Drain your canned beans and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat (Tip: choose one that is large enough to hold the beans, too).

3. Add onion, salt, garlic, pepper, and spices.

4. Sauté for several minutes, allowing the onion to soften.

5. Add quinoa and stir to combine.

6. Add rinsed beans to the onion and quinoa mixture and pour in the tomato sauce and water.  Simmer together for 30 minutes.

 

 

I'm not the best food photographer, but here's an idea of what mine looked like.  I added a little plain greek yogurt and sliced avocado to mine and loved it!  

 

Happy Birthday, Joey P

I wanted to take a quick minute and say, "Happy Birthday" to my mom, the one and only, JoAnn Patterson.  Happy Birthday, Joey P!  Here's a little trip down memory lane in honor of your big day...

Girls trip to San Diego

Dressed as the Chilean miners for Halloween

Girls trip to New York

Girls trip to see Coldplay in Dallas

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A New Year

One of my new year resolutions is to start blogging on regular basis.  As we all know, most resolutions only last a few weeks, so we shall see how long my thirst for writing will last. 

I hope everyone had a great holiday season.  It went by too fast, but it always does.  I kicked off my holidays by spending Thanksgiving in New York.  My mom and I ditched the guys and took a girls trip to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, shop, see a couple shows, eat some great food, and of course, drink lots of good wine. We saw 'A Christmas Story'  and the Rockettes 'A Christmas Spectacular.'  Both shows were amazing and I even sat next to the dad of the kid playing Ralphie in A Christmas Story.  If anyone wants any behind the scenes gossip of a bunch of ten year olds staring on Broadway, just holler at me.  This was my second trip with my mom to NYC and we're already planning to go a third time together in March.

Our first night

At the parade

A Christmas Story

The start of the parade

On Christmas Eve, I went to church with my parents then made our usual trip to my Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house. Can you imagine 60 people crammed into one room opening presents?  Welcome to my family.  It's chaos, but I love it.

About 1/3 of the room opening presents at my grandparents

My brothers and I stayed at my parents house Christmas Eve and Christmas night.  We played a few intense games of UNO, drank wine, and watched our favorite Christmas movies.  Now that I'm writing this, I'm realizing we drink a lot of wine, but in the famous words of Teresa Giudice from the Real Housewives of New Jersey, "We're Italian!"  Christmas Day was filled with eating an amazing Italian brunch my mom prepared, followed by a full day of opening presents.  Christmas is so fun with a toddler in the house.

Lily riding her new bike on Christmas morning

New Years Eve was perfect; dinner and cocktails with friends followed by ringing in the new year in our pj's.  Great ending to a great year. 

NYE

Update: The Fast

Four days in and I'm still going strong.  I've been doing an apple or orange for breakfast, a rice cake with natural peanut butter for lunch, and usually some sort of salad for dinner.  I haven't been getting as creative with dinners as my cohorts, so I've decided I needed to step it up.

Last night I decided to make stuffed peppers.  I sauteed some diced onions and mixed them in with brown rice and black beans.  Not my ideal stuffing mixture, but it had to do.  After an hour of prep work, the peppers were stuffed and ready to be cooked. I opened the preheated oven door to a big "Woomp Wah."  Nothing.  My oven wasn't working!  Here's the embarrassing part:  I don't know when it stopped because I haven't used it  in almost four months.  I found out today  the pilot light had gone out from lack of use and not something major.  Oops!

NOT what my peppers looked like!

For my mushy microwaved stuffed pepper side dish, I went with some spinach leaves drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar.  To top off my pleasant meal experience (and about five minutes in to Million Dollar Listings New York),a piece of spinach hit my fork just right and shot vinegar directly into my eye.  SON OF A B****!  I had to drop everything a run to a sink to splash water on my eye.

I hope my weekend in the kitchen goes better.  If not, it's back to rice cakes for me.  This weekend will be my first not-drinking-while-being-capable-of-drinking-in-a-drinking-environment experience, so wish me luck! 

The Fast

After completely destroying my liver last Saturday, I figured it's time to give my body a break.  A 21 day break to be more exact.  Ladies and gentlemen, I've decided to begin the Daniel Fast. 

The Daniel Fast is a 21 day fast limited to fruits, vegetables, and water. This means no meat, dairy, bread, sugar, alcohol, caffeine or anything else that's good in life.  I should also mention this fast is for the body, soul and spirit.  It's meant to be coupled with a spiritual goal.  

My friend just finished this fast and said she's never felt better.  I'm very anxious to see how this works for me.  It does help that a friend in my office is also doing this with me, so as long as I can keep her away from the Hershey Kisses and she can keep me away from the bottle of vodka I have stashed in my desk (kidding), I think we'll be okay.

Here we go, March 20th, day one of the fast.  So far, so good.  I had an orange for breakfast just like every other morning, minus my cup of coffee.   Woohoo, two hours in and I'm still going strong! We'll see if I'm still as enthusiastic about this in a few days.

To be continued...

My Saturday with Lily

It's been awhile since my last post, but I promise it's with good reason.  My life has completely done a 180, but for the better.  I have the best, most loyal friends in the world and a family who would do anything for me.  I truly have never been happier and that's all I'm going to say about that.

I asked a dear friend who is always asking me when I'm going to post again to pick my next topic.  So for your reading pleasure, I give you my Saturday with Lily.

Lily is my 11 month old niece.  See, isn't she cute?  Most people say we look just alike and I agree.

 Two Saturdays ago, I got a phone call at 8am from my mom.  Usually I'm up and around no later that 7am, but this particular morning was a little different.  The night before was a late night of pub crawling with friends.  I ignored the first few calls, but after three in a row, I knew I'd better answer.

My mom informed me that herself, my dad, and brother Connor all had a stomach bug and asked if I could pick up Lily so she wouldn't catch it.  Being the good person I am, I agreed and off to my parents house to pick up the little tyke I went.  I ran in, grabbed Lily and took off in under five minutes because there was no way I was going to catch whatever they had.  I decided to make a play date with my friend Tosha and her son, Gus.  It was a great couple hours of the babies playing and Tosha and I catching up on girl gab.  There was one slight hiccup where Lily pooped all over me, but I'm just going to glaze on over that.

 Lily and Gus on their play date

After Tosha's, we made a stop by my brother Nick's house.  Lily loves looking at all the fish in the tanks at Nick's and he loves playing with her, so it was a chance for me to relax for an hour.  Taking care of a baby is exhausting!  Kudos to all the parents out there.

It was now 3pm and Lily and I had not yet had our naps.  We headed to my house where we both immediately passed out on the couch while sharing a pillow and cuddling up to each other.  After an hour and a half of napping, it was time for Lily to go home.

Fast forward to 24 hours later when I got a text from Tosha informing me that her, Gus, and her husband were all sick.  I thought surely we didn't bring the bug into their house.  Fast forward to Monday morning at 2am when I woke up sick.  When I say sick, I don't mean a little cough or stomach ache.  I mean this is the sickest I have ever been.  24 hours of non stop vomiting followed by 24 hours of intense pain.  Long story short, turned out Lily was the carrier of the bug. So, as the saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished."

Stay tuned, now that things have settled down I will have more time to post.