Quinoa Salad with Blueberries, Strawberries, and Mint

Jon and I were invited to a dinner tonight at a friend's house and, as the type of guest that I am, asked if we could bring anything. The suggested salad, and after browsing my recipes, I decided to try this one that I only made once before. I wanted to try a new recipe, but with such limited time (I was told two hours before we had to leave!) this quinoa and fruit salad was great, quick option! 

Quinoa a'cookin'! 

Mmmm berries 

This juicer was given to me by a friend as my going away present to Boston. I love it and any chance I get to use it!

The recipe calls for fresh herbs including mint. I cheated with this mix and added my own mint!

Dressing!

All packed up and ready to go!

Not suggested serving size. Suggested serving size much larger!

Ingredients

2 cups uncooked quinoa
4 cups fresh water

1.5 cups fresh blueberries, washed, picked over
1.5 cups fresh strawberries, washed, sliced
6 cups baby salad greens
A handful of fresh chopped herbs: cilantro, dill, parsley and mint1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Fresh squeezed lime juice from 2 limes
Pepper, to taste

Instructions

Place the quinoa, water, and sea salt in a large to medium rice cooker, and cover. Cook until all the water is evaporated and the quinoa is tender. Scoop the cooked quinoa into a large bowl and fluff with a fork. Let it cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing, fruit and baby greens.

Whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, and pepper. Taste test it, and adjust seasonings.

Slice the strawberries and mix together with the blueberries.

Distribute the baby greens and chopped herbs onto plates. All the quinoa, then strawberries and blueberries. Drizzle with dressing and serve!

Recipe via Gluten Free Goddess

Feminist Protest Signs

persephonesunset

Ah, the feminist protest sign. I feel like there's something wonderfully empowering when your thoughts are written down, but there's added power when you display that those thoughts to everyone around you. 

I've only been to one protest in my life (it was supporting Planned Parenthood in Washington, DC) and I held up a pre-made "Women's Health Matters" sign, which fine and good, but I now wish I made my own sign. Some of these are quite clever and powerful and since I've gathered quite a few on Pinterest, I figured I'd share them here.

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hostilhottie

Super Kay

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Body Positive Zone

conniekinkshamer

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Quinoa with Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Leeks, and Almonds

This is one of my favorite dishes to make. I love how colorful it is and the smell of leek, and really, anything with Brussels Sprouts is a winner for me. This was the first time that I cooked with leek that wasn't already trimmed and washed for me, so I had to look it up online and found this video. Here are the basic steps:

1) Cut off most of the leafy part (which is tough and inedible) and slice the stalk length-wise down the middle.

2) After slicing the leek stalks into thin half moons, fill a bowl with cold water and put in the sliced leek. Wash the leeks around, making sure to get in between all of the layers. Transfer the leek by hand to a colander (do not pour the water in-- it'll get everything dirty again) to drain. 

Doing this for the first time reminded me of when my friend Dana and I cooked with Brussels sprouts for the first time. We didn't really know what we were doing (and I had never even had them before), so I thought it might be useful to have short tutorial on trimming those lovely little cabbages:

1) After rinsing off the sprouts, trim the bottom off. This is hard and inedible and makes the next step easier.

2) Remove the loose layers of the sprout. These dark, bitter leaves aren't very good to eat, and several layers may come off. You should remove only so many leaves to reveal a light green sprout on the inside.

These two steps are the most involved with this recipe, and without taking photos I imagine it wouldn't take that long at all to wash and trim both of these veggies. 

Nutty smelling quinoa is my favorite grain to cook with!

Veggies, nuts, and berries ready for roasting!

My friend Alex and her dinosaur husband Matt called while everything was starting to smell delicious!

Hot and slightly burnt! Whoops. I also forgot to slice the sprouts. Double whoops.

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water 

1 leek, washed, trimmed, sliced
1 lb. Brussels sprouts, washed, trimmed, halved (or quartered, if large)
1/4 cup slivered blanched almonds (I used regular almonds with no issues)
1/4 cup plump golden raisins, packed (cranberries or purple raisins work fine, too)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Sea salt, to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons dried dill

Instructions

Add the quinoa and water to a pot. Cover, bring to a boil, and cook the quinoa until all the water is absorbed, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile- preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Toss the prepared leek, Brussels sprouts, almonds, and golden raisins in the olive oil. Sprinkle with golden balsamic vinegar. Season with sea salt, minced garlic and dill; and toss to coat. Roast for roughly 15 to 20 minutes, stirring at least once, until the Brussels sprouts are tender, and browned a bit.

Remove the pan from the oven. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, to taste. Add sea salt and ground pepper, to taste. Gently toss to combine the roasted Brussels sprouts and hot cooked quinoa.

Recipe via Gluten Free Goddess

Oscar de la Renta

Tobi's Blog

Once upon a time ago in a land far, far away, I used to order Vogue magazine. Yes. I paid $25 a year to be advertised products I could or would never afford and loved flipping through the objectified ads of women in vulnerable, sexualized positions, wearing tons of make up and with crazy hair. I was an unaware, uneducated 20 year old and I loved it. 

Now, most of this stuff I thought looked down right crazy and knew it was absolutely ridiculous to spend $400 on a t-shirt, but Oscar de la Renta always stuck out to me. Every ad that I saw, every photo where some celebrity was wearing something by him, I adored. Something so simple, gorgeous, well-done, classy, vintage, and beautiful was put into so many of his clothes, and I always felt like if I somehow stumbled upon that type of money and mentality where I could justify spending $400 on a t-shirt, that I would buy his stuff. Since that time will never come, I will oftentimes look to de la Renta for inspiration and just droll over his clothes.

Who Wore It Better?

Celebrities Style

Style Pantry

Spry on the Wall

Looking at these photos and noticing the drastic, unhealthy standards of beauty these models are setting forth, I just want to emphasize that this is not a post supporting the high fashion industry's morals and unrealistic beliefs. I do not condone women being ridiculed for their weight (be that too skinny or too heavy), starved to be a certain weight, told they are overweight, told they are ugly, too short, too tall, feet too big, skin not white enough, etc. I simply enjoy the colors, cuts, lengths, patterns, and textures of these over priced clothes.

Tom + Lorenzo

Alberaldo Morell

Alberaldo Morell

While Jon and I were road tripping, we stopped by the Chicago Art Institute to see what they had in store. While on our way out, my eye happened to catch a photography exhibit and we decided to check it out. Alberaldo Morell, whom I had never heard of before, is a photographer that experiments with camera obscura. I've never messed around with this photo technique myself, but I knew of it from a photographer friend who had experimented with it before and from one of my favorite bands. 

While I understood the basic concept of camera obscura rooms (which layers the reversed outside image [taken from the light outside] onto an interior wall), Morell also experimented with using a "tent camera", which superimposed images of the ground of the tent onto the scenery outside. The result is hauntingly beautiful and I couldn't have been happier with stumbling upon this exhibit!

2 or 3 Things I Know

Slightly Lucid

The Print Center

Stephen Daiter Gallery

Cuba Art New York

Asparagus & Chickpea Casserole

First cooking post in Victoria! I've made a few dishes since moving in, but each time I kept forgetting to take photos. So tonight I made the vegan and easily made gluten-free Asparagus and Chickpea Casserole. This is one of my go-to hearty dishes that is fairly simple to make without any super crazy ingredients. I find it filling but not overly so, and with a lot of great nutrients. 

I didn't have a casserole dish, as this recipe calls for, but it baked fine in a 9x13 dish for 35 minutes with some frozen hash browns. 

Weird Canadian hash browns are weird. I used cubed hash browns this time, but I usually use shredded-- thinner hash browns work better for this recipe I've found out.

Tools of the trade

Clemens doesn't know what nutritional yeast is, and you might not, either! It is NOT brewer's yeast or baking yeast-- it's actually a fungus that has a lot of vitamin B12. Great for any veggie cooking!

Jon likes to call it "asparagross." 

Chickpeas! 

Herbs, asparagus, mushrooms, sauce, oh my!

4 minutes left! Mr. Clemens was getting impatient.

Just because it ain't pretty doesn't mean that it doesn't taste good!

Ingredients

1 medium onion, diced

8 ounces sliced mushrooms

3 cloves garlic, minced

12 ounces asparagus, ends trimmed and stalks cut into 1-inch pieces

2 tablespoons vegetable broth 

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup vegetable broth

3/4 cup unsweetened soymilk or other non-dairy milk (I used sweetened with no taste difference)

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoon nutritional yeast 

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

3 cups frozen hash brown potatoes (or 5-8 ounces raw potato, shredded) 

smoked paprika, for garnish

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly oil or spray a 2-3 quart casserole dish (or 9x13 pan).

2. Heat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Give it a quick drop of oil, if desired, and add the onions. Cook until onions soften, 2-3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook for 2-3 more minutes, until mushrooms exude their juices. Add the asparagus and two tablespoons of vegetable broth, cover pan, and cook for another 2-3 minutes until asparagus is bright green and beginning to become tender.

3. Whisk the flour into the cup of vegetable broth. Add it, the milk, nutritional yeast, thyme, and basil and heat until bubbly. Add the chickpeas and salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes. 
4. Pour into prepared casserole dish and top with an even layer of potatoes. Sprinkle potatoes with salt, if desired, and smoked paprika.
5. Bake until casserole is bubbly and top is lightly browned, 25-45 minutes (frozen potatoes will take longer than fresh). If top does not completely brown, place it under the broiler for a few seconds.

Recipe credit goes to Fat Free Vegan.