Balsamic Lentil Quinoa Snacks

Over the last couple of days I had been looking at various Quinoa and Lentil recipes. Most of these recipes used Quinoa or Lentils as a side dish, when flavored with something, or in a wrap or a salad to add a little protein. All of those are fine choices but I wanted something more like an appetizer that I could have for an afternoon snack. This recipe combines both Quinoa and Lentils with some added flavors and places them onto a lettuce leaf in an attempt to make a little app. I think for my first attempt I put a little too much of the topping on my lettuces leaves so it lost that "bite-sided" appeal but they were still really good!

Ingredients:
1/2 - Cup Quinoa
1/2 - Cup Lentils
1 1/2 - Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 - Tbsp Olive Oil
1 1/2 - Tsp Lemon Juice
1/4 - Tsp Celery Seeds
3 - Cloves Garlic, diced
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 - Tomato, diced
1/4 - Red Onion, diced
3 - Basil Leaves, chopped
Lettuce Leaves torn into palm size pieces



Directions:
Rinse Lentils under cold water and cook per-instructions (1 cup of water to 1/2 cup lentils).

Once cooked, set aside to cool.



Rise Quinoa under cold water and cook per-instructions (1 cup of chicken stock to 1/2 cup Quinoa)

Once cooked, set aside to cool.

Combined balsamic vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, celery seeds, garlic, salt and pepper.

  
Add in onion, tomato and basil.

Mix.

Add in the cooled Lentils.

Mix again.

Arrange the Lettuce leaves on a plate and scooped in a small amount of the cooled Quinoa.

Top with the Lentil mixture.



And enjoy!

Creamy Shiitake Mushroom Sauce

It's funny how just asking someone what they are making for dinner can get your own creative juices going.  Today I asked a friend what she was going to make for dinner and she mentioned gnocchi with probably a sauce from a can. I started looking up different gnocchi sauce recipes as ideas but then I started thinking about my own dinner. I didn't have gnocchi but I had quinoa and some amazing mushrooms but the kids don't really eat quinoa... Chicken and rice seemed like a safe bet but then I thought I could dress it up with a mushroom sauce! That is how my thought process got around to tonight's dinner idea. Creamy Shiitake Mushroom Sauce. As always, I kind of looked up some ideas and then went with my own concoction :)



Ingredients:
2 - Tbsp Butter
1/2 - Onion (1 full Shallot would have been better but I didn't have one)
4 - Oz of Shiitake mushroom (fresh)
1/2 - cup of Brandy
1/2 - cup of Chicken Stock
2/3 - cup of Whipping Cream
1/4 - cup of flour
I didn't even end up remembering to put in salt and pepper and it still tasted really good!

Directions:
Chop the Shiitake mushrooms into bit size pieces.

Heat the butter on a low/medium heat and add the onion. Cook until translucent

Add in the mushrooms and cook for 5 or 6 minutes or until they start to colour a little bit.

Measure out the Brandy and pour it in with the mushrooms and onions.

If you are using fresh mushrooms, they will soak up all the Brandy in about a minute.

Add in the chicken stock, turn up the heat to medium and the sauce should start to bubble a little bit.

Add in the cream.

Sprinkle in the flour and whisk it around (I'm not a big fan of my current whisk so I went to use a fork but I didn't want to scratch the pan. Next I switched to this wooden spoon and ended up making a little bit of a mess).

Once the flour is mixed in the sauce will really start to thicken! I've seen lots of recipes that don't require flour but then never thicken enough for me so I like to add a little in.

Spoon the sauce over your chicken and you've made an amazing meal!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

I had bought some broccoli to make a broccoli salad but I just didn't get around to making it and the broccoli started to get a little spongy. Not wanting to waste it, I was trying to think of something else to make with it and that's when I thought of making a "Cream of Broccoli" soup.



Ingredients:
8 - Tbsp of butter (6 and 2)
2/3 - Cup flour
1/4 - Cup chopped onion
4 - Cups broccoli florets, cut into bite sized pieces
6 - Cups chicken broth
3/4 - Cup of half-and-half (or mix whipping cream and mix)
1 - Tsp Salt
1/4 - Tsp Pepper



Directions:
In a small sauce pan, melt 6 Tbsp of butter over low heat. Add in the flour and stir until blended but do not brown it, then remove from heat. It really does take the 6 Tbsp of butter. I was trying to use less at first but it wasn't enough to completely mix in with the flour.

Chop up the broccoli if you haven't already done so.

In a large saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp of butter.

Add onion and cook until tender.

Add the broccoli to the pan and cook for 6 - 8 minutes stirring occasionally.

Add the chicken broth and then bring to a boil.

Whisk in the flour mixture and continue to whisk until the soup thickens.

Add the salt, pepper and pour in the cream. Mix again.

Turn off the heat at let it rest for a couple minutes before severing.

Ladle into bowls and top with a sharp cheddar cheese.

I think the soup turned out really good but I think next time I might try to add some spices to really flavor it up.

Sauteed Fiddleheads (FAILED)

Not all my recipes turn out but that's okay, the important thing is that I try. This particularly fail started out this weekend. We went to the St. Jacob's market early Saturday morning to look around and get some fresh produce. While looking around I noticed these really good looking fiddleheads. I have seen them in the store before but they never looked that good so I picked them up and figured that I would find a recipe when I got home. I did some quick searching and my options were sauteing, baking or deep frying. I decided on sauteing as I figured these would be like asparagus.

Ingredients:

Fiddleheads

2 - Tbsp Butter

2 - Cloves Garlic

1 - Tbsp Lemon Juice

Directions:

Take a look at the fiddleheads any remove and brown pieces or dirt

Rinse them off (if they are really dirty you will need to soak them in a couple changes of water but these ones were really clean)

Melt butter in frying pan and then add the fiddleheads

Saute for 2 - 3 minutes then add garlic and lemon juice

Saute for another couple of minutes. This is the part where I went wrong. I had thought that they would have softened up a lot quicker but then didn't so I ended up leaving them on longer. I then tried covering them to try and steam them a little bit. The end result was that they turned very bitter tasting. When I was at about the 5 - 7 minute mark they tasted a little firm but really good and not bitter at all but leaving them on longer just doesn't work. Make sure you make these right before you main course is almost ready.

Sprinkle with a little salt and then serve

As you can see, they look really good but don't over cook them or they are just bitter. After the failure I did some more searching and a lot of the recipes say that you should boil the fiddleheads for 10 - 12 minutes before Sauteing them so I guess I screwed up that part too. oh well...