What's Up Wednesday

This summer has been super hot so far, and I've enjoyed nice cooling breakfasts a couple of mornings this week.

We had picked up granola at the farmers' market on the weekend, and I've been using it in yogurt parfaits, along with mocha coconut quinoa, Greek yogurt with a few drops of liquid vanilla stevia, and fresh fruit (strawberries and Saskatoon berries).

This is my recipe for the mocha coconut quinoa:

Mocha Coconut Quinoa 

(use cold in yogurt bowls/ parfaits)

1/2 cup quinoa
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup water
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2 pinches cocoa
1 tsp instant espresso powder

Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer.  Put quinoa, and all other ingredients in a small pot, and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook 15 minutes.  If it's too soupy after 15 minutes, then give it another minute or two.  Remove from heat, leave covered, and let sit for a few minutes.  Once cooled, put in a container and keep in the fridge for use in delicious breakfasts. 

This will make quite a bit.  I had two parfaits, and Christopher's been eating the quinoa as is, along with a side of fruit for his breakfasts.

Enjoy!

Another cooling, refreshing thing I've been enjoying is iced tea from David's Tea.  I picked up a few packets of their iced tea blends, and made a peach one recently.

When Christopher came home for lunch on both Monday and Tuesday, I served up this Asian noodle bowl:

We were feeling noodly on Monday evening as well, so we made a Thai, beef noodle dish, with a red, coconut curry sauce.

We loosely followed this recipe.  The leftovers were lunch today.

And, I'll leave you with this cute lil' guy:

When we were at Bulk Barn on the weekend we saw chocolate-covered, banana gummy bears!  We had never heard of such a thing, so we had to buy a few to give them a try.  They're pretty good as far as candy goes (I'm not a candy person).

How's your week going so far?  Is it hot where you are?  

Do you like candy? Gummy bears?

Weekend Things Part 2

We loved our breakfast parfaits on Friday so much, so on Saturday morning we threw together some that are even more fun!

 

 

We started with a layer of homemade granola, which we had made the day before.  We then did a layer of plain yogurt mixed with chia seeds.  Next was banana and pomegranate arils, followed by quinoa (which was cooked in coconut milk/water the day before, with a 1/4 tsp salt), then more yogurt, more granola, more fruit, and a garnish of cacao nibs, bee pollen, and toasted coconut.

These were seriously aaaa-mazing!  We were just winging it, and they ended up having a perfect texture and incredible flavour combination.  I think we're going to be hooked on breakfast parfaits for a while.

Our lunch wasn't as healthy.  We made five-cheese, two-mushroom grilled cheese sandwiches.  We used sourdough bread, mushrooms fried with herbs, and a mixture of old cheddar, Emmental Swiss, grana padano, montery jack, and havarti cheeses.

Ooooooh yeah!  Fried mushrooms are so good on grilled cheese.

Dinner on Saturday was the easiest thing ever.  You just throw a few raw things into a slow cooker, and in no time you have honey-mustard chicken to serve over rice.  This was even better the next day.  You can find the recipe here.

When is the last time you had a grilled cheese?  Have you ever put mushrooms or other veggies on your grilled cheese?

Weekend Things Part 1: Macaroon Quinoa Parfait

On Friday morning we were up early making quinoa yogurt parfaits.  These are easy to make, as the quinoa can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge.  You can use any type of yogurt, and any toppings; use your imagination and see what delicious combos you can come up with! 

Macaroon Quinoa Parfait

(Makes two parfaits)

- 1/2 cup quinoa (rinsed)
- 1/2 cup light coconut milk (canned)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- approx. 1.5 cups vanilla Greek yogurt
- 1/3 cup toasted coconut (line baking sheet with parchment, bake @ 300 until golden - watch!)
- 1/4 cup cacao nibs (or chopped dark chocolate if you want it sweeter or don't have cacao)

Put the quinoa, coconut milk, water, and salt in a small pot.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low (or move to another burner that you've heated to low), cover, and cook 15 minutes until the liquid has absorbed.  Cool the quinoa.  Layer the quinoa, followed by vanilla yogurt, a sprinkle of toasted coconut and cacao, then repeat ...

Later on in the day we made a batch of granola, which we would use in Saturday's breakfast.

We also made a bunch of perogies, including our specialty with a mashed potato/beet mixture, dill, and goat cheese.

And something new ... bacon double cheeseburger perogies!

We fried onions and bacon in jalapeno olive oil until the bacon was cooked.  We then added extra lean ground beef, and cooked that until done.  Meanwhile we mashed a few potatoes with both cheddar and grana padano cheeses.  We combined the meat mixture with the potato mixture, and stuffed the perogies.

And then we cooked some of them up for dinner ...

Topped with sour cream, sriracha and parsley:

Between these eats and the Cougar burgers from Rock Creek, our Friday was pretty tasty.

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  Did you do any cooking this weekend?  Have you ever had quinoa for breakfast?