Easy Wholesome Dinner for a Busy Day!

Time to share my go-to simple, healthy dinner with you. I make it on a hot day or when I'm super tired. Brie, crackers, fruit and nuts. Wholesome, pretty and delish!

 I slice my Brie in half and fill it with jam/jelly or pesto, then heat it in the toaster oven or microwave until it's warm and melty. Before Daniel liked Brie, I would add in whatever other cheese we had in fridge so he'd have some protein.

Yummy cracker assortment with dried fruit (raisins this time) and nuts in shot glasses. And mixed berries to round it out. Once in a while I'll scrap the dried fruit and nuts and make berries with yogurt and granola instead.

Enjoy a night off from cooking while your family scarfs nutritious food!

Pinto Beans, Sweet Potato and Quinoa in Tomato Broth: Better and Faster than it Sounds!

This is my favorite soup recipe. I found it in Mothering Magazine, and then adapted it to our taste. It's so nutritionally dense, it's hard to believe that it tastes as good as it does! I'm making it tonight and thought I'd share.

Pinto Beans, Sweet Potatoes, and Quinoa in Tomato Broth

1 1/2 cups canned pinto beans

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

7 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 T extra-virgin olive oil

1 small yellow onion, minced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp minced fresh oregano or 1/2 t dried oregano

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, finely diced, with juice

1 orange sweet potato, peeled, diced small

Rinse pinto beans and set aside.

Place quinoa in small pot and cover with 1 1/2 cups stock. Bring to boil, immediately turn down to simmer, cover, and cook until quinoa has absorbed all liquid (about 15 minutes). Keep warm.

Heat olive oil in 4-quart pot over medium heat. When hot, add onion and cook until soft around the edges (4-5 minutes). Add garlic and chipotle chile and cook 1 minute more. Add cumin, oregano, bay leaf and a little salt and pepper. Cover with remaining stock and diced tomatoes with their juice. Bring to a simmer and cook 10-15 minutes to allow stock to become well-flavored. Add sweet potato and simmer 10-15 minutes more, until sweet potatoes are tender.

Add pinto beans to broth and bring back to a simmer. Divide warm quinoa among deep bowls. Ladle hot broth into bowls. 

Garnish with a dollop of plain yogurt, avocado and green onion. If Daniel's not into it,  I'll add crushed tortilla chips to his soup as well.

The Mothering Recipe calls for a roasted chipotle pepper in the soup and suggests topping with lime, cabbage, feta or radishes as a garnish.

Delightful Summer Cupcakes

I was on cupcake duty for my dear friends wedding shower last month and I decided to try some fun flavors. Party guests were raving about these tiny little gems, and I thought they were just being polite. That is, until I tasted one. And another. And then I thought...I guess I should try all of them. Genius! Here's the gist of how I made them (sometimes I wish I used real recipes!!!)

Cake:

My Grandma always tells me that if you want the icing to be pretty and perfect, to forget about making the cake from scratch and focus on the icing. So I used Superstore's Organic Chocolate and Vanilla cake mix. I substituted full fat sour cream for the oil and it made them taste homemade and really moist.

I split the vanilla batter in half and added 2-3 Tbsp of lemon flavoring. You can add food coloring or lemon zest so you can tell them apart from the plain vanilla. Taste the batter to make sure they're really lemony! Bake the lemon and vanilla in mini muffin tins.

Bake the chocolate cupcakes in mini muffin tins, adding 3 or 4 chocolate chips to the tops of half.

Icing:

Whip up the base icing (make it nice and thick) and divide into 4 bowls.

Classic Buttercream Icing (Base):
5 cups icing sugar
1 Cup soft butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2-4 Tbsp Water or Milk

Classic Lemon Cupcakes:
Base Icing plus 3-4 tsp lemon flavoring on a vanilla cupcake. Garnish with lemon zest if desired.

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes:
Base icing plus 2-3 Tbsp raspberry jam or raspberry puree on a lemon cupcake. You may need to add more icing sugar if it thins out too much. Garnish with a fresh raspberry if desired.

Mocha Chip Frappuccino Cupcakes:
Base Icing plus two packages of Decaf Starbucks Via (you can substitute instant coffee, but it's really not the same!!!) on the chocolate cupcakes with the added chocolate chips. A chocolate chip or chocolate espresso bean are perfect garnishes.

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes:
Base Icing plus 2-3 tsp of coconut flavoring on a plain chocolate cupcake. Garnish with shredded coconut before icing sets. This was the #1 hit of the night. DELISH!

Tips:
-This little tool is so amazing (and inexpensive) that I've thrown away my piping bag!
-Use mini tins. The icing to cake ratio is perfect for these combos.
-Taste everything as you go and add bits of flavoring as you taste to make sure it comes out right.
-Make sure the icing is quite thick so it holds it shape. If you add any liquid to the base, that means you'll likely have to add more icing sugar to get the right consistency.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal with Flax and Maple

I made some great oatmeal for breakfast this morning and thought it was about time that I posted a recipe on the blog! I added flax, a ton of cinnamon and just a little natural sweetener to make this a perfect start to your day!

Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
1 Cup Oatmeal (I use plain quick oats)
1/8 Cup Ground Flax
Handful of dried apple rings, diced (or substitute fresh apple if it's on hand)
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
2 Cups Boiling Hot Water
Real maple syrup to taste

Combine all the dry ingredients and stir. Add hot water and stir. Let sit 1 minute, or until water is absorbed. You can also tweak the consistency by adding water/oats. Top with a drizzle of real maple syrup, or honey.