Lindsey's ABC Salad

Now that we've got all of those baked goods out of the way, that leaves room to talk about this delicious salad that I found over at one of my favorite blogs- Cafe Johnsonia.

It is called ABC Salad. It contains Baby salad greens-(to which I added some arugula), avocado, almonds, dried apricots, buckwheat, chickpeas and I figured while I was at it, I might as well top it off with some blueberry vinegar.

I've been trying to get more salads and veggies in my diet and eating a nice big salad for lunch is one easy way to do that. My only problem is that sometimes I get bored with salad. Especially if it always seems to contain the exact same ingredients.
That is what I loved about this salad the most- it had lots of fun flavors and textures, combining ingredients that I never would have thought to mix. And it's vegan.

So give it a try because it is delicious.

Here is the recipe for ABC Salad
*She has much prettier pictures and more details about this delicious salad

Quinoa and Parsley Salad

I enjoy eating salad, but I find that I need lots of variety with my salads so that I don't get bored.
This salad was just about perfect in every way. Quinoa is the star of the show, or in this case, the star of the salad. Celery adds a nice crunch, as do the pepitas. The dried apricots add just the perfect amount of chewiness and sweet. I actually omitted the honey from the dressing because of the dried apricots. If there is one thing I can't handle in a salad, it is too much sweetness. I prefer the savory-ness to win out. There is lots of parsley, which adds so much freshness and flavor. Green onions add a little bit of spice/heat.
The dressing is nice and simple, just the way I like it- olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper.

I actually served this over romaine and it was a great combination. The next day I fried an egg in a tiny amount of olive oil and had it with the leftovers. Delicious.

I also shared this recipe with my mom a couple of weeks ago when she called to ask me for some meal ideas and she report back that they loved it too!
Recipe for Quinoa and Parsley Salad

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 3/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup unsalted pumpkinseed kernels, toasted

Preparation

1. 1. Bring water and quinoa to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Spoon into a bowl; fluff with a fork. Add parsley, celery, onions, and apricots.
2. 2. Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, honey, salt, and black pepper. Add to quinoa mixture, and toss well. Top with seeds.

* I omitted the honey from the dressing
* I used red quinoa

TWD-Parisian Apple Tartlet or Plum, Mango, Apricot, Peach and Pear

Pear

Mango

Plum

Apricot above, Peach below

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Parisian Apple Tartlet, was chosen by Jessica, who blogs over at My Baking Heart.
You can find the recipe on Jessica's blog.
This recipe is easy if you use frozen puff pastry. I was just trying to get as many recipes for TWD as I could, out of the way before we moved to Georgia. I used the frozen puff pastry I found at my local grocery store (Pepperidge Farms), even though Dorie suggest using an all-butter puff pastry.
I was in a hurry, so I didn't even think about making the puff pastry from scratch. I did use as many fruits as I could find though. I made the tartlets about an inch smaller than Dorie suggested and made 12- 2 with each kind of fruit. The favorites in our house were those made with peaches and plums. The topping fell off the apple tartlet and it didn't turn out very pretty, so that is why the pic of that one is at the very bottom of this post.
This dessert would be a great ending to a party or a fun dessert to make with young kids. Check out what all the other TWD-ers came up with by going through the TWD Blogroll!

Up Next- a simple fruit salad

Almond-Quinoa Muffins and quinoa for breakfast with fruit and milk

I can't even remember when exactly I saw these muffins on Wendy's blog- Pink Stripes, but I had seen so many other tasty looking things from the cookbook- Veganomicon, that I decided to order it. (Don't tell my husband- actually it was a couple of months ago, so I guess it is okay now.)

These muffins are the first thing that I made. I already had some cooked quinoa in the fridge- a mix of red quinoa and regular, so I didn't have to cook any especially for this recipe. These muffins were good. Almonds, apricots, quinoa- what else could you want in a muffin? They were gone within a couple of hours!

I also saw another idea for eating quinoa that looked really interesting- serving it with fruit, milk, and any other toppings you want for breakfast. I added a little brown sugar too. Oh, how I love quinoa!

Almond-Quinoa Muffins

Quinoa with milk and fruit

Coming Tomorrow- Jicama and Black Bean Salad

TWD- Buttery Jam Cookies

This week's recipe was chosen by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl. Visit her blog for the recipe or turn to page 80 of Dorie's wonderful cookbook. I stayed true to the recipe on this one, using thick apricot jam that we made this summer and ground ginger. I made these a little smaller than Dorie suggested, because I was taking them to a get-together and I got about 80 of them. These were really simple and very good. Nothing special to look at, but they did have a little bite to them, thanks to the ginger. These would be a great addition to a holiday goodie plate. Check out the TWD Blogroll to see what the other bakers did with this cookie!

Coming Tomorrow- My take on Cowboy Caviar, in WonTon Cups

TWD-Summer Fruit Galette

First of all, I am so excited because the oven is fixed! I only had to go without it, for 5 days and now it is in working order. Yippie! This week's recipe comes to us from Michelle who runs the appropriately named blog, Michelle in Colorado Springs. This was a great recipe for this time of year in my hemisphere, because there were apricots all over the kitchen from the tree in the backyard. No joke. They were everywhere, so logically I went with apricots. There was also a huge amount of apricot jam that had been freshly made, so that went on the crust. I accidentally forgot the breadcrumbs, but it didn't seem to affect the end result, which was delicious! I thought for a moment about not doing the custard, but decided when I saw that there would be enough room between the fruit, to go ahead and throw it on there. I am glad I did. I really think the custard made this galette special. It reminded me of some of the pastries I enjoyed in Eastern Europe. It got a little brown on top, but that is because I wasn't sure if the custard was cooked all the way, so I let it go a couple more minutes just to make sure. Now, go on over the TWD blogroll and check out all the other great fruit combinations that everyone came up with!