Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Chickpea, Quinoa, Avocado Salad with Feta


This salad is loaded with power-house ingredients and with the lime vinaigrette it is so, so delicious! It was also incredibly easy to put together. So many good things!

The recipe is slightly adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod. The two changes I made was adding the quinoa (for more protein and yum'ness) and my lime vinaigrette, which I added because I wanted the salad to have a more complex flavor than with only the lime juice called for in the TPaTP recipe.

You could totally eat this on it's own for a complete meal, or serve it as a side dish. We ate it with some grilled salmon that I drizzled with a bit of extra lime vinaigrette. That was also completely divine.

If you haven't made the foray into the world of quinoa, this is a fantastic salad to start with.


Chickpea, Quinoa, Avocado Salad with Feta (adapted from TPaTP)

1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup cooked quinoa
2 avocados, pitted and diced
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
several grinds fresh black pepper

1. In a medium bowl combine the chickpeas, quinoa, avocados, cilantro, green onion, and feta. Gently mix and set aside.

2. In a small bowl combine the olive oil, lime juice, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and whisk very well. Drizzle about 3/4 of the vinaigrette over the salad and fold gently to coat everything evenly. Taste the salad and add additional dressing if you think it needs it. (I used my remaining dressing to drizzle over our grilled salmon.)

Makes about 5 3/4-cup (side-dish size) servings

Monday, May 12, 2014

Baked Blueberry Oatmeal (Vegan)

 

Back when I was in the throws of the holidays and it was right after we had moved so everything was insane, I remember saying to myself (more than once), "I can't wait for the holidays to be over, things will calm down and I can get some stuff done around here."

Hahahaha!! Bwa-hahahaha!!

Oh. My. Wow. I think life will never calm down around here, we will just go from one crazy, completely consuming thing to another. And yet I'm sure I would complain if life was boring, right?

The most imminent craziness is my oldest is graduating high school in 3 1/2 weeks. I have no idea how it happened. It's been, what, a month since she was born? And a bit of long-term craziness is we've made some changes to our diet. We had to finally get serious about my husband's diabetes (he's very fit, but has been betrayed by his genetics), I started Weight Watchers again (the old program, though, because I hate the new program) to lose the weight I gained over the last couple of years of moving and house-building and moving again, and my oldest has decided that she wants to "be able to win the Hunger Games and lift a hippo" and is working out and lifting like a mad woman.

The changes in our diet have thrown me a bit for a loop and I'm still trying to figure it all out. This recipe is something I tried as a way to meet all of our needs (my two little girls won't touch it...pffft!).  My husband can eat a little, my daughter feels good about eating it, and it's only 3 WW points (old program) for me. It's dairy, egg, flour, and added-sweetener-free. And it's even tasty! Yes, I was surprised, as well.

I think I found the original recipe on Pinterest, but I didn't pin it, I just wrote it down, so I can't link back to it. Oops. But I've also seen lots of variations of this same thing, so maybe it's like pancakes or potato salad, and there are a million ways and recipes. I'm pretty sure the only thing I changed was to substitute frozen blueberries for the raisins called for (blueberries are so much nicer).

I should also say the original recipe was half this recipe and was made in an 8x8 pan. I did that at first, and then doubled it the second time and used a 9x13. I cut the pieces, wrapped them in plastic and put them in the freezer.



Baked Blueberry Oatmeal (Vegan)

5-6 medium over-ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups frozen blueberries
Maple syrup for serving, optional (add 1 WW point (old program) for 1 TBL syrup)

1. Heat your oven to 350, and spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray.

2. Combine bananas, applesauce, oats, almond milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl and mix well. Add the blueberries and gently fold them in.

3. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is lightly browned in places and the oatmeal is firm when touched.

4. Cool to warm before cutting into squares. Serve with a drizzle of maple syrup if you want a bit of extra sweetness.

Makes 12 squares.
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