Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea Quinoa and Arugula Salad with Almonds, Pomegranate and Feta in a Lemony Tahini Dressing

After all of the football snacking in January it was time for some healthier dishes starting with this roasted cauliflower and chickpea quinoa and arugula salad/grain bowl. I start this salad out with a base of quinoa and arugula and I build it up with some meaty roasted cauliflower and chickpeas. From there I add some toasted almond slivers for crunch, pomegranate for both the colour and the juicy bursts of sweetness and some salty feta before finishing it off with plenty of fresh herbs like parsley and mint. Continuing with the Mediterranean theme I went with a simple lemony tahini based dressing and despite it simply consisting of tahini, lemon juice and salt it is so amazingly good! One of the things that I like most about this salad, other than the fact that it tastes amazing, is all of the vibrant colours from the black quinoa to the green arugula to the white cauliflower and finally the red pomegranate and I also thoroughly enjoy all of the contrasting textures. If you are looking for a healthy light meal (or a side dish) you just cannot go wrong with this tasty roasted cauliflower and chickpea quinoa and arugula salad/grain bowl!

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Roasted Pumpkin and Green Bean Quinoa Salad in Thai Peanut Dressing

It's time for another pumpkin recipe and this time we've got a roasted pumpkin and green bean quinoa salad in a tasty Thai peanut dressing. Quinoa makes for both a nice addition to a salad and a great base for salads and if you are using it as a base for a salad all you really need to do is add some veggies, like pumpkin, along with a dressing and you're done! In addition to the pumpkin I added green beans (which I blanched rather than roasted to retain their bright green colour and crispy crunch) and red peppers along with some green onions and cilantro. The pumpkin and Thai peanut sauce combo is a fabulous one, and the inspiration for this salad, so a dressing based on it was a must! Although it's not required, I like to serve this salad on a bed of baby spinach, just to get some more veggie goodness!

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Roasted Cauliflower, Mushroom and Goat Cheese Quiche with Quinoa Crust

I have really been enjoying the cauliflower and mushroom combo lately, especially if they are roasted, and I thought that it was about time that I used them in a breakfast dish and a quiche is the perfect way to do it! I wanted to keep things on the lighter and healthier side so I started out with a quinoa crust, which is easy to make, you simply mix an egg and possibly some cheese into the cooked quinoa, press it into a pie plate and pre-bake it before filling it and baking it again. From there I roasted the cauliflower and mushrooms and added the usual quiche suspects, eggs and cream, along with some goat cheese, since a quiche just isn't a quiche without cheese! (Aged white cheddar or blue cheese would also be amazing in this quiche!) The cauliflower and mushroom combo works amazingly well in this quiche and now I can enjoy my favourite combo for breakfast lunch and dinner!

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Pesto Zucchini and Corn Quinoa Salad

Although fall is officially here and the days are cooling, there is still plenty of zucchini around and I wanted to give summer one last hurrah with this zucchini and corn quinoa salad with a basil pesto dressing. This salad is as easy as it sounds with the quinoa, sautéed zucchini and corn, the basil pesto dressing and I like to add some chickpeas to fill it out a bit along with some green onions and toasted pine nuts as garnish. Really all you need to do is cook the quinoa, zucchini and corn and mix everything and you are done! This pesto zucchini and corn quinoa salad makes for a great side or even a light meal and it's sure to brighten your day!

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Chicken Cordon Bleu Quinoa Casserole

First up for my leftover Easter ham was something that I had been wanting to make for a while, a casserole inspired by the flavours of chicken cordon bleu. Chicken cordon bleu is a dish when chicken is wrapped around ham or prosciutto along with a melty cheese, covered in breadcrumbs and baked or fried until the cheese has melted and the breadcrumbs are crispy. This recipe is pretty much like you would expect with chicken, ham, a tasty cheese sauce similar to a mac and cheese sauce and a crispy breadcrumb topping. Normally you would fill out a casserole like this with pasta or maybe even rice but I also like to go with quinoa every once in a while and it works really well in casseroles like this. You could of course also add some vegetables to the casserole to make i a one dish meal but it is great either way. If you are a fan of chicken cordon bleu, mac n cheese and quinoa then this is the casserole for you!

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Broccoli and Cheddar Quinoa Bites

The broccoli and cheddar flavour combo is a great one and this time I use it in some bites sized quinoa cakes. Often when I do something like these I will make them more like a fritter and fry them in oil but it's also fun to bake them in mini muffin pans and it keeps them a little lighter. These broccoli and cheddar quinoa bites could not be easier to make, you simply cook the quinoa, mix all of the ingredients and bake! Not only are they tasty but they are also pretty healthy and kid friendly so the next time you are looking for something to snack on put down the bag of chips and grab some broccoli and cheddar quinoa cakes.

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Quinoa White Chicken Chili

It is definitely the season for soups and stews and you really can't go wrong with a tasty, warming bowl of chili! In it's more typical form chili con carne is made with beef and plenty of red chili peppers but it is always fun to make a white chili where the meat is chicken and no red chili peppers are used. This is my go to quick, easy and tasty white chicken chili recipe and it has a base of chicken and white beans with jalapeno chili peppers for the heat along with a few seasoning like garlic, cumin and oregano. I like to kick the flavour up a bit by replacing some of the broth with a salsa verde and the addition of quinoa makes this soup a bit heartier. As a finishing touch I like to hit the soup with fresh lime juice along with some cilantro. One of the best things about this tasty white chicken chili is that it only takes about 30 minutes to make and if you know that you aren't even going to have that much time for dinner then you can throw everything into the slow cooker in the morning and come home to a fully cooked meal!

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Roasted Green Bean Red Pepper Quinoa Salad

Just because the weather is cooling doesn't mean that salads are off the menu, especially when they are like this tasty, hearty and healthy quinoa salad with roasted green beans and red peppers! I always enjoy making salads like this and they are super easy to make! I usually like to start with a rice, whole grain or quinoa and then I add some in season vegetables like green beans and red peppers followed optionally with a bean, some cheese, nuts and a dressing and in no like you have tasty salad that eats like a meal! When it comes to the vegetables, I often like to roast them as roasting helps bring out more of their flavour and in this case both green beans and red peppers are particularly nice when roasted. This roasted green bean and red pepper quinoa salad is definitely a great way to enjoy salads this fall!

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Esquites Quinoa Salad with Avocado

One of the best ways to enjoy corn is right from the cob and one of my favourite ways to do that is Mexican style, aka elote, where the corn is covered in butter, mayo, cotija cheese, a squirt of lime and a touch of chili pepper. Of course you can easily cut the corn from the cob and if you do that with elote you get esquites, a Mexican style corn salad which I also like a lot! Quinoa is often on my mind and I could not help think that adding some would only make things better both by adding an amazing texture and by adding a healthy source source of protein! I often enjoy the addition of avocado to my esquites and so I could not leave it out of this quinoa salad! I have to say that the combination of sweet corn, creamy avocado and quinoa is quite amazing and it makes for a great side dish or even a light meal!

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Blueberry Almond and Amaretto Quinoa Crisp

I don't tend to make desserts all that often but in the summer it's hard to resist using some of all of the fresh fruits and berries in a few sweet treats! One of my favourite things to make has to be crisps or crumbles and they also happen to be one of the easiest things to make! A crisp is as easy to make as throwing some fruit or berries into a pan, topping them with a simple mixture of flour, butter and sugar and baking until bubbling and golden brown!

Not too long ago I discovered that if you bake cooked quinoa that it gets all nice and crispy and that led me to wonder how it would work as the topping in a crisp or crumble and I just had to try it out! Blueberries are everywhere these days and thus a blueberry crisp was just the thing to try out the quinoa topping on. As you can see the recipe is pretty much a basic crisp recipe with quinoa in the crust and an almond theme including almond slices in the topping and a splash of amaretto in the filling. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at just how well the quinoa topping worked in the crisp! The topping crisped up nicely and the quinoa added an amazing texture to the crisp! This is not your regular crisp or crumble topping but it is definitely fabulous in it's own way!

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Black Bean, Corn and Quinoa Picadillo Tacos

Ever since the fresh corn showed up in the markets I have been enjoying a lot of it, especially combined with black beans! The other day I came across some picadillo and that made me think that a black bean and corn picadillo would be awesome! Picadillo is a ground beef dish that is popular in many Latin American countries and it varies quite a bit from region to region. The version that has always piqued my interest is one that includes salty olives and sweet raisins which add a certain exoticness to the dish. Picadillo is often served with rice and beans or used in other dishes like tacos which is where I was heading with this one. The thought that picadillo is commonly served with rice put the idea of quinoa in my mind and I could not resist adding some right into the picadillo for the boost of protean along with it's amazing texture. This picadillo certainly is packed with flavour and the creamy black bean, juicy corn, salty olive and sweet raisin combo is fantastic! With everything in this picadillo you could easily eat it by itself as a complete meal but it is so good when stuffed into corn tortillas along with some cool and creamy avocado, diced onions and a sprinkling of crumbled cotija!

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Strawberry Quinoa and Spinach Caprese Salad

A nice fresh strawberry caprese salad is a great way to enjoy some of those perfectly ripe and juicy summer strawberries but if you are looking for something that could be more of a light meal how about a strawberry quinoa and spinach caprese salad? This salad is pretty much just a simply amazing strawberry caprese salad served on a bed of baby spinach and light, fluffy and tender quinoa and it makes for a really quick and easy light meal! When doing a strawberry caprese salad like this I like to kick up the flavour a bit by using a tasty homemade balsamic vinaigrette rather than just a splash of balsamic vinegar.

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Asparagus, Baby Artichoke, Pesto and Goat Cheese Quiche with Quinoa Crust

I don't know what it is about spring and asparagus but at this time of year I always seem to think about asparagus quiches which I never tire of and I always love experimenting with. This year was no different and I wanted to try something a little different, a quinoa crust instead of the more standard all butter pie crust. Up until recently my favourite crust for quiches has been a brown rice pie crust and I figured that quinoa should work equally as well as a pie crust. The quinoa pie crust is pretty easy to make and all you need to do is cook some quinoa, mix in an egg and some cheese as binders and pre-bake the crust until golden brown before continuing with your quiche recipe as normal. For this quiche I had to go with the asparagus which had been on my mind, along with baby artichokes and I flavoured the quiche with a healthy dose of fresh homemade basil pesto and some creamy and tangy goat cheese. This asparagus, baby artichoke, pesto and goat cheese quiche may take a bit of time to make but it is well worth it and it definitely makes for one impressively tasty weekend breakfast or brunch! With the quinoa crust and the use of milk rather than heavy cream you can enjoy this healthy quiche with little or no regret!

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Spring Quinoa Bibimbap with Asparagus, Fiddleheads, Fava Bean and Ramps

This past weekend the farmers market was full of new fresh local produce including ramp (aka wild leeks), fiddleheads, favabeans and asparagus. I had left some slots open in my meal plan this week to pick up some of the new arrivals to make a dish or two but now that there was so much selection I just could not decide what to get! In the end I decided to get a bit of everything and I was already thinking about what to use them all in on my walk home. Bibimbap is a Korean 'mixed rice' dish where vegetables and meats are served over rice and then all mixed up before eating and it seemed like a great way to enjoy all of springs bounty! Although bibimbap is normally made with rice, I like to make it with quinoa both for the extra nutritional value and because of the great texture that quinoa has. This dish is really easy to make though if you are starting from scratch rather than using leftovers it can take a bit of time to cook all of the vegetables but it is well worth it. Most of the vegetables are steamed or blanched and then optionally sauteed in a bit of oil along with the ramps. This spring bibimbap is finished with a fried egg with a runny yolks and a spicy gochujang sauce.

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Strawberry BBQ Chicken Spinach and Quinoa Salad with Bacon, Avocado and Goat Cheese

After making the strawberry BBQ chicken club sandwiches with bacon, avocado and goat cheese I still had plenty of the roasted strawberry BBQ sauce leftover and I knew just what I wanted to make with it, a strawberry BBQ quinoa salad. I have been wanting to try making a BBQ chicken quinoa salad with black beans and corn for a while now but a strawberry BBQ quinoa salad suddenly sounded like a much better idea! I used a lot of the same flavours as in the strawberry BBQ chicken sandwich in this quinoa salad including the avocado, bacon and goat cheese since they worked so amazingly well together. I filled the quinoa salad out with baby spinach along with some green onions and cilantro. If you have the cooked chicken on hand, this salad is as easy to make as cooking the quinoa and throwing everything together and despite that it is so fantastically good!

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Crispy Baked Quinoa Crusted Chicken Parmesan

As many of you know, I am a big fan of quinoa and I have been ever since I first tried it. You can use quinoa in surprisingly many ways and I have been enjoying experimenting with different ways of using it over the last few years. My next experiment was to use it as a replacement for breadcrumbs to get a crispy coating on chicken (or other things) that was inspired by the fact that when you bake or toast cooked quinoa it gets nice and crispy. One of the first things that came to mind to try the quinoa coating on was chicken parmesan which typically consists of breaded chicken that is fried or baked and then covered in a marinara sauce and melted cheese. The recipe for the quinoa crusted version of chicken parmesan could not be simpler, you pretty much just take your basic baked chicken parmesan recipe and replace the breadcrumbs with cooked quinoa.

The cooked quinoa coating on the chicken toasted up nice and crispy and golden brown on the chicken just like bread crumbs and I quite enjoyed the texture of it! Now that I know that the quinoa coating works I can't wait to try it on other things! Crispy quinoa crusted zucchini fries anyone?

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Roasted Cauliflower and Mushroom Quinoa Salad in Balsamic Vinaigrette

Two of my recent food obsessions have been quinoa and cauliflower and it was past time for me to use them both in a dish together! Another thing that I have been enjoying lately is whole grain salads where the recipes follows some basic guidelines including starting off with quinoa or a whole grain like farro, a vegetable or two, possibly some beans and/or nuts, a cheese and a dressing. As soon as I had the idea of using quinoa and cauliflower together one of these salads sounded like a great way to go! Of course I had to go with roasted cauliflower since it is so addictively good and I figured that I might as well roast some mushrooms up at the same time. For this salad I decided to omit any beans but I did throw in some walnuts and a balsamic vinaigrette. Which cheese to use was the only real question as there a few good options including feta, blue cheese and the one that I chose, a creamy goat cheese. Goat cheese is a particularly nice option for salad like this because if you add it to the salad while the ingredients are still warm, it starts to melt into the salad spreading it's goodness throughout. This salad goes well either warm or cool and it makes for a nice side or even a light meal. If you want to bulk it up a bit for a meal you can add some chickpeas and serve it on a bed of greens such as kale, spinach or lettuce. I have to say that the roast cauliflower, mushroom and quinoa combo was a nice and tasty one and healthy to boot!

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Chipotle Roast Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quinoa Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing

After all of that rich St Patrick's Day fare I was looking for something on the lighter side which was perfect timing since this roasted sweet potato and black bean quinoa salad had been on my mind for a while. There is just something about the sweet potato, creamy black bean and smoky and spicy chipotle chili flavour combo that keeps me coming back for more and this quinoa salad is a great way to enjoy it! In addition to being super tasty, this salad is really easy to make and it only takes as much time to throw together as it takes to roast the sweet potato es!

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Baked Chipotle Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quinoa Cakes with Creamy Avocado Sauce

Ever since I discovered quinoa cakes I have been dreaming up different flavour combinations for them! A quinoa cake or fritter is pretty much what it sounds like, a mixture of quinoa with a binder such as an egg and breadcrumbs that is formed into cakes or patties and then fried until crispy. One of the great things about cakes like this is that in addition to the main ingredient you can add pretty much whatever you want for flavour! I am a big fan of the spicy and smoky chipotle, sweet potato and creamy black bean combo and I am more than a little surprised that it took me this long to throw them into some quinoa cakes!

This quinoa cake recipe is pretty simple and in addition to the sweet potato, black beans, quinoa and chipotle chili powder I added some cumin, garlic, green onions and cilantro for flavour and freshness. I decided to go with raw, grated sweet potatoes, though am sure that a recipe with mashed would work as well. One problem that I did have with the recipe was that with a full can of black beans it ended up making more than the 4 servings that I normally like to target, but extra leftover quinoa cakes are certainly a lot better than leftover black beans! In keeping with the eating healthier mantra I decided to bake the quinoa cakes rather than frying them and it worked out well! The baked quinoa cakes did not have as crispy of an outside but this insides were so light, moist and fluffy and good! I will definitely be baking quinoa fritters again tin the future!

While I was contemplating the recipe I remembered that cool and creamy avocado goes amazingly well with the chipotle, sweet potato and black bean combo and I immediately knew that me favourite creamy avocado sauce would be the perfect topping for the cakes! I served the chipotle sweet potato and black bean quinoa cakes with creamy avocado sauce on a bed of sauteed swiss chard and it made for a fabulous light, healthy and tasty meal! I do have one confession, I could not stop there and I just had to top everything off with...

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Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfait with Gingersnap Pecan Streusel

I had some leftover pumpkin puree that I wanted to use and after the apple crumble quinoa parfaits earlier in the week, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it; pumpkin pie quinoa parfaits! The idea was simple, mix some pumpkin pie spices and brown sugar into the pumpkin puree and layer it with Greek vanilla yogurt and quinoa spiced with cinnamon. At this point everything sounds nice and healthy but I could not resist topping it off with a gingersnap pecan streusel since gingersnaps and pecans go so well with pumpkin pie! Now i am looking forward to quick, tasty and fairly healthy desserts for breakfast from the leftovers for the next few days!

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