Black Bean Tomato Quinoa - woah

Wow.. So this new schedule is wreaking havoc on my ability to work, study, cook, eat, blog, and sleep. Hence the lack of a post yesterday. But I did make a delicious summer salad on Sunday that I'm eating for lunch this week - it's incredibly healthy and very very tasty. I got the recipe from epicurious, and have added my own tweaks to make it more simple and savory. Here's how:

Black Bean Tomato Quinoa Salad:
2 teaspoons grated lime zest ($.10)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice ($.60)
1 tablespoon olive oil ($.10)
1 teaspoon honey ($.10)
1 cup quinoa ($.50)
1 (14- to 15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained ($.50)
4 medium roma tomatoes, diced ($1.00)
1/4 cup leeks, chopped ($.75)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro ($1.00)
1 medium avocado ($.55)
1 tsp cayenne pepper sauce ($.05)
salt and pepper to taste (negl)

Directions:
Wash quinoa in three changes of cold water. Mix first 4 ingredients in a bowl. Cook quinoa as you would rice, for about 15 minutes. Drain well. Mix quinoa in with liquid mixture. Stir in tomatoes, leeks, cilantro, avocado, cayenne pepper sauce, and salt/pepper. Serve hot, or let cool for a tasty summer treat!

Cost:
around $5.25 for 4 servings - one serving in a wrap works perfectly for lunch for me!

Nutrition Info:
Black Bean Tomato Quinoa Salad

*Sigh* I will try and post as frequently as I have been, but I had forgotten how much work work actually is. Additionally, I'm riding my bike the 2 miles to work and back, so I'm physically tired more than anything else. Keep checking and commenting and I'll keep updating!

Honey Dijon Salmon and Garlic Sage Mashed Potatoes

HOORAY! My interviews went so well this morning, that I'm starting both jobs part-time on Monday! I am thoroughly excited, happy, and relieved. So to celebrate, I broke out the salmon from the freezer, and made one of my favorite side-dishes, mashed potatoes. It was simple and easy, and the thing that took the longest was boiling the water for the mashed potatoes! Here's how:

Honey Dijon Salmon:
1lb salmon steak, skin on ($5.50)
2 tbsp honey ($0.10)
1 tbsp dijon mustard ($0.10)
1 tbsp lemon juice ($0.25)
1/2 tsp salt ($0.05)

Garlic Sage Mashed Potatoes:
3 medium golden potatoes ($0.75)
1 tsp ground sage ($0.05)
1/2 tsp oregano ($0.05)
1/2 tsp garlic powder ($0.05)
1/2 tsp salt ($0.05)
1/2 tsp pepper ($0.05)
1/2 cup 2% milk ($0.10)

Directions:
Put water on to boil for potatoes (this takes the longest!). Wash and cut potatoes into small pieces, no larger than around 1" x 1/2" x 1/2". Once water is boiling, add potatoes to water.

Combine honey, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Spray nonstick spray in hot skillet, lay salmon in skillet skin side down. Using basting brush, spread mixture over salmon, reserving about half. Flip salmon after a few minutes on each side, halfway through cooking spread remainder of mixture on salmon that should be a nice golden brown by now.

When potatoes are soft (about 10 minutes of boiling), drain, mash with fork, and return to pot. Add spices and half of milk, mix well, mashing with spoon. Add remainder of milk as needed for moisture. If you like your potatoes really creamy (I like some texture), peel before cooking, and using electric mixer after mashing.

Cost:
Salmon: about $6.00
Potatoes:about $1.00
Salad (not pictured, so make your own): about $2.00
Total for meal: about $9.00, or $3-4 per serving (my serving cost about $3.00, but my boyfriend eats about twice as much as I do, so his cost closer to $6.00, hence the average)

Nutrition Facts:
Salmon here
Mashed Potatoes here

So this was very simple, and ended up being incredibly delicious. The honey-dijon sauce seemed a bit too tart and spicy before cooking, but trust me - it works out great in the end. The honey really comes forward and blends the lemon and mustard flavors quite well. On a scale of 1-10, my boyfriend gave the salmon an 8.8, which is pretty good for a first trial on the sauce. The mashed potatoes were also quite delicious as well - soft, creamy, without the need for any butter even. It's definitely worth it to make your own potatoes - it comes complete with 3 grams of fiber per serving without too much fat or sodium (if you wanted to reduce the fat even more, try skim milk instead of 2%). Overall, I highly recommend trying these recipes!

Numero Uno

So I have another blog, but I realized that people who want to read about yoga and renewable energy might not want to read about gourmet cooking, or vice versa. So I decided to separate them. I want to create this to document my journey of exploration... if you want to put it that way. Now that my boyfriend and I have an apartment of our own, we're trying out all these fantastic new recipes. I want to make the good ones again, and keep myself from making the same mistakes twice - so here is where I will keep notes.

So tonight we had a delicious pizza with a mixed green salad and some tasty lime-oriented beer. The approximate recipe:

1 whole wheat pizza crust (we used Boboli, which was delicious and easy)
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 small eggplant, sliced, lightly fried in olive oil
1 cup fresh baby spinach
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded medium cheddar, for some variety

Spray the pizza pan (crucial! we forgot to do this once and had very crispy pizza), put down the sauce, spinach, and eggplant, sprinkle cheese evenly on top, and follow baking instructions on crust package.

It was delicious! To go along with it we had a salad with:

mixed baby field greens
handful of cherry tomatoes
handful of chopped sweet red and green bell peppers
some baby carrots
some raisins
delicious Raspberry Hazelnut Vinaigrette dressing

So that was tonight. Last night was even better. We had a baked penne casserole:

1 1/3 cup (uncooked volume) penne
14 oz organic diced canned tomatoes
1/2 cup baby spinach (we should have used more)
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup grated Parmesan
some garlic powder, fresh ground pepper and sea salt, oregano to taste

Cooked the pasta, put everything in the casserole dish with most of the Parmesan on top, baked it in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. Definitely should have taken it out a little sooner, as the pasta sticking out of the tomato juice had gotten pretty hard.

To go with that, we had a Caesar Salad (from a bag.. for shame!) and a delicious Louis Jadot Beaujolais. Now that was tasty.

I hope to make whole wheat blueberry pancakes tomorrow morning with a honey-fruit syrup. We'll see if I have the motivation!