Healthy Eating Night

Usually, we fill our cooking group nights with butter, sugar, cheese and flour, but not tonight!  We jumped on the healthy bandwagon (I do love healthy, don't get me wrong...but I love the other stuff too!)  Brook taught us how to make Kale chips and they are DE-licious!  They are currently a staple in my house and my children love to eat them too--bonus!! You can find the recipe Here

We also learned how to make this amazing Quinoa dish with fresh peas, asparagus and avocado--it has a lemon basil dressing and I have made this a few times and my kids love it too!  It's completely guilt free, full of nutritious vegetables and most importantly...flavor!  The recipe for that is from here







Some tips for cooking with quinoa:

Basic Quinoa Facts

How much cooked quinoa does 1 cup dry quinoa yield?
1 cup dry quinoa yields about 3 cups cooked quinoa.
How much liquid do I need to cook quinoa?
To cook 1 cup quinoa, you need about 2 cups liquid.
How long does it take to cook quinoa?
1 cup quinoa will cook in about 20 minutes.
How do I make quinoa less bitter?
Nearly, if not all, of the natural bitterness of quinoa's outer coating can be removed by a vigorous rinsing in a mesh strainer.
How do I make better-tasting quinoa?
Quinoa is really excellent when cooked in vegetable or chicken broth. Also, add about 1/4 teaspoon salt to each cup dried quinoa when cooking. Try adding other spices aromatics during cooking as well: A clove of smashed garlic, a sprig of fresh rosemary, a dash of black pepper.
Can I use my rice cooker to make quinoa?
Yes! Just use the 2:1 liquid to quinoa ratio and follow the instructions on your rice cooker.

Also, it's important to not overcook the asparagus!  You want it to be bright spring green and still a little bit crunchy...al dente!  Nobody likes soggy asparagus....

Now that's some pretty fluffy quinoa!!!

To finish the night, we tried our hand at some sugar free/gluten free donuts.  These were....okay. I just think they shouldn't be called donuts because they taste nothing like the donuts you'd find at Krispy Kreme.  These were tasty and muffin like, but not rich or decadent like the name donut implies.  If you are watching your sugar/fat/white flour intake then these might just do the trick for you! You can find the recipe here