Quinoa with Shrimp, Zucchini, Peppers, and Kale

Happy Friday!!!!!

This week actually passed pretty quickly for me; I hope that's the case for you too!

Speaking of quick, one of my favorite quick and healthy go-to ingredients for weeknight meals is quinoa. Loooove quinoa! Quite often, we'll make quinoa with a variety of veggies and possibly some meat (usually chicken or kielbasa). This past week we changed it up by adding some shrimp to the mix. Frozen shrimp is such an easy item to keep on hand because it can be thawed and cooked in no time! All in all, this meal took about 20 to 25 minutes to prepare. The longest part was simply cooking the quinoa!

The ingredients below are approximate. This was one of those recipes that I made up on the spot as I went...not much thought went into it! But the final product was yummy, so I wanted to share it with you. :) I kept the seasonings very simple - garlic, pepper, and some fresh basil that we had on hand. I also just chose to use whichever CSA veggies we had on hand. That's the beauty of this common veggie and quinoa combination that we make - any veggies will work with this!!

Ingredients:

-1 cup quinoa

-2 cups low sodium chicken broth (or vegetable or fish stock)

-1 small onion, finely chopped

-1/2 medium zucchini, chopped

-1 pepper (I used green; use any color)

-6 leaves of kale, chopped into "bite-sized" pieces

-frozen, peeled, pre-cooked shrimp (however many you want :))

-2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced

-2 Tbsp. fresh basil, finely chopped

-ground pepper to taste

-grated parmesan cheese, if desired

Instructions:

Cook quinoa and broth according to package directions; this should take about 20 minutes. In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute the onion, zucchini, and pepper. After about 5 minutes of cooking, add the garlic. Stir in the shrimp (they can be completely frozen when you add them; they'll thaw in the pan, no problem). Continue to stir the veggies and shrimp for another 5 minutes or so, over low-medium heat. 

When the quinoa is done cooking, mix in the chopped kale with the quinoa (the kale will wilt once it's mixed in with the hot quinoa). Next, mix in the rest of the cooked veggies and the shrimp, and also add the fresh basil at this point. If desired, sprinkle on some grated parmesan cheese when this dish is served. Add salt and pepper to taste too (although, my guess is you won't need extra salt; even low sodium broth adds plenty of salt flavor, in my opinion!).

I didn't take many photos of this dish...well, because I was lazy. After taking a couple bites of the dish, I thought, hmmmm, this is yummy! Guess I'll snap a few pics and post the recipe on the blog.

:)

Happy almost weekend, friends!

Love is Brewin'...

Why hello! What ever do I mean by the post title of "love is brewin'"?? I'm guessing you may be asking yourself that. Well, sadly, I don't have a recipe for you today so I thought I'd share some other adventures going on in the Barbershop these days!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, life is extremely busy right now so it's getting much more difficult for me to keep up with the blog; hence, my less frequent posts. I also feel like I've been in a bit of a blog "funk." I just haven't really felt much like taking pictures of the food I've been making (but obviously I have been cooking!). There have been some blog-worthy dishes happening around here, but for some reason, I just haven't had the motivation to snap some photos and write about them. So, do forgive me. Hopefully I'll be back on the regular blog bandwagon soon!

In the meantime though, every now and then I may share a non-food post with you all, if you don't mind. So, here's one of those types of posts!

This past weekend Mike and I brewed our first beer for the wedding (so now do you get the "love is brewin'" post title?! :)). It's not a secret that we're planning to make homebrewed beer as one of our wedding favors for our guests (so don't worry; I'm not letting the cat out of the bag here ;)). Having just passed the 3-month mark to the big day, it's time to start brewing! At a minimum, beer takes about 1 month to be ready to drink, but 2 or 3 months is more typical. So, we're on our way with making our beers!

The first we brewed is the one that should "age" the longest - a chocolate stout. Mmmmm. Although I just revealed one of the types of beer we're making, I'm not going to reveal its name. That part is a secret!

Some pics of our super fun brew day from this past weekend:

Grains!

It was SUCH a hot brew day! No air conditioning for us during the brewing process... That, coupled with the heat that the brewing process generates, made us sweaty fools by the end of the day! Yikes.

Mike, adding some of the hops to the boil!

A chocolate stout obviously needs chocolate!!!!! We put in a pound and a half of chocolate into this batch. Oh yeah. :)

Melting the chocolate to add to the boil!

Whiskey was no help whatsoever during this process. He really needs to be doing more to earn his keep... ;)

The final product, getting ready to sit and ferment for a bit!

But first, it must be aerated! And to do this, Mike uses a drill! Neato.

So now our chocolate stout is fermenting nicely, and there are a couple more small things to do to the batch in the next few weeks. Then, we bottle it!

I'm not sure if any of my blog readers are homebrewers, but if you're at all interested in our recipe, just let me know!

And a couple other things I've been up to?

Baking spent grain bread from the leftover grains from brewing...

Gosh I love this bread.

And making an old recipe again - these awesome no-bake peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough balls. Now these are the perfect treat to make for these hot days we've been having! I haven't felt much like turning on the oven to bake, so these little dough balls are the perfect compromise. If you've been experiencing the very hot and humid weather like we have been here in Boston, you must make these! They satisfy your sweet tooth craving without needing to turn up the heat with the oven. And they're definitely on the healthier side too!!

:)

Thanks for reading my "love is brewin'" post! Hope everyone's staying cool and having a great month of August so far!

Egg over Roasted Potatoes, Turnips, Onions, and Tomatoes

Why hellooooo! Happy Wednesday to you all. And happy August. WOW! I can't believe August is here. My 30th birthday is later this month (whaaaat?! :)), and this Friday, the 3rd, marks three months 'til our wedding. That's just crazy, I tell ya!!

But for now, let's talk less about me and more about this dish that I made for dinner last week - a fried egg overtop roasted potatoes, turnips, onions, and tomatoes. Delish!

Mike was away on vacation for a little while, so I was on my own for dinner most nights last week. Eggs in some way, shape, or form are one of my favorite, easy dinners when I'm cooking for myself. I had a lot of yummy veggies in the house to eat up, and I tried to think of a way to make them work well with an egg. What I came up with isn't all that creative, but let me tell you, it was delicious!! I simply roasted some potatoes (from our CSA), grape tomatoes (from the store), turnips (from our CSA), and onions (from our CSA) with some olive oil and herbs. Then I fried an egg on the stove (over easy/medium-ish), put the egg over top of my roasted veggies, topped the dish with some shredded cheese, and that was it!!

I've listed the ingredients below but I didn't really list any measurements (sorry!). I had plenty of leftover roasted veggies since I didn't make only one serving's worth. I could have easily fed four people with this meal if I had just cooked four eggs along with these veggies. ;) The "recipe" is very flexible. Feel free to add additional types of veggies or substitute in some of your other favorites. Anything goes!

Ingredients:

-potatoes

-grape or cherry tomatoes

-turnips

-onions

-olive oil

-salt and pepper

-dried herbs de provence (or herbs of your choice)

-egg

-cheese of your choice

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the potatoes, turnips, and onions into roughly the same size pieces (1/2" to 3/4" or so). Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and herbs, and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes on a baking pan or sheet. Take the veggies out of the oven and add the tomatoes to the rest of the veggies (I sliced my grape tomatoes in half before roasting them). Put all the veggies back in the oven and continue roasting for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the potatoes and turnips are fork tender and slightly golden brown.

When the veggies are close to done roasting, cook the egg to your liking (I like mine slightly runny, so somewhere in the over easy/medium range). Place a serving of roasted veggies in a dish, top them with the egg, and sprinkle with cheese, if desired. I had a blend of shredded mexican cheeses on hand, so that's what I used.

(I always mess up my eggs when I'm cooking them to go on the blog! This egg doesn't look all that great. Oops.)

But an egg doesn't need to look good to taste good!

All the flavors of this dish worked so well together. I would absolutely make this easy, healthy meal again!

Hope the rest of everyone's week goes well! :)

Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins - A Guest Post on Simply Life!

Hi friends! Hope you all had a great weekend. :)

There's a chance you're swimming in zucchini this summer...  If so, you should definitely check out my guest post recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins over on Simply Life today!

If you're not already a fan of Simply Life, you absolutely should start reading Gina's blog! It's definitely one of my favorites. And I've been lucky enough to become good friends with Gina outside of blogging too (you know, in that thing called real life - not blog life ;)). Go check out my recipe for these delicious muffins, and also be sure to check out many other of the fabulous, healthy recipes on Simply Life while you're there! Her photos are beautiful, and her recipes will inspire you to eat healthier and live more simply, I promise. :)

Have a nice day, all!!

Peanut Butter Iced Coffee

Happy Thursday to you all! I hope everyone's having a great week!

In my Treat Thursday post last week, I mentioned that I am loving peanut butter iced coffee, and I promised that I'd have the recipe for you soon. Well, here it is! This is SUCH a delicious treat. And that's definitely what I consider it - a treat. I'm not making this for myself everyday, but once every couple weeks it sure does hit the spot!

The recipe is from Steph's Bite by Bite. I tweaked it slightly, and my version is below. Feel free to play around with these ingredients. It's definitely a flexible recipe! Steph's recipe calls for more creamer than I use, and it also calls for vanilla extract, which I don't add. But you certainly can! You can also add more or less coffee, more or less milk, a different flavored creamer, etc., depending on your preferences.

Ingredients:

-1 and 1/2 cups brewed coffee (preferably stronger coffee), refrigerated for at least two hours or overnight

-approx. 1/3 cup milk (I use 1%)

-approx. 1 tsp. french vanilla creamer

-dash of cinnamon

-1 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter

-handful of ice

Instructions:

Pour the coffee, milk, creamer, cinnamon, and peanut butter into a blender. Blend for about 30 to 45 seconds, or until the ingredients are well blended and the liquid is frothy. Put the ice in a glass or mug, and pour the coffee mixture over top. 

Enjoy and feel refreshed!!

Although the recipe calls for a full tablespoon of peanut butter, I have added closer to just two teaspoons sometimes when I've made this, and the peanut butter flavor is still very noticeable.

Love me some frothy coffee!

What's not to love about combining peanut butter and coffee? They are two flavors that I love.

And I also love that you know you're getting a little protein as you enjoy this drink. ;)

I typically drink my coffee with only milk or cream and I don't any added sweetener. So, that's why I didn't add the extra creamer or vanilla extract that's in the original recipe; I don't want mine to be too sweet. Personally, I think that the peanut butter adds plenty of flavor on its own, so you really don't need many other additions! I will say that the dash of cinnamon really boosts the flavor another notch though and is a key addition in my variation of this recipe. ;)

When I make this coffee, it doesn't take long for my cup to look like it does in this picture. I'm always sad when a good thing is gone! But then I'm glad to know that I can easily make this recipe again. And I will!!!

And by the way, the cup in this picture? It's from the best coffee shop on the island of Kauai. Java Kai was our go-to coffee shop when we visited Kauai last summer! If you're ever there and you're a coffee fan, you've gotta check it out. ;)

Basil Walnut Pesto (and Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich)

Basil. Basil. Basil. I feel like it's coming out my ears this summer! But don't worry; that's a good thing. We've received a lot of beautiful basil thus far this year with our CSA, but it wasn't until this week that I thought to make pesto with it. Come on, Colleen! Get with the program! We've had such an abundance of basil. Why didn't I think of this earlier??! :)

Anyway, thankfully it dawned on me that I should make some delicious pesto, so I found this great recipe on food.com for basil walnut pesto. I wanted to try making a recipe without the traditional pine nuts, as they can be a bit expensive and I didn't already have pine nuts on hand. However, I did have walnuts on hand (in the freezer, where I store all my cooking and baking nuts!), so this recipe was perfect. It honestly couldn't be any easier either. Just throw all the ingredients in a food processor, and you're good to go!

Ingredients:

-2 cups packed basil leaves (2 oz.)

-1/3 cup olive oil

-1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

-2 cloves garlic, minced

-1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Instructions:

Place the first four ingredients (through the garlic) in the food processor. Process until thoroughly combined. Add the cheese, and blend for about 10 seconds more. If desired, add salt and pepper to taste.

The original recipe I followed actually called for optional additions of two tablespoons of softened butter and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I did not add either. I thought the pesto was plenty flavorful as is, but I'm sure the addition of butter couldn't hurt... I mean, it's butter. ;)

I actually finely chopped the walnuts in the food processor first, and then I added the rest of the ingredients. It was super easy that way!

Finished product!

Can you believe this was my first time making pesto??!

The evening I made this pesto, for dinner I enjoyed a huuuuge salad along side a delicious pesto grilled cheese sandwich! It was such a great way to use some of the pesto. I just spread some pesto on one side of the bread, topped it with cheese, and grilled it up! So yummy.

What are some of your favorite ways to use pesto? I'd love your ideas! I've got some more to use up. ;)

Treat Thursday: Things I Am Loving

Hi there friends!

Perhaps you've noticed, but I've been a bit of a slacker with the blog these past few weeks... I've really only been posting about twice a week. Whoops! This pretty much has to do with two things: 1) being busy as a bee these days! and 2) it has been SO hot. So, I haven't felt like turning on the oven and baking like I normally would! Excuses, excuses, right?! I'm not quite as dedicated as some bloggers I guess. There have been a few meals that I've made that I've considered blogging about, but to be completely honest, I just haven't felt like snapping photos and writing about them. So due to my lack of delicious recipes to share with you this week, I'll be substituting with another Treat Thursday post and sharing with you a few of my current, favorite things (er, "treats")! :)

1) Fresh, local, organic veggies (and sometimes fruits!) from our CSA

We have been receiving so many awesome veggies from our CSA with Buckle Farm this year. I am in love with summer veggies!! I am so thankful we have access to such great, healthy veggies on a regular basis.

2) New uses for old things (specifically, little jars!)

I love finding new uses for old things. One item in particular lately that I've been saving to reuse is glass jars of all shapes and sizes. A couple examples...

Using an old jam jar for almonds!

Or for salad dressing to bring to work! I am certain that I took a picture of the little jar I use for salad dressing at work, but I can't find the pic... Sorry! But seriously, tiny little jam jars are perfect for salad dressing.

3) Peanut butter & banana "in a blanket"

As an easy breakfast, lately I've been on a kick of spreading some peanut butter on a whole wheat wrap, placing a banana on the wrap, and rolling it up in a "blanket"! So yummy and easy!

4) Peanut butter iced coffee!

I hope to have this recipe on the blog at some point. It is so simple and so delicious! It's the perfect iced coffee drink for the hot summer days we've been having...

And that concludes this edition of Treat Thursday. :)

Okay, I lied. I'm not done yet. Although this little guy doesn't totally fit in with the Treat Thursday theme, I can't help but share this adorable picture of Mike's cat, Whiskey. How cute is he?!? Love him. This has been his almost permanent pose during the multiple heat waves we've had this summer!

And also, I can't forget to mention that today, July 19th, is my dad's birthday!!!!! Wishing you a wonderful day, Dad!!! :)

This is my sister Melissa (on left), me (on right; what is up with my hair cut?!?), and my dad and little brother, Patrick, after Patrick was born in 1987!! Awwwww.

Love you, Dad!