white bean, quinoa and tomato salad

After a fabulous vacation in Sonoma, California, A and I were in desperate need of a detox diet!  I had each of these ingredients already in my pantry or fridge so it was a quick meal to pull together after work.  Hope you try it out :)  

white bean, quinoa and tomato salad

2 cups quinoa, prepared
1 can of canellini beans, drained and rinsed (I made fresh beans)
4 small sweet campari tomatoes, quartered
2 petite cucumbers, sliced
1 avocado, diced
salt & pepper, to taste
splash of balsamic vinegar

Layer the ingredients and serve!

Serves 4 people

vitamix recipes: juices & smoothies

A few weeks ago, A and I purchased a Vitamix from Costco!  This thing is beyond amazing!  If you're in the market for a juicer, forget it and splurge on the Vitamix.  Every morning we start our day with delicious smoothies or juices.  The Vitamix came with their own recipe book but we've found it easiest to just throw in any fruits and/or veggies we have on hand.

Favorites:

Kale, cucumber, pineapple, greek yogurt
Grapefruit, carrot, ginger
Papaya, orange, banana
Cucumber, mint cooler
Celery, carrot, tomato - V8 Cocktail!
Pineapple, orange, ginger
Carrot, celery, orange, ginger
Kale, mango, strawberry, blueberry

I'm excited to try more of the Green Monster Smoothies, but I don't think A is as thrilled!

tofu and califlower curry

tofu and cauliflower curry
inspired by Cooking Light

After holding onto a head of cauliflower for about a week, I finally decided to use it up by a recipe I found in the Cooking Light recipe.  I followed the recipe besides excluding a can of diced tomatoes, roasting the onions with the cauliflower instead of sauteing and serving the curry with brown rice instead of basmati rice.  Overall I enjoyed the dish and will definitely make it again!
 

pav bhaji, indian street food

One of the first times I truly enjoyed this dish was while we visited my grandparents in India.  We went to dinner at Havmor, what seems to be more of a fastfood restaurant but delicious nonetheless. I remember ordering this dish but not knowing that it would be doused with butter and 4 white bread buns drenched in more butter.  In any case, I devoured this meal then but now I definitely lightened up the recipe by decreasing the amount of butter used as well as swapping out the white buns for whole wheat buns.  I hope you'll try this recipe out!  

pav bhaji, indian street food
learned from my mom

1 cauliflower, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 potato, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1/4 bag of frozen green peas

Put all vegetables in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes and place aside for next step.

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, diced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
Rai (black mustard seeds)
Hing (asoefetida)
Everest pavbhaji masalo
Hardar (tumeric)
lemon
salt
1/3 bag of frozen corn

In 2 tbsp of butter, add 1/2 tsp of rai and once it begins to sputter add the hing, garlic, onions, jalapeno and ginger.  Then add 2 tbsp of Everest pavbhaji masalo, salt and hardar.  On medium high heat, once evenly mixed add the diced tomatoes and cooked vegetables.  Mash the mixture and add extra masalo if necessary. Add the frozen corn and the juice of 1 lemon.  Enjoy!

wordless wednesday: dirty martinis