side dish » Living Lou

Quinoa Bowl

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen developing recipes. There are meticulous notes involved, multiple drafts and different coloured pens – the whole nine yards. But there is something magical about being in the kitchen and just throwing whatever you have together. While most of my time in the kitchen is spent working on recipes, I try to carve out a few times a month where I just go in there with nothing in mind and just throw whatever together. There are definitely some pretty big failures, but also some great successful dishes.

That’s how this Quinoa Bowl came together. It was 11:30 at night and I needed something to bring to work for lunch the next day. I wasn’t looking to create a “blog worthy” dish, or follow a recipe, I was literally just throwing ingredients together. I had leftover zucchini, broccoli and kale in my fridge that needed to be used up. With the addition of a little Italian sausage, I had a meal ready to go in 15 minutes. Plus, I love when things are monochrome, so the idea of this dish having all green vegetables pleases my nerdy, uniform side. This Quinoa Bowl is the kind of thing that works well for a quick dinner, but I love to make a batch at the beginning of the week and bring it for lunch.

Quinoa Bowl (serves 2-4)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 1/4 cups water
1 link hot Italian sausage, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 zucchini, sliced in semi-circles
1 cup chopped broccoli florets
1 cup chopped kale
1 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Add quinoa and cover. Reduce heat and cook for 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook sausage over medium-high heat, about five minutes or until fully cooked. Remove to a bowl and set aside.

In the same pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, cooking for a minute or until fragrant.

Next, add zucchini and broccoli. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until beginning to soften.

Add kale. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until kale has wilted.

Finely, season with lemon juice and salt and pepper.

Toss vegetables with sausage and cooked quinoa.

This Quinoa Bowl will quickly become a lunch staple.

- Lou

Carrot Salad

Last week I mentioned this health kick that I’ve been on lately and this Carrot Salad is a result of said new health kick. There’s something about February that has me craving the freshness of summer, and I think this salad definitely brings that freshness to the table (ha! literally and figuratively). I’ve also had carrots on my mind recently with the relaunch of an old favourite app of mine, CarrotLines™ Powered By Tommy Europe™. Now I’m sure you all know that I am a total app addict – hence my tweet about Songza the other day (seriously obsessed with the 60s French Pop Playlist), but CarrotLines is the only health app I have on my phone because quite frankly, with the CarrotLines app, I don’t need another one.

My favourite feature of this free app is the bar code scanner, it’s amazing. When you scan the bar code of a product, it pulls up the nutritional information and tells you if the product fits with your nutritional goals, whether it be low-fat or gluten free etc. Plus, there is exclusive nutrition and fitness video content by Tommy Europe. I’ve loved using the app while grocery shopping and for purging my pantry of items that I really shouldn’t be eating. I already had the CarrotLines app on my phone so all I needed to do was update it, but if you don’t have the app you can download it from the Canadian app store.

Now, to spread the #carrotlove I've created this delicious Carrot Salad. It's so simple and is a great way to change up your salad routine.

Carrot Salad (serves 4-6)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

For Salad
5 large carrots, peeled and grated
4 mini cucumbers, sliced
1 green onion, sliced

For Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large bowl, toss together vegetables for the salad.

In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients.

Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat.

Carrot Salad is one of my favourite salads because not only is it gorgeous and colourful but also really easy and delicious.

- Lou

Disclaimer: I am proud to be a media sponsor and brand ambassador for CarrotLines™ Powered By Tommy Europe™. All opinions expressed are my own.

Winter Kale Salad with Ginger Soy Dressing

I’m on a bit of a health kick right now. I’ve realized that eating healthy and delicious foods puts me in a great mood. While I do love to indulge every now and then (case and point on Friday with my rich and decadent and oh so delicious Snow Day Hot Cocoa), it’s foods like this Winter Kale Salad that make me the happiest. Food is such a powerful thing, it has the ability to be such a positive force and make you feel empowered, but it also has the ability to be an extremely negative experience. I wish that everyone could love and enjoy food as much as possible and it’s recipes like this Ginger Soy Dressing that I hope will make that possible.

It bothers me when people say that salads are so boring – they aren’t…well sometimes I guess they can be a little boring. I mean if you’re eating plain lettuce with oil and vinegar, then yeah, it probably gets tired pretty quickly, but you can jazz up a salad with a simple dressing. Find ingredients that inspire you; there are so many things you can add to a salad. Try adding radishes, green onions, kale, cabbage, mushrooms, apples, walnuts, raspberries, pears or green peppers…I could seriously go on for hours.

This Ginger Soy Dressing is the perfect dressing to balance out the bitterness of raw kale. The honey and soy sauce in the dressing just complement the kale wonderfully and you will be addicted to this salad in seconds. The ginger adds a nice Asian touch to an otherwise typical vinaigrette.

Winter Kale Salad with Ginger Soy Dressing
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients for salad

1 bunch kale, chopped
6-8 radishes, sliced
2 green onions, sliced
2 carrots, (make ribbons using your peeler)
Optional additions: cucumber, green pepper, leftover poached or roasted chicken

Ingredients for dressing

1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1-2 tsp fresh grated ginger (if you plan on leaving this in the fridge, use less ginger as it becomes more powerful the longer the dressing rests)
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic.

In a steady stream, add in the olive oil, whisking constantly.

Taste and adjust for seasoning.

This Winter Kale Salad with Ginger Soy Dressing is the perfect salad for lunch or to accompany dinner.

- Lou

Rice and Beans

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to take part in something called “The 10 Day Consumer Challenge” basically, you’re only supposed to buy necessities for ten days. You know what that means…no movies, no chocolate bars for that 5pm chocolate craving (no, it is not a necessity!) and no ordering in dinner – it’s a lot harder than it sounds. Until finishing the challenge, I never realized how many things I buy on a regular basis that are completely unnecessary. I mean, did I really need that burrito during class the other day or was I just bored? And as much as I love seeing movies on the weekend, maybe a couple of nights a weekend, I should just watch what’s on TV. I saved a heck of a lot of money by only purchasing what I needed and not what I wanted - I’m going to try and implement a few of the “10 Day Consumer Challenge” principles on a regular basis – as a college student, I can’t get enough of saving money.

What the challenge also had me thinking about was pantry staples – and the meals you can create from items already stocked in your pantry. I couldn’t even tell you the amount of times I look in my pantry and walk away saying there is nothing to eat or to make for dinner. In reality there are cans of beans, tuna, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, rice and pasta. About halfway through the challenge I was a little uninspired by the ingredients in my pantry, but knew I couldn’t go out and buy anything because I had everything I needed for a good meal at home, that’s where this Rice and Beans recipe came from. It was super quick and filling, plus I had lots of leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day. It works great as a side dish or even as a main course because the black beans add a ton of protein.

Rice and Beans (serves 4-6)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 jalapeno, cored and finely chopped (leaving in the seeds depends on how hot you like it)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 cups cold water
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
1 (19 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed

Directions

In a saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat.

Add rice, stirring to coat in oil. Toast rice for 1-2 minutes.

Add the garlic and jalapeno, stirring to combine with rice. Cook until fragrant – about a minute. Next, stir in spices and oregano. Add water, tomatoes and black beans. Bring to a boil, cover and turn off heat. Steam for 20 minutes or until liquid has been absorbed and rice is cooked.

Serve as a meal or with your favourite Mexican foods like my favourite Shredded Chicken Tacos. I challenge all of you to try out the “10 Day Consumer Challenge” – let me know how it goes! Did you find any changes?

- Lou

Rosemary Skillet Potatoes

What do you picture when you think of a blogger? Because right now I feel like the most typical blogger ever. I’m sitting in my bed in my pajamas, at 1:07am writing a post that I should have written weeks ago. I should really be sleeping since I have to be on set early tomorrow morning to work a minimal 12 hour day. But woops, I’m sitting here picking my split ends and writing a post.

How bloggerish of me!

But as you see above, bloggers usually talk about themselves because, for the most part, we’re writing about ourselves. It’s kind of weird now that I think of it. Do we have to really love ourselves to blog? I guess it depends what you’re blogging about, because I just really love food.

So even though right now I am totally the most stereotypical blogger, I’m going to do something atypical and talk about another blog and another blogger because it’s time for another Secret Recipe Club! This month I was assigned the blog Biking and Baking. Sarah, shares a wide array of wonderful, vegan recipes and I love her outlook on cooking/baking – it’s ok to have some failures. One of my goals for this year was to make more vegan meals so Sarah’s blog was the perfect fit! I decided to make her Rosemary Skillet Potatoes because despite all the wonderful baking recipes, I’m still a little scarred from my many attempts at Vegan Pancakes.

Rosemary Skillet Potatoes (serves 4)
Recipe adapted from: Biking and Baking

Ingredients
1 lb new potatoes, diced
1 small red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 tsp grill seasoning
1 tbsp olive oil + more for frying

Directions

Toss potatoes, onion, garlic, rosemary and grill seasoning with 1 tbsp of oil.

Heat some oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add potato mixture to pan and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.