vegetables » 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

Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette

With warm weather comes cravings for healthy, fresh salads. The thing is, salads can get a little boring if you’re eating the same old dressing and vegetable combination every day. I know this first hand because that’s exactly what I did with this dressing. I’m surprised I haven’t posted this recipe for Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette because I would bring this salad dressing for lunch every single day of my senior year of high school.

Ever since I graduated from high school, (almost two years ago…wow) I haven’t been making this salad dressing nearly as often. The truth is, I don’t think I’ve been eating as many salads as I used to. I think that’s one of the side effects of university – healthy eating habits go right out the window. Recently, I’ve been making more of a conscious effort to eat healthy foods and snacks and I can tell you that I feel so much better. Is anyone else planning a health kick this month? Mine’s been going pretty well so far, I mean, I didn’t buy any chocolate covered pretzels last time I was at the grocery store.

Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette (makes 3/4 cup)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
1/8 tsp salt and pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, salt and pepper.

Next, while continuously whisking, pour in olive oil in a light, steady stream. Continue to whisk until olive oil is incorporated into vinegar and dressing has thickened, about 30 seconds. The dressing should be thick enough to coat a spoon (as seen in photo above). The oil and vinegar should not be separate.

Are you on a healthy kick too? What kinds of recipes are you looking for? Let me know. Give this Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette a try for your next lunch.

- Lou

Cookin’ Greens Stuffed Peppers

I’ve mentioned my love for Cookin’ Greens before and my feelings have only grown since I first tried their products in the summer. I’m a big fan of their nutrient-packed, not to mention convenient, frozen vegetables. I love that the veggies can be cooked straight from frozen with no prep! I always have a bag in my freezer, so when I was approached to participate in an exciting project involving Cookin’ Greens and the TV show Dragons’ Den I jumped at the chance.

This week, Cookin’ Greens will be on Dragons’ Den, which is a show where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their ideas and businesses to five multi-millionaires with the expertise and money to turn great ideas into booming businesses. It’s a favourite show of mine and I can’t wait to watch the episode. Leading up to the episode, Cookin’ Greens has been posting a new recipe each day on their Facebook page developed by myself and other bloggers.

I developed an uber healthy and delicious recipe of Cookin’ Greens Stuffed Peppers using Cookin’ Greens Athlete’s Mix in honour of their appearance on Dragons’ Den. The Athlete’s Mix features collards, spinach, kale, sweet red pepper and white beans – it’s a great combo of fibre, protein, iron and vitamins A and C. This recipe was inspired by my favourite dragon and fellow foodie, Jim Treliving. It was a little intimidating to create a recipe for a fellow foodie, but I knew I wanted to highlight his philanthropic efforts with the Heart and Stroke Foundation and create a heart healthy dinner that everyone would love. Head on over to the Cookin’ Greens Facebook page to get my full recipe for Cookin’ Greens Stuffed Peppers and be sure to watch the episode on March 24th at 8pm EST.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Cookin’ Greens. I was compensated for my time, but all opinions expressed are my own.

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