Dinner: Moroccan Chili with 10,000 Grains of Sand

So dinner was A LOT less complicated than lunch:) Especially since we tossed it all in the slow cooker and left it to cook for 5 hours! The "grains of sand" is actually couscous which added a nice touch to it...

http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=783

We ended up making a few changes to this recipe, but we kept all of the spices the same.

We:
-Swapped ground turkey for the lamb...
-Added a can of white beans, kidney beans and chickpeas...(totally could have skipped the meat all together and made it vegetarian with all those beans!) ...
-Since we didn't have any green peppers, we added some roasted red peppers we had laying around...
-And we used Israeli couscous (bought from the bulk bins at my blessed Whole Foods;) and mixed in just lemon juice and scallions. The lemon gave it a REALLY good taste at the very end...yum!

So after all was said and done, it wasn't too "Moroccan." Scott said it was our Moroccan/Mexican/Italian version. A "Moexlian" version, if you will ;) (I know, I know, I'm sorry, I had too:)

And I got to cap off a lovely weekend with a coconut cupcake:) Joy:)

Lunch: Crab Tian with Mango & Avocado

So I figured I'd type up this recipe and then give you the list of adjustments I made to it, but before I even start I need to say that I decided on this recipe because I had an avocado and leftover CANNED crab meat that I needed to get rid of! So don't be scared thinking I was shucking Dungeness crab meat on a Sunday afternoon!! But to give the recipe it's due, I'll write it up as it was written:) :

Dungeness Crab Tian with Mango & Avocado
From "The Skinny Girl Dish"
Serves 4

For The Crab:
8 oz. fresh Dungeness crab meat
2 tablespoons ailoi
1 teaspoon freshly diced chives
1/2 teaspoon whole-grain mustard
Zest and juice from 1 lemon
Salt & Pepper to taste

For the Vanilla Syrup:
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 cup fresh lime juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise and scraped

For the Finish:
1 ripe mango, diced
1 ripe avocado, diced
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Salt & Pepper

1.- Place the crab meat in a bowl and gently prick through, discarding any shells. In a separate bowl, combine all of the other crab ingredients and slowly fold into the crab, making sure not to break up the crab too much. taste and adjust the seasoning. Keep cold.

2.-Place all of the syrup ingredients in a saucepan and reduce over medium heat until syrupy, about 20 minutes. Strain and cool.

3.-Place the mango in the center of a plate. In a bowl, toss the avocado with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and place on top of the mango. Top with the crab. Drizzle a small amount of vanilla syrup around the stack. Serve with homemade potato chips or crackers.

Did I scare you yet?? Well, don't be:) It was definitely more work than I would normally ever spend on lunch...but what are lazy Sundays for, if not for experimenting? :)

Here were my ingredients all chopped up. I did mix the avocado with some salt, pepper and olive oil and the mango is just all chopped up. The crab salad is a mix of mayo and a clove of minced garlic (for the aioli), good ole French's mustard, chopped up scallions and my afore mentioned canned crab:) Tasted good to me!
And here was my attempt at "Tian-ing" it (which is just a fancy term for "layered dish")...

The "vanilla sauce" however, was a little bit of a mess. I was only making this for myself (are you shocked Scott didn't want my crab/vanilla/mango dish??), and even divided by 4, I thought a quarter cup of lemon & lime juice seemed like a lot. So I just threw a couple tabelspoons in my saucepan, along with a teaspoon and a half of sugar and some vanilla extract. (was NOT wasting a good vanilla bean on a LUNCH dish....we're saving that for DESSERT!:) Well, it was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too tart! I could try to redeem myself with it next time, but the "tian" tasted just fine without it!

So there ya go....a totally scary sounding recipe that was really NOT SO BAD after you broke it all down:) Oh yeah, and there weren't any "homeade potato chips" involved either...I just had it with some Kashi sesame crackers ;)

COCONUT M&M'S!!!!

So pardon my interruption between my breakfast and lunch posts, but I hadddd to tell you about this one! So I had a CRAZY morning and was just coming back to work after a trip to the dentist (aka.-pretty much the best way to start a week EVER:) only to come back and find THESE sitting on my desk!!!...

My day just turned around...Thank you Stephanie!!!!!! You better believe I broke into this bag before my lunch of celery and peanut butter;) hahahahhahaha...
Soooooo good! And a few were just enough! (however, I did staple the bag, in an attempt to make it just a LITTLE bit harder to sneak back into it later;) hahahahahahahahhaha....thanks again coconut fairy! :)

Breakfast Quinoa

So since I pretty much made a recipe for breakfast, lunch and dinner yesterday, I thought I'd break up the posts to make them easier to read:)

In keeping with my hot breakfast theme of this weekend, I thought I'd try something besides oatmeal. I've been wanting to try Quinoa again since I made it at a cooking class last year, so I was pretty psyched when I stumbled on a BREAKFAST quinoa recipe:) ~> http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/breakfast-quinoa

I made almost the same recipe as above, but since I had some leftover pumpkin to use up, I tossed about a cup of it in here too. Plus lots of cinnamon & pumpkin pie spice. It smelled JUST like FALL! I almost cried in my quinoa:)

And here's a picture of my finished dish:) I figured since it was suppose to be like a rice pudding, topping it with cool whip and a little vanilla powder was totally adequate:) hahahahhaha...

I googled quinoa to explain it to those "not in the know" (pretty much me until I googled it:)....and it says:

"While quinoa is usually considered to be a whole grain, it is actually a seed, but can be prepared like whole grains such as rice or barley. Finally, of all the whole grains, quinoa has the most protein, so it's perfect for vegetarians. Quinoa provides all 9 essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. Quinoa is a gluten-free and cholesterol-free whole grain."

Plus it's really really good! Give it a shot! It makes a great side dish or a sweeeeeeet breakfast:)