Quinoa Mac and Cheese

This recipe for Quinoa Mac and Cheese has been evolving since just before Christmas. Aleks left for Arizona four days before Christmas. I was sad about that because it was going to be our first Christmas together. So his dad and I decided we would have "Christmas" the night before he left. Aleks wasn't too stoked about that but I told him it was our way of getting the holiday with him.

His dad's girlfriend was going to make a ham and while deciding on what else to make Aleks said that an awesome baked macaroni and cheese would go good with the ham. So I did some research and found this recipe. Emril Lagasse had a contest for the Best Mac and Cheese Ever and so I decided to use this recipe.

Aleks said it was his favorite thing we ate at that meal. Later on I visited Aleks in Arizona at the end of January. He told me that his sister wanted me to make the mac and cheese. I had thought he told her about it but instead it was his dad. So I made it again. Another success.

As I have been browsing Pintrest and saw quinoa mac and cheese recipes but it seemed that they really were macaroni made out of quinoa flour. So I decided to make my own recipe. I used the recipe that I used from christmas and decided to add cooked quinoa, broccoli and cauliflower.

With these additions it made the recipe a little bit healthier. At first I only used the quinoa, broccoli and cauliflower but Aleks' sister said she thought that it might be good with a bit of the pasta mixed in for extra texture. So this will be todays addtion to my list of quinoa recipes. So far I have posted about Black Bean Quinoa Burgers and Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad you can read about them here. 

The first thing I would do is get the quinoa on to cook and get the garlic in the toaster or oven to roast. To cook the quinoa you put one cup of water in a pot with two cups of water. Then put it on to boil. Once it boils then take off the lid and turn off the stove. Let the quinoa sit on the stove for 15-20 minutes till cooked.

For the garlic, take the whole head and cut the top third off horizantally. I use a little olive oil and salt an pepper and put the top third back on. The wrap it up in a sheet of foil and throw in the toaster oven or regular oven for 45 minutes at 400 degrees.

While those are cooking then take a package of bacon and cut them up in one inch squares and cook in a big pot.

While that is cooking then dice up two big shallots.

Grate the two cheeses, 6oz of gruyere and 8oz of extra sharp chedar cheese.

In a big pot boil water and put the pasta and the veggies into it. Cook for as long as the package directions call for. Normally its for 7 or 9 minutes. I have used many different kinds of pasta for this recipe. Really you can use whichever kind you want. Macarroni, the short macarroni, squiggly noodles, shells, penne or any other kind you have in the cupboard.

Once the bacon is cooked and crisp then set them aside and drain most of the grease out then add a stick of butter to the bacon pan and let melt with the left over bacon fat.

Once it is melted add the shallots.

After they have turned translucent then add a 1/2 cup of flour making a rue.

Stir together to make a thick paste. It should look somewhat like this.

Add a quart of milk. The recipe above calls for whole milk but any kind you use would work. I use half whole and half 1%. I would whisk it in in two batches.

While that is on the stove take out the garlic. Just squeeze the head and the garlic cloves will squish out all nice and soft.

After all the garlic is out of the husk it will look like this.

Take a knife and smash it into a paste.

Add the smashed garlic to the milk and rue mixture.

After the garlic, milk and rue are all mixed together the slowly add small batches of the cheese.

I go about a handfull of  cheese at a time.

This will slowly thicken the milk mixture.

While the sauce is cooking on the stove get the cooked quinoa and veggies into the baking pan.

Once all the cheese is added and smooth then pour the cheese sauce over the quinoa, pasta and veggies that have been put in a 9"x13" pan. Carefully stir it together so that the cheese sauce is evenly distributed. This normally  fills the pan to the brim so be careful.

Once you have finished stiring it together then top with 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup of shreaded parmesan mixed together.

Top with the bacon pieces.

Then put the pan in the oven for 20-30 minutes till the cheese at the edges are bubbly and the topping has slightly browned.

Take out of the oven, serve and enjoy.

Ingredients 

1 cup dry quinoa - cooked
8oz pasta
3 cups broccoli and cauliflower
8oz extra sharp cheddar cheese
6oz gruyere cheese
1 quart milk
1 package bacon
1 stick of butter
2 shallots
1 head of garlic - roasted
1/2 cup parmesan
1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Fruit Stands and Farmer's Markets

This is one of my Instagram pics. Follow me @Whips55

In this series of our road trip from AZ to CA we had a long drive. I was excited because I knew that in those long hours between towns and cities that there were farms and when there are farms there are fruit stands and farmer's markets!

I forgot to take pictures on this part of the trip so I got these from
http://www.murrayfamilyfarms.com/

When I told Aleks that I wanted to go to fruit stands along the way he thought I was talking about little shacks made out of ply wood that are falling apart and kids are selling lemonade. But that is not what I meant. These are real buildings with bathrooms and amazing fruits, veggies, snacks and nick knacks.

The first one we went to was Murray Family Farms in Bakersfield, CA. This was a really cute place. They are considered a farmer's market. They had a petting zoo, an "Ant Farm" Aleks was excited to see the Ant Farm thinking it was an actual ant farm with real live ants but no it was a kids play ground. Although we were both disappointed it was a playground and not real ants we both thought it would have been so fun to play in when we were little.

http://www.murrayfamilyfarms.com/

Inside the market they had many many awesome things for sale. They had citrus and all kinds of fruits and many snacks. They had salt water taffy, pop corn, corn nuts, trail mixes, jams, hot sauces, honey and they even had a restaurant where you could buy lunch or pies. We ended up getting a box of corn nut. The corn nuts had many different flavors and it was really hard for me to decide which one to get. They were only $2.50 so I had an even harder time choosing to only get one. I ended up deciding on the cajun flavored corn nuts. They were super good and spicy and crunchy.

www.murrayfamilyfarms.com

www.murrayfamilyfarms.com

Before we left the farm they had a honey and citrus free sample bar. There were all kinds of honey. There was grape, peach, and other fruit flavored ones. They also had honeys that I would never have ever thought of like, chipotle, whiskey, almond and different flowers. Then there were these different citrus fruits. At least ten different varieties of oranges, tangerines, and lemons. We spent over five minutes at this bar. It was awesome.

http://www.murrayfamilyfarms.com/

Later on that night we spent the night at my mom's house where she cooked us some awesome Italian food. I don't know why I didn't even think to take pictures especially at my mom's house with her amazing food but I didn't. She made us a eggplant dish and a pasta dish. They were very delicious and I am thinking that I just might ask her to be a guest blogger and write about what she made for us.

We had to leave the next morning to head off to San Francisco to  see Aleks friend that he had from diaper days. He has always been a good friend to Aleks for as long as I have known Aleks. I thought it was important for Aleks to get to see him on this trip.

I had asked my mom what was the best way to get to San Fran from her house and we compared it to the GPS we had in the car and they matched so we were on our way after we had breakfast with my mom. She made us muffins with a berry cheese spread and smoothies. They were super good. It was nice to see my mom and I wish we could have spent more time with her.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/contact_lenz/2379531690/lightbox/

So we are driving along our way to San Fran and I didn't realize that we would spend most of our time on small two lane roads. I thought that we would be on those big California Interstates but we got a really nice scenic drive. We ended up going through Gilroy the garlic country. I knew they grew the garlic there but I wasn't expecting to smell it through our car windows. Aleks was reading the Hunger Games to me and we both got so distracted from the amazing smell. He stopped reading and we turned down the windows and just basked in the wonderful smell.

I saw signs along the way for a fruit stand at Pacheco's Pass and they had signs for $.99 a lb garlic. So I had to pull over. Plus the clincher was the garlic ice-cream sign. How could I resist that?!

The rest of these pictures are mine. 

We pull in and get out of the car and there are these oranges that are $.25 a lb! I thought that as such a good price we got some.

But from where I was standing in front of the oranges, which did smell good, I smelled strawberries over the oranges. I look over and there was a stand with strawberries on it about ten feet away.

I was drawn to it by the sent. The strawberries were bright and shiny and very vibrantly red. I could not pass up the $2 a basket price.

Then we go in and there are all these jars of garlic, minced, diced, pickled, different sauces and spices. It was garlic heaven.

As we are looking around Aleks spots a shelf full of different spices called, Aw Shit, Hot Shit, BQQ Shit, and Special Shit. We thought was funny and had to take a picture. I think they should make another one and call it Holy Shit. Just saying.

We asked the lady at the counter what she recommended for us to get since there were so many options. She asked if we liked spice and heat and we absolutely did. So she recommended to us the Gilroy Hot Stuff. It is a really spicy garlic salt. It has Gilroy garlic and habanero. I have to say that it is spicy. I have been using it in my black bean soup, to spice up my popcorn and for the seasoning on my pita chips. I am glad that we bought it. We will probably use it on steak or chicken when we BBQ next.

Not only did we buy the oranges, strawberries, and Gilroy Hot Stuff but we also got garlic and the garlic ice-cream. We got both kinds the chocolate and the vanilla. I am not a big fan of chocolate ice-cream in general but we thought we should try both. I loved the vanilla, it was so good. The garlic flavor was there but not over  powering. It was perfect. The chocolate on the other hand I could hardly taste the garlic and like I said I don't really like chocolate ice-cream. The garlic on both ice-creams was definitely there in the after taste but it was a good thing. I loved the lingering flavor of the garlic. I didn't want to eat anything else to ruin the flavor in my mouth. I know this is kinda gross but about an hour later Aleks burped and it filled the car with the sent of garlic again. It wasn't bad at all.

 I just wanted to share with you about the fruit stands and farmers markets we went to on our road trip from AZ to CA. If you want to read about what else did on our trip check out my other post on the Siren's Cafe. If you are ever in Kingman you don't want to miss out on that treat. I will be posting more on where we went on our trip so keep posted.    

Tabbouleh Salad with Quinoa Recipe and Homemade Pita Chips

I have been trying to use quinoa in our diet more lately. I even made a quinoa mac and cheese which I will post about later. I feel quinoa is a better carb than most, especially white rice, potatoes, pasta and bread. I don't want to cut carbs out of my diet all together because I don't feel that is a balanced diet and I end up craving and caving. So I have been looking for more ways to use quinoa. Not only is it a good carb but it also is high in protein. Not as high as meat but higher than other types of carbs. I believe my quinoa package says that there are 6 grams of protein per serving.

In my fridge I had cucumbers and tomatoes and we are growing mint on the balcony. So I thought I would like to make a Tabbouleh salad with the quinoa instead of the Bulgar wheat. All I needed from the store was a little bit of parsley, lemon and feta.

While I was on my road trip we had dinner at my dads house. They use quinoa a lot and I asked them how they cook it seeing as I have had a bit of problems with cooking mine. You can read about what happened when I made my quinoa black bean burgers here. 

I asked my dad's wife if she rinsed her quinoa before she cooked it and she said that she did not. That all she does is measure two cups of water for one cup of quinoa. Puts it on the stove and waits for it to boil. Once it boils she said to turn off the burner and let it sit for 15 minutes. I did this and it was a lot better than before when I made the quinoa burgers.

While the quinoa was cooking I chopped the cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic, parsley and mint. I threw it all in a bowl with the feta.

After the quinoa finished cooking I took it out of the pot to cool. I didn't want the hot quinoa to wilt the veggies so I wanted it to cool.

While waiting I decided to make some pita chips to eat with the hummus I got from Sprouts, Aleks and my new favorite store. I cut the pita bread in 8 pieces and then took each segment apart. I like to do it this way because then I get more chips and they get crispier.

I like to use my toaster oven most of the time. This way I don't end up heating up the house like if I used the regular oven. I lined the tray for the toaster with some foil and put a little bit of olive oil on top.

I like to put salt and pepper in the oil and rub the pita pieces in the oil. Then line them nicely on the tray and pop um in the toaster for about 5 minutes. 

They come out all nice and toasty and crisp. Great for dipping in the hummus.

By this time the quinoa has cooled and I add it to the bowl with the veggies and cheese. Then I put one teaspoon of olive oil and juice of half a lemon.

Stir it all up so all the ingredients are evenly distributed and the flavors can marry.

Serve up the salad with a side of pita chips and hummus and enjoy.