Home

Double Rainbow Layered Salad with Lemon Ginger Dressing

March 22, 2013 by Erica

Double Rainbow Layered Salad with Lemon Ginger Dressing

Thank you for all your sweet birthday wishes yesterday! It means so much. I had a great birthday, and I even got to eat one of the cupcakes leftover from yesterday’s blog post. I love it when the leftovers stick around that long!

Sometimes, like yesterday, I like to eat a cupcake… or two. And sometimes, especially after two weeks of experimenting with cupcake recipes, I like to eat a salad.

Then, because I ate a salad, I can totally justify a cupcake. I love the way that works.

So here is this week’s salad, which might be one of my all-time favorites. And that’s a good thing, because I have a lot of cupcakes to ~~make up for~~ earn!

Double Rainbow Layered Salad

This salad is a combination of all my favorite salad-y things. Red cabbage, which is randomly (but truly) one of my favorite foods. Quinoa and spelt, which are not only some more of my favorite foods, but make this salad much heartier than it would otherwise be. And then edamame, carrots, green onions, and pepitas for more protein, sweetness, flavor and crunch. Not to mention the the light and lemony dressing, which adds the perfect zing.

What could be better than all your favorite healthy foods stacked together in a cute and portable jar?

Not much, I’ll tell you that. In fact, when you taste it, you just might start yelling, OH MY GOD, DOUBLE RAINBOW!

Sorry for that reference. I know it’s so 2010. I just couldn’t resist.

This salad makes the absolute best leftovers (as long as you keep the dressing separate), which is key in my life. I’ve been eating it for lunch all week!

Double Rainbow Layered Salad with Lemon Ginger Dressing

All the ingredients are very sturdy, which also means the salad is super crunchy. (Spelt and red cabbage will do that.) So I may have even liked it best on day 3 or 4, when it was a bit easier on the jaw. (To make it less crunchy, you can put the red cabbage in a strainer and pour a pot of boiling water over it. This will soften it up a bit, but I didn’t bother.)

Enjoy this salad and have a fantastic weekend!

Double Rainbow Layered Salad with Lemon Ginger Dressing

5.0 from 1 reviews

Double Rainbow Layered Salad with Lemon Ginger Dressing

Hands-on time

10 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour

Author: Erica

Yields: 5-6 servings

Ingredients

For the salad:

1 cup uncooked spelt berries
1 cup uncooked quinoa
4 cups shredded red cabbage
2 cups grated carrot (about 2 large carrots)
2 cups shelled cooked edamame, defrosted if frozen
6 green onions, sliced
½ cup pepitas

For the dressing:

½ cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
heaping Tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 tsp honey
2 Tbsp olive oil
2-4 Tbsp water
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In separate small pots, bring spelt berries and quinoa to a boil with 1 1/2 cups water each. Simmer until tender but still chewy, 50-60 minutes for the spelt berries and about 15 minutes for the quinoa. Drain excess water and set aside to cool. This can be done ahead of time.
While grains cook, prepare the salad dressing. Blend all ingredients together with an immersion blend (or regular blender).
To assemble salad, layer ingredients in single-serving jars or clear bowls. You can also layer the entire salad in a large clear bowl, or just toss all ingredients together. Serve alongside dressing. Will keep for up to a week in the fridge (with dressing separate).

Notes

Inspired by Oh She Glows.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

March 21, 2013 by Erica

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Happy birthday to meeee!

I turn 26 today. Probably not the most exciting age, but still one I hope will bring good things.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

25 was a great year. It wasn’t full of huge changes or excitement, but I’d like to think I started spending more time on things I enjoy over the past year. I’m definitely feeling happy at the end of 25, so I can only hope 26 brings more of the same!

No big celebrations planned for 26. In case you don’t know, I kind of dread being the center of attention, so I sometimes find my birthday a bit embarrassing. Weird, I know. Last year Nate threw me a surprise party, which was amazing – I was SO surprised! – but I asked him pleeeease not to do that this year, because I just can’t handle it! My last surprise party before that was my 16th birthday, so hopefully I have another 10 years or so before the next one. On the 9 birthdays in between, I prefer just a romantic dinner with my sweetie!

Something else I think I’ll want on my birthday for the next 9 years? These cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Peanut butter cupcakes with a banana buttercream frosting. If that doesn’t make your heart skip a beat, I’m not sure what will.

I have been on a huuuuge peanut butter kick recently. Recently, like for the past year. Peanut butter dolloped on my oatmeal, spread on my fruit, melted over vanilla ice cream and a brownie (what?), and blended into my smoothies and salad dressings. And these cupcakes are pretty much my ultimate peanut butter lovin’ creation.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

As they should be; it took me THREE batches of cupcakes and FOUR batches of icing to perfect this combination. (Well, one of the batches of cupcakes was because I managed to double everything except the flour… details.) These cupcakes aren’t fussy or anything, it’s just that I wanted to make sure I had the perfect cake+icing combo to celebrate my birthday. At one point I tried to use a peanut butter frosting with the peanut butter cupcakes. I thought it was delicious, but was informed by Nate that we might as well be eating peanut butter straight from the jar. I told him not to be silly… these are much healthier than straight PB! Kidding. But I’m glad I listened, because these cupcakes and this soft buttery banana icing are meant to be together.

And as a compromise, I snuck a little extra smear of peanut butter onto each cupcake before I iced them.

Heaven!

But OMG the frosting. Let’s not forget to talk about it. It is buttery, banana-y bliss. I wasn’t too sure how a banana would fare in a frosting, but it turns out the answer is VERY WELL. As long as you use a ripe, fresh banana. First I tried using an overripe banana I had defrosted from my freezer (cause those are delicious in smoothies and banana bread), but it turns out that was the wrong choice. (Remember how I had to make four different frostings?) But use a fresh banana here and I promise you’ll want to bathe in this frosting. For real.

Also, I should mention that it seems to keep well. I was a little nervous about it turning brown as bananas tend to do while the cupcakes sat in my fridge for a few days, but that wasn’t the case. Just as purdy as on day one!

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Wishing I could reach into my computer and grab that little cupcake right now. It’s my birthday, so I can totally lick the frosting off, right?

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

5.0 from 1 reviews

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Hands-on time

25 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

Author: Erica

Yields: 10-12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the peanut butter cupcakes:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2/3 cup milk (I used plain unsweetened almond milk)

For the banana buttercream:

1 ripe banana, mashed (not overripe!)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
3 cups powdered sugar

To top (optional):

Peanut butter
Finely chopped toasted peanuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 and place liners in cupcake tins.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar for several minutes until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.
In a separate medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture, alternating with the almond milk, beating well after each addition.
Spoon batter into lined cupcake tins, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out with moist crumbs, 18-20 minutes. Remove and cool completely before frosting.
While cupcakes cool, make frosting. With a hand mixer (or stand mixer if you have one!), cream together the banana, butter, lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Beat in the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until you have a creamy and spreadable frosting.
Once cupcakes are completely cool, spread each with a thin layer of peanut butter, about a 1/2 teaspoon (optional). Spread or pipe with icing and sprinkle immediately with crushed peanuts, if using.
Enjoy!

Notes

Adapted from Eat, Live, Run and AllRecipes.com.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Chipotle Honey Mashed Sweet Potatoes

March 20, 2013 by Erica

Chipotle Honey Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Guess what kind of food I have for you today?

Sweet potatooooooes!

Sometimes I’m so predictable.

BUT not just any sweet potatoes. Creamy mashed sweet potatoes with a kick of chipotle and a drizzle of honey. If you only eat sweet potatoes once in your life, make sure they’re these ones.

Chipotle Honey Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Side note, does anyone know how to take a good picture of mashed potatoes? If I could have a guest photographer for all future mashed potato posts… that would be great.

Anyway, I’m kind of obsessed with the combination of chipotle/honey/sweet potato that I first came across in these tacos (my favorite!) from Naturally Ella. It’s good in everything! Well, that might be an exaggeration. But if I’m ever wondering what to do with some leftover sweet potatoes, that flavor combination always comes to mind.

These potatoes would be great with a pork chop and a side of green veggies… or just scooped straight out of the serving bowl (not that I would know anything about that!). I was also thinking of using them as a bed for a cauliflower steak with some sort of veggie gravy, which is probably what I’ll do next time. So many possibilities!

In other news, guess what I have for you tomorrow? Just a little sneak peak:

Coffee & Quinoa

And there won’t be any sweet potatoes in them, I promise.

Although, truth be told, I might choose these sweet potatoes over cupcakes if I had to make the choice… yep, there’s a very good chance that I would. Luckily no one in their right mind would make you choose between those two things. That would just be cruel! I’ll take sweet potatoes AND cupcakes, please.

Chipotle Honey Mashed Sweet Potatoes

5.0 from 1 reviews

Chipotle Honey Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Hands-on time

5 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

55 mins

Author: Erica

Yields: 4

Ingredients

3 lbs sweet potatoes (about 3 large sweet potatoes)
2 Tbsp butter or Earth Balance
2 chipotle chili peppers from a can of chipotle chilies in adobo, minced
1 Tbsp adobo sauce (from the can of chipotle peppers)
2 Tbsp honey
¼ tsp kosher salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400. Scrub sweet potatoes and pierce several times with a fork. Bake until very soft when squeezed with an oven mitt, about 50 minutes.
Scrape the sweet potato flesh into a large bowl and discard the skins. Add remaining ingredients and beat with a hand mixer (or mash by hand) until thoroughly combined.
Serve hot!

Notes

Inspired by Eat, Live, Run.

Roasted Veggie Quinoa Bowl with Miso Tahini Sauce

March 18, 2013 by Erica

Roasted Veggie Quinoa Bowl with Miso Tahini Sauce

I warned you: Sweet Potato Fever over here. Can someone come over to my house and tell me if I’m turning orange around the edges?

Here’s how we’re getting our sweet potato fix today: roasted, in a bowl with quinoa and broccoli, and drenched in a slurpable sauce. This right here is barely a recipe. Buuuut it’s one of the meals I’ve been eating most often recently, so of course I wanted to share. It’s a great way to use up any vegetables you might have gotten overzealous with on your last shopping trip… ahem sweet potatoes.

I almost always use sweet potatoes when I make this, but the other vegetable can be changed up. I usually try to use something green. Here it was broccoli, but I’ve also done Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kale. Green beans or asparagus would also be great as we head into spring!

For a hot meal, this is super fast to make. Quinoa is a quick-cooking grain, and I love that it’s cooked and tender by the time the veggies finish roasting. The dressing can also be whipped up in about 30 seconds, making life so easy.

Roasted Veggie Quinoa Bowl with Miso Tahini Sauce

I recently made this for lunch for Nate, our friend Pete and myself before an afternoon of skiing. I was out of the house when Nate texted me, saying he and Pete were stopping to get Pete’s ski stuff and would be home soon to eat. Eek – for a second I thought I was going to have to renege on my offer to make lunch. But I quickly got my head screwed on straight, raced home, and popped these veggies in the oven. Lunch was ready by the time the boys got back! Success.

This is also one of my favorite lunches to pack for work. It’s so healthy, and the tart and salty sauce is just the type of thing I look forward to eating all morning. Not to mention the sweet potatoes!

Roasted Veggie Quinoa Bowl with Miso Tahini Sauce

5.0 from 1 reviews

Roasted Veggie Quinoa Bowl with Miso Tahini Sauce

Hands-on time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

Author: Erica

Yields: 3 servings

Ingredients

For the bowl:

1 large sweet potato (1 1/2 to 2 lbs), peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
3 small heads broccoli, chopped into bite-size pieces
2 tsp olive oil
sprinkle of salt and pepper
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed

For the miso tahini sauce:

2 Tbsp white miso paste
2 Tbsp tahini
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (about half a lemon)
2-4 Tbsp water (as needed)
1 small clove garlic, minced (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 and line 2 baking sheets with tin foil.
Toss sweet potato with 1 tsp olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and spread onto one of the baking sheets. Do the same with the broccoli, remaining olive oil, and another sprinkle of salt and pepper and spread onto the other baking sheet. Roast both for 20-25 minutes, until starting to brown, stirring once halfway through.
While vegetables are roasting, cook quinoa. Add to small pot with 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 12-15 minutes, until tender. Drain any remaining water.
Finally, prepare the miso tahini sauce. With an immersion blender (or a whisk), mix together the miso, tahini, lemon juice, 2 Tbsp water, and optional garlic. Add additional water to reach desired thickness.
Once vegetables are done, you're ready to eat! Scoop quinoa into each bowl and top with vegetables and miso tahini sauce.
Enjoy!

Quinoa Parfait with Sumo Orange and Cinnamon

March 15, 2013 by Erica

Quinoa Parfait with Sumo Orange and Cinnamon

Hello Friday! I am so glad to see you.

The first week of daylight savings time has been a little rough. Everyone at work is cranky – myself included! – and I think we all need a few days of sleeping in to remind ourselves that springtime is good, and lighter evenings are worth a few weeks of dark wake-ups in March.

Spring is definitely in the air – you can tell because my morning bowl of oatmeal has been replaced with something cold! A sure sign that things are warming up.

Quinoa Parfait with Sumo Orange and Cinnamon

I’m really digging the quinoa-for-breakfast thing. It’s a nice little change from oatmeal, while still getting to use all the fun toppings. I was pretty excited when I saw Ashley’s post a few weeks ago with blood orange quinoa parfaits. I didn’t know quinoa parfaits were a “thing” and I had to try them immediately! Did I mention that besides oatmeal, parfaits are my favorite breakfast?

Quinoa Parfait with Sumo Orange and Cinnamon

Anyway, it turns out that quinoa parfaits are indeed a “thing,” and I couldn’t be happier. I just mix up my quinoa with some plain Greek yogurt, agave, and cinnamon, and top with a chopped orange and more cinnamon. Some toasted pecans would be great here too!

If you’d like, you don’t have to mix the quinoa and yogurt together – you could layer the quinoa/agave/cinnamon mixture and yogurt separately. Just another fun little variation!

I topped my parfait with a sumo orange. Have you seen these?

Quinoa Parfait with Sumo Orange and Cinnamon

They are basically giant tangerines – sweet and easy to peel. They are so funny-looking, and so delicious – I can’t get enough! I am pretty much an unofficial sumo orange ambassador at this point, making everyone at work try them and now posting about them here. You know how some products tend to do that to you? Actually, my bagger at Whole Foods started it – she gave me one for free a few weeks ago when I was buying some other oranges, insisting that I try it. She said they tasted like candy, and she wasn’t wrong! Of course, the whole free sample thing worked out beautifully for Whole Foods, because I returned and bought about $10 of them the next week, and the week after. They are not cheap. But if you get a kick out of funny-looking produce and sweet oranges, you have to try them!

Quinoa Parfait with Sumo Orange and Cinnamon

Such a light but satisfying breakfast. I’m looking forward to enjoying this parfait as spring and summer arrive, and despite my current orange obsession, can’t wait to top it with berries in the warmer weather.

Quinoa Parfait with Sumo Orange and Cinnamon