Days 22-25 - Family, fresh fruit, quinoa and an armadillo cake!

I spent the weekend visiting my family and didn't get the chance to do a whole lot of cooking because of everything we had planned but I still have some foodie things to share!

First off - I was determined to cook SOMETHING so Saturday morning I decided to make a fruit salad.  I shamefully sent my father off with a list of fruit we had written the night before so I could sleep in (I am a spoiled child) but around 8:00 or so I got up to get things going.  Making the salad made me want to kick myself for not doing this weekly.  I love fruit salad.  I won't post a recipe seeing as all you really do is pick your fruit cut it up and throw it in a bowl.  I will say, however, that I love to have bananas in the salad and always pour orange juice over the whole thing to stop oxidization.  What ends up happening is the bananas sort of melt into the juice as the days go on and I personally love it!

After the fruit salad and a hard boiled egg we started off for a day of dress shopping and girly fun!  My sisters and I wanted to treat my mom to a girl's day for her birthday.  Dress shopping, all you can eat sushi lunch, mani/pedis, make up and then "SURPRISE!!" a birthday party!

At the party we had a red velvet armadillo cake a la Steel Magnolias.

Anyone who has seen the movie might recognize why my mom cut the end off first!!  The cake was delicious!

Sunday we did more dress shopping and stopped at the Muddy Duck Restaurant for lunch - a wedding tradition for my family, it seems.

While I didn't cook much we had some successful shopping trips!!  It was so much fun!

Monday morning I had work to do in Toronto and had decided to drive back home right afterwards.  I didn't make a lunch so ate out at lunch and dinner!!!

Today there was no question!  I was going to cook dinner but I really have no idea how people do it when they have kids.  After work I stopped by a friend's event at work, then picked up a box of invitations a store had on hold for me before I made it to the grocery store.  By the time I walked through the door I had absolutely no idea what to make.  I grabbed my phone, downloaded the Food Network Canada Mobile app and searched for a recipe that included quinoa.

What I found was a warm spinach salad with quinoa:

Warm Spinach Salad with Quinoa

• 1 Container small (5oz) of baby spinach
• 1 cup Quinoa, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon Organic butter
• 2 cups Filtered water
• Unrefined sea salt to taste
• 50 grams unripened goat cheese
• red onion, diced
• Cucumber, halved and sliced
• -3 Cherry tomatoes, halved
• Sprig of thyme, removed from stem
• Tasty Healthy Salad Dressing (see recipe)

Tasty Healthy Salad Dressing

• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons organic balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon unpasteurized honey
• pinch of unrefined sea salt
• fresh cracked black pepper to taste
• 250 millilitres organic extra virgin olive oil
• 250 millilitres organic, cold-pressed flax seed oil

Directions

Warm Spinach Salad with Quinoa

1. In a medium sized saucepan, melt organic butter on stovetop. Add quinoa, stirring frequently while it toasts in the bottom of the pot.
2. Once you can smell the toasted quinoa, add water andunrefined sea salt, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiled turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. When all the water has been absorbed remove from heat and let cool for ten minutes.
3. Toss spinach, goat's cheese, onion, cucumber, thyme and tomato in a large bowl. Add warm quinoa and toss. Pour overdressing and mix. Enjoy.

Tasty Healthy Salad Dressing

1. Mix all ingredients but the oils in a medium sized bowl. Slowly add the olive oil, pouring in a thin stream while whisking vigorously. You should see the mixture begin to thicken as you continue to whisk in the oil. Repeat the process with the flax oil. The result should be a thick, creamy dressing. Use dressing immediately.

Salad dressing for me usually means oil and vinegar so I was excited about this recipe but in the end I think I'll just go with oil and balsamic vinegar for my lunch tomorrow.  The dressing was good but it was a lot of flavour.

I only mixed in some of the quinoa on my plate so I could have this as a cold salad for lunch tomorrow.  It was pretty good!  I love quinoa.  I think with everything cold and a simpler dressing I'll like it even better.

Now I'm going to bed!