This summer has been notable for two reasons: heat and farmer’s markets.  Because of the heat, I have only wanted to eat a lot of cool things.  The HQ has been seeing various kinds of salads for meals this summer.  We have also been frequenting Farmer’s Markets because local towns have picked up hosting mid-week markets which fits our schedule a little better.

I noticed a lovely batch of green beans on a recent trip to the Farmer’s market and I had to have some.  I’m not the only one in this house who loves green beans, Rocky loves them too.  I picked up enough for all of us to enjoy!

Green beans are a bean that I have always been in love with.  I don’t care how you serve them up, I will eat them.  That includes fried green beans although I won’t…

The last installment of Salsa Week and this one just happens to be in a close running to winning the title of my favorite salsa!

Whenever I look at jarred salsa, the one kind I always search out is a black bean and corn salsa.  I love those!  The beans and corn add such a nice texture to the salsa.  It even allows me to handle a more spicier salsa because somehow the beans and corn seem to tame down the assertive peppers.

Eventually I wondered to myself if one could make salsa with black beans and corn as the main ingredient instead of them being added into a tomato based salsa.

You’re never going to know the answer to your question until you try it, right?  So that’s exactly what I set out to do and now I cannot get enough of this salsa.  I could pretty much consume the entire…

Day 2 of Salsa Week and this time we are kicking it with a Roasted Green Salsa!

Recently a reader contacted me with a question about my Roasted Tomato Salsa.  Then she asked me about a green salsa.  She said that her favorite Mexican restaurant serves this green salsa but that it’s not made with tomatillo.

Curious!

Because when we think of green salsa, we automatically think of tomatillos, right? Those little green things that look like tomatoes but are located with all the peppers.  She mentioned that the server didn’t really know what the salsa was because it was a secret but that they thought it was made from jalapenos.

While this could very well be the case, imagine how many jalapenos you would have to use to get the amount of salsa needed to serve an entire restaurant.  Exactly!  A crazy huge number!  I thought about it…

Remember how I said that I needed to get caught up on recipe posting?  Well it’s time to start!  I’m calling this week, Salsa Week and I’ll be posting a few of my newest salsa recipes.  They are super easy and you’ll notice that they all follow a similar concept.  You’ll be whipping up salsa in no time flat!

The first salsa to be showcased this week is a fruit salsa.  I have heard many mentions of people eating salsa made from pineapple and mango but yet I’ve never come across any!  I haven’t seen a recipe, nor a jar of it in the store, not even seeing it listed on a menu someplace.

The pineapple and mango salsa has been out of my grasp!  I decided that it couldn’t be that hard to make and tried my hand at making a test batch.  The first step was getting some fresh…

It’s Cinco de Mayo!  Do you have any plans for embracing the holiday?  I’m going to hit up the store and hopefully make a nice feast for us for dinner.  In honor of the day, I’m sharing a new salsa recipe!  I’m very particular about salsa.  It has to be just right for me to enjoy it.  The best salsas that I’ve had have been at little Mexican restaurants.  I’ve tried to recreate them myself with zero luck.  I had no idea what the problem was because I tried every which way.

Recently I had some baby heirloom tomatoes that needed used up before they turned on me.  I was flip-flopping about what to make with them when I decided that I would try making salsa again.  This time I had a different plan of attack; roasting.

There is fresh salsa that can be made with all raw ingredients…

It’s the end of the month which means we are wrapping up Quinoa Month!  What better way to end the month than with some chocolate!

I originally set out to make brownies but this experiment turned out a lot more quick bread-like and not so brownie-like.  However it’s still super tasty and full of chocolate goodness!

Andrea’s Chocolate Quinoa Bread

• 1C Whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2C Unbleached All-Purpose flour
• 1 1/2C Cooked quinoa
• 1/4C Cane sugar
• 1/4C Unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2tsp Baking powder
• 1tsp Baking soda
• 1/2tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1TBSP Ground flax
• Pinch salt
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/2C Crushed walnuts
• 1/2C Dark chocolate chips
• 1 1/4C Soymilk
• 1/2C Coffee
• 2tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray a brownie pan or 8inch square casserole dish with nonstick spray, set aside.   In a medium size mixing bowl combine the soymilk, vanilla, and coffee.  In a large mixing bowl combine all other ingredients except the walnuts and chocolate chips.  Whisk to get all ingredients combined and…

I love cornbread and I mean LOVE it.  Like real love and not just like-like, you know?  I’m also really picky about my cornbread.  I like it sweet, not too sweet, but it definitely needs to have some sweet background to it.  I also do not like things in my cornbread.

Things include:

• Corn
• Jalapenos
• Bacon
• Green onion

And any other variety of “things” that have the potential of throwing off the texture of the sweet divine bread.  Also?  Do you know when I like to eat cornbread?

For breakfast or for dessert.  Although if you ask me to pick a favorite time, it’s going to be with breakfast because sweet cornbread goes amazingly well with morning coffee.

At least in my world it does.

When I discovered that I could make cornbread on my own, goodness I was ecstatic! We rarely had cornbread at my parent’s house growing up.  In fact the best memories I have of…

Naturally when I started playing around with quinoa, I immediately went the dessert route.  ”Hey I bet I could make cookies.  How awesome would that be? Protein powered cookies!”

This was actually my first baking experiment with quinoa.  I wanted something that sort of reminded me of fall, cozy times, and early sunsets.

These cookies totally deliver and are actually one of the few cookies that get better with time!

Andrea’s Quinoa Spice Cookies

• 1.5C Cooked Quinoa
• 1C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour + 4 TBSP
• 2tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2tsp Allspice
• 1/2tsp Ground Clove
• 1/2tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4tsp Baking Soda
• 2TBSP Sugar
• 2TBSP Ground Flax
• 1/2C Dried Cranberries
• 1/2C Crushed/chopped Walnuts
• 1C Soymilk
• 2TBSP Molasses
• 2tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.  In medium sized mixing bowl, combine soymilk, vanilla, and molasses.  Whisk until combined, set aside.  In a large mixing bowl combine all remaining ingredients.  Mix until everything is combined.  The flour will start to coat the quinoa.  Add in the liquid mixture to the quinoa mixture…

For those of you that read Mama Pea’s blog, you got a sneak peak of these babies last month.

I had a bit of leftover quinoa that I needed to use up and wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it.  Seeing as how it was Sunday and Sunday Breakfast time, I decided, what the heck, and tried making pancakes out of it.

I was really pleased with the way these turned out!  Healthy pancakes with added protein punch?  I’ll take it!

Andrea’s Quinoa Pancakes:

• 1 1/2C Cooked Quinoa
• 1C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• ½ tsp Baking powder
• 1tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1TBSP Maple Syrup
• 1 1/4C Soymilk
• 2TBSP Wheat Bran
• 2TBSP Ground Flax
• 2tsp Vanilla Extract

In a small mixing bowl combine the soymilk, vanilla extract, and maple syrup. In a large mixing bowl, combine all other ingredients. Gently add the liquid mixture to…

I used to buy Irish Soda Bread at Whole Foods all the time when they had it out.  It was fantastic! It was also the first time I had tasted it before.  Irish Soda Bread wasn’t something I grew up with nor heard of until I saw it at Whole Foods.  I guess I just didn’t run around in circles where it was mentioned.

At some point I think Whole Foods might have changed their recipe because I don’t care for their version anymore.  Something about it just tastes off and I can’t quite put my finger on it.  I never really thought about soda bread again after that until I came across Happy Herbivore’s recipe for Irish Soda Bread.

It was her recipe where I learned that one could curdle non-dairy milk with a little bit of acid, either lemon juice or apple-cider vinegar.  Did you…