Curried Quinoa Salad

Curry always freaked me out. Maybe it was all the shows I saw that talked about Indian food and bathroom issues. And I thought it smelled funky AND I was afraid to cook with it. One day I put my big girl pants on and just did it.

I originally tried this recipe with israeli Cous Cous and used a Food Network recipe.

Then I wanted to make it again, gluten free and with some ingredients that I had.

Curried Quinoa Salad

1 cup of dry quinoa
2 cups water
1 tbsp of curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 tbsp of olive oil
1/3 cup of orange juice
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4-1/2 cup of walnuts, toasted ( if you want)
3/4 cup of dried cranberries
1/8 cup of chopped scallions.
1/8 cup of chopped parsley

Cook quinoa according to directions.
Mix with 1 tbsp of the olive oil and put in fridge to cool.

Mix juices, oils, and herbs into a dressing and toss into cooled quinoa.

Add walnuts, cranberries, parsley and scallions and toss.

Eat it. I do it as a meal or a side. It's also good over spinach with a bit of goat cheese for an actual salad.

If you don't like quinoa, try it with israeli Cous Cous ( the big kind)

Sweet potato... Noodles?

I have been buying things because they sound good at the time, entering the item in Pinterest and picking which recipe suits my mood.

This is just how I like to cook. Does it always work out? No. It didn't matter when it was just me, but now with a hubs and a toddler involved I have to not just always go on my whims.

I was at Whole foods and some some monstrous sweet potatoes calling my name and I said " helloooo" and grabbed them.

Today I remembered I had them and so the Pinterest searching began.

I came across 'sweet potato noodles' from ProgressivePioneer.com

I needed - 1 sweet potato, butter, sage, salt, pepper.

It called for fresh sage ( lets be honest- I don't really have it lying around) so I had McCormick, so that's what happened.

I browned a Tbsp of butter and a tsp of sage, then added tendrils of sweet potato that I just made with a potato peeler. They cooked down quite a bit.

After they had a ' al dente ' feel to them I removed it from the heat an added more sage, salt and pepper to taste. This all took a total of 10 minutes. It was delicious, wheat free, made me full, full of vitamins, and most importantly toddler approved.

I liked that it wasn't mushy which can happen with sweet potato fries.

I would like to use a mandolin sliced and knife next time to see if I can get a more linguine style noodle. The vegetable peeler gave me a more egg noodle consistency.

If you would like to try them I would suggest heading over to ProgressivePioneer.com and checking out the way she suggests cutting them.

I think this ones a keeper.