Easy Quinoa Bites

I don’t know about you guys, but I LOVE quinoa!! It’s delicious and nutritious! Does it get better than that?  I think not!  I love using it as a rice substitute; however my husband is not fond of me doing that.  So I have been trying to find some recipes that are husband approved!  Here is the first one, Quinoa Bites.  They are perfect as an easy breakfast; you can even make a giant batch and freeze so you grab a bite whenever, or as a snack!  Briggs loves them and calls them cookies.  I will take him asking for healthy snacks as opposed to real cookies any day!

Quinoa Bites:

1 C. uncooked quinoa

2 C. water

2 eggs

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

½  C. grated cheese

2 diced garlic cloves

1-2 handfuls of Spinach

Instructions:

1.       Pre-heat oven to 350

2.       Add quinoa and water to a pot and bring to a boil.  Place a lid on, lower the heat to low and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.

3.       Add cheese to warm quinoa and give it a good stir to help it melt.

4.       Add the rest of the ingredients, besides the egg, and taste so you can let your taste buds tell you what else to add.

5.       When all tastes delicious add the eggs

6.       Use a tablespoon to scoop mixture into muffin tins (mini is great, if not just fill a regular one half way) and put into the oven for 20 minutes. 

*Here are some of my confessions from my kitchen.  I purchase a Costco jar of pre-chopped garlic so that I always have it on hand (did I mention my hands don’t smell like garlic when I do this?) I will also buy bags of spinach from Costco and put it in my freezer, it makes it easier to just toss some of it into whatever I am cooking!

CopyCat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

Olive Garden and I have many memories!  In high school for basically any reason my friends and I would go out to eat there.  The only thing I get though is the soup, salad and breadsticks, because let's be honest that is the BEST thing on their menu!  The other night I was craving their Zuppa Toscana so I decided to make it; with the help of my mothers recipe and a bit of what my taste buds love.

COPYCAT ZUPPA TOSCANA
Ingredients:
8 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup Heavy Cream (I like to use Half and Half sometimes)
2 Russet Potatoes
2 Cups chopped Kale
1 Pound Spicy Italian Sausage
1/4 cup chopped Onion (optional)*
a splash of Lemon Juice
1/2 Tablespoon Garlic
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:
1. Cook the sausage, add onions if you would like.  When sausage is cooked cut into bite sized pieces.
2. Peel and cut your potatoes into bite size pieces.
3.  In a big sauce pan add everything except kale to pan.  This is the time that you can get creative with what you put in.  Taste and add more of anything you would like to suit your taste buds!
4. When the potatoes are tender add kale to the soup and cook until they just wilt.

Serve hot and with a side of Roman Bread!

*if you cook your onions with your sausage the flavor is great, but do not be alarmed when your soup base is a little brown when they are added.

Kitchen Redo

Sean and I are so lucky to have our own home! However, the home that we purchased was built in 1984... and it still has pretty much everything it originally came with.  We knew we had the serious task of taking this grandma house and making it our own! 
Let me tell you about what we recently did to our kitchen. 

First off the cabinets.  We stained them black!

Most importantly we redid our counter tops, as much as I loved that faux wood laminate (which is not at all!).  Just before we did them we found out that this hideous faded patch was where the old man who lived here before us would roll out his pizza dough, which is the exact spot where I like to roll out my dough!

 We DON'T want to invest too much as we know that there is only so much value we can add to our house, so we decided to redo our counters cabinets our self and as cheap as possible!  Luckily Rust-Oleum makes this bad boy.  It's an easy DIY way to make your countertop look like stone without
replacing it.  I am not going to lie, it was a process.  First you have to sand the countertop, then you paint with this adhesive paint pretty quickly as you do not want it to dry (luckily they have a wetting agent to make it dry slower.)  Then you spray the chips all over your counter top and let it dry for 12 hours.  Then you scrape and sand the chips, fix any areas that did not get covered, let it dry.  Then you put the top coat on.  We could not put anything heavy on our countertops for a week.

 The end result was more then I expected beginning this, I was actually pretty scared.  Our counters are a thousand times better then when we began!! We got practically a brand new kitchen for $260!

 If you are in need of an update for your outdated laminate counters definitely check out the Counter Top Transformation kit!