Toasted Quinoa with Okra, Tomato, & Shrimp

My friend Holly introduced me to quinoa last winter, however, I never made it until the other night. Fate, more than anything, brought me to this recipe. I saw quinoa on sale at coop the other week when I was there, and decided to pick some up not knowing when/if I'd actually get around to making it. I had bought some okra quite a few months ago, canned of course, as it reminded me of my trip to Louisiana in Jan/09 and figured I needed to diversify my veggie intake. And I usually have a large supply of canned tomatoes of varying preparations but my stock has run exceedingly dry lately, so I picked up a couple cans at Walmart last week.

So as the story goes, our roomate Trevor (friend of Mike's who's in taking a welding course) bought this HUGE bag of shrimp a few weeks ago at Costco. Now, I've cooked shrimp like four times in my life... not a huge shrimp fan and don't really know what to do with it other than a quick white wine shrimp pasta (ooh , I should post the recipe for this) or just plain old fried garlicky lemon shrimp.

So Mike and I are browsing through my pantry, trying to come up with some other pairing for shrimp other than pasta. He finds my box of quinoa! On to the world wide web I go to find a recipe for quinoa and shrimp. After maybe browsing four recipes, I come to the most perfect recipe in the world ---- (perfect = I have all the ingredients!!!). So Mike and I set out to make this, and we had a blast! My mom was enjoying entertaining Gray, while mommy and daddy were busy in the kitchen and we all had fun.

The recipe for this is: Toasted Quinoa with Okra, Tomato, & Shrimp

The only substitution I used was hot pepper sauce instead of dicing up hot peppers... oh and I don't have a fine enough strainer so I kinda just added some water to the quinoa to rinse it in a bowl. It took a bit more time to toast, but still turned out fine. I also used 1/3 cup more chicken stock as I didn't want 1/3 cup sitting in my fridge!

I really truly enjoyed this dish and it's much different than the casseroles that I usually make. I'd highly recommend trying it as it uses ingredients that aren't common staples in Saskatchewan! If you do try it, let me know what you think!

Amanda's Spaghetti Pie

I got this recipe from my friend Amanda in November of 2009 and somehow it got lost in my facebook inbox and I didn't stumble across it until over a year later! It was absolutely delicious and super easy, especially since I had cooked extra spaghetti the night before! I also used pasta sauce instead of making my own, which was super convenient. I really look forward to making this again!! A side ceasar salad really complimented it well, and as an afterthought, garlic toast would have been delish!

Amanda's Spaghetti Pie

Crust:
1 300g box of spaghetti
3L boiling water
2 eggs
1/3 c Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp oil
2 tsp. salt
2Tbsp butter

Filling:
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup cottage cheese
1 Tbsp oil
1lb beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
5 1/2 oz can tomato paste
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tasp garlic powder

Crust:
Cook spaghetti in boiling water with oil and salt until tender but firm (~11-13min). Drain. Add eggs, cheese, butter and mix well. Shape into crust in greased pie plates

Filling:
spread cottage cheese over bottom of crust. Fry hamburger, onion and green pepper. Add tomatoes and tomato paste, sugar, oregano, salt and garlic powder (boil off excess water, if any). Mix together and pour over cottage cheese. Bake uncovered @ 350 F for 30 mins. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella and bake for another 5 mins more. Freeze or serve and enjoy!!

Pumpkin Dessert Squares

This is a recipe from Mike's Aunt Pearl's cookbook. Lots of yummy recipes in here and this pumpkin dessert is one of our favorite! We get a kick out of some of Aunt Pearls recipes as they are enough to feed a football team! Her monster cookie recipe has 18 cups of rolled oats and 3lbs of peanut butter in it!!! But when you have a big family, you want a recipe that yields 5 ice cream pails full!! I love any cookie that has a pound of M&Ms in it! This recipe for pumpkin squares is so easy and it makes a 9x13 pan so no fear, you won't have to add 12 eggs or a pound of margarine or anything crazy like that! I buy canned pumpkin after Thanksgiving once it goes on sale! I made this for the superbowl party yesterday, along with my favorite Chili Dip (see previous posts).

Aunt Pearls Pumpkin Dessert

4 cups pumpkin

1 can canned milk (Alpha 2%)

4 eggs

2 tsp ginger (or less)

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups white sugar (I usually use 1 1/2 cups)

Beat eggs well. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat all together well. Pour into a 9x13 pan (not glass). Sprinkle 1 box of dry butter pecan cake mix all over the pumpkin mixture. Then cut very thinly 3/4 cup of hard margarine. Lay all over the cake mix. (I melted this and spread it on). Optional: Sprinkle one cup of chopped pecans or walnuts. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Serve with whipped cream or cool whip.

I had to add an extra 15 minutes in my oven till the toothpick came out clean! I also only had 3 eggs and crossed my fingers and it turned out fine. The filling was just a little less firm.