Buffalo Chicken & Grilled Vegetable Quinoa Salad

Grilled summer vegetables with buffalo chicken and quinoa come together in this delicious and healthy salad.

Stuffed Peppers

These sweet peppers are stuffed with corn, black beans, tomatoes, quinoa, and chicken.  It's clean eating at it's finest!

Sorry I've been MIA lately.  The past few weeks my blog has been put on the back burner because of life.  Yes, life happens and some things just need to take priority.  You all know how it is...

First off, I've been eating only clean foods, so I haven't been baking at all.  I make a large batch of a meal and then eat it through out the week.  There hasn't been a ton of variety because I'm still learning about all this clean eating.  It's a journey well worth it though!  I have lots of ideas and new recipes to share with you soon!

Secondly, it's summertime and I'd much rather be outside enjoying the gorgeous weather we've been waiting months for than spending time in the kitchen or on my computer.  We recently got a swing and a baby pool for Summer and she loves to be outside!  She also just got a picnic table, slide, and sandbox for her birthday (more on that in a minute), so lots of time outdoors is in our future.

And third, we had Summer's first birthday party on Saturday.  She won't be one for a couple more weeks but since we'll be camping over her birthday and my Grandma was visiting from Canada this week, we decided to have an early celebration.  I spent a lot of time preparing for her party and I'm pleased to say it went beautifully!

Anyway, on to the food.  The Stuffed Peppers are one of my new favorite foods.  I always thought that I didn't like peppers and so I always picked them out of my food and I never cooked with them.  Then a few weeks ago we had Kabobs at a friends house and they used red and yellow peppers.  I really enjoyed them and so I was motivated to pick up a few sweet peppers at the store.  Honestly, they sat in my crisper for a couple weeks because I got nervous that I wouldn't end up liking them as stuffed peppers.  I'm glad I decided to try anyway because like I said, these are one of my new favorite foods!  Plus, they are 21 Day Fix friendly!

The filling is super simple and customizable.  I used diced chicken, quinoa, corn, black beans and tomatoes.  Combine the filling ingredients and then place the mixture in a hollowed out half of a pepper.  Warm them in the oven and you have a delicious and filling dinner!  This made more filling than I had peppers for, so I have also used the filling as a salad topping and inside a corn tortilla.  The peppers reheat well and made perfectly portioned lunches for me to take to work!

Stuffed Peppers

Serves 8

Ingredients:
1 large chicken breast
1 cup quinoa
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 bag frozen corn
1 can diced tomatoes
2 Tablespoons Cajun seasoning
4 red, yellow, or orange peppers

1.  Dice up chicken breast and cook in a frying pan.

2.  Cook quinoa according to package directions.

3.  Mix cooked quinoa, black beans, corn, tomatoes, and Cajun seasoning together.  You can also mix the chicken in if you want, I put mine on top of the filling because I needed to measure it separately.

4.  Wash peppers, cut them in half, and remove the seeds and white membranes.

5.  Place peppers, cut side up, on a baking sheet.  Fill with the quinoa and vegetable mixture.  Top with chicken if you haven't already added it in.

6.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, until heated through and the peppers are soft.

Serve hot.  Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.

If you're doing the 21 Day Fix, fill a yellow container with the filling and place it in a pepper.  Measure the chicken in your red container and place on top of the filling.  This meal is 2 greens, 1 yellow and 1 red.

Quinoa Cordon Bleu Casserole

It's cold outside.  Like really, really cold.  The high yesterday was 9 degrees, but the wind chill made it feel like 9 below.  Today isn't supposed to be much better.  We're in the midst of this Arctic blast, plus we're getting slammed with non-stop snow showers.  Most of the snow is lake effect, and since we live real close to the lakeshore, we're getting the brunt of the storm.  It's been snowing since Sunday night and there are no real signs of it letting up any time soon.  Most schools and a lot of businesses were closed yesterday, and after driving to work, it was obvious that no-one should be on the roads unless they had to be.  It's pretty nasty outside! 

When it's so cold out, I usually turn to warming foods, like soups and hot casseroles.  I actually created this recipe last year, and it's been waiting in my "to post" file for a long time.  Can any other bloggers relate?  Now that I've finally gotten around to posting this recipe, I feel bad that I haven't posted it before.  The pictures really don't do it justice (it looks like a blob of mush...oops!), but this casserole really is delicious. 

I've always loved Chicken Cordon Bleu.  It was one of my most requested dinners when I was a teenager.  I also love quinoa.  I had some leftover from another quinoa dish and decided to try a Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole.  It was so easy to make, and I really like it because it uses ingredients I already have in the house.  It's a warm and comforting meal, perfect for a frigid day like today!

Quinoa Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake

Serves 6

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked quinoa
2 cups cooked chicken, diced
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cubed ham
4 slices Swiss cheese

1.  In a mixing bowl, combine the condense soup, milk, and sour cream until smooth.

2.  Stir in the quinoa and diced chicken.

3.  Pour into a greased 8x8" baking pan.

4.  Place cubed ham on top of the quinoa.

5.  Place the Swiss cheese slices on top of the ham.

6.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, until heated through.  Serve hot.

Quinoa Pilaf

 

Have you jumped on board the quinoa train yet?  I finally have (better late than never!), and if you haven't, I really encourage you to give it a shot!  Quinoa is gaining popularity as a superfood because of it's amazing nutritional value.  Quinoa is a seed, but is often thought of as a grain.  It is relatively low in calories, high in protein, fiber and many vitamins.  {Source}

The first time I had quinoa was in this quinoa pilaf.  I immediately loved it and since then I've used it as a substitute for rice or pasta.  I've served it topped with apricot chicken and as a topping to a lettuce salad.  There are so many options for quinoa and I have so many more ideas for ways to incorporate it into our meals!

Oh, and on an exciting note...remember a while ago I told you that I'd do a giveaway when I reached 200 GFC followers?  Well, I hit 200 yesterday so it's time to celebrate. I want to thank all of you for reading my blog and for all your comments.  I'll be posting the giveaway later this week, so stay tuned!!!

 

Quinoa Pilaf

Serves 6

You will need:

1 Tablespoon butter
1 large shallot, peeled and chopped
8 baby carrots, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1 cup quinoa
1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon salt

1.  Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add shallot, carrots, and celery and cook for 5 minutes.

2.  Add quinoa to a saucepan and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. 

3.  Stir in broth, water, thyme, and salt.

4.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Cover and reduce heat to low.  Cook until liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. 

Nutritional facts per serving: 140 calories, 4g fat, 4g protein, 23g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 396mg sodium, 5mg cholesterol

Source:  Family Circle, September 2011