Curried Quinoa Salad

John and I have been searching the internet for lunch ideas that don't involve lunch meat sandwiches. Salad is great, but it's easier over the summer and takes a few minutes to toss together. Roasted veggie sandwiches were a hit around here for a little while, but they take too long to prepare for the average school day. Hummus is another great lunch, but you know, I'd like to have a few ideas on hand.

The kitchn.com did a week of special posts on lunch a while back, so I'll share a few links that have been helpful:

Five lunches under 400 calories.

14 Great ideas for weekday lunches.

10 Vegan Lunch Ideas (I'm definitely making the "chickpea of the sea" recipe listed there).

After searching through those posts I finally just googled "curry quinoa salad" and this recipe came up. It's easy and delicious. If you make it with veggie stock then it's totally vegan.





















Quinoa takes about 15 minutes to cook, so it's something I could potentially do in the morning before going to school. Realistically, I'll probably make a double batch of this on a Sunday evening and John and I can portion it out during the week. It can be served hot or cold, so it'll be easy to transport to school.



















My only comment is to hold off on salting it until after tasting it. I'll probably halve the bullion cube next time (the cubes from Bulk Barn are rather large), since this batch was pretty salty.

Curried Quinoa Salad
adapted from Vegetarian.about.com

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
  
• 1 vegetable or chicken bullion cube
  
• 2 cups water
  
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup cashew pieces
• dash salt (to taste)

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add bullion cube and stir until dissolved, without reducing the heat. Stir in quinoa and spices. Stir and cover, reduce heat to medium low; let simmer for 12-15 minutes. When quinoa is fluffy and water is absorbed, add raisins and cashews. Stir for 2-3 minutes over medium low heat, until raisins and cashews are heated through. Add salt to taste. Garnish with cilantro (optional).

Jason and Samantha's Wedding

I'm a little disappointed with the pictures I took at this wedding, so I'm excited to see what my mom's and Halley's look like.
























That's my cousin Jason on the right, with his new wife, Samantha.


























They had a lovely, traditional wedding at Stonewall Golf Club (where, yes, there is a large portrait of Stonewall Jackson above the fireplace).






















I cropped that one to show a close up of me and some of my cousins and other relatives.









Jason and Samantha, plus all of Jason's relative who were present.














I can't remember all of the delicate details of this cake, but it had several flavors and it was really delicious. I think the design was lovely, too.


























They played music and introduced the bridal party as they entered. That's my cousin Jessica, Jason's sister, making her entrance.























After everyone was inside, Jason and Samantha had their first dance to "I only have eyes for you."


























Here's Samantha, looking on as Jason danced with his mom.







Gorgeous, gorgeous dress.

















I'll end with this picture John took our our table, after the dancing had already started.





















It was a beautiful wedding, and I'm so glad we got to go. Congrats, Jason and Samantha!

Manassas, Virginia

Before the wedding on Saturday, I set out with John, my dad, my cousin Halley and her fiance Josh, to explore the historical sites of Manassas, VA. As I mentioned earlier, Manassas was the site of two major Civil War battles, and nerdy as it may be, visiting Civil War Battlefields is one of my favorite vacation activities.


















The volunteers at the visitors center sent us down the road to a couple of stops on the driving tour. The first was Stone House, an old building that was once a tavern. It was used as a make-shift hospital during the second battle, since it was near a couple of main roads and had 18" stone walls for protection.






















It had a lot of your standard historical-site stuff inside - a room set up for dinner as it might have been in 1861, an old chair by the window in the hall. The restored the bar area of the tavern.



















They also had some replicas of old posters, courtesy of the local historical society. This one was my personal favorite:


















The bigger of the two upstairs rooms was where they put a lot of injured soldiers. Halley sort of prodded this old-timey stretcher with her foot, but I couldn't get her to lie down in it.


















After we'd seen enough of Stone House, we headed to another battlefield spot where we'd heard there would be some demonstrations, commemorating the anniversary of the second battle.





























These guys were dressed up as Union soldiers, and demonstrated the various features of their rifles. Their leader, the guy in front, obviously knew a lot about all their equipment and the gory details of the battle. But he talked...and talked...as hot Virginia sun beat down on us. The longer he talked, the less I was interested.







We were all thinking, "Come on, shoot something already."









Finally, they fired their guns.
























Then these guys came around to tell us about the cavalry regiments.

















They demonstrated some of the commands that they might have used to maneuver on the battlefield.



















I'd say this was sort of cool. We stayed long enough to see them ride the horses around and gallop, and what not.




















I got John to hold still long enough to take this picture (it later prompted him to tell me the many reasons why he didn't agree with the Confederacy on issues other than slavery).

I'm glad we went to the battlefield, especially since there was basically nothing else going on during the day before the wedding. Now I can cross "Bull Run" off of my list of Civil War sights. The list looks like this:

Gettysburg (so worth it! Really cool place to visit, especially around Memorial Day. I can also vouch for the quality of their hospital, since I got a horrible stomach virus on the last night our 8th grade trip and spent the night with an I.V. Seriously, though, there is so much to do there.)
Monocacy Junction (pretty good museum, considering how small the area is)
Antietam (also a really well maintained place with lots to see, and a good visitors center)
Bull Run/Manassas

The End of Summer

Even as I sit in my pajamas at almost 2 pm for the 10th day in a row, I'm asking "How can summer be over already?"

My birthday is always the first sign of the end of the summer, though our semester doesn't start until after labor day. The Canadian trees already know what's about to happen, and the colors are starting to change.

For my birthday, John got me this awesome food processor!







I toyed with naming it "El Chopalito," since it's a mini-processor, but I think I'm going to call it "L'il Choppy Chopsalot," or "L'il Choppy" for short.
















So far we've used it to make 3 batches of hummus, peanut butter, and spinach pesto. Only the hummus has turned out exactly as planned, and I'm going to wait to post pictures of that stuff until I'm happy with the results.


In other news, this weekend John and I are traveling to Manassas, VA, for my cousin Jason's wedding. You may remember Manassas (from 8th grade social studies) as the southern name for the Battle(s) of Bull Run. The second battle took place in late August, and its anniversary falls on this weekend. John and I were already planning a trip to the battle fields, since they are maintained in a national park just down the street from our hotel. They have a 1-mile trail where you can take a self-guided tour of the battle fields. *AND* they will have various demonstrations to commemorate the anniversary of the battle. John and I particularly hope to see the cavalry demo.

We're hoping for a weekend with some Civil War sites, some crab cakes, and relaxing time in the hotel hot tub. Until then, soak up the sun while you can.

Favorite Recipes, August 09-August Oh Ten

Now on to the list of favorite foods. This is going to be a challenge, since I love so many of the things we make. All of the things on this list are recipes we've made more than once - which says a lot for us, since we try at least 1-2 new recipes every week. I've whittled them down to my absolute favorites and grouped them by categories, for your convenience.

The desserts are my exception to the "I've made this twice" rule, since I only repeated a couple of those recipes. But they're all delicious recipes, a couple of which I've made for various groups at school, and things like the red velvet whoopie pies that are valentine-specific.

...Other
Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
Skillet Cornbread
Mrs. Chilla's Breakfast Casserole
The first two are my go-to recipes for food to take to parties. The second is by the mother of a friend of mine, and my family ate it on Christmas morning.

Seafood
Creole Shrimp and Sausage Stew
Bacon-Wrapped Scallops
Seafood is pricey, so we mostly make this when visiting my parents, who generously supplied us with the ingredients. I also haven't made the scallops more than once, but the recipe is too good and simple to leave out.

Non-vegan Soups and Stews
Zuppa Toscana
Thai Style Chicken Soup
These are the recipes that make me want to keep eating meat.


Dessert
Double Chocolate Cookies
Interlochen Chocolate No-bakes
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
"Life by Chocolate" Cakes
My classmates love the double chocolate cakes, and the no-bakes take me back to a simpler, more pine-filled time. The whoopie pies taste better than hostess cakes, and the last recipe is only for those who can handle truly rich, chocolatey food.


Vegetarian and Vegan
Thai Curry Soup with Tofu
Sesame Maple Ginger Tofu
Pasta with Cashew Cream Sauce
Roasted Vegetables on Creamy Polenta (simple! vegan! Amazing!!)
Chana Masala and Indian Style Cabbage


A few more words about those vegan/vegetarian recipes:
John and I changed our eating habits in a big way over the previous eight months or so. We did this because we both wanted to lose weight and develop healthy ways of eating when we're young, so that we still have them when we're old. For us, this meant cooking with recipes that seemed foreign to us at first (and many of them literally are, since Thai and other Asian food can often be made healthily with a lot of flavor). We're trying to find more and more recipes that include fresh vegetables and whole grains, since meat and dairy are fairly expensive in Canada.

There are a lot of other vegan/vegetarian recipes on the blog besides just these, but these are our very favorites. They are some of the best recipes of any kind that we've made in the past 12 months.

In terms of losing weight, it's helped us both, though food is only part of the process. We believe in finding food that works for you and tastes good, and we don't mean to promote a vegan-only way of eating. Both of us still consume dairy and eggs and we don't label ourselves as vegetarian or vegan, we just lean that way. We both believe that no one diet works for all people, for all time. If you're considering an attempt at some vegan cooking, take a look at those recipes, all of which are beginner-friendly.

So that's our list of the best recipes of our first year of blogging. Thanks for reading all of our food related posts and for never saying, "Hey, why is your Canada blog all about food?"

Happy Anniversary, Canada! Year 1 in Review

John and I had our 1 year anniversary with Canada a few days ago (the 18th). Today marks 1 year of blogging for Sounds Like Canada. I wish I had thought ahead to plan a giveaway or some kind of surprise. Instead, I'll just review what we've learned in the past year, with links to our favorite posts. I'll post another list of our favorite recipes.

Right away we learned how Canadians store their milk, and their funny French translations for groceries.

I learned that it's easier to offend minorities when I can't see, and received an invitation (ladies only) to experience Canadian culture with other foreigners.

We joined Costco, celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, and observed the geese. I made a photo study from pictures of my favorite tree.


John went to SEM, I went to SMT, and we both went to Music Theory Midwest.


We learned about the Ontario provincial government and all that it had to offer, like license plates and a housing board. We took advantage of our local fire department.

After Christmas in Fort Wayne, Carla and Dave came to visit! We saw the London Knights and the Western Mustangs play hockey.

I killed our bread maker, and did a series of posts about alterna-milks.

We took a GIANT road trip:
Fort Wayne, IN
Oxford, OH
Nashville, TN
Atlanta, GA
Cookeville, TN
Memphis, TN
Springfield, IL
And I went to Baltimore for my friends Andrew and Alyssa's wedding.


We ran two 5K races, one where I got very muddy.

We explored the beaches of the Great Lakes in our area, including Port Burwell, Port Stanley, and Grand Bend, as well as another smaller body of water, Lake Whittaker.


We visited Bloomington, John began a running regimen, and I completed a duathlon.

When I stare at this long list of stuff we did, it seems like it was actually a pretty good first year in Canada - not to mention all the hours at school that didn't seem blog worthy.

A year ago I was having trouble adjusting to what seemed like a huge amount of change. Now I'm just waiting for school to start so I can see all the people who are gone for the summer.

John and I have a guest room, and you know how to get in touch with us. If you feel like taking a trip to Ontario, just say the word!

Zucchini Flatbread Pizza

John said this recipe was kind of a mental stretch for him at first and that he didn't expect to like it that much. But when we tasted it, he immediately said, "Thing of the week!"





















I think you could make it on a bigger cookie sheet and up with more pizza with thinner crust. We had a few slices of zucchini and onion left over, since our cookie sheets are small.
















To me this tasted a LOT like a bialy from Bloomington Bagel Company, which was basically a little pizza style food, made with bagel dough and cream cheese. I love the idea of a "pizza" with something other than marinara sauce, and this was a great example of how to make such an alternative sauce out of cream cheese (though, of course, it's way worse for you than regular pizza).

Still, a cream cheesey pizza is ok every now and then. The fat is satiating, so I was less prone to snacking after eating this.


Zucchini Flatbread Pizza
from The Sisters Cafe


1 batch of your favorite pizza dough
3/4 cup cream cheese
to taste: dill, pepper, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, etc.
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 small red onion, cut into 1/8 inch thick rounds
1 zucchini (yellow or green), cut into 1/8 inch thick rounds
3 T. chopped fresh parsley or your favorite herbs
olive oil


1. chop veggies. prepare dough. preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. combine cream cheese with dill, garlic salt, and other desired seasonings.
3. brush a large baking sheet with olive oil, and stretch dough out in the pan.
4. spread the cream cheese mixture over the dough, sprinkle with Parmesan.
5. arrange 1 row of zucchini slices down 1 long side of the dough. arrange onion rounds in a row alongside zucchini. repeat until all is used. brush vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
6. bake until puffy and golden brown, about 24 minutes. sprinkle with fresh herbs.