Apple Quinoa Salad and much much much much more.

Apple Quinoa Goodness.

This week was interesting. My Mom and Grandma came to stay. Mon and Tues was just my Mom and so I was able to cook the first 2 things on my meal plan: Monday night was Sweet potato and Sage Risotto (we all decided this tasted like an old english meal, that reminded you of green pastures and sheep, for some reason); Tuesday: Roast Chicken and Saag.

Then on Wednesday my Grandma came to stay and voila, she turned the place into a delicatessen! We now have about 5 different types of cold cuts, four different cheeses and 2 different breads. I kept telling her I had a meal plan and would like to eat more than open faced buns please (Did I mention I'm breastfeeding??)! But she didn't seem to follow.

Friday night after the third night of buns in a row, I cooked a secret Mexican enchilada dinner for Carm and I (We pretend our kitchen table is whatever type of Cafe we feel like that day. So we spent Friday night in a Mexican Cafe').

We kind of ended up having Marcie and Grandma fusion food: for example, Saturday for lunch we had sweet potato and banana curry soup over noodles with farmer sausage.

Saturday night was our friend Keegan's 25th birthday. I offered to bring something and ended up making up an Apple Quinoa Salad which was the perfect refreshing compliment to the main dish which was a spicy Thai soup. Once again I got the recipe for that Salad from here: http://www.cooksrecipes.com/salad/apple_quinoa_salad_recipe.html

While assembing the salad with a dear friend and salad guru, Brittany Bax, we laid down some hard rules when it comes to salads: #1: add everything. #2: keep it crunchy. That way you will always end up with a salad that is POSH (Pimped out SH**).

So, in the spirit of making this salad POSH, I added a can of chickpeas, sprouts and a pinch of smoked peprika....because it makes everything better.

Today Carmen and I went for our usual Sunday shop, and I found a jewel: a 21 oz package of whole indian spices (Garam Masala). They are so beautiful! For $6.99. Yes. One more reason to love my neighborhood.

(http://www.orlandosidee.de/Fotos/Gewuerzmischungen_Miscela_di_Spezie_Seasoning/Garam%20Masala.jpg)

So, that was my week for food. Quite a mixed bag.                                                        marcie