thai chicken quinoa bowl

So, March is absolutely flying by. Like a peregrine falcon. Exactly like that. Spring starts this week! Like, this Wednesday! Holy macaroni. And we're supposed to get snow tomorrow. Of course. You know you live in New England when spring arrives and it snows. Real spring here probably won't start until, like, May. Sigh. I'm so ready for some nice spring-like weather! The cold and gray skies are driving me crrrazzyyy. I'm actually missing living in Savannah right now. I never thought I would miss Georgia -- I was constantly complaining about the heat. But now that I've had to deal with a New England winter after a year of not having to deal with a New England winter, I'm kind of preferring a Savannah winter right now. And a Savannah spring would be nice. But I like New England autumns. And it would be nice to have snow in December and January. But then the snow can stop and it can get warmer. Do we have a deal, Mother Nature? Because that would be awesome.

Until the weather actually turns springlike, I can pretend it's spring and eat springlike things. Like this thai chicken quinoa bowl. Oh my goodness, I could eat this everyday. With fresh taste of sugar snap peas and cilantro and the utterly delicious sweet chili thai sauce, it feels like it's practically spring. I am addicted to the thai sauce that goes into this. It's also perfect for sauteing and stir-frying. I sauteed brussels sprouts in this sauce and it was deeeeelicious. Multi purpose! This dish is so easy to throw together and it's super healthy too! Win-win! Don't eat meat? You could definitely swap the chicken for tofu or chickpeas, or even forgo the chicken completely. Oooh, some sprouts or shoots would also be really good in this! Or even some red pepper. The possibilities are endless!

thai chicken quinoa bowl 
gluten free, soy free, peanut free
adapted from How Sweet It Is
yields about 2-3 large servings, or 4 small servings

// ingredients
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into strips (or shredded)
2/3 cup chopped carrots
2/3 cup sweet snap peas
3/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro

for the sauce
4 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons coconut milk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons sunflower seed butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
juice of 1 lime
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

// directions
 Prepare quinoa according to directions. Use 2 cups of liquid for every cup of quinoa. I actually like to use water over vegetable or chicken stock so the other flavors can really shine through, but if you like your quinoa cooked with vegetable stock, go for it!

While the quinoa is cooking, whisk all the ingredients for the sauce together in a bowl. I like to use a micro planer to mince the garlic -- so much easier! You can just grate the garlic straight into the bowl; no knife skills required! Also, heating up the sunflower seed butter in the microwave for a little bit also makes it a little easier to whisk into the sauce.

Once the quinoa is done cooking, stir in sauce, chicken, snap peas and carrots (I had cooked the chicken in a large saute pan, so I just transferred the quinoa to the saute pan to stir everything together. You'll just need a bowl/pan that's large enough to mix everything together in). Taste to see if any additional seasoning is needed. If so, just add some salt and pepper. Toss in half of the cilantro, stir, then serve in a large bowl. Add some more cilantro on top and enjoy!

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super simple gluten free cornbread

So, I seriously have a case of a writer's block. Or creativity block. I don't know what to write about. I don't know what to cook or bake. It's terrible.

"Tell me, O Muse, of something to write. Inspire me.

I'm waiting, O Muse.

I think my Muse is attending some other people at the moment."

Name the book that quote is from!

Okay, it's from Absolutely Normal Chaos. That was my favorite book back in elementary school. Okay, it still is one of my favorite books. I just love it. I won it in something. I don't remember what it was. All I remember was that it was like the last day of school or something before summer break when I found out that I won the book, and I was so excited because I never win anything. Then, after reading the book, I wanted to write my own summer journal. I don't think I got too far though; I wasn't very good at writing in it on a daily basis.

Anyway. Cornbread. I love cornbread. It's so easy to make and it's so delicious. The perfect answer for my creativity-block-stricken self! Well, at least the answer to my baking woes. You can eat cornbread with like anything. And, cornbread is so versatile! It can be sweet, it can be savory. You can use it in stuffing. You can eat it as dessert. Or breakfast. And this cornbread is especially easy because you only need six ingredients. Yup, that's right. Six. That's because I used gluten-free Bisquick -- makes things so much easier! I will say that I do prefer cornbread made completely from scratch -- however, this Bisquick cornbread is still pretty darn good. And so easy. Two pluses in my book!

I want some cornbread now.

super simple gluten free cornbread
gluten free, soy free

// ingredients
2 cups gluten free Bisquick*
6 tablespoons cornmeal
1/4 cup Truvia baking blend (you can also use 1/2 cup of regular sugar)
2 eggs
1 cup milk of choice
1/2 soy free Earth Balance spread, melted (or regular butter, if tolerated)

*Note: for those who are extremely allergic to soy, gluten-free Bisquick may contain soy.

// directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk the Bisquick, cornmeal and stevia blend (or sugar) together in a large bowl. Slightly whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl. Add the eggs, milk and melted spread to the dry ingredients and stir. Pour the batter into a prepared 8x8 baking dish (I like to grease my pans with Spectrum Organic All Natural Vegetable Shortening). Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the cornbread is golden and delicious.

// variations

for something sweet

Maple Cornbread: Replace the sugar with 1/2 cup of maple syrup. Melt 1/4 cup of Earth Balance spread (or butter) and mix it with 1/4 cup of maple syrup. Once the cornbread is done, brush with the maple butter mixture.

Fruit and Honey: Serve with strawberry compote and honey. Or blueberry compote. Or any kind of fruit compote! You could even mix in some blueberries or strawberries into the batter -- just make sure if they're frozen that they've been thawed and patted dry. Otherwise you'll end up with a soggy purple or red batter!

for something savory

Cheesy Jalapeno Cornbread: Omit the sugar. Add 1/4 cup of finely diced jalapeno peppers, a dash of cayenne pepper, and a cup of shredded cheddar cheese (Daiya makes an excellent dairy free, gluten free, soy free shredded cheddar cheese).

Olive Oil and Thyme: Sugar is optional (you may want to reduce the amount). Replace the butter with with olive oil. Add two tablespoons of fresh thyme, chopped. You could also use rosemary instead of thyme, or go crazy and use both!

butternut squash + chickpea pasta [gluten free]

So, who watched the Super Bowl last night? I'm sure all we'll be hearing about is the power outage. The Outage. The Power Outage Super Bowl. And what about the commercials? I'm telling you, I feel like the commercials are becoming increasingly lamer every year. I remember when the Super Bowl commercials were funny. Like, the majority of them were funny. Not just a few. There were some good ones last night, and some really terrible ones. Before we get to today's dish, we've got to discuss some commercials. Here are my top three picks for the best and and the worst:

Best Commercials
1. The Oreo library commercial. Definitely the funniest commercial of the night, hands down. Fiiiirre!!!
2. The Tide commercial. I love it when things are taken to ridiculous extremes. And I loved the ending. Even though I was sort of rooting for the 49er's.
3. The Space Babies commercial. Very cute. Uvoplaywheelsonthebus!!!

Honorable mentions:
The Doritos goat commercial. It's a goat. Eating Doritos. Done.
Taco Bell's Viva Young commercial. That's what I'm going to be like when I'm old.

Worst Commercials
1. GoDaddy, the one with Bar Reafeli. This commercial made me want to empty the entire contents of my stomach. I'm not even including a link to this commercial. It was just gross. Disgusting.
2. The Bud Light superstition commercials. They were just weird.
3. Beck's Sapphire commercial. Again, just weird. Why is there a singing black fish? And why is it trying to be all suave and smooth? I just don't understand. The only acceptable place for singing fish is The Little Mermaid.

Mixed Bag
Budweiser's "Brotherhood" commercial. It was sweet, but it made it want to cry! I don't want to cry when I'm watching the Super Bowl. That's just not okay.

So that's my little wrap up of the Super Bowl commercials. Now, let's get onto the pasta! I was inspired to make this dish while flipping through this month's issue of Bon Appetit. The magazine included a recipe for fiorentini with butternut squash in their Seven Perfect Pastas article. The squash is shredded, so it almost acts like a cheese. Sort of. In my mind, anyway. So, I decided to use gluten-free corn macaroni for the pasta and to throw in some chickpeas for some added protein. Oh my goodness. Deliciousness. The shredded butternut squash really does mimic cheese, so it was sort of like a mac and cheese dish. Only with squash. And chickpeas. And I also threw in some greens at the end for some color.

butternut squash + chickpea pasta
gluten free, dairy free
recipe inspired by Bon Appetit

// ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 cups shredded butternut squash (about half of a medium squash, peeled)
1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
about 2 tablespoons of dried sage (if you can, use fresh sage! I did not have any, so dried sage it was. If you can, use about 1/4 cup of fresh sage)
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
about 12 oz of corn elbows (I used Mrs. Leeper's)
some greens (baby spinach, baby arugula, mixed greens -- whatever floats your boat!)

// directions
Cook the pasta to al dente. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large saute or sauce pan. I ended up using two pans since there was so much butternut squash! Add squash, chickpeas and sage and cook while stirring until the squash and chickpeas start to brown. Add a little salt and pepper.

Once the pasta is done cooking, add it to the butternut squash and chickpeas and mix it all around. Serve it with some greens on top. Enjoy!