Butternut Squash Quinoa 'Alfredo' with Toasted Pine Nuts

Here's a perfect fall side dish.  

And it's quick and easy.  Can you believe it?

Protein-packed quinoa is the star of this dish, combined with plentiful butternut squash, an prepared Alfredo-style.  

How could you go wrong?!

Butternut Squash Quinoa 'Alfredo' with Toasted Pine Nuts

1 cup butternut squash, roasted, peeled, and diced (roast in oven at 400 degrees for 45 min)
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted (toast in toaster oven at 325 for 3- 5min, or in a dry skillet)
1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp fresh thyme, leaves only
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat water over med high heat.  When just boiling, add quinoa and stir.  Reduce heat to medium low, cover,  and simmer for 10 minutes.
2, Remove lid and add a few drizzles of the heavy cream.  Let in soak in a minute, and add a few shakes of the Parmesan.  Continue until all cream and Parmesan is added.  Add the butternut squash, thyme, salt and pepper to taste.  Mix gently, allowing butternut squash to fall apart a bit but mostly retaining it's shape.  
3. Stir in pine nuts and serve!

Easy Chicken Stock

Non-cookers think homemade chicken stock is the most amazing thing.  They think it takes, I don't know, weeks to make! And you have to be some professional chef or something...

Let's put this to rest right now.  

It's so easy.  All you need is time.  

So do yourself a favor on a rainy or lazy day.  Make some chicken stock.  Then freeze some in an ice cube tray.  Freeze some more in larger containers for larger meals, like soups, stews.  

But what do I DO with all this chicken stock?

1. Use to make Creole Shrimp Risotto or maybe Sage Chicken Chili.

2. Cook your veggies (like peas, asparagus, brussel sprouts) in chicken stock for added flavor.  I  add some oil to a pan, saute veggie for a few minutes, add 3 or 4 chicken stock ice cubes to pan, and let cook until tender.

3. When cooking rice, couscous, quinoa, etc, you can use chicken stock in place of water.  

4. Use to make sauces, like marinara or alfredo.

5. Use in mashed potatoes as a partial replacement for butter and cream.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cookies

Experiment: Protein Cookies.

The boyfriend is on a real big  'get strong' kick.  

He's already big and strong, but he wants to be even bigger. And stronger.

He says to me, 'I want to make protein cookies. Here's a recipe I found.'

I say, 'Cool, we'll make protein cookies.  We'll make several, experiment a little.'

And so I was in the kitchen cooking and experimenting.  He was napping.  

LOL, okay, okay... he did help.  He's a great dishwasher and a great taste tester too!

These are the first cookies we made.

Since I was pretty timid and unsure about what was going to happen when baking with protein powder, I followed this recipe EXACTLY.  These cookies have ground flaxseed meal, oats, and chocolate protein powder, among other things.

They taste like stale bread with a faint hint of chocolate.  Hmph. 

Moving on, I loosely followed a recipe using pureed chickpeas as a base for the cookie.  

You won't find a pic, they went in the trash immediately.

And then..........

Drumroll pleeeeaseee....

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cookies! 

They are pretty much your standard peanut butter cookie, but with the added health benefits of added protein powder, quinoa flour, and less sugar! And they're delish! 

They seem to taste less peanut-buttery than a regular PB cookie, and just a bit denser due to the oats and protein powder, but they're so good!

The best part?  While I can normally eat about 10 cookies in one sitting, these are so filling that I can only eat 2 or 3, and they satisfy my cookie craving/ sweet tooth with so much less sugar. 

The boyfriend did a loose nutritional analysis of this recipe.  I was so stinkin' excited when he was adding up numbers, just knowing there wouldn't be much sugar and there would be TONS of protein.  

Turns out there's not really 'TONS' of protein.  The recipe is good and healthier, but I'll be modifying it to cut down the fat and add MORE PROTEIN, such as substituting the butter with 1/4 cup oil to cut down on fat, skipping the mini chocolate chips, and adding more protein powder. 

1 cookie:  115 calories, 7.25 grams of fat, 7 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein