Fancy Camp Food #4- Quinoa and more!

Camping was the cool thing to do this summer.  At least for us it was!  (And by cool, I am cleverly also making reference to the nights when I thought my feet would actually freeze off.)  We haven't spent this much time in the great outdoors for a few years.  And it was awesome.  Great times, great friends, great wine, and even great food.  Sometimes...I'll admit I took a couple "easy way out" opportunities.  Don't judge.  This trip WAS pretty great food, I'll even call it total a success.  I had items planned well, which certainly helps make camp food easy.

The first thing I did to prepare, was to cook up a large batch of quinoa.  It would serve as a base for many of the meals this trip.

I also pre sliced one each- red, yellow, and orange bell peppers.  This made for easy packing, easy snacking, and less prep time at camp

I finished my prep work and "shortcut" choices with edemame in a bag, heirloom bite sized tomatoes, tiny little mozzarella balls packed in water, a mix of oil and balsamic, and my favorite spinach arugula mix!  Packed it all up, and headed out after work.

When we arrived it was just starting to get a little dark.  We had enough time to quickly unload the truck and create this little appetizer to share with our friends.  How cute are these Camping Caprese Bites???  

And they couldn't be easier.  We made both tomato and peach caprese bites.  And the most work was cutting up the peaches!  Everything else was simple assembly.  Grab a toothpick, add two mozzarella balls, followed with a torn leaf of basil, and finally a tomato or a peach bite,  Drizzle with the oil/balsmic mixture, and voila!  Perfect to pass around camp while everyone was preparing the meals.  And easy enough for the kids to snack on as well.

By this time, it was starting to get dark.  Josh grilled up a steak, and I quickly made us some salads to finish the meal.  Throw all of the following into a bowl and toss with some oil & balsamic.  Done!

Ingredients

1. 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
2. Handful of spinach/arugula mix
3. 1/2 chopped peach
4. A sprinkle of dried cranberries
5. Top with small mozzarella balls (would also be great with shaved parm!  Maybe even better...)

Stay tuned for the next fancy camp post with easy lunch items, and the most important- dessert!

No Bake Pizza aka Lazy Night Dinner

So tonight Hubby ditched me to go on a "boys date" to a concert.  I was actually invited, but let's face it, there was no chance of me saying yes.  I mean first, I don't really know who the band is but have vague impressions of a hair band from like the early 90's.  And second, I imagine the venue is some creepy old place with lots of dark and dirty decor which would GLOW if subjected to a scientific black light test.  No thanks.  But I know those boys will have tons of fun!!!  

I seriously considered making myself an awesome pearl couscous salad with zucchini, feta, and heirloom tomatoes.  But decided that simply boiling water was way more effort than I could spare for a night alone in my pajamas.  So this is what took me about 5 minutes, was delicious, and still almost fancy.

Ingredients

• Sliced rustic bread.  (We have awesome Rosemary bread at the local store.  LOVE!)
• Goat cheese
• Roasted red bell peppers
• Fresh basil

Directions

1. Slice a piece of bread
2. Spread your goat cheese on said bread
3. Chop roasted red peppers into cute little squares and toss them on top.
4. Chiffonade the basil (I can't stop using that word, or creating the pretty ribbons!) and top your "pizza"
5. EAT!

Seriously, very pizza-esque without the fuss, without the heat, and without any effort.  It doesn't take any longer than if you made a sad pb&j.  And it's way classier and grown up.  :)

Peach Pizza! Yes, I said Peach Pizza!

Have I mentioned before that we have fruit trees in our yard?  And that they somehow have survived 8 years of my neglect...  Well one of those trees is a dwarf peach, although I'm unsure of the actual variety.  It has beautiful red "marbled" flesh instead of the standard bright yellow, and tend to be very sweet.  I harvested the last two for the season yesterday and wanted to celebrate my "harvest" in style.

I considered doing another crisp like I did a few weeks back.  (Recipe here!)  But decided to embrace the fresh fruit and instead just cut them up, sprinkled some raw sugar, and chilled them for a refreshing, after dinner dessert!  How pretty does that look?

But I still needed to make dinner!  And figured I'd just stay in a Peachy mood with a summertime Peach Pizza.  We had mozzarella, basil, and baby heirloom tomatoes left over from our Caprese Pasta a few nights back, and it was like everything was just falling into place for a refreshing summer pizza.  A quick call to the hubby to pick up some more peaches, prosciutto, and pizza dough, and we were set.  If you have never made pizza before, don't freak out.  It seriously couldn't be more simple.  Your local grocery store or italian deli should have fresh dough in their fridge section, ready for the oven!

Ingredients

• Your favorite, fresh Pizza dough
• 1 large peach- sliced
• handful of heirloom tomatoes- sliced
• fresh mozzarella (we used the baby bite sized, but slices of larger balls would work well too!)
• fresh basil
• Prosciutto
• Olive Oil
• 1 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• Shaved parmesan for garnish
• Spinach & Arugula mix as a bed (skip if you want to JUST eat pizza.)

Directions

1. Begin by reducing your balsamic.  This is done by heating over a medium flame until it just begins to bubble, and then reducing to a simmer to allow the liquid to burn off and the vinegar to become thick.  This takes about 30 minutes.  Just watch it and stir occasionally as you do all the steps below.  (*I used a cup to reduce to about 1/3 cup, but really it was too much.  Even with Josh using some as a dippy dip for the pizza later, I poured some out during clean up.  The problem is, that using less means you risk burning it during the reduction process...so use less at your own risk!)
2. Preheat oven to 500 degrees (yes I know that's hot!  But you are creating a "pizza oven.")
3. Let your pizza grill or stone pre-heat in your oven.
4. Slice your peaches, tomatoes, prosciutto, and mozzerella (if you have a bigger ball of mozz.)  Set aside.
5. On a floured surface, massage your dough outwards with your fingers, starting from the middle and moving around the dough in a circle.  You want the edges to end up a bit thicker than the middle to ensure it cooks more evenly.  I went with a thicker crust and the dough was about 1/2 inch thick.
6. Carefully remove your HOT grill from the oven, add a thin layer of olive oil with a brush (pouring it will just slide right off in a big puddle, trust me) and transfer your pizza dough to the surface.  I find that folding your dough in half (taco style) and then once more in half, will allow you to quickly move it to the grill, and then unfold it without stretching it out, losing the shape, poking holes, or burning yourself on the grill.
7. Lightly grease the dough, add your mozzarella, and place in the oven.
8. Bake for about 5 minutes until you see the cheese melting.
9. If large bubbles appear in your dough, it's best to poke/pop them real quick to keep the surface fairly flat.
10. Add the peaches, tomatoes, and prosciutto.
11. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the dough is golden. (You should a have total bake time according to the directions on your dough)
12. Cut the basil (I demo how to make it fancy and chiffonade it on the Caprese Pasta Post here.)
13. Remove your pizza from the oven.
14. Top with your fancy basil.
15. Sprinkle your balsamic over top with a spoon.  (Don't drop spoon fulls, but dip your spoon in the balsamic and let the liquid simply drizzle off.
16. Sprinkle some fresh shaved parmesan. 
17. Create a bed of arugula & spinach on a plate, drizzle with balsamic, and top with a wonderful slice of pizza!  

Caprese Pasta- Might be the best thing ever...

Honestly I'm not even going to bother with all the chatter and trying to be clever and write up an intro.  Just LOOK at this... It was delish!

And really, most importantly, this was SUPER easy.  I'm not even sure it counts as "cooking."  Making a meal, yes.  Cooking...not so much!  Can you boil water?  Then you can make this awesome dinner.  Or lunch.  Late night snack.  Breakfast?  Maybe not breakfast.

I spied this with my little eye while on Pinterest.  A quick look at the original post here, and I knew it was basically instinctual to make.   And I decided that instead of "italian dressing" this would be better with simple, classic, oil & vinegar!  I had Josh buy Parmesan too, thinking I would make some Parm toast to go with this (cause... everyone loves toast!) but I just didn't want to mix any other flavors with this yumminess.  So ignore the parm in the pic, k?  Now onto the important stuff!

Ingredients

• 1 package of Cheese Tortellini (Rainbow if you want it to be pretty!  And who doesn't?)
• Fresh mozzarella.  Seriously don't even think about using any processed fake stuff.  It just won't be the same and everything will be ruined!  (read in a super dramatic teenager voice!) 
• Bite sized tomatoes (cherry or grape will work!)
• Fresh Basil- which you will make fancy when I teach you to "chiffonade" it!
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
• Generous dash of Salt

Directions

1. Boil water for your pasta
2. Cut your tomatoes in half.  It's pretty and easier to stuff in your mouth in one bite with pasta and mozz!
3. Cut your mozzarella into bite sized pieces.  Why?  See #2.
4. Add these to your big white mixing bowl (everyone has one, right?)
5. Sprinkle with salt
6. Add Olive Oil 
7. Add Balsamic
8. Mix and let this marinate (yes, your pretty white cheese will get a little dingy looking but it will taste SOOO good.)  Plus, we aren't fancy here and don't need to look pretty all the time.
9. Add pasta to your boiling water and cook per the directions (probably 4-5 minutes.)
10. Chiffonade your basil!  Roll it and cut it.  Seriously THAT's how fancy it is.  I demo below.
11. When pasta is done, drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking and to cool it down.
12. Toss into your big white bowl
13. Stir to coat with the olive oil and balsamic mixture *You can make it more saucy if you want, just keep the ratio of oil to vinegar 2 to 1.
14. Top with your fancy basil and voila!
15. Oh ya, add chicken to His bowl...

Stack some basil leaves- I used seven.

Roll it up tight (I have no experience in rolling so that was good enough)

Cut into thin strips, then "fluff" it all up to be pretty ribbons!

 So there you go!  Simple and delicious.  An easy weeknight meal on those days when you haven't slept well for two nights, had spreadsheets and vlookups annoyingly calculating for DAYS at work, and hit traffic on the way home.  It's the best way to end the day on a yummy note!

Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa (Alison's Recipe)

This delish dish is brought to you by request of Alison, my beautiful (and brand new mom) sister in law!  She asked if I knew any yummy quinoa recipes.  Yes, actually I do!  You can't get much yummier than this one.  Seriously.  This is a version of a classic casserole that everyone has seen at one gathering or another.  Think movie worthy,old school, church meeting.  But better.  And with quinoa.  It's very simple and has all of the comfort and nostalgia that you expect when you hear the word casserole.  It's vegetarian by design but can easily be "beefed" up with a protein like chicken, ham, or even tofu to keep the veggie friendly aspect.  It's super versatile like that!  Plus, the great part is that you probably already have all of these ingredients.  It's cooking from your pantry 101.

So enjoy Alison's Recipe.  She won't mind if you steal it.  Plus, she'll never know.  Shhhhhh!

Ingredients

• 1 can- Cream of broccoli soup
• If you are feeling adventurous, make your own 10 oz "cream of anything" soup
• 2 cups steamed broccoli
• Diced chicken if you don't want this meatless
• 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa (prepare as directed on your package)
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 1/4 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar & jack mix)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• Dash nutmeg (I am heavy handed and used about 1/4 tsp!)
• Fresh Parmesan for topping

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Get your quinoa on to cook.  Follow the instructions on your package and don't forget to rinse in water.
3. Steam the broccoli
4. Prep your baking dish (8x8 or 8x11 work well) with a coat of cooking spray or butter.
5. In a large bowl, mix the soup, mayo, milk, cheese, sugar, pepper, & nutmeg.
6. Stir in the cooked quinoa and broccoli
7. Stir in chicken for a more protein rich, meat lover version
8. Pour into baking dish
9. Sprinkle Parmesan on top (I didn't have any and just used more cheddar/jack) 
10. Bake for 35 minutes until it's golden and bubbly.

I added his chicken to about 2/3 of the "batter" after having already poured my 1/3 into the dish.  I like to pretend there is a magic barrier which keeps his chicken from contaminating my side.  I should have used His & Hers ramekins...

The little toothpicks act as a barrier to keep the chicken on HIS side!

 We served this with some Parmesan toast. Cause, well... everyone loves toast! And it was delicious, creamy, super easy, and a comforting version of a classic casserole.  This will be added to the rotation for sure.  It would be great to serve with a nice salad but I was lazy and decided the broccoli counted for a vegetable.  I mean it IS one!  So it counts.  Totally counts.  I'm not gonna argue this point.