Lemon-scented Quinoa Salad

Don't you love those scents of lemon and those zest on your quinoa salad? I DO. Those aromas are so ravishing to enjoy to dig into the salad.

It's really easy and simple to make. I had adapted from Cooking 101 blog by creating this dish.

It comes with a small bowl of Tahini Dressing with tangy flavor of lemons. Tahini is a sesame paste that you usually make the hummus. It's my first time trying that kind of the dressing and it's an excellent combination with the quinoa salad along with garbanzo beans, chopped red onions, chopped cucumbers, chopped cilantro and sprinkle of lemon zests.

You may want to SAVE those garbanzo bean juice because you might need to pour little bit if your Tahini dressing gets too dry. It will helps to make it smoothly.

Simply cook any flavors of quinoa as your choice as you normally cook for the rice. It's not really hard to do that.

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa, any choice of yours

2 cups water

Cook it until it becomes curly and transparent.

1 can of garbanzo beans, you can even eat cold or warm it up a little bit

Chopped red onions, cucumbers and cilantro

Put the cooked quinoa on the side while put the garbanzo on the other side in the same bowl then put those chopped red onions, cucumbers and cilantro in the middle. Zest some lemon on it for more flavor.

Tahini Dressing (make it while you are cooking the quinoa)

1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped

1/4 cup Tahini (Sesame Paste)

Zest of 1 whole lemon

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

Sea Salt for taste

If your Tahini dressing gets too DRY- you may want to save the juice from Garbanzo beans to pour little bit to make it smoothly.

Enjoy those vegetarian dish!

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I had been doing the experiments of attempting to make the right Pink Lemonade Cupcakes. Couple months ago, Sophia and I decided to make the batter by adapting the recipe from someone else's cooking blog. I decided out of the heck by adding more pink lemonade liquid from 3/4 cup to 1 cup to increase more burst flavors. After baking this, it turned out a BIG MISTAKE- Too tart and bitter flavor.

This time, I decided to try again by making the pink lemonade and chocolate cupcakes for Sophia's classmates to share to celebrate her birthday at the school. Sophia and I decided to decrease the pink lemonade liquid from 1 cup to 2/3 cup (not 3/4).

After baking this, we had tasted it and it turned out SO PERFECT! Oooo.. those sweet flavor of pink lemonade with white cake mix that blend together that created just so perfect!

After I picked up my girls at the school and was amazed that lots of kids LOVED the pink lemonade cupcakes even a few of boys too. It would be a great treats for all kids to enjoy those summery cupcakes. I would make it again for SURE ;).

It had created a shortcut to make it really easy and simple to make.

Ingredients for the cupcake batter:

1 box of classic white cake mix

4 white eggs

1/3 cup of vegetable oil

2/3 cup of frozen (thaw) pink lemonade

Couple drops of Red Color to make it as pink

Mix it altogether until the batter becomes smoothly. Pour the batters into the cupcake liners. Bake it at 350 degree until it's fully cooked (you will know by insert the knife and it comes out clean)

Frosting:

1 can of classic white vanilla frosting

Couple tablespoons of frozen (thaw) pink lemonade

Couple drops of Red Color (to make it as pink too)

Mix it altogether. You can slowly add couple few more tablespoon until reach the desire of the right flavor for you. I usually add like perhaps 4 to 6 tablespoons of 'em. It will looks like "glazing" when you spread it on the cupcakes but it will dry it up later in the next day.

Enjoy it!

Shepard's Pie

My eldest daughter has been begging for me that she is craving for the Shepard Pie for the dinner. Finally I decided to make it for her and rest of us too.

Really easy to make by throwing it altogether to create a simple dish without breaking any sweats in the kitchen.

You can either use the ground beef or turkey as your choice. For me I used the ground beef for more flavor along with two different kinds of broths (beef and vegetable).

You may want to cook the potatoes first then cook the ground beef or turkey until they re fully cooked. Potatoes takes a while to cook until they become tender. I cooked the ground beef with the beef broth until they were fully absorbed for more burst flavors then pour the vegetable broth to cook a little bit so you have some liquid.

For potatoes:

7 white or yukon potatoes, quartered, cubed or whatever you cut as your way

Fill the pot with the water and bring it up the boil water to cook until it becomes very tender. You want to drain it then mashed it with a little bit of butter, milk and some shredded cheese to mix it altogether. Put it aside until you are done with the ground beef or turkey mixture.

For ground beef or turkey mixture:

1 pound of ground beef or turkey, cook until they are fully cooked then drain the grease. Pour the beef broth for the ground beef until they are fully absorbed (no liquid left). If you are using the ground turkey, you can use the vegetable broth too. Then pour the vegetable broth on the ground beef or turkey mixture along with a half of the bag of frozen mixed vegetables and cook it a little bit.

Dash some seasonings

~ Garlic Powder

~ Freshly ground black pepper

~ Dried Dill

~ Salt

In the small casserole pan, pour all of the ground beef or turkey mixture with the liquid. Spread the mashed potatoes on the top of it. Sprinkle with the remaining shredded cheese. Put in the oven at 350 degree until the cheese becomes gooey.

Enjoy those Shepard's Pie in the household! :D

Shopper's Guide to Pesticides

I want to share with you guys about the list that I saw it by googling regarding with the vegetables and fruits. There's a list of worst and best that consists the highest and lowest pesticides for those fruits and vegetables.

If any of the fruits and vegetables that has the highest pesticides then simply buy the organic ones to make it more safer.

Pesticides are any substances or mixtures intended for preventing, repelling or mitigating any pests.

Pesticides used are often absorbed into the plants which allows them to bind to the fruits and vegetables, making it impossible to eliminate their presence which means washing or peeling the fruits and vegetables that consists the highest pesticides won't guarantee elimination.

The lists of the vegetables and fruits that has the highest pesticides are the common that people eat daily so can replace it with organic only since we all can know that we can't afford to buy all organic fruits and vegetables of the times everyday unless if growing those in your backyard to save money- GREAT!.

Here's the Worst list:

1- Peach

2-Apple

3-Bell Pepper

4-Celery

5-Nectarine

6-Strawberries

7-Cherries

8-Kale

9-Lettuce

10-Imported Grapes

11-Carrot

12-Pear

Here's the Cleanest list that consists the lowest pesticides:

1- Onion

2- Avocado

3- Sweet Corn

4- Pineapple

5- Mango

6- Asparagus

7- Sweet Peas

8- Kiwi

9- Cabbage

10- Eggplant

11- Papaya

12- Watermelon

13- Broccoli

14- Tomato

15- Sweet Potato

Hope it help you to be aware about this and be a smart shopper when shopping for the fruits and vegetables :)

Enjoy!