Quinoa Mini Quiches

My work had me come in an extra hour early this past week for a special breakfast promotion. So I needed something I could eat quickly that would fill me up and give me the fuel I needed to make it through the day, especially when I sometimes didn't get my break until the end of my 7 hour shift.

I love Pinterest and I love getting all sort of ideas and on there for just about everything. I've started making a deal with myself that if I pin something that I ought to making it or trying it out, instead of doing nothing. That way all the time I spend of Pinterest doesn't seem to fruitless and a waist of time. So I thought I would share with you all what works and what didn't and what I might have done differently. I've made 2 food boards on Pinterest for your following delights. The first one is gluten free and allergy friendly recipes and my recipes too. Those are under the heading Recipes To Make. The next board is food ideas that look fun that aren't allergy friendly or gluten free that inspire me to make allergy free versions of the same recipe. These are labeled Food Inspiration.

For my breakfast needs I followed the basic outline of this quinoa recipe here for Ham and Cheese Quiona Cups.  I did my quiches a little different. I used red quinoa, because it's what was in the house, and I didn't use cheese and I used different filling. The ham and cheese sound good and I might do that another time, but I wanted something a little different for my breakfast needs. I did come to the conclusion that I don't like how red quinoa looks when cooked. It just looks wrong, in my opinion. There are white rings, just like the white kind, but against the red it just looks really different and odd; but they still taste fine. So here is my recipe for quiona quiches and a bonus recipe for what I did with the left over quiona.

Quinoa Mini Quiches
2 cups cooked quinoa
3 eggs
2 sausage breakfast patties or 1/3 cup chopped meat of choice
1/4 hominy
1 Tbs onion
2 cups fresh spinach chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Pre heat oven to 350. Grease mini muffin tin. Mix the quinoa, meat, hominy and onion together. Beat the eggs and add to the mix and season. Add in the spinach and mix everything together well. Fill each mini muffin cup all the way full. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the egg has set and the edges are golden brown. Let them cool in the pan a few minutes before removing them. Spraying the pan between batches maybe helpful or use mini muffin papers.  Makes 2 1/2 dozen. Serving size is 2 per person.

Spinach and Tomato Quinoa Salad
2 cups cooked quiona
12 cherry tomatoes cut in half ( I used orange ones from a friends garden) 
1/4 black olives chopped
1/2 onion chopped
1 cup fresh spinach chopped
Italian dressing (enough to coat the salad without drenching)
2 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the indigence, except dressing and lemon juice, well. Then add the dressing to your desired amount. Then the lemon juice and salt and pepper to your fit your taste, as some dressings are not the same. Serves 4. 

The Craziness of Life

Burn scare from Waldo Canyon Fire

It's been awhile since my last blog post. The last post I wrote was about how do you choose things to take with you with you have to make the choice to leave your home. See last post here. We did end up leaving our home, more for smoke and ash, then the flames themselves, but our family did flee the Waldo Canyon fire the night it roared into the city. It was a terrifying time that I don't think anyone will forget. Every time our daughter sees dark clouds she thinks there is smoke. She wants to fight the fire, it is very cute, but I know that those images of the mountain completely in flames is stuck in her mind too. I'm starting with this point in our lives, even though it's been a few months, because it was where the craziness for our family began.

Soon after coming back home we had a choice to make - renew our rent or move. The reason for the choice is because my husband started his own business last year and it has been slow going with the economy. So we made the choice to move in with family until his business takes off and we can be more secure in our finances. This left us with 10 days to pack and move after just returning home and cleaning the ash off everything. We had to get out before our lease would go into next month. So we upped and moved and left our precious church and all of our friends. It has been heartbreaking, but we know that this is God's plan for us and it's the right move for our family.

To explain the photo I choose for the header of my blog because it shows how crazy and unpredictable life can be. The fire spared some homes and then destroyed neighborhoods. It's path was chaotic. Life can seem that way too and sometimes we just have to roll with it and then collect our selves after the dust settles. The fire is a marker in our family history of a turn of events and this photo that I took seems to capture those feelings.

Since moving our lives have kept on changing, and things are just beginning to look like their going to slow down. We've dealt with so much stress and the roller coaster of life seems to be in one of those spirals that keep flipping us upside down and then around again. I've started working - with in it self is a whole new chapter of life. I haven't worked a real job in 4 years. I did my light director duties for about 2 years, but it wasn't like a regular job with income and regular hours. I now work at Chick-fil-A. I'm glad I work for the company that I do and with the people that I do and that they do have gluten free options. It's been a challenge for me physically. I'm no spring chicken any more -no pun intended- and the simplest tasks have me aching at night. I hurt my writs, which wasn't a new injury, but one that is aggravated by my work that has slowed me from returning to the blog, and it is forcing me to wear a brace at night. It feels a little odd being literally 15 years older then most of my co-workers and I'm covered in bruises and sore from doing the same tasks they are doing. God really is growing me during this time. It's is only by His grace and mercy that I am making it through this period in our lives. I wish I knew what is next, but I remind my self daily, that I know He knows and that is ok with me.

From: Stock.xchng

I am trying to reconnect with the church I left 10 years ago and continue the work I was apart of in our last church. It's been a little frustrating because I know I can help them and they want my help, but it's a slow process to even get started. I think God is trying to teach me patience. It's feels odd to be back in the town I grew up in and nothing seems to be the same and it's even strange to run into people I knew from high school. Life sure is crazy. It's isn't the path I would have chosen but it's His story NOT mine.

I do promise some food writing in the near future now that things seem to be claimer.  I am sharing a kitchen with non-gluten free people, but it is going well. We are taking turns cooking and most of the baked goods are gluten free or we have non and gluten free options. So there may be more on how to share a kitchen blogs in the future . We've been having fun making vegetables into pancakes and waffles from a cousins recipe and it's been great to watch my daughter eat pink waffles made from beets -she likes them. We've been canning  peaches and apple sauce from relative's trees. I should also have some product reviews coming too since the selection of gluten free foods are different then what I was getting before.

So please stay tuned! I will get back to my regular blogging.