Recipe: Quinoa with Balsamic Roasted Mushrooms

Jake and I enjoyed this dish for dinner a few nights ago. I picked up all the veggies from the Farmers Market and I had everything else on hand!

The original recipe came from Whole Foods, but I tweaked it a bit:

Ingredients

1/4 cup Season's Cinnamon Pear balsamic vinegar 
2 pounds portobello mushrooms, stemmed and gills scraped out 
1/2 cup red or white quinoa 
3 cups tightly packed fresh spinach, chopped 
4 green onions, thinly sliced 
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted 
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 475°F. 


Cut mushrooms into chunks and combine in a large mixing bowl with 1/4 cup of the cinnamon pear balsamic dressing. Spread mushrooms in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until tender, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. 


While mushrooms roast, prepare quinoa. 


Combine mushrooms, quinoa, spinach, green onions, almonds, salt, pepper and a little more pear balsamic dressing in a large, wide serving bowl. Stir to mix well. Serve with remaining dressing on the side. 

Fall Is Here!

One reason why I love Fall so much is because it is so festive! I absolutely love Fall foods - carmel apples, soups, squash, pumpkin, and all the other seasonal treats. To bring in the Fall season, Jake and I went to the Organic Apple Festival on Saturday and we had a blast. 

The festival was at the Rodale Institute which is a farm just down the road from our place. We took a wagon ride tour of the farm and I really enjoyed learning about all of the history - the farm originally belonged to William Penn. The farm is devoted to researching best practices in organic agriculture and they currently have the longest-running agriculture research study in the US. The study compares conventional chemical agriculture to organic methods. I think it is interesting that what they have found so far is that organic yields equally match conventional yields and it outperforms conventional in drought and environmental distress. I'm sure I'll be visiting this farm again!

In addition to the wagon ride, we enjoyed apple cider floats and other fall foods from organic vendors. We also picked 16 pounds of apples! I already made applesauce with all the apples...it freezes well and I love heating it up and enjoying hot homemade applesauce (loaded with cinnamon) in the fall and winter.

Apple Picking!

After church on Sunday, we went to a local farmers market and then enjoyed a long afternoon picnic at the Lehigh Parkway. I love the multiple farmers markets in our area. It is so nice to buy local meats, eggs, and veggies!

Jake and Tyler walking in the creek...

Love the really old covered bridge at the park. It was built in the 1800's.

As I am finishing up this post, I just want to say that I am already enjoying my hot applesauce on top of ice cream with cinnamon and oats. yum!

PS - SO excited to say that Jake and I have a new niece today! Congrats to Zach and Catherine on the birth of Mallory Kate! We can't wait to meet her!!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

I can't believe we are moving right along into mid-September. Yikes! Jake and I have been very busy lately, but enjoying every minute of it. I'm really behind on my blogging too, so this post just highlights the past two weekends. This upcoming weekend will be the first weekend in 6 weeks that we are both in town and don't have plans that fill the entire weekend.

Jake and I went to Knoxville, TN for labor day weekend. We wanted to maximize our time in Tennessee, so we embarked on our 10 hour journey on Friday after work. We got in at 4:30 a.m...it was a long trip, but it was completely worth it because we spent Saturday afternoon lounging on the lake. I attempted to water ski for the first time and was completely unsuccessful. Jake on the other hand really surprised me with his great skiing skills! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to document this new experience.

We got to go to the UT season opener football game with Corey and Amanda on Saturday night. This was my first UT game and it was lots of fun!

Jake and I were apart last weekend. He was in Indiana for work and then stayed for the weekend to visit with family. It's really nice when you get to see loved ones while traveling for your job! I got to go to the beach with friends! Again, I did't take many pictures, but we had a really good time!

Our house was perfectly situated on this bay.

Andrea and I. Unfortunately I didn't get any other pictures of the group. There were 7 couples and myself staying in a 4-story beach house. Wish Jake could have been there!

Tyler threw a crab in the hot tub and freaked all the girls out! 

He went in after it, of course...