Warm Quinoa Salad

Also no carrots here. I just got a new oven and I'm still trying to figure out all the fancy functions.

Warm Quinoa Salad - by me!

 "Mom, what if someone broke into our house to steal your food because it was so good.  You better be careful". - Henry after eating this salad

Total prep time 20 min
Total cook time 30 min

Serves at least 6 people

Ingredients
2 cups quinoa
Organic or home made vegetable or meat stock
1/2 stick Grass Fed Cultured butter(you have no idea how delicious this is.  Please find and use it)
Carrots
Coconut oil for roasting and sauteeing
Real Salt
Cucumbers
Parsley
1 cup red onion or any other onion:green, yellow, etc
Few cloves of garlic
Chopped tomatoes(I used cherry)
Arugula(for me)
(I also threw in some left over chopped brussels sprouts. Asparagus would also be great)

Note: this photo didn't have the carrots yet.  They were still roasting, but it added twice the bulk

Clementine shoving it into her mouth

 First of all, just assume everything is organic, because it is:) There is almost no need to worry about amounts in this recipe.  You can put as little or as much vegetables as you want in your quinoa and it will work.  Cook quinoa in a rice cooker using stock and a half stick of butter or cook according to instructions on the package.  Just throw it all in. Roast carrots, cut into pieces and covered in coconut oil and salt, in the oven at 400 until nice and brown and soft in the middle. Sautee red onions and when almost done, throw in the garlic.  Cut up tomatoes, parsley, cucumbers and anything else you have lying around.  Good additions would be roasted cauliflower(my personal favorite), roasted zucchini, mozzarella, parmesan cheese, let your mind run wild.  Chop everything up and throw it all together in a bowl and mix.  Serve on top of arugula or by itself and top with parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.

Vivi finishing off the last bite.

Real Food Style

I've always liked all vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and to some, I might have had a pretty healthy diet.  However, I have also always liked candy, ice cream, chips and cookies and never shied away from eating as much of those as I possibly could.  I am also a very big eater and have always wondered why I wasn't obese because I eat so much food in general.  I'm like a fat person living in a thin body...until now.

A couple of months ago I was asked to do a BYU Women's Conference sharing station(booth) on Nutrition and I groaned inside myself because I knew what I believed in, which was a more traditional idea of eating food instead of what current trends were telling us about weight loss and cancer prevention.  I knew my conscience wouldn't let me live it down if I didn't present my more extreme, traditional idea of diet to the sisters in the conference.  Well, I enlisted the help of my dear friend Lindsay Killian and she gathered up a bunch of women who were all fully committed to living this lifestyle and they helped me put together the most amazing sharing station and it was a huge success.

Along the way I learned a lot of things that I wasn't aware of and I started implementing them into my life and I've had the most wonderful transformation of will.  I used to live the Body for Life eating plan which allowed me to eat sweets only once a week(which is still a decent way to live if you crave sweets) and all week long I would be craving candy and cakes and I couldn't say no to a cookie at a church function, so I would save it for my "free" day on Sunday.  After reading, pondering, studying out in my mind and praying about it, I have lost my desire to eat junk food and when I think about it, it seems repulsive to me.  I really feel like I've gained a testimony about how the Lord wants me to treat my body and the spirit it helping me to stay away from harmful substances.

I have also been slowly transforming my children's diet and I really hope I can keep it up in the winter.  Luckily produce is available year round because in winter I usually buy tons of snack foods until summer comes around when I let it peter out and we just eat fruit and veggies until Halloween comes around and then we start eating junk again.  I'm fully committed to scheduling time to cook every day(especially because I enjoy it) and feeding my family foods that aren't processed.

The conversation about processed foods is endless, but all I have to say is that manufacturers of processed foods do not have our health in mind and there have been many recent books published, like Salt Sugar Fat that illustrate how the combination of the three has been formulated to addict us and harm our bodies, and it's just not safe to consume processed foods.

The ladies who helped me at my conference created these wonderful documents about nutrition in it's different categories and I will post them one by one in case anyone wants to read them.  Even if you think you're eating a healthy diet...you may be surprised to learn quite a few changes you can make.

From now on, I will only post healthy recipes and thoughts about consuming healthy foods, which seems to me the natural progression of my blog since it's entitled Hohl Foods. 

Eataly: NYC

My new favorite place on the planet: Eataly -- Alti Cibi(high class food)

 Justin and I took a trip out to NYC to a wedding and basically we ate ourselves into oblivion.  On Saturday I ate a giant steak then ate a 5 course meal at a wedding until midnight.  I had visions of that movie, "Seven"(back when I watched R rated movies) where that murder kills people who were guilty of committing the 7 mortal sins.  I totally felt like the obese man who was forced to eat until he died.  I ended up curled up in bed with a totally sick stomach, waiting for the food to digest, but I could tell I was headed for upheaval so I didn't waste any more time missing the after party and I just gagged myself so I would feel better.  I don't know if there's anything I hate more than throwing up.  I even broke some blood vessels in my eyelids.  haha.  Hideous.  I ended up putting my make-up back on and joining Justin at the after party for about an hour and felt fine for the rest of the trip.  Normally I could have pounded down all that food easily, but my stomach has shrunken and I just don't have my bottomless pit pregnancy stomach. 

Fresh Italian bread

So, this place, Eataly, is like an indoor replica of an outdoor Italian market place.  The name is so catchy as well because the correct way to pronounce "Italy" or "Italia" is not the frequently mispronounced, "Aye-tal-ee-ya" or even "Iht-a-ly"  It is said just like the word "Eataly" or "EE-tal-ee-ah".  So clever.  Anyway, there are like 10 different counters that sell pizza, pasta, freshly made mozzarella, seafood, bread, cheese, meats, etc.  and the rest of the place is like an Italian grocery store.  It's pure genius and totally delicious.  Justin and I ate two balls of fresh warm mozzarella, incredible prosciutto, olive oil, basil and salt, then we slurped down some raw oysters on ice - delish, and topped it off with a pizza and some wild boar ragu pasta.  There were Italians everywhere and we were speaking in Italian the entire time we were eating and ordering.  It was such an incredible experience and it made me realize how excited I am to go back to Italy this summer! We are taking the kids and Lucy on a month long trip to Italy before Justin starts work.  It's going to be epic!

$5 pasta bags

My favorite pasta of all time: fusili bucati lunghi.  This particular bag was $9...so we left it behind

These are also really fun long straw-like pastas.  I wish I could have bought some!

Authentic Italian deliciousness

Even though these look pretty, don't be fooled by Italian pastries.  Most of them are not worth the money or the calories. 

Accidental chocolate salted caramel volcano cake

Erupting with sweet, delicious dulce de leche(DDL)

The other day I baked a chocolate cake from scratch with all the best ingredients.  It was for the adults at Henry's Family Birthday dinner.  I followed the instructions exactly, but one thing I did not count on was the cake batter spilling over the sides of the cake pan because our oven is not perfectly level in our rental house! We started smelling smoke and I had no choice but to open the oven to take out the bottom pan of our oven so the smoke wouldn't fill the whole house and make the cake taste like smoke.  

Result: volcano cakes.  

All the cakes had sunken pits in the middles and so I just had to deal with it by shaving off a little on top and pouring an insane amount of caramel on top to fill it in.  Nobody minded at all.  I made one large cake for our whole family and kept the smaller cake for later.  I made home-made dulce de leche and toasted coconut for the filling and toppings.  I also tried to make ganache for the frosting on top, which is almost the simplest recipe in the book and somehow managed to curdle it, wasting about $10 of the best chocolate money can buy!  It was an unusually bad day for baking, but in the end, you can't go wrong with chocolate salted dulce de leche cake! Oh, and be generous with the salt.  The saltier the better!

This was actually the small one.  I didn't want to take a photo of the large one.  I was just too frustrated after the whole ordeal!

Toasted coconut or TC is always delicious with DDL

Recipe for Dulce De Leche

I have to say, there are many shortcuts to making this final product, but none are as good as this.  It's a labor of love, but it's worth the time!

DDL and salt together are my new best friends.  I have a tub of this in my fridge and it calls my name every time I open it. Yum.

Ingredients

• 1 quart whole milk
• 12 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month. 

We put Dulce de Leche on vanilla ice cream with toasted coconut on top.  It's to die for!

I used Martha Stewart's recipe for salted caramel cake which was delicious. 

Most beautiful eggs ever

Check out the turquoise, deep red and gold colors!

Well, these eggs have already been in a rainy egg hunt but can you see the vibrant colors? They are even better than the first time I did them.  Basically you just need the cheapest basic dye kit, BROWN eggs, and use a quarter cup of vinegar to let the pellets fizzle until they melt and then add enough water to just cover the eggs, about a quarter cup more.  Let the eggs soak for about 5 minutes and you have the most amazing colors I have ever seen.  I almost didn't want to eat them! These are way better than the pastel colors you get from using white eggs.  Try it next time!

These eggs were more solid color looking until they got rained on, but still look so vibrant.

Turning "Granola"

 Sorry about the bad phone camera photos.  Here is my general mixed up and three granolas made with milk.

First of all, why does my phone capitalize granola when I type it in? Is it a proper noun or something? Well, I have news for all you granola lovers out there...you're missing out if you haven't tasted my lime cardamom granola my friends.  This week I did a granola demonstration for the Relief Society sisters and so this past week I delved into researching all granolas to find the best recipes.  What did I find? A whole lot of nothing the same.  Granola recipes couldn't be more different.  I feel like I tried to search for just "soup" or something and got so many recipes with only a few ingredients in common. 

Here are two jars of chocolate cinnamon and one of almond essence with maple syrup. 

So, this is the skinny on granola...it can be really unhealthy if you make it with processed oil and brown sugar with just a dab of honey like most recipes call for.  Just use coconut oil and only natural sweeteners and you will be well on your way to healthy and delicious eats. 

This is the recipe...

5 cups of dry ingredients, whatever you like (can be all oats or a mixture of oats, seeds, and nuts and coconut)
3/4(scant) cup of oil(or milk)
1 cup or less of sweetner(depending on how sweet you like it)
Mix it all together, spread on two TIN FOILED AND GREASED  cookie sheet at 325 for 8 minutes on the top rack and 8 minutes on the bottom rack and then take out, let cool, add any dried fruit desired and store in a tight container. 

Having a recipe like this can open your mind to experimentation instead of following another's concoction.  As I was making my granola I thought of what spices I could throw into the mix.  Cinnamon, yes! Real almond extract, Oh so yummy! Chocolate powder, yes! Peanut butter(in place of oil), yes! Lime cardamom sauce, double yes! I'm telling you that not one of them turned out bad.  I'm only sad I didn't get a chance to try cranberry juice concentrate to essencify a batch with cranberry flavor.  I think I have about 50 lbs now in my cupboard so I think I'll just send it off to the Missionary Training Center where my sister is learning how to be a missionary for the Fukuoka, Japan mission.  I miss her so much.  Take care little sista and I know you'll enjoy some of this healthy granola so you don't have to eat the biscuits and gravy(death to the body!)

I mostly love this granola because it adds a much faster breakfast to our list of acceptable breakfast foods which is limited to, home made yogurt, french toast, pancakes, eggs, steel cut oats or cracked wheat, all made with whole wheat and all from scratch.  For once I can decide to not cook breakfast in the morning and spend a half hour cleaning up! I know some of you are thinking, what's wrong with cereal? Well, 1. because it fills my kids up for all of 5 minutes and, 2. there's nothing more processed on the face of the planet.  Plus, 3. it's super expensive and most of it is just air.  Anyway, please make up your own granola recipe and tell me how much you love it:)

Indian wedding extravaganza

Two weekends ago one of my dreams came true and we attended a real Indian wedding at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. It was definitely worth the ling drive for the two day extravagant celebration complete with three meals and entertainment amongst elaborate decor. The food was excellent but extremely spicy and I have never been more grateful for plain yogurt in my entire life. There were some traditional American elements to the wedding like a chocolate chocolate ganache cake that was to die for delicious. That's my kind of wedding.

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