What's Cooking?

 

Got leftover quinoa?

The recipe actually made 8 fritters, but we finally got around to trying them, and we love them!  They are called quinoa-feta fritters with labneh sauce.  You only use 2 Tbsp. of avocado oil to "fry" them.  They also re-heat nicely in an air fryer.  I have not yet tried reheating them on the stove top, but I am guessing it would work as well.

Here is where I used some of that "creamy cheese" (called labneh) with organic greek yogurt.  I made a sauce using the recipe in the same cookbook, with juice from a lemon, dried dill and salt/pepper.

I will be making them again, and they are a great way to use leftover quinoa.

I typically use leftover broth to make the quinoa too.

Leftovers are part of the weekly meal plan around here.

I did not find the recipe online, but in a cook book I borrowed from the library. 

One draw back in making the fritters?  It's messy.  A lot stuck to my hands, so next time, I will lightly grease my hands with avocado oil, while handling the mixture to form the fritters.

I added a bit of fresh kale to ours.  You don't want to add too much, or you will have trouble making a "firm" fritter to fry.

The most recent, very hot days, involved salads.  One of our favorites is a copy cat version of Wendy's chicken apple pecan salads.

However, finding blue cheese that is not expensive has been a chore.  I will be checking the price at Aldi's the next time I am out for errands.  Our main grocery store has it at $5.49 for a measley 5 oz.  I have yet to check Wal-mart or even Meijer too.

They use a pomegrante vinaigratte dressing, and this year, not one store in our area sells the non-gmo dressing.  I will be working on trying some homemade versions of the dressing for this salad.  

If you have a good, homemade recipe for a pomegrante vinaigrette dressing, please share.

What's Cooking? © June 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Garden Woes ~ Wore out my Second Dehydrator

We got more rain yesterday, and this morning, there are more rain clouds looming.  I have all the windows open, taking advantage of the early morning cool breeze, to bring in some fresh air.

As I said, most of our garden(s) flooded, and we lost almost all of our 60-ish tomato plants.  Will we replant?  Not sure.  It is iffy on the weather, and also on the fact we'll have to buy plants, and it's getting late for that in our area.

Am in tears over our struggles this year?  Yes, but we've had a no-tomato year before, and it's all part of gardening.  You just never know.

Now about my dehydrator. . .

My very first dehydrator was purchased for $50 off of ebay, but it did not last very long.  I then upgraded to a larger Excalibur back in 2015.

(I moved all of my oregano to my smaller dehydrator, in batches, until my new larger one arrived)

In the midst of all things going on here, my Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator quit working.  I literally just put together a new door for it (had to buy it to replace the last broken one).  I only used it a few times since I invested in the new door.

Of course my model is no longer made.  It lasted 8 years.  I went looking for reviews.  It came down to a different brand, with smaller trays, or another Excalibor.

At any rate. I purchased another Excalibur, but I am not thrilled that it is digital.  The two things I do like, is that it has two hinged doors vs. a lift off door (no more accidently knocking it off), and it has handles on the sides for moving it.  It arrived in two days.

The trays are the same size, but when I was taking my old one outside to move to the scrap pile, I noticed the holes in the trays, in the new dehydrator are larger. 

Another good note on this new one, is it came with a bottom removable crumb tray and a mesh piece to lay on top of a wire rack for smaller items.  

The nice part about broken down dehydrators, is that I kept all of my plastic trays from my very first one, so I plan to utilize those for smaller items as well, while dehydrating all at once.  I am keeping my old wire trays for now.  They are much heavier and have a support bar across the middle.  The new ones are lighter, and have no support bar across the center tray.

I will be washing up the trays and such, and giving it a whirl, so I can make sure it is in working order.  I want to make sure I check to make sure everything is working before the 30-day return slot is over. 

I can say, after opening the box, and setting it all up on the counter, we both feel the next one will be a smaller dehydrator.  

Garden Woes ~ Wore out my Second Dehydrator © June 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart