Morning!
I had another fun “ingredient potluck” dinner last night with my blogger buddy Gena! I’m loving these dinner dates — we get to catch up and enjoy each other’s company and a delicious, wholesome meal, but without spending money (and with the added bonus of clearing out the random odds and ends in our fridges). Perfect!
Like last time, Gena came over with whatever she had in her fridge/pantry and we combined forces with what I had in mine, making up the recipes as we went.
First on the menu — a kale salad!
Gena brought over some kale, apples, raisins, carrots, and a homemade cashew curry dressing. We combined it with some canned beets I had in the fridge and voila! A fun, unique salad.
The salad was delicious — great combination of flavors!
To make the cashew curry dressing, Gena blended the following in a Vitamix (a food processor would also work):
- Heaping 1/2 cup cashews
- 1 tsp curry
- 2 pitted dates
- 1/2 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
- Juice of 1 1/2 lemons (3-4 tbsp)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup water
So creative! If you like creamy dressings, you’ll love this.
For our main course, we decided to make something involving quinoa.
We ended up using my quinoa, red pepper, cannellini beans, and dressing ingredients with Gena’s roasted eggplant and chickpeas. It was a great combo as well!
Here’s how you can recreate this at home!
Eggplant & Red Pepper Quinoa Salad
Mix the following together:
-
1 cup quinoa (dry), cooked according to package directions
-
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
-
1 cup chickpeas
-
Half a red pepper, chopped
-
4 slices of roasted eggplant, chopped
For the dressing:
-
Equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil (about 1/4 cup each)
-
Juice from one whole lemon
-
Salt and pepper to taste
It came out beautifully — we loved all the colors! Feel free to get creative with this recipe — you don’t have to follow it exactly for it to still be tasty. 🙂
We enjoyed dinner on the porch while chatting away. Beautiful night to dine al fresco!
It was wonderful to catch up with Gena, as always — besides being fun, she also gives good career advice. 🙂
Today is my last day of my internship with Rebecca Scritchfield! I can’t believe how quickly my 4 weeks with her went by. It was great to be able to see a private practice dietitian in action, both with clients and also with the media. Next week I start at Corporate Wellness Solutions, where I’ll be interning for 3 weeks, up until right before the wedding. 🙂
Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
