Sunday, June 16, 2013

Yummy treats

A few posts back I promised you a few recipes for dishes we enjoyed at our end of year Potluck. Here they are today. First of all Citrus Quinoa Salad, courtesy of Ann P. I have made this several times since the Potluck and it IS yummy! Should I admit I could eat the entire recipe myself? Not all at once, of course...

Citrus Quinoa Salad
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/3 cup dried cranberries
6 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley
1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds
salt and pepper to taste

Citrus Vinaigrette dressing
2 Tblsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
2 Tblsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tblsp. grated orange rind
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 Tblsp. freshly grated ginger
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt and pepper, or to taste

Rinse quinoa well. Bring 2 cups water to a boil, add quinoa and cook about 14 minutes, until translucent. (Follow pkg. directions.) Remove from heat, drain any remaining water, and fluff with fork. Gently stir in apricots, cranberries, onions, parsley, salt and pepper. Let cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 12 hours. Combine vinaigrette ingredients, pour over salad and stir in almonds. Serve.
Thanks Ann, I know our members will enjoy this healthy and delicious salad.

This next one might not be quite so "healthy" but we all need a little treat now and then, don'cha think? This Brownie recipe comes from Paula MacD.

Cream Cheese Brownies

1  8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup w. sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Beat these 4 ingds. together until
smooth, set aside.

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup w. sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 eggs
3/4 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Melt butter or margarine, add sugar, cocoa, eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Sift dry ingds. together, add and mix well.  Grease a 9" square pan well. Spread half of chocolate batter in pan, pour cream cheese mixture over, top with remaining chocolate batter**. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes, being careful not to overcook. (Test with a toothpick)
**Note: the chocolate batter is quite thick and the cream cheese mixture is more runny. It is difficult to "spread" the thick batter on top of the runny mixture- just do the best you can to spread it out. It will sort of resemble marble cake.

These brownies are sooo good. They do not require frosting. However, in my house (yes we are all admitted Chocoholics!) frosting is "expected". So I just threw on some chocolate chips when the pan came out of the oven. That was my addition- it's not mentioned in the recipe above.

Enjoy!!

1 comment:

  1. Yummy. I'll give them both a try. I bought all the Quinoa stuff this week.

    ReplyDelete