Quinoa Salad

I was home for lunch and starving, of course I couldn't find anything to eat that sounded good - about the only thing in the fridge was some leftover quinoa from making the spinach and beet salad the other night (click here for that post) so decided to throw together a quick salad. A can of garbanzo beans, some feta cheese, a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped sun dried tomatoes (told you I didn't have much on hand - I raided the pantry to see what sounded like it would go good!) and tossed with olive oil, a splash of lemon juice, salt and pepper. This turned out to be yummy and satisfying - Dave even liked it! Quinoa salad! I wouldn'ta thunk it hahaha. Sometimes throwing stuff together turns out great (and sometimes it doesn't, but that's a different story)!

Provençal Summer Vegetable Bake

Layers of sliced summer squash, potatoes and tomatoes over a bed of white beans, topped with crumbled cheese - I found this recipe in an old Family Circle (click for recipe) magazine and it's really good. I do it a little differently from the original recipe omitting the called for eggplant (I don't love eggplant) and onion (my husband doesn't like onion) and I don't think it's missing either of those ingredients - it's very flavorful and pretty! It also calls for herbes de provence which is a mixture of dried herbs that you can make yourself or buy in the spice section at the grocery store (I bought it in a jar and had no problem finding it), if you don't have it or want to buy it I think this would taste just fine without it - add salt and pepper to taste and maybe a sprinkling of any kinds of herbs you happen to have - thyme, rosemary, etc. I served it on the side with grilled chicken - it would taste good with lots of different meats and could also be served alone since it has the beans for a protein. Usually I slice all of these by hand but I'm still learning how to use all the attachments on my food processor so decided to play with the slicing disk and it worked great - saved some time and made everything more uniform for sure. It works just fine slicing by hand tho, don't let that stop you from making this! It's a good one - enjoy!

the magazine shows these arranged in overlapping layers, I stand
 them up alternating veggies and like how it looks...