breakfast quinoa

rita and i recently purchased a bag of quinoa, which we had been keeping in a drawer in the kitchen, until i learned that quinoa is actually a seed, not a grain, and should be refrigerated.

unfortunately, our fridge is approximately the size of a small dog (i have no idea where that comparison came from, but now that its in my head i have a mental block and can't think of anything else that's the same size), and we had no room for quinoa. which meant we were forced to eat delicious things like this: cooked quinoa, heated up in a splash of milk, mixed with a big scoop of pumpkin and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice and half a packet of equal (not because i have any preference for equal. i just happened to grab it at the coffee shop). topped with almond butter.

cooked quinoa, heated up in soy milk, mixed with raisins and cinnamon and topped with syrup (trader joe's maple/agave blend) and almond butter.
-Lola

oat-stravaganza!

happy halloween everyone! eat lots of candy... ...and even more oats!
(oatmeal is unphotogenic, so you get a photo of the magical land that is economy candy instead.)
so we now have mass quantities of oatmeal, and we've been experimenting with different recipes. our new favorites:
-nutella and strawberry: oats cooked in milk + handful frozen strawberries + spoonful nutella
-pumpkin and peanut butter: oats cooked in milk + big scoop of pumpkin + big spoonful of cinnamon, topped with spoonful of pb and 1/2 a square of dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
-banana pumpkin: oats cooked in milk + 1 banana, sliced and added to milk at the same time as the oats + spoonful cinnamon + small handful cashew pieces
p.s. i just saw a guy dressed as a bottle of sriracha on my way home. he's my hero/future husband.

happy birthday! also, pumpkin soup

in honor of john taylor's birthday--the blog's namesake song!
hungry like the wolf

yes, i am a nerd. in my defense its not like i knew in advance that it was his birthday. i just happened to see it when i went on facebook this morning. yes, i am a fan of duran duran on facebook. i'd also like to point out that if you go to john taylor's wikipedia page (link above), you will learn that he was in a movie called Sugar Town in which he played Clive, whose "life is thrown into upheaval when a cult member shows up on [his] doorstep to drop off a surly 12-year old "love child" that she claims Clive fathered." hmm, interesting.
but you didn't come here to learn fascinating facts about 80s band members, you came here for delicious recipes...

...and delicious recipes you shall get!
i liked this recipe because it used things we had on hand, either leftover from other recipes or because they're just general things that we usually have around. that always makes me feel like i'm getting the meal for free, which makes me happy.
curried pumpkin bisque with cheddar cheese

changes: since we were serving this as a main dish, we made the full recipe although there were only four of us. we also added 1 can kidney beans (don't forget to drain and rinse!), substituted vegetable broth for the chicken broth, and left out the tomatoes because we didn't have any.

yum! served with crackers (trader joe's multigrain entertaining crackers, in case you were wondering. and they're very entertaining, haha.)

Pumpkin Gnocchi

I came home today to find Lola already in the middle of making some pumpkin gnocchi (using a recipe from Cooking Light magazine) Since I'm writing this, I could claim that I took over and was responsible for how delicious and pretty they turned out. But actually Lola did most of the work while I made a salad and our dad sauteed some mushrooms in olive oil and garlic. While we were doing that, Lola made a gratin with the gnocchi, butter sauce, and some Parmesan cheese (also following the Cooking Light recipe). The pictures don't exactly capture it, but the gnocchi were a lovely orange color.
-Rita
the recipe
a little bland (not really that pumpkiny), but good and a nice texture. we ate the whole recipe between the four of us even though it says 6 servings. probably would be 6 servings as a side to meat or something heavier.
also, my dear sister is so modest. she was very helpful in making this.
-Lola