Food From The Garden

This evening for dinner, I made my second quinoa pasta. My grandparents  got me a couple boxes of the Ancient Harvest brand when we got together earlier this week. It's my go to brand for my quinoa and like I said in a recent post, I think it's really cool that it comes in pasta form! The funny part is that after I ate the pasta, I saw in my Instagram feed that Lauren Ginger (@laurenginger) from naturallylauren.com made the same pasta for dinner tonight too. What a small world! Quinoa is a wonderful superfood and I sneak it into a lot of things. It's the meat on my nachos, I like it in salads, and Gardein brand meatballs are actually made using quinoa. The benefits of quinoa are not just from the culinary standpoint that it's easy to use. There are even more health benefits including but not limited to: 1. Quinoa is a complete protein and is high in protein. Proteins are made from what are called amino acids. There are plenty of amino acids that the body can produce ...

If there's one thing I look forward to in the morning (let's face it, I'm not a morning person) it's a smoothie. I love smoothies. Açai is a new favorite. After having several açai smoothies using the powder from Wegman's, I was ready to try the frozen form and see which one I like better. I'm not sure if it's because they're frozen but the frozen form takes forever to blend so I had the blender going long after the rest of the smoothie was of a uniform consistency. So it's not for the impatient but good things come to those who wait so this is a good patience exercise. In terms of the final product, I loved it. I like that the flavor is much more pronounced with the frozen form than with the powder form. Trader Joe's never disappoints! So please do yourself a favor and give frozen açai a fair chance. You will thank me later!

On this beautiful Thursday, I tried star fruit. It is borderline summer where I live and when the temperatures rise and the sun stays risen for longer, a favorite thing for many to do is to down all the ice cream and popsicles in sight. Fresh fruit right out of the fridge or freezer is a super healthy alternative that also cools you down. That made my afternoon snacktime the perfect time to try some fresh star fruit for the very first time. What is star fruit might you ask? It's a yellow green exotic fruit that looks like a star. For those without kidney problems, it's a wonderful addition to a healthy diet. If you were to ask me to describe the taste and texture of a star fruit, I would say it has a texture similar to that of an apple and tastes like an apple or melon with a squirt of lemon juice. Have you ever tried star fruit? What did you think of it? Have you had any other exotic fruits that you recommend I try? Where could I find them?