The 3 day weekend has come to an end. :-( But, on a positive note, we only have a 4 day work week....YAY! :o) Yesterday for lunch, I made and eggplant sandwich with some left over grilled eggplant. I toasted some wheat bread, spread a little veganaise on it and then added some spinach. I also had some chips and homemade salsa to go along with it. It may sound like an odd combination, but I think I could eat chips and salsa with just about anything.

Last night for supper, I made a big salad for our main meal. I wanted some type of grain to go with my salad so I made a Herbed Quinoa. I got this recipe out of my Hippy Gourmet cook book. It called for bell pepper, yellow bell pepper (I did not have any), red bell pepper, minced fresh mint, minced fresh cilantro, minced fresh parsley, minced green onions, then salt and pepper to taste. I didn't have any green onions, so I used a yellow onion. I also left out the mint and added some fresh lemon juice.

Remember those little red peppers that I got at the farmers market? Well it turns out that they have a bunch of different names. Tony and I both did research on the internet for awhile and could not find them anywhere. Finally, Tony came across them. This is a very interesting pepper. It is an Ubatuba Cambuci pepper. It is pretty much the same as a Bishop's Crown but with less heat. The 3 flaps of the fruits have no heat at all and can be extracted and eaten fresh. The center part of the pepper is very hot (I will be staying away from this part). This little beauty originated from Brazil. If you look at the quinoa below you will see what looks like red bell pepper, but instead, it is actually the Ubatuba peppers. I still have some left, so I am thinking about using them in a stir fry. We are going to save some of the seeds and try to grow some next year.

I also made a little snack yesterday. I have been wanting to try my hand at making some kind of energy bar or energy ball made from nuts. I still had some raw cashews, so I soaked about a cup for a couple of hours and used those. I also soaked 10 dates for an hour to get them soft. I ended up adding about a cup and 1/4 of cashews into the food processor and pulsed them until finely ground. After the cashews are ground, add 1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder, and pulse until blended. Add the 10 dates (shake most of the water off) to the food processor and process on low until the mix looks like a grainy dough. Take about a tablespoon of the mixture and roll into a ball. You can then roll the balls in coconut or whatever else you can think of that you might like on the outside. I tried rolling them in chocolate chips, but they wouldn't stick. :-( They turned out pretty tasty. Next time I will add more cocoa and maybe a couple of more dates to make them a little more moist. Some peanut butter would be good in them too. I think I will do some tweaking on this recipe, but still wanted to share it with you.

~Peace~