Dinosaur Kale Quinoa Orange Salad

Today I had another full day at Aveda.  I [again] did not wake up in time to make myself anything more than a cold press coffee but luckily they had a wonderful breakfast for me.  Unfortunately we missed lunch due to having our actual event off site from the institute.  By the time I got home around 5pm I was [again] starving.  I immediately made plans to research a quinoa recipe that used dinosaur kale from Junko's Garden as that is the bulk and most time sensitive ingredients in my refrigerator.  I found a recipe and was about to head out when a friend of mine posted on facebook that they were in need of borrowing a computer.  He lives close by so I offered mine.  After some mild miscommunication as to where exactly we were to meet he came over and utilized my internet and software programs.  After some resume guidance and my grumbling stomach we eventually ventured off to the co-op for my two ingredients I needed for this wonderful mouth watering simple recipe.

As it turns out there was a parade happening down the street.  Unfortunately I do not have any saved footage of this event due to extreme snap chatting that was taking place, we roamed the strip and quite enjoyed ourselves I must say. (no candy though)

I spent about $8 total at the co-op [i did splurge on a cliff bar and an energy drink kind of sorry this time].  All in all I got a handful of roasted almonds, a lil ginger and a cucumber.  The recipe I had found had called for tangerines but they were no where to be found at the co-op.  Since I had one orange left in my fridge at home I figured that would suffice.

The original recipe can be found here.  I improvised with the below recipe.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of dinosaur kale
1 1/2 cups of cooked quinoa
1/4 cup feta [left over in my fridge]
1/2 a lil thing of fresh grated ginger [WARNING: DO NOT GET THIS IN YOUR EYE AS IT IS EXTREMELY PAINFUL, PROBABLY WORSE THAN LEMON JUICE I THINK MAYBE]
1 minced garlic clove
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp agave stuff? [idk i found some in my cupboard but I was planning on just adding sugar to taste]
1 orange
olive oil
roasted almonds


Directions:

Add olive oil to quinoa to moisten.
Cut stems off kale and massage with olive oil and sea salt to taste, add to quinoa.
Peal orange and section - saving a few pieces for juice for the sauce. Half and add to quinoa mixture.

Sauce:
Combine soy sauce, ginger, garlic, agave or sugar, and juice from remaining pieces of the orange.

Drizzle over quinoa mixture. Add feta and top with roasted almonds.

I actually just realized I forgot to add the almonds to mine.  This made about two "Kyndra servings", so I've saved the rest for lunch tomorrow with a side of sliced cucumbers and ranch dressing. YUM.  Also prepped some cucumber water and cold press coffee for the morning.

I don't work until 2pm tomorrow so I'm gonna ska-daddle and try and have some fun I guess.

A 5am Call Time, Dinosaur Kale & A Solo Sunday Brunch

This morning I had a 5am call time for a hair show at the Aveda Institute.  Luckily this is only about a 5 minute drive from my house because I definitely woke up at 4:57am.  I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful woman, wife and mother named Stephanie Junko Molitor.  Stephanie and her husband started growing their own produce in their house about 5 years ago, and since then their growing aspirations have dramatically grown.  They now have their own hydroponic farm called Junko's Garden in Hinckley, MN.  She is the sweetest darling in the world and brought boxes of produce for us to grab!  She encouraged us to take as much as we want, but because of my busy schedule and minimal budget, I didn't want to get over zealous and have the food go to waste.  So I grabbed two bushels of dinosaur kale.

Now, I have no idea what to do with it so this is going to be fun.  Kale is not my favorite green despite it's fantastic nutritional qualities so I have very limited experience cooking with it (although I can recall a couple recipes from Cookie and Kate).  Since I don't have a blender, kale smoothies aren't going to happen either.  The last time I even used kale in a recipe an aphid crawled out on my hand and I almost had a heart attack.

I left Aveda around 1030am this morning and I was so hungry I was about to start eating my own arm. I ran to the Co-op and grabbed some feta, a couple tomatoes, and a couple red potatoes (and an energy drink #notsorry).  Total came to just over $8.00

I got home, cleaned the kitchen, and started makin some brunch.  First I started some quinoa on the stove.  Then I chopped the last of my red onion and scallions and put into a bowl (more med salad, duh).  I realized at this point that I did not grab cilantro at the store and I am in fact out (it went bad :( typical) but I figured I would be fine without it this time.  Then I sliced up both my red potatoes real thin like and threw 'em in a pan with some seasoning and olive oil. I figured I should probably add some onions so I grabbed a handful out of my bowl and threw it in there.  I also decided I should attempt this kale business so I cut off a leave and chopped it up and threw it in there too.  Pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Served with feta cheese. Would have been even better with ketchup...

I still had some leftover spinach from my grocery trip last week, and it was starting to get a little limp so I figured I'd make a lil scramble (it's not like I'm running low on eggs either).  Grabbed another handful of onions from my bowl and threw that in there too.  Served with sriracha!

I realized as I was eating this lovely DIY brunch that everything on my plate, even the butter on my toast, was organic! Huzza!  The weather today is absolutely perfect so I enjoyed my little bunch in my backyard with the chirping birds.

As the days get warmer and warmer, hot coffee is becoming less and less desirable.  In light of this, I prepped some cold press in my french press for tomorrow morning.  I have the day off and it's supposed to be another beautiful day.  I cannot wait to start my day with that baby poured over ice to enjoy outside.

Now, this was a couple of hours ago, and I'm getting hungry again.  Time for some quinoa med salad!  

Since I was a little low on veggies this time I'm only going to make a half batch.  No idea what I'm going to do with the rest of the quinoa, probably something involving dinosaur kale...

And to finish this entry, a photo of my hair and make up from the Aveda show this morning and I'm probably going to rock this all day.