Cooking, cooking, cooking... and blog design.

Hey friends!

So I'm trying to figure out how to do cool things to my blog. If anyone can be of assistance in that area please let me know, because as you can see, my header is much too big and the blog stretches out to the right a lot even though the right column with my info is all squished. I honestly don't know what I'm doing!

Anyway, Grant had his GRE yesterday. It's the test that determines whether or not he can get into/get scholarships for grad school. From what I understand, it's basically the amped up college version of the ACT. Since he's basically been working, studying, sleeping, repeat... I took it upon myself to cook him some delicious dinners that would also become delicious leftovers to fuel his super brain. I realized that when I've cooked this summer, I just cooked things I already know how to make. The last bit of experimenting I'd done was months before when I became obsessed with making the perfect eggplant parmesan. Since I mastered it I must have unconciously started believing I was a supreme chef who didn't need to know anything else?

But I really, really want to know how to cook lots and lots of incredibly tasty things. And healthy ones too. So this week I tackled three meals I've never made before:

1. Hawaiian Haystacks. Really easy but also delicious and nutritious with brown rice and veggies. And Grant had never had them before.

2. Spinach pasta bake. This turned out pretty well, after me transferring it from one pan to another a million times because I thought one was too big/small.

3. Quinoa with roasted eggplant and squash. Real good. And really easy too; it's basically just peeling and chopping then waiting.

(Also, just so you know, it's pronounced keen-wah, not key-no-uh. My bestie Jennifer taught me this)

Here's the recipe for the last if you're interested

You need:

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 medium eggplant, unpeeled and cubed
1 cup each: thickly sliced bell pepper and onion (I just used one whole of each... probably close to a cup)
Cooking spray (I used olive oil)
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp each: savory and thyme (I didn't have savory, so I used a little bit of mint and some pepper because the internet said that it was in the mint family and had a peppery taste)
2 cups veggie broth

1. Arrange veggies on greased, foil-lined pan. Spray with cooking spray (or if you don't have any, like me, use a paper towel to dab them with olive oil). Sprinkle with herbs. Roast at 425 degrees until veggies are tender, about 45 minutes.

2. Heat broth to boiling and stir in quinoa. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until quinoa is tender and broth is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Combine the veggies and quinoa and eat!

It seems like more of a fall dish to me, maybe because of the squash, but it was really good. Kind of on a comfort food level.

I always wonder how to end a blog.

Love, Morgan