{quinoa salad}

Recently I have been trying to get back into healthy eating and cooking a lot more, which is actually really fun and I have missed it a lot. I have been trying out a lot of new foods and mixing them together, basically making art in the kitchen. While creating, I came up with this beauty. Quinoa salad. For those of you who have never had quinoa, TRY IT. You will not regret it. I hadn't tried it until about a month ago and now I can't stop eating it. Quinoa is a great grain that also has protein, which i try and seek out due to the fact that I do not eat meat. So here is the recipe. It's not too complicated and only takes about 15 min :)

{Quinoa Salad}

Quinoa

Spinach (or other lettuce of your choice)

Carrots

Onions

Celery (or other vegetables you have at the house)

Bread (home made croutons)

almonds

Salt

Pepper

Basically all you have to do is cook the quinoa, chop the vegetables and mix it all together. You can make a single serving or you can make a batch to keep in the fridge! It's all about convince. Plus, you can change it up depending on what you want that day. And to make the croutons, chop up a piece of bread into square pieces, put a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper into a sauté pan and toast until the bread turns a bit brown! All done. And you have yourself a delicious and healthy meal!

What have you guys been cooking lately?

{the ultimate sugar cookie}

i am going to share with you all the secret recipe to my amazing sugar cookies. here it goes:

{what you will need}

1 stick Crisco Baking Sticks Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

plus any decorations or cookie cutter you may need

{directions}

1. beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until well blended and smooth
2. beat in egg, vanilla and milk until blended
3. combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture
4. wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or until firm enough to handle
5. heat oven to 375
6. roll out dough, make shapes and cook for 5-9 min.

Simple! let me know if anyone makes these :D