quinoa stuffed bell peppers, scallops and asparagus.

I have been running, like, so very much. Like, legit running. As in, I went for a five mile run on Saturday, and followed that up with a four mile run on Sunday. It doesn’t hurt that it’s been gorgeous out with a chance of pleasant. I’ve been walking around just spewing rainbows and sunshine at everything in sight since the weather finally decided to up and ditch the “30 degrees and blustery.” Spring is happening any day now, and I could not be more thrilled. I took this picture of me doing bicycle crunches – which I typically loathe – on Sunday:

me, crunching

I also have to be swimsuit ready by the end of the month, when I take off to Pueurto Vallarta for a few days. I would looove to lose the 10 or so lbs I’ve gained honestly with my fair share of peanut butter and the inability to turn down a cookie, hard or soft. I’m upping the ante with the working out, and my foods these days need to be those that aid in a Gisele physique.

Last night, I made some stuffed peppers with quinoa. WTF is quinoa, you ask? In short, it’s a grainy thing that tastes like a slightly crunchy couscous. I bought the red kind, because in a weird way it makes me feel earthy and Native American, and that’s appealing to me.

I started by cooking the quinoa in 2 cups of water for about 15 minutes as instructed by the box. Meanwhile, I chopped the tomatoes and parsley. I mixed all three together, and added a couple tablespoons of olive oil, then salt and pepper to taste. Then, I cut the tops off both my peppers, and then cut the ribs right on out of there. I stood them up in a casserole dish, and then did a Giada trick and filled the pan with 3 cups of veggie stock. This keeps the peppers moist and whatnot. I covered the peppers in aluminum foil, and then baked for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Then, I removed the top, and covered them in parmesan cheese. Then, I baked for 15 minutes until they looked like this:

quinoa stuffed bell peppers

Ingredients:

1 cup red quinoa, cooked

2 bell peppers (one orange, one yellow)

1/4 c feta cheese

1 bunch of parsley, chopped

6 heirloom tomatoes, chopped

shredded parmesan cheese, shreddded

3 c vegetable stock

Nice, right? They tasted like something Pocahontas would get down on for sure. Ignore the murky looking veggie stock with bits of filling floating around. There’s nothing to see there.

Earlier this week, I made a much more photogenic dish of scallops and asparagus. I can’t take credit for the recipe, because I pretty much just followed this recipe step by step. It was my first time with scallops, though, so pardon my lack of originality for my virgin voyage:

Ingredients:

1 lb asparagus

3 tbsp olive oil

2 lbs scallops, muscle removed

1/2 stick of butter

3 tbsp white wine vinegar

Technically, the recipe wanted me to add 1/3 c of white wine, but I didn’t have any so I went without. I started by sauteeing the chopped asparagus in the olive oil for about 5-6 minutes, and then was instructed to remove them from the skillet. Then, I seasoned the scallops with salt and pepper, and then seared them in the skillet until they turned opaque. So that took about 2-3 minutes for each side. I then removed them from the skillet, and whisked the butter and white wine vinegar until it became frothy and such. I added the asparagus back in AGAIN, and coated them in the saucy mix. I topped the scallops with the asparagus like epicurious wanted, and then made it all disappear. Delicious, and so very attractive. See below:

seared sea scallops and asparagus

grilled scallops with avocado puree.

Lately I want to, like, spoon with nature. I’ve been planning to give up my morning workouts in favor of some after-work runs, because two days a week is not fulfilling my nature needs. I’m all adjusted and plateaued, anyways, and I’ve just now realized that I never work as hard first thing in the morning. My body is all anti-sleep and variety, it seems, because I’ve had a hard time transitioning. This past week’s humidity and constant tease of rain has been an awesome enabler. I woke up this morning to this good looking sunrise, though:

sunrise

I feel like that’s pretty much a sign that the rain and Florida-esque humidity is on its way out, right? In any event, I’m totally converting to a p.m. runner first thing next week. I’m much too excited about this.

In the name of variety, I made my first ever scallops this week. Actually, I’m pretty sure it also marked the first time I ate scallops. I saw a bag at TJ’s and just decided to go for it, all lady balls to the wall.

I prepared them by first defrosting, then coating each in olive oil, salt and pepper. I grilled them on the Panini Press, which took maybe three minutes for each mini batch. I found this adorable Bobby Flay recipe to work with, so I started by making the avocado puree.

I added an avocado, some chopped red onion, jalapenos, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to the food processor:

avocado puree, pre-puree

I pulsed everything together until it pureed up all pretty. It was basically an extra-spicy guacamole when it all came together, but I loves my spicy so I approved. Meanwhile my scallops were cooking off and smelling incredible in the background. I have proof, too. My roomie said so. So there.

I assembled the little scallop boats just like Bobby did, although mine were complete with these Longboard tortilla chips courtesy of TJ’s. I started with a chip, and then topped it with the spicy guacamole, one scallop, and some sliced jalapeno. They ended up looking like little Mexican-flavored kayakers, so they totally spoke to my nature infatuation. See below for the final  product:

grilled scallops on tortilla chips w/ avocado puree