This is my first installment of Meatless Monday A-Z hosted by Heather Blackmon.  She’s another great FitFluential Ambassador and I follow her Instagram feed.  She always has some great food pictures so I thought I’d give this a try.  This month’s challenge involves “queso” or cheese and raisins.  This week I’ll be sharing a recipe I made with blue cheese.  Next week I’ll hopefully share a recipe with raisins.

The idea for this recipe came to me while cooking dinner.  We’ve been having a lot of rice lately and I had just read someone else’s post about cooking quinoa.  If you’ve never had it before, I urge you to try it.  Quinoa has many health benefits including a high protein content, there’s 24 grams of protein in 1 cup!  When cooking with quinoa make sure to rinse it first.  Also, I always use a mixture of chicken broth and water to boil the quinoa, this way it flavors it while cooking without having to add salt.

I normally roast beets for what seems like an eternity, but while reading an old issue of Real Simple magazine I saw that you could chop beets and steam them for about 10 minutes instead.  So, I decided to try that and it worked out great.  The beets steamed while everything else was cooking.  I used blue cheese because that’s what I had in my fridge.  I’m sure you could substitute it with feta or even goat cheese.

Have you had quinoa?

One of the first bloggers who inspired me to start blogging was Heather from Housewife Glamour.  She’s been doing a Friday Favorites post for a while now, so I thought I should join her.  So, here it goes…

I’d heard so much about Kind bars, but I never tried them until a month or so ago.  On the way to gymnastics we stopped at a gas station and I happened to grab a dark chocolate cherry one.  Love at first bite.  They’ve become a necessary item in my shopping cart at the grocery store now.

I’ve never been big in baking, but after borrowing this book from the library, I’ve become a regular Betty Crocker.  I’ll be sharing more recipes here later, but suffice it to say, I’m buying this book.

Another Friday favorite is this book I originally picked for my husband.  A while back we went to see Jim Gaffigan at the Ruth Eckerd Hall and he was well worth the admission charge and drive there.  I’ve always been a big fan of  him and this book is hilarious, laugh out loud for real.  Go get it.

Have you seen the new Athleta catalog?  I just got it and I’m in love with all the beautiful shades of green and neon yellow.  I’m normally not a capri person, but these ones are calling my name for sure.

And lastly, but not least are these amazing Ruby Red Grapefruits.  When was the last time you had one?

Well, I hope you enjoyed my first edition of Friday Favorites! What are some things you are loving today?

If you are from the Plant City area, then strawberry onions are not new to you.  Drive by almost any strawberry field, and you’ll see their beautiful green tops flailing with the breeze.    What makes these onions special its’ their sweet taste.  They are extra special to me because they don’t make me cry when I cut them. 🙂

Some customers tell me they love to just bite into them as if they were eating an apple.  I haven’t tried that yet, but I do use them in my cooking like any other onion.  I’ve also heard they are wonderful for making onion rings.  Here’s a few tips for making onion rings at home:

1. Once you’ve dipped your rings into the batter, lined them on a tray and put in the freezer for 15-20 minutes before frying.  This will help set the crust onto the onion ring.
2. Get a frying thermometer to keep an eye on the hot oil.  When the oil gets too hot, it’ll start smoking and gives off a different taste.  Peanut, Safflower and Canola are best for frying.  Try to keep the onions around 350-375F if frying.  If you are baking them, keep the oven around 400-450F.
3. Cook in small batches.  Yes, it will take longer, but the results will be oh so worth it!

Strawberry onions are available at our market right now.  We sell them individually for $1.19 each.  If you are not nearby, we’ll gladly ship them directly to you via FedEx ground.  Give us a call at 888-311-1701, or check out our website for more info.