B.L.T. Quinoa Salad

Even stale coffee tastes deeeelish in a cute mug. Yellow makes me smile.

I don’t know how it happened but my fruit bowl is entirely empty.  And I’m unwilling to bust into the frozen blueberries just yet so my waffle found itself paired with a flattened banana today.

And since I was apparently having fun taking pictures of things I was holding this morning, here’s the boiled egg I ate before heading to the gym.

I heard a dirty rumour that today (or possibly Sept-6th…apparently it’s up in the air) is the last day of $1 drinks from McD’s so clearly I had to stop for an iced coffee to mark the occasion.

And paired it with a granola bar because I waited way too late to go the gym and my stomach was screaming for lunch…which I just COULD NOT wait the 5 minutes for.

Awwww yeah.  Fresh veggies!  And another hard boiled egg.  It’s a good thing I live alone.  ;)

My little patio herb planters are chock full of fresh green herby goodness now so I decided to pick a bunch last night and turned it into an easy peasy dip.  Fresh basil for the win!

Fresh Herby Dip:  mix together…

• 3/4 cup light sour cream
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used parsley, basil and chives)
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• juice of half a lemon
• salt & pepper, sprinkle of paprika

I was a bit too heavy handed on the garlic in my batch but overnight the flavours came together quite well.  The lemon really works with the fresh herbs.

Check this dinner out. Genius I tell you. What do you do with a random pack of bacon, a recently unearthed bag of quinoa, and a bounty of cherry tomatoes from your very own patio planter?

Well B.L.T. Quinoa Salad of course!  And just like I’d put on the sandwich, the dressing involves mayo and Dijon.

Ingredients (two servings):

• 1/2 cup quinoa, cooked in 3/4 water, room temperature
• 4 slices bacon, cooked crispy, crumbled
• 12-14 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup shredded lettuce
• optional:  fresh herbs (chives and parsley)

For dressing:

• 1.5 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a large bowl.  Taste and adjust seasoning if desired.
2. Simply add the quinoa, bacon, tomatoes, and herbs to the dressing bowl.  Toss, add the lettuce, toss again.  Serve.

I enjoyed the first bowl so much that I actually went back and hoovered down the second serving I was planning to save for tomorrow’s lunch. Oooops.

This evening I met up with the other Jamie for our traditional coffee date.  I heard a rumour that the new Starbucks finally opened at Uptown and they were giving away free food and drinks in exchange for donations to our local food bank.

Nothing wrong with a Decaf Americano Misto in exchange for a few bucks to The Mustard Seed!

Of course, we also took this opportunity to pop into Cupcakes since it is conveniently located right next door to the new Starbucks.  I hadn’t been there yet and even though I was up to my eyeballs in quinoa salad I couldn’t resist the cupcakey goodness.

Red Velvet.  Sorry local cupcakeries, this mainland chain still wins in the cream cheese frosting department.  So deeeelicious. 

I kind of want to go back for a six pack of day-olds to bring camping this weekend.  What?  It’s RV camping.  There’s internet access.  Cupcakes would be perfectly acceptable.  Honest.