FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Ancient Grains Poké

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I’m always on the hunt for dishes where I can incorporate quinoa. Quinoa sushi, quinoa granola, quinoa with shrimp & kale – the FoodFash archives are filled with this protein and fiber packed grain. So when I received a shipment of Village Harvest’s Organic Benefit Blends, I couldn’t wait to dream up another quinoa dish that was special enough for one of these blends.

The perfect recipe came to mind after having poké bowls twice in one week {one on a bed of greens and the other on a bed of rice}. Why not recreate this classic Hawaiian dish at home with the Ancient Grains blend? Fresh seafood, raw veggies, and a blend of quinoa, millet, and buckwheat sounded like an incredibly refreshing, feel-good meal for the peak of summer.

An added bonus is that knowing Village Harvest’s background will also make you feel good. As a company, they define social sustainability to not only mean caring for our planet, but also their employees.

  • Village Harvest has pledged 1% of their profits to run programs that give back to the farmers and local communities from which they source their products.

  • Village Harvest has pledged to donate 1% of their employees’ time to charitable causes and sustainability efforts.

How wonderful is that!

I used the Ancient Grains blend for this recipe, but I’m willing to bet that the Antioxidant and Protein blends would be delicious in this recipe as well.

If you’re interested in these products and they aren’t available at your local store, please use this link to fill out a product request. Otherwise, all of the Organic Benefit Blends can be found at Village Harvest’s online shop. And shipping is free when you order eight bags.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Breakfast Taco Egg Muffins

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Tyson Foods, Inc. The opinions and text are all mine.

Growing up, weeknights were super busy. Between my mom bringing home work and my endless amount of homework, I don’t have too many memories of eating dinner together. But what I do have are loads of memories of eating breakfast together on the weekends. Whether it was stacks of pancakes, cast iron egg dishes, or bowls full of steel-cut oats, the two of us always made time for weekend breakfasts.

Fast forward to today, when I’m the adult glued to the computer. I try to make time for homemade meals during the week, but they are typically rushed. More evenings than not, I am in my own cooking world, scurrying to take pictures, while my boyfriend reads a book at the kitchen bar. We eat, we catch up about the happenings of our day, and then it is off to editing and writing.

But weekend breakfasts! Weekend breakfasts are still my time for a forced, but oh so welcomed, slow down. Before plans or chores or errands, there’s breakfast. And since we have my boyfriend’s daughter every other weekend, it has become increasingly more important for us to slow down to enjoy weekend mornings and each other.

And because I was comfortable in the kitchen at an early age, I like to make dishes that she {a 3-1/2 year old} can help with, too. These dishes are typically pretty simple and don’t require a lot of steps because my focus needs to be on her versus timing everything just perfectly. And that’s where this Texas-inspired “breakfast taco” egg muffin recipe using Jimmy Dean® Fully Cooked TURKEY PATTIES comes in!

Jimmy Dean® Patties, along with the other ingredients in this recipe, are super accessible and can easily be found at your local HEB. And since they are already fully cooked, they eliminate a few time-consuming and messy steps {like discarding hot grease!}. And for us, that means we get to the fun part of cooking, the assembly part, much more quickly.

There’s some prep work in this recipe that she’s not quite ready for, like shredding and chopping. But once I took care of that, whipped up the eggs, and evenly distributed the eggs into the muffin tin, it was her turn to sprinkle the cheese, onions, potato, and sausage on top of the eggs. And because the Jimmy Dean® Patties are already cooked, there is no worry of her handling raw ingredients! That means there is also no worry of undercooked meat within the egg muffins either.

These egg muffins are super easy to serve and fun for the entire family to eat. The Jimmy Dean® Patties give the egg muffins a wonderful savory flavor that makes the muffins feel fancy enough for a special occasion {like Mother’s Day}, but still simple enough for any old Sunday. And this recipe is simple enough to double, triple, or make ahead if you’re planning a get-together for a larger group.

 

Using Jimmy Dean® Patties chopped roughly fifteen minutes off of my breakfast preparation and cleanup time. That is fifteen minutes I was able to share between teaching the little one about cooking and engaging in conversation with my two favorite people. And it filled our bellies with a super protein packed breakfast so we could take on the day!

You can find all these delicious Jimmy Dean® products at HEB in the breakfast meats section of the refrigerated aisle. If you’re looking for more traditional breakfast taco recipe, click here for the Jimmy Dean® Fully Cooked “Breakfast Taco” recipe. And with this HEB coupon, if you buy Jimmy Dean® Fully Cooked Product, you’ll get a Large Egg 6ct free {expires 5/16/17}!

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Brined & Seared Pork Tenderloin

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AllNaturalPork #CollectiveBias

Whether I’m making dinner on a Tuesday night for myself or on a Saturday night for guests, I get a ton of enjoyment from making a meal that feels special. Smithfield All Natural Pork Tenderloin is one of those cuts of meat that always feels special, but is easy enough to prepare on a busy weeknight. And since there is a good amount of inactive cooking time when preparing this tenderloin, there’s plenty of time to whip up a few simple, veggie-filled sides while the meat is brining/cooking {like the mashed cauliflower and sautéed zucchini/squash pictured above}.

Brining meat is also a very simple way to achieve top notch moisture and flavor. By soaking a piece of meat in a salty, flavorful bath of water, the meat absorbs the water and, as a result, loses less water during the cooking process. And more water yields an incredibly tender tenderloin.


In the theme of keeping this recipe simple with classic flavors, I created a brine with water, salt, Herbes de Provence, and sugar. Herbes de Provence is an herb mix that typically consists of savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, and oregano, all of which compliment pork very nicely. A step-by-step recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.

Smithfield All Natural Pork Tenderloin is perfect for my home because it doesn’t contain steroids, hormones, or artificial ingredients. And since Smithfield All Natural Pork can be found at your local Walmart, this tenderloin is also a convenient choice.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AllNaturalPork #CollectiveBias

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Steel Cut Oats With Coconut Milk, Berries & Seeds

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Irish Oatmeal with Coconut Milk Raspberries and Seeds

Eggy breakfasts are typically my preference.  Heck, I even made an eggy dinner last night!  But every once in a while I remember how much I love steel cut oats and I get back on an oats kick.  And that’s exactly what happened this weekend.

Irish Steel Cut Oats 2

On Day 1, I worked with what I had: coconut milk, frozen berries, and a mix of pumpkin and sunflower seeds from leftover from a Graze box.  On Day 2, I picked up some fresh berries and added a bit of coconut sugar because I was in the mood for something a little more sweet.

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