Quinoa, Sweet Potato and Broccoli Breakfast Hash

I love cooking on Sundays. I wake up, plan my meals for the week, and head out to the grocery store, list in hand, to get just the ingredients I need. It's led to much smarter shopping and far less waste at the end of the week.

I pick up a cup of Counter Culture coffee on the way home, always a treat on the weekends.

Then I head home, line up my groceries by meal, and get started cooking. I often end up spending a good deal of the day in the kitchen, enjoying both the process and the end results.

This week it was a delicious casserole of baked lima beans, smoked salmon potato cakes, and a quinoa, sweet potato and broccoli breakfast hash.

Altogether they won't provide every meal I need for the week, but the hash will cover all my breakfasts, and between the baked beans and potato cakes, I'll have most of my lunches and dinners already made.

This hash makes a hearty breakfast. After a bowl of this, I'm full until lunch. To make it special on the weekends, I fry up an egg and serve it on top. When the yolk breaks, it soaks through the quinoa and veggies, making each bite taste like something new. Or, leave it out and keep it vegan.

I'm linking up with Healthy Vegan Fridays! Yum!

Broccoli-Basil Macaroni and Cheese

*My Baked Explorations Cookbook Giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. Friday night! Just tell me about your favorite cookbook for a chance to win!*

I tried to help my friend's three year old daughter wash her hands in the bathroom at the coffee shop last weekend.

I am clearly not a mother.

I struggled to hold her up with one hand and then turn the faucet on. I wasn't certain how hot to make the water (though she couldn't have cared at all that the water was lukewarm).

When trying to squeeze soap into her hand, I knocked the pump off of the bottle not just once, but twice.

And I dropped a whole bunch of paper towels into the sink.

She just laughed. She thought it was hilarious.

I realized I have a lot to learn about being a mother.

That's why I decided I needed to do some research before I brought new parents a meal. The advice I read in blogs made sense. It needs to be a meal that's easy to prepare, that doesn't require a lot of extra add-ins that you're not sending along. It needs to be something that keeps for a while (frozen is great), so if they can't get around to it that day, it's fine. And it needs to be something that's easy enough to eat one handed.

Broccoli-basil macaroni and cheese it was. I loaded it with whole wheat pasta, two kinds of cheese, and a ton of different veggies, including half a head of broccoli on top.

 

I made one for the new parents.

And I made one for myself. :)

I figured if I was going to all the trouble, I might as well have one to enjoy. And I wanted to make sure it tasted alright before I delivered it.

It did. And one batch was enough for about 8 servings, with sides. Always a bonus.