Friday Night Brownies

I had a wonderful Friday night with my friend, Kate, because her husband, Paul, was out for the night. After wandering around the mall and shopping a little bit, we stopped by the grocery store to get ingredients for pizza (there wasn't any dough left, so we got a pre-made pizza crust) and made some easy brownies. I have made these once before and they got scarfed up by my co-workers before I could get a picture of them! They are definitely easy to make and don't require melting chocolate (my least favorite part about homemade brownies). Here is the recipe!

Easy Brownie Recipe
from Group Recipes

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, melted
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix flour, sugar, and cocoa in a large bowl. 

Pour in butter, eggs and vanilla.

Mix well and pour into a greased 9x13 pan. 

Bake for 25 minutes.

I love this recipe- so simple and so delicious. Its not a fudge-y brownie, but it doesn't "harden" until it cools because of the large liquid content in butter and eggs. They taste more like German chocolate to me than a traditional brownie, but I can't wait to try it with dark cocoa powder! Its a perfect dessert to throw together and somewhat instant gratification!

Quinoa Veggies

I finally got around to trying this recipe that I saw over the summer. And I'm converted to a believer for quinoa :) I used to think it was just strange and looked squiggly (which it does, but I just had a bad experience in Ecuador!) and I'm so glad I conquered that prejudice against quinoa.

Quinoa Veggies from Vegan Lunchbox Around the World

Ingredients

• 1 c quinoa, rinsed and drained
• 2 c vegetable broth or water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ red onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• ½ red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 medium zucchini, diced
• ½ c frozen corn kernels
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

1.       Place the quinoa and vegetable broth in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat. Turn the heat to low and cook, covered, for 20 minutes or until liquid has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork and set aside.

2.       Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan or high-sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper, and cook, stirring, until the onion is just soft, about 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for another 30 seconds, then add the zucchini and corn. Cook, stirring frequently, until the zucchini is crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.

3.       Add the cooked quinoa and stir well, toss with the fresh parsley and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

4.       Serve warm or cold.

It will definitely be a new recipe staple! Oh, and feel free to add whatever vegetables you want :) I added some yellow squash that I had and it was wonderful. Its a pretty versatile concept!

Farmer's Market Finds

Yesterday was our first Farmer's Market on campus for the year! Its only going to have a limited run (until the end of September) but I had a great time going to each of the booths and walking away with some great produce.

My favorite items are these eggplants. I think I'm going to try a crockpot recipe with them, but I'm not sure yet!

I also picked up some long beans, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, apples and peaches. And I tried the best peach tea ever. I'm stoked to go back to get the peach cider concentrate next week because I found out after I left that all you do is make black iced tea and add a little of the concentrate. Easy peasy, and super delicious!

I hope fresh produce inspires you this week :) Farmer's Markets are the bomb! I walked away with a ton of stuff for $12!

HELP!

I bought some figs on sale at Publix and I have no idea what to do with them! They are Kadota figs and they are totally throwing me for a loop. But I know that y'all could help me out :)

Aren't they cute on my plate? Lets get them into my tummy!

Apronista

I love love love aprons. A little too much. To put it this way, I am only 20 and already have 4 different aprons that are mine... and I'm working on making/collecting more! This one from Anna Marie really caught my attention and I just really want it. But I'll have to settle on gazing at it and saving for it. And maybe working on using this tutorial to dress up my dish soap (because why not?!) It made me laugh so I think it would be a perfect addition to my apron collection!

Cookie Experiment

I have been ACHING for an opportunity to make these Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, and so when our church's small group started up again for the semester, I had my opportunity!

Yum! They were so delicious :) I made them with this recipe from the Hungry Engineer. I changed it just a little by using Hershey's Dark chocolate chips instead of regular semi-sweet chips and it was uber-delicious. So go make yourself some "healthy" (or at least a little healthier!) cookie!

Come on, you deserve it! Its almost the weekend and the whole cookie process only takes about 20 minutes! Don't say I didn't warn you about how delicious they are!

Shirt I Embellished

I had been waiting to fix up this plain black shirt that I got at Wal-Mart and used Teresa Collin's post as inspiration. The little button on the right side of the picture is actually a butterfly that I got from a local fabric store for 25 cents. It inspired the color scheme of green and blue and a little white. Sorry the picture is not the best- I used my phone camera because I almost forgot to get a picture before I went to bed yesterday!


Oh, and yesterday when I was flipping through the Wall Street Journal, I noticed this article:

Food That Looks So Messy, It's Irresistible. It had some awesome pictures and I think it's pretty interesting how they compare food photography from 20 years ago to today. They also have a slideshow online that has a couple of more examples. Just thought my food bloggers would get a kick out of that article :) Its a quick read so jump on over if you can!