Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

These peppers are stuffed with turkey, quinoa, beans, corn, and lots of flavor!

My family probably gets annoyed with how much I love stuffed peppers, but I do! I don't really have a rhyme or reason and they probably wouldn't say anything if the peppers were cut up and I made a casserole of sorts instead. But they deal with it because I love it and I'm the one making dinner. :) I personally really enjoy this recipe because it reminds me of a crockpot quinoa recipe that I sometimes make for Taco Tuesdays - in fact, I'm making it in May. Love that there is more than just quinoa and meat.

Quinoa Berry Parfaits

The perfect filling breakfast or snack with just 3 ingredients!

When I was in the hospital after giving birth to my third child a little over 5 years ago, I was given the option to have oatmeal for breakfast. I jumped on it because 1) it's supposed to be good for breastfeeding moms and 2) it's oatmeal. Heck yeah! When they brought it up, it was completely unseasoned and I only had one packet of sugar (which was going to the coffee). I had a yogurt as well and on a whim, I threw my yogurt into the oatmeal to flavor it and sweeten it. I became obsessed and still eat yogurt with my oatmeal to this day.

Why am I talking about oatmeal on a quinoa post? Because this recipe reminded me of that but a fancier version and a slightly lighter version too. I loved the fresh fruit with it too. This is so easy to make in advance or with little prep the day of. Bonus because it can be portable if you need to grab breakfast on the go!

Cuban Chicken & Black Bean Quinoa Bowls

Quinoa and black beans topped with spicy, tangy chicken, mango, and fried chili bananas!

I cannot speak to the authenticity of this dish that is dubbed Cuban, but I can speak to how delicious it is. I know that not everyone thinks fruit goes with savory dishes, but I feel like those people haven't tried the right dish. I personally love fruit in savory dishes, but I have to admit that I wasn't sure about bananas in a savory dish because I don't really like bananas a ton. However, my skepticism was met with surprise and I enjoyed every component of this dish: the seasoning on the chicken, the quinoa and black beans, and the bananas and mango. It was amazing! I did make a slight adaptation with subbing lemon juice in for the orange juice because my oldest is allergic to oranges.

Cilantro Lime Turkey Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Simple ingredients combined to make a mouth-watering stuffed pepper that you will want to eat every day for forever.

I adore stuffed peppers and try to make them at least once a month. I've also started to really enjoy cilantro and lime together and you'll probably see more and more cilantro lime recipes on the blog. These peppers are probably my all-time favorite stuffed peppers and that was a really hard place for this recipe to unseat. I had one recipe that was my favorite for many many years. The filling itself is so addictive! The pepperjack cheese is a perfect match for the cilantro lime too.

Pesto Zucchini Boats

This simple stuffed zucchini recipe is the perfect meal in the summertime!

I love stuffed zucchini (and peppers) and wish I could have the more often. BUT every time I put it on the menu because our store has had zucchini, it ends up being gone and I have to quickly find an alternative. It really bums me out. Zucchini is my favorite vegetable and I would eat it literally all year round. It's just so fantastic. The original recipe did not contain any meat, but I have a bunch of complainers in the house if a meal doesn't have meat. So I opted to add sausage because I felt it would pair with pesto better than another meat.

Crockpot Italian Chicken & Quinoa Soup

Loaded with flavor, this crockpot soup is a wonderful meal for a chilly day!

I love to be surprised by foods I make. Soups aren't always the prettiest, so looks aren't really a good judge. The minute I went to serve this soup up and the ladle wafted all the soupy goodness smell up in the air...I KNEW this was going to be incredibly wonderfully delicious. I know that you aren't supposed to use the word delicious to describe foods, but sometimes you just have to. It's nothing to look at, but it sure is a fantastic soup with loads of flavor.

Blueberry Breakfast Quinoa

Oatmeal who? This breakfast quinoa has blueberries almonds and is sweetened with a drizzle of honey.

I have fallen in love with quinoa, but I've only made it with a savory dish. I decided it was well overdue for quinoa to appear in a breakfast recipe. Looking at this, it reminded me a lot of oatmeal, so I was confident that I would enjoy it and I was correct. I typically don't like honey, but it was the perfect way to sweeten up this little bowl of goodness - no grittiness from granulated sugar.

5-Ingredient Mexi Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

You only need five ingredients for this delicious stuffed pepper recipe!

I had every intention of making these quinoa stuffed peppers exactly how the original recipe stated, however, I had the worst time trying to find black bean crumbles, so I subbed in some chorizo. It still turned out fabulously and I love the easy of just having to use five ingredients to make dinner. It's just fantastic. Seriously.

Cheesy Chicken Caprese Pesto & Quinoa Casserole #SundaySupper

Classic caprese flavors in a wonderful chicken and quinoa casserole

Hello, everyone! I am back for another Sunday Supper Movement event. Today's event is hosted by Rini of Healing Tomato and the theme is RECIPES USING FRESH TOMATOES. I immediately thought of this dish because it is one of my more recent favorites. I initially made it without pesto, but I feel the pesto really adds a depth of flavor it was missing prior to. Plus I have been on a very big pesto kick lately. It honestly doesn't matter what I'm trying to eat...a sandwich, pasta, pizza, etc., I've probably put pesto in or on it. I personally think this casserole would also be great with ground turkey or beef or even Italian sausage.

Don't forget to check out the recipes at the bottom of the post from my fellow Sunday Supper Movement blogger friends!

One Pot Wonder Stuffed Pepper Skillet

The one pot wonder of the world! This stuffed pepper skillet is wonderful.

This recipe originally calls for rice, however, when I had planned this out, it was right around the time that I had made a similar rice-based one pot meal. So I really wanted some quinoa in my life. I also for some reason had a bunch of different quinoas on hand and didn't want them to go to waste because it's not necessarily the cheapest grain.

You could absolutely use rice in this though, so if quinoa isn't in your budget or tastes, definitely pull out the rice. You main have to adjust the cooking time to cook your rice all the way though. The next time this is on the menu, I'm going to drain my tomatoes. I think that quinoa may have absorbed less liquid than rice would have, but that's for me to figure out I suppose LOL. It was still a super flavorful dish. I love having stuffed peppers without having the big pieces of pepper to cut while I try and eat. My kids appreciate it too :)

Quinoa Enchilada Casserole

 Switch up your Taco Tuesday with this flavor-packed quinoa casserole!

I am always impressed with how quinoa soaks up the flavors of whatever it's cooked into and this casserole is certainly no different. It's got all the fixings of a burrito bowl which has been my thing lately. I love too how it's such a filling meal. I've made a few recipes close to this one, but I believe they were slow cooker. This one takes a little over 30 minutes to make and it's so good!

Slow Cooker Cheesy Enchilada Quinoa

This cheesy quinoa goodness only takes 3 1/2 hours to cook in the crockpot!

My crockpot is probably one of my favorite kitchen appliances. I love being able to make meals in it. It's not just dinner either - side dishes, desserts, breakfasts....the crockpot can make them all. Well, I can make them all IN my crockpot, but y'all know what I mean!

One thing that I really adore about quinoa is its way of taking on the flavor of what it's cooked with. The enchilada sauce and all the other goodies, like the Rotel and cumin, are all soaked into the quinoa while it all slow cooks away in the crockpot and you get this incredible recipe with a punch of flavor in each bite. The textures are all so wonderful together and it would be perfect to reheat and serve up on a tortilla the next day - since it just keeps on getting better tasting as it "sits".

Vegetable & Quinoa Stuffed Zucchini #SundaySupper

Main dishes can be flavorful and filling without meat and this dish is here to prove that!

I'm back for another post with the #SundaySupper movement. Today's event is Vegetables as a Main Dish hosted by DB Stuntman of Crazy Foodie Stunts. I used to plan for one night a week without meat because I love variety and I have saved plenty of delicious recipes that are meatless. Unfortunately, I am outnumbered by the meat lovers in the house and that means it's rare that I can have a meatless night without complaint.

Luckily, I married into a family where my mom-in-law has very similar food preferences like mine and she enjoys meatless dishes too. I made this recipe right before Nick came down to Tennessee and got no complaints because it is such a wonderful recipe. The quinoa really aids in making it a filling dish and it is one of the most flavorful non-meat foods I've ever had! I had a little leftover filling and I definitely ate it without hesitation!

Bacon & Kale Quinoa Fried Rice

I saved this recipe when I had Amy's blog, Fearless Homemaker, for my Secret Recipe Club assignment a few months ago last May. Apparently, time flew by since I made her Maple Bacon Cinnamon Rolls. I made it late last summer while at Nick's mom's house and it was a hit. Our kale obsession was just starting and I was basically making anything and everything I could with kale in it. Plus I was on a quinoa-eating spree too. I wasn't really feeling a lot of chicken dishes (since I was pregnant at the time), so this recipe was definitely one of my favorites I had made in a while.

Chicken Pesto Quinoa

Quinoa is everything. It is one of my go-to favorite foods now. We had it for dinner tonight (in a recipe I'm very excited to share), in fact. This recipe utilizes one of my other favorite foods, too: pesto! I doubled the pesto from the original recipe and took out the sundried tomatoes. I'm not the biggest fan of them. In addition to quinoa and pesto, this recipe also has zucchini...which I could eat all day long! So basically this recipe was a win all around for me, even though it may not look that impressive :)

Crockpot Creamy Chicken & Green Bean Casserole

I have made quite a few dishes with quinoa over the last year or so. It's quickly become a family favorite. We've even subbed it out when rice or pasta is called for because we love it so much. I jumped the gun when I found a crockpot quinoa recipe. I adapted it slightly because we had poor broccoli supply at the store at the time I wanted to make it and I wanted to make it extra cheesy with not only pepperjack but some smokey gouda cheese too! And I totally cheat and use the real bacon bits instead of frying up bacon because let's be honest - it's super messy!

Roasted Red Pepper & Asparagus Quinoa

Hello, all!
Don't know if you can see me...but I'm over here on the Quinoa Bandwagon!!

Oh yes, I made that joke :) A really lame one.
Don't mind me over here just giggling about the corny hilariousness.

Like I said, I am on board with this quinoa craze. It's just one of the most versatile and delicious of grains. It can be in savory or sweet dishes from breakfast to dinner to dessert. So what's not to like about it?

This fabulous recipe comes straight from Jocelyn of Inside BruCrew Life. She is always posting some amazing looking sweets, but she doesn't shy away from posting some incredible main dish/savory recipes too - like this one!

There are few ingredients, but that doesn't mean it isn't flavorful. The little bit in the dish goes a long way. It's perfection - y'all have to try it!

Crockpot Beef & Broccoli

I love a good Asian meal with lots of veggies.
I especially love a good Asian meal with lots of veggies that I can throw into a crockpot!

And that's exactly what this is...
I served it up with quinoa because I'm super obsessed with it right now. It's a very filling and delicious meal that makes everyone happy :)

Quinoa & Black Bean Wraps Copycat

This was a very unexpected new favorite recipe that I tried recently. I made some slight changes to the original recipe, but I urge any vegan readers or any readers who have vegan friends to check out the original recipe and Lisa's blog, Je Suis Alimentageuse. My version is not vegan and that's where most of my change happened. Corn is out of season here, so I resorted to canned corn.

All the flavors work together perfectly. I am obsessed with quinoa right now - it's just so good! It looks a little crazy, but it's such a great ingredient. I made the Quinoa Stuffed Peppers again because Nick was unable to get it the first time around because he was deployed. It was his first time having quinoa and he was skeptical, but upon devouring the meal, he was every bit as obsessed as I am. He asked if it has some magical attribute where it takes on whatever meat it is paired with, which is a huge compliment. Sometimes I have to twist his arm to eat meatless foods (like this recipe).

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Quinoa seems to be taking the food world by storm lately and I really wanted to see what all the buzz was about. It's a grain that is high in protein and a great source of fiber, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron. I love stuffed peppers and thought it would be a great way to try quinoa for the first time.

I must say...this is my most favorite stuffed pepper recipe to date. The quinoa has such an amazing texture. It worked very well with the meat sauce. If you are looking to experiment and try out a new food - I highly recommend it be quinoa - and this recipe!!