Asparagus, Quinoa & Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I have to admit, I never really had asparagus until I was an adult, and the first time that I tried it, I didn't like it. After we made stir fry sauce with ginger, I was looking around for other recipes that used ginger and I found this awesome video: Asparagus Ginger Recipe. I will definitely be eating more asparagus from now on!

We made this with quinoa. If you have never made/heard of/tried quinoa, here is a great explanation from Dani Spies about what quinoa is and how to cook it: Quinoa 101. Quinoa is easy to make, we rinsed about half a cup in a strainer, then put 3/4 cup of water with the quinoa into the steamer and then it's done in about 20 minutes.

I picked up some organic pumpkin seeds but I didn't really enjoy their taste. I cooked about a cup in a frying pan on medium high heat with a tiny bit, maybe about 1/4 teaspoon of olive oil, and I added about 1/4 teaspoon of paprika, and salt to taste. When I turned off the heat and squeezed the juice of 1/2 lemon into them, then spread them out on a baking sheet. With the oven set at 350, I roasted the pumpkin seeds for five-seven minutes. (Keep an eye on them, they should be a little bit brown but not burned.)


Links:
Why You Can't Lose Those Last 10 pounds: http://shine.yahoo.com/event/loveyourbody/why-you-cant-lose-those-last-10-pounds-1964849/

6 Beverage Industry Secrets they Don't Want You to Know. http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/6-beverage-industry-secrets-they-dont-want-you-know-0

Great Health website: http://www.healthcastle.com/

The benefits of Exercise - http://health.yahoo.net/articles/fitness/5-mind-blowing-benefits-exercise

Stir fry & dessert

Finally, after trying a few recipes, we were able to perfect a stir fry sauce! This one has about one teaspoon of garlic, one teaspoon of ginger, two tablespoons of soysauce (we used a low sodium one), about half a cup of vegetable broth, one tablespoon of honey and the juice of half an orange. We blended everything in the magic bullet and the results were fantastic! Our stir fry vegetables were broccoli, carrots, onions, brown rice and red pepper.

For dessert, I tried out this recipe for homemade protein bars, and they were so delicious! I substituted goji berries for raisins because I don't really like raisins and goji berries are so good for you. I also added a few walnuts instead of just the almonds. I had a little bit of trouble with the dark chocolate, I had to add some milk and sugar to it, but the end result was incredible, a little bit crumbly, but incredible.