French Friday with Dorie: Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli & Quinoa, Fruit, and Nut Salad

Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli

Quinoa, Fruit, and Nut Salad

I'm catching up today after missing last week's Quinoa Salad with Fruit and Nuts and also back on track with the Broccoli.  Last week was crazy!  All business taxes are with the CPA for review, payday was  a piece of work, and just for "fun" I was responsible for a wonderful sit-down dinner for 350 people.  I made over 1500 desserts, and tons of other foods, my daughters came to help, friends also helped.  Our extravaganza was beautiful and the food was fabulous.  I fried my brains and killed by feet, but I will be up for it again this fall...I must be nuts!  But I actually had great fun...the people who helped were amazing, and it is always a joy to be in the kitchen with other food loving people, all laughing, making messes, creating, encouraging, learning, and being successful, and in fact, coming together with results that exceeded all our expectations.  For example:  One of my daughters hand chopped all ingredients to make 12 gallons of beautiful fresh salsa and it was so good that I'm still receiving compliments.  And I confess that I used a couple of our Dorie recipes that wowed the crowd. ..especially those buttery tart crusts.   So, my new Dorie recipes are being put to good use again.

After taking a couple of days off from my kitchen, I was ready to get back in.  And, after all my desserts, some healthy foods were appreciated by all the family.  Hubby loved the quinoa salad.  I took bowls of this flavorful dish to both Hubby and Number 1 Son to the office for their lunch...received thumbs up from each.  Hubby actually asked for this salad again as his dinner and talked about it again the next day.  Quinoa is trendy among his work-out friends.  His gym serves a similar lunch item as a healthy after workout meal.  He was impressed with all the mix-ins and the great flavor.  He would like this salad regularly...makes me happy to have a new recipe that he enjoyed so much.

I want to remember what I added to the quinoa that hubby enjoyed so much:  pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried apples, oranges, bananas, cherries, plumbs, blueberries, mango, and cranberries.  I chopped fresh basil from the garden, juiced one of our lemons, used salt, pepper, ginger and EVO. After mixing these ingredients with the quinoa, this salad was spooned on greens and topped with plain yogurt...well it was plain until I sweetened it with agave nectar.  The added sweetness of the agave was just right.

Healthy and Flavorful

Hubby also loved the broccoli.  The garlicky crumb coating was really tasty...he ate all the leftovers the next day and enjoyed this dish again.  Paired with a bowl of steamed shrimp he was a happy man.  

Very nice to have 2 quick new meals that make my man so satisfied...both  meals left him feeling very healthy.  And because they are light, he had room to enjoy some of my leftover desserts.

Again so I remember:  I used fresh chopped mint with the broccoli.  For the bread crumbs I used a piece of day-old 4 cheese sour dough bread that I crumbled in the food processor...added a nice flavor to this dish.

We enjoyed these simple, healthy recipes.  I will make them again soon.