Quinoa Pilaf

Quinoa makes a nutty subsitute for rice in this riff of a pilaf. It would be delicious and unique for a picnic outing, or equally good as an easy weeknight side dish. Quinoa cooks in 10 minutes, so it really is doable in a pinch.

Serves 4 (as a side)

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 2 small zucchini, finely diced
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• salt
• for the vinaigrette:
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1/2 small shallot, peeled and minced (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• pinch of salt

Directions

Add the rinsed quinoa, a pinch of salt and the water to a pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and drop the temperate to low, so that the quinoa is just simmering. Simmer for 10 minutes, then take of the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

While the quinoa is cooking, cut up the 

zucchini (if you don't like raw zucchini, play around with the vegetable), toast the pine nuts, and make the 

vinaigrette. For the vinaigrette, whisk the vinegar, salt, shallot, and mustard in your quinoa serving bowl. Once combined, drizzle in the olive oil slowly.

To assemble: add the zucchini, pine nuts, and quinoa to the bowl with the vinaigrette and combine. Season to taste and enjoy.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints

Should I put this out there? (deep breath) My son doesn't like chocolate. There, I said it. Something must be wrong with his genetic code. We'll work through it, but in the meantime, my go-to cookie is a sea salt chocolate chip peanut butter cookie, and he's not a fan.

I decided to give a PB&J cookie a try to see if he liked it better, and I think I hit the jackpot. He LOVES them. He probably likes them a little too much that I won't be able to make them often, but that shouldn't stop you!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints

Ingredients

• 1 cup, creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup, demerara sugar
• 1 egg, whisked
• 2 tablespoons, all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon, fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon, baking powder
• ~1/2 cup jelly or jam of choice (I used seedless raspberry all-fruit, no sugar added jam)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl mix the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. In a medium bowl combine the peanut butter and sugar until smooth, then add the egg until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine thoroughly. Form the dough into golf-balled sized rounds, place on parchment lined baking sheet. With your thumb, gently make a small indentation into each cookie ball.

Bake the cookies for 6 minutes, then remove. With the back of a wooden spoon, gently re-press down the indentation on each cookie to make a big enough "cup" for the jam filling. Scoop a 1/2 teaspoon of the jam into each cookie, then return to the oven for 5-6 more minutes. The cookie dough should be just shy of set, and the jam, just melted to fill in the area.

Cool cookies to room temperature and enjoy.