cooking ala mel

healthy recipes and the occasional craft

facebook instagram pinterest RSS Feed email bloglovin' goodreads

Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa Casserole

The semester is already starting to get crazy (three exams this week.. yikes), and I’m constantly feeling busy, busy, busy.  Easy meals are pretty much the only way a meal is going to happen, at this point, while we’re still getting used to the new routines.  Alex loves casseroles, so I figured I would make a bit healthier casserole than what he’s used to.  Quick, easy, and delicious!

One of my favorite casseroles that often shows up at family gatherings is a cheesy broccoli rice casserole.  I wanted to do a healthier twist on that by using quinoa, no cream soup, and loads and loads of veggies.  Because we had a yellow squash, I used that with the broccoli, but you can easily use all broccoli depending on what’s in season.
[Read more…]

Blueberry Zucchini Muffins

Who’s a fan of Doctor Who?  I’ve recently started watching the revived series, and I’m quickly becoming a major Whovian.  I began watching an episode here and there the first week of classes, and now it’s quickly progressed into spending the entire weekend watching it (after getting all of my work done, of course) – I’m now into Season 4.  I definitely recommend it to anyone out there who loves science fiction – and it’s all available to watch on Netflix!  So good.

With watching the Doctor endlessly, I’ve been sort of neglecting working out (just for the weekend), and I’ve been all about quick and easy meals.  I was definitely thankful for these muffins that I made last week and popped in the freezer!

[Read more…]

Zucchini Banana Rum Bran Bread

If you haven’t noticed already, I mostly deal with stress by baking.  Any time I’m way too busy and have a huge pile of things to do, I make sure I allocate at least a few hours to bake something.  The process – the scooping, measuring, pouring, stirring – is all so soothing to me.  This could also be why I absolutely love compounding lab; while the supplies differ in that we use a mortar and pestle, the process of weighing, triturating, and filling capsules soothes me just the same.  After a weekend where I worked Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (after having a full week of classes), I allocated all of Monday morning for baking (it was Labor Day).  Here’s one of four recipes I made that day.

My friend, Jaclyn, gave me some zucchini from her family’s garden, and I already had some zucchini that I bought, so I decided to make variations of zucchini breads.  I also had a freezer full of ripe bananas, so I decided to add some banana to this one.  A bit of rum was added in lieu of spices and some wheat bran for extra fiber.

[Read more…]