Arugula and Beet Salad with Fried Goat Cheese Discs, Roast Beef, Hazelnuts and Orange Vinaigrette

Riffing off of a number of different recipes, we pieced this healthy and very brightly colored salad together after checking out the cherry blossoms on this random 80 degree day.

We mixed together arugula, roasted beets, toasted hazelnuts, and orange segments, then we topped that with sliced roast beef and this orange vinaigrette from Cooking Light, and finally, we borrowed the crispy fried goat cheese discs from this John Besh recipe.

We give thumbs up to the recipe as a whole, but think that the roast beef may have been unnecessary, as it gets lost amid all of the other strong flavors in the salad.

Tofu and Veggie Fried Rice

We made way too much pilaf for Sunday's Armenian-style horovatz, so I decided to make fried rice with all of the leftovers, also incorporating the leftover beet greens and stems. Feeling a little sluggish after a weekend of drinking and meat-eating, I decided to do a non-traditional spicy tofu and veggie fried rice with a little egg, loosely based on a couple fried rice recipes from Jaden Hair at Steamy Kitchen. My recipe after the jump!

Fried Rice-Style Fried Quinoa

I had some leftover cooked quinoa from the salad I made last week, so I thought I would try stir-frying it like fried rice... kinda like chicken-fried steak. Not at all like chicken-fried chicken... what the hell is chicken fried chicken? Isn't it just fried chicken??Anywho, I loosely based my fried rice fried quinoa on a bunch recipes I found online, as well as what I could dig up in the fridge, which included carrots and CSA mushrooms, green onions, snow peas and eggs. Somehow, I didn't have any soy sauce in the house (and didn't notice until I had already prepped all the veggies)... a frantic trip to Target to remedy the soy sauce disaster resulted in the purchase of $60 worth of other stuff, but no soy sauce. I think it's physically impossible to leave Target without spending at least $50.

So, instead, I threw some Maggi sauce and some Sriracha into the stir-fry, which gave it a salty, spicy kick. The quinoa acted pretty much exactly like rice, but is much healthier and more protein-rich. Give it a try!