Whipping up Some Food as the Summer Winds Down

It was due time to break in our "new" apartment's kitchen by trying out some new recipes. All summer I had seen recipes on pinterest for a "Lemonade Cake," and it just sounded too good to pass up. We are having some friends over for dinner this week and I thought with a hardy mexican meal, we might want a lighter fare for dessert. I also decided that unlike soooo many other times I would make it once before we had guests instead of making for the first time that day!!! 

 After all of the horror stories and stats I have heard about the bacteria and fecal matter found on lemons, I made sure to scrub these babies! 

 First time I had ever had lemonade concentrate was in this recipe. I also decided to add some strawberries and turn it into a "Strawberry Lemonade" cake.  Oh, and did I mention I made my own version that was Gluten Free? Why not, right? 

 Lemon Cream cheese frosting. 

 Cooling Cakes

 Strawberry puzzle. 

 Careful stacking. 

 Finito

 Yum!!! (Though I think next time in the middle of the layers I will use Strawberry preserves along with the slices to give it a bigger strawberry kick)

. . . . . . . .

I also had recently purchased a box of Quinoa. I usually just eat the pasta blend, but after having it over the summer in a side dish my sister Racquel made, I thought I would experiment.

I didn't look far. I looked as far as the back of the box at the Quinoa stuffed pepper recipe on the box. Above is the homemade steamer we configured. 

 Steamed peppers. 

 Tomatoes, Garlic, Onion, Mushrooms etc. . . . 

 & some Quinoa later : ) 

Finished product : ) They were so flavorful and very filling!!! Holy Cow!! If you buy the Ancient Harvest Brand-the recipe on the back is definitely worth a try!!!! Shane and I laughed because neither of us were that big of fans as kids-but thankfully our taste has matured!

- M.W. ( Last week before school-ahhhh!)