I ran across this recipe in a magazine, thought of Lori’s quinoa fixation and ripped out the page. I think it might have been Saveur Magazine… Regardless, I modified it to fit our needs (soy milk and sugar substitute, and added the cardamom to give it a rice-pudding-ish fragrance/flavor.)

I like this recipe because it is not overwhelmingly sweet – just a hint of  sweetness with the nuttiness of the walnuts, the tartness of the cherries, an the fragrance of the cardamom.

Ingredients;

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 4 green cardamom pods (I’ve found these at World Market and at Indian Grocers.)
• 2 large pears
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup soy/almond/rice/cow milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup sugar (or equivalent substitute – we used Baking Splenda)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup dried cherries
• 1/4 cup dried walnuts

Preparation;

1. Rinse quinoa and drain.
2. Boil 2 cups of water.  Crack cardamom pods (to allow the water in but not spill the seeds everywhere) and add to water. Add quinoa, and simmer it in 2 cups water for about 20 minutes, until the water is absorbed. Remove cardamom pods.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. Clean and cut pears into thin slices. Cover the bottom of a nonstick/greased 8×8 pan with the slices.
5. Whisk together the eggs, soy milk, sugar (or substitute), vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the quinoa, cherries, and nuts. Pour mixture over the sliced pears.
6. Bake on the middle rack of the oven until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (approx 70 minutes.)
7. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes. Serve warm.

The ingredients sound deceptively simple, but for some reason when you cook them like this – it is unbelievably good.

A year or so ago Coby and I were watching some BBC show (can’t recall which one) and somebody mentioned off hand that they were making “Egg in a Basket.” Having never heard of this, I googled it. It sounded simple enough, so we tried it. Hope you enjoy as much as we did.

For each serving, you will need;

• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 2 large eggs
• salt and pepper to taste (I use Bacon Salt – that stuff is amazing – and Vegan. Not that it matters when I cook eggs, right?)

Preparation:

1. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat.
2. Place 1/2 Tablespoon of butter in the pan.
3. On a plate – Use a cookie cutter to cut out a piece in the center of each piece of bread. I bought a bunch of them at the Dollar Tree specifically for this. Classy. You can also use a drinking glass, turned upside down, to cut out the bread piece. Avoid wine glasses – I found out the hard way those things are brittle…I digress. Your butter is burning now.
4. Place the bread in the pan, sop it around for a second (to get it coated a little) then flip it over.
5. Break one egg into the hole of  the bread slice.
6. Cook until the egg is golden on the bottom, a minute or two. Flip to cook on the other side, about 1 minute.  See, this is why you flipped the bread early, so you do not have to re-butter.
7. Repeat 1-6 for the other slice of bread. If you have a large frying pan, you could potentially do both at once.
8. After you’ve cooked all of your Eggs-in-Baskets, toss the cut out center pieces of bread into the pan with some butter. Waste = bad.

• 1 cup Barley, pearled, dried
• 1 cup grated Carrots, raw
• 1/2 cup chopped Celery, raw
• 1/4 cup Coriander (cilantro) leaves, raw 
• 1/2 cup orange Lentils, dried
• 1/2 cup brown Lentils, dried
• 1/2 cup chopped Onion, raw
• 1/2 cup Peas, split, mature seeds, dried
• 1 cube vegetarian bouillon
• 1 cups Water
• 1 tsp salt

1. Boil 9 cups of water with salt.
2. Add Barley, reduce to simmer, keep covered, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes
3. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for an additional 25 minutes