[With Recipes] 2014 Chinese New Year Lunch Gathering With Relatives

This is the second year we invited our relatives over for Chinese New Year lunch gathering where everyone can mingles around as well as enjoy some homecook dishes and cakes prepared by my mum and myself. As usual we have a big group of relatives and to prepare a semi buffet for 30 people in a home base kitchen with gas stove and a microwave convection oven (my built-in oven was down) was rather a bit challenging for us. But thanks god we managed to get all the food up on time and everyone enjoys the array of food and family bonding time too.

So here is a long-winded post with photos of the food as well as related recipes (or recipe links) for your reference in case you need some inspiration on what to cook before the 15 days of lunar new year ends on Friday, 14 Feb 2014 (ooooo it's also Valentine's Day too)

3 Recipes On Quinoa Salad - Part II

Morning! It's Monday and here is Part II of my quinoa dishes which I would like to share with you. And if you have missed out Part I, here is the link. These super-grains can be used to make different food like salad, pancake, bread, cakes, porridge and etc which makes a healthy replace for our usual flours or grains.

In this post, I will be sharing how to use cooked quinoa and turn them into salad, fritters and risotto to create a hearty meal for the family. But if  you have any easy recipes on quinoa do feel free to share with us your post link or ideas on the comment box below too.

MUSHROOM AND BACON QUINOA SALAD

This Mushroom And Bacon Quinoa Salad was inspired by one of my friend, AiYen when we were chatting about Quinoa on skype last week. She told me she would like to try out her first quinoa dish with bacon and mushrooms so on that afternoon I loot back some bacon from the supermarket to test out her suggestion.

To our surprise this combination taste quite good with hint of bacon flavour and it's crispy texture hidden within the quinoa salad which blends well with the overall taste. But perhaps for next round I might add in a splash of extra virgin olive oil or lemon juice to lift up the taste.

3 Recipes On Quinoa Salad - Part I

Many of you might have heard about this super-grains known as Quinoa(Keen-wah) which is consider as the "Mother of All Grains". According to the information that I Google online, quinoa is an easily digested grains with good source of fiber and it's also gluten-free too.

For the past few months I have being including some organic "quinoa" into our daily meals for at least 2 - 3 times a week on top of our usual white/brown rice. And in this post you can also take on reference how I make used of the red and white quinoa in our dishes together with other ingredients.

MOROCCAN CHICKEN QUINOA SALAD

Moroccan seasoning has an exotic flavour and it is usually used to marinade lamb, chicken or beef which is ideal for grilling, barbecuing or pan frying. You can easily grab a bottle of this Moroccan Spice (shown in the ingredients photo below) at your local supermarkets or you can mix your own using a few spices shown below too.