Beginning in the middle

January to June are long gone, half the year is over, and I've chanced upon surreptitious christmas jingles in the bookstore. At this point in the year, I've decided to go back to old habits, or perhaps renew old vows. Yes, the dread of going back to the gym is upon us. I've signed up for a full year and I will actually haunt the place on a regular basis.

With the renewed energy of plunking down money for the service, I went off to buy vegetables and healthy (fiber-rich) food. Friend J had posted a quinoa breakfast dish recently, and while I like changing my cereals every so often, I do prefer the wheat like product as a salad. Perhaps its due to the first quinoa dish I had in salad form - with cranberries, pinenuts, and peppers, tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette.

I had no luck finding cranberries, but there's this free box of dates at home, and good looking asparagus in the market, add an orange and I put together the quinoa salad care of the recipe I found online here.

It's hearty and stick to your ribs (and palate) kind of salad. It would probably work with raisins as a substitute for dates if you just can't find them, but I do think dates aren't as difficult to source these days. The sticky texture and gentle sweetness blossom with the orange pairing. This dish makes me want to throw together a date/orange shake with yogurt!

I'm planning to put together a few more of the hot weather recipes that the folks at Serious Eats put together; I have a big basket of baby potatoes for an easy salad, and a lot of buckwheat noodles for making the kimchi-sesame noodle dish. I will reek of garlic after noshing the latter so I best make it for a weekend night, when it's just me and the cat and dog.