Red “Meatless Monday” Quinoa

A little leftover for my breakfast...

Welcome to Monday; the day most 9 to 5 workers dread (myself included) as it means the weekend is over and work begins. It’s a vicious cycle; if I could still be surrounded by food, I wouldn’t mind so much.
Kelley and I were out looking at things we don’t “need” but really want and will probably get. You know how that goes? You keep searching for justification to purchase something, and finally, you just get the thing. Kelley wants an iPad2 and I want a new digital camera to help with food pictures and just because ours current cameras are out of date. We haven’t yet, but with Best Buy’s stupid 0% offers, we’ll probably have our “wants” soon.

After a day of shopping, we came home and setup the pull-up and punching bag station (it finally arrived) and took a few swings before winding down for the evening. Kicking and hitting a big bag was more fun than I expected, and I enjoy the added variety for exercise with built in stress relief!

Quinoa has become a staple “grain” (it’s really a seed) in our home since it’s just as versatile as rice, with the added bonus of packing a more nutritious punch. For today’s work lunch, I used red quinoa (it comes in black and white too) just to keep things interesting. There is not a nutritional difference between the colors, but some say the white one has a lighter flavor while red is more Earthy. You’ll have to decide for yourself, since I don’t notice a contrast in taste.

To make this dish, I used the following (serves 3-4):
•1/2 cup Quinoa
•3 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
•1 onion; I used a package of frozen and chopped onion
•1 package of frozen mixed vegetables; mine had some beans in there too
•1 package of frozen chopped broccoli
•1 cup chicken stock

•2 tablespoons of your favorite mustard (optional)
•Mixture of several herbs and spices including: cumin, chili powder, basil, cilantro, turmeric, and cayenne

To prepare:
1. Heat non-stick sauce pan.
2. Add garlic and onion. Cook for three minutes or until soft.
3. Add vegetables, quinoa, water or stock and salt and pepper (if desired).
4. Cook for 20 minutes or until quinoa is fully cooked (it will be translucent).

If you can't tell, I like extra seasoning; I see Cayenne!

For the meat lovers in your life, red quinoa can be used as a tasty protein replacement on Meatless Monday. I made extra of this dish to bring for our friend at work since he liked the quinoa sample from last week; hopefully the red doesn’t scare him off.

I ended up cooking more than I said I would on Friday’s post, but Kelley and I still had a great time together and we installed the hardware on our kitchen drawers and cabinets. Actually, Kelley made the templates, marked where to drill, installed the hardware, and cleaned up afterward; I just drilled the holes. We were pretty efficient since I was cooking while doing this in the kitchen; that takes more proficiency than most might realize! This is something we’ve been meaning to do for a while but kept pushing it off.

These pulls will make opening drawers much easier!

Anyway, how was your weekend? Did you tackle any looming plans you’ve been pushing off? If you haven’t already, don’t miss your chance to win NuNaturals Stevia products by clicking here and commenting.