December's Goal: 3 miles/day

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Taste Review: Trader Joe's Red Quinoa (psudo recipe)

Last night I was happy to see my mother-in-law to be cook a healthy meal. She roasted a chicken, cooked rice and steamed broccoli. Felt good to not see a bag of frozen vegis go in the microwave as the only 'healthy option'.

The boys were having a podcast tonight and they really wanted coffee at 7:30pm for some reason... In place of some of the creamer, I treated us to some of the sample flavors that came with our recent Kahlua purchase.

Little Duder REALLY wanted to hand model for the pic. He also wanted to taste test for the camera, but mommy said no.

While everyone was preoccupied, I decided to make myself a hot lunch for tomorrow.
Black Beans and Not-Rice
Here are (most of) the ingredients

TJ's Red Quinoa
Chicken Stock
Diced Onions
Whole Black Beans
Salsa
Chia Seeds
and Almond slivers, for the heck of it.

First, I cooked the quinoa by the packaged directions with the stock. Part way through, I decided I wanted onions so I tossed them in after half of the liquid was cooked in.
In my bowl (Ziploc for convinience), I mixed a few TBS of black beans and salsa with a tsp of Chia Seeds, then ignored them for a while.
When the quinoa was done, mix it all together, toss a few almonds on top and- Done.

Simple, easy to make and made a great lunch.

How great? Well, this was my first time trying it. The flavor was amazing, it absorbed the stock really well and held the flavor. If this were rice, I'd be adding soy sauce just so I can taste something, but in the quinoa, I tasted the stock. The grains stick together like rice but there is a varience in texture. Some of the grains popped between my teeth; it remided me of the little seeds you feed to parakeets.
I've forced my family to taste it too and feel confident that I can prepare something in a family meal that they will be willing to try.

Then, when all the house was silent and at peace, I snuck out the back door into the night to feast on souls... er, I mean, walk. I took along my headlight had two goals on my mind: Finding awesome Halloween decorations and attempt jogging some more. I was going a whopping 3.75MPH. I know, slow down there Speedy Gonzalez...

I did find a house that was decorated in the scariest way I can imagine. Forgive my pics, its the middle of the night.

Now, the scarey part.... the whole yard was covered in these

About 2 dozen political signs... shudder.

I think I need to do some festive decorating before its too late.

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