Quick Dinner with Red Quinoa

I realize that lately every post has been about cookies, candy or cupcakes. I admit, it could be worse! But please don't think that's all I eat! Every once in a while I'll actually cook a healthy meal, too. The people over at Alter-eco fair trade were really generous, and sent me quite a few samples a while back. I've slowly been working my way through them. I'm sort of savoring each item, not wanting to run out!

Last week I finally cracked open the bag of red quinoa. I had tried regular quinoa before, but never the red stuff. First of all, the color is just beautiful! Very festive for this time of year. I wanted to be able to taste the quinoa, not a bunch of other stuff, so I opted for a very simple pilaf.

I sauted one onion, added the dry quinoa and dry cooked it until it smelled toasty. I added the recommended amount of water, and let it cook while I prepared the rest of dinner. Good so far!

I cut up a head of broccoli, spread it on a baking sheet with olive oil, s&p, and popped it into a 400* oven. Pretty darn easy!

Finally, I set up our bamboo steamer with some water and brought it to a boil, creating lots of steam. I made a quick vinaigrette to flavor the tilapia fillets. Here's what went into a small bowl:
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp whole grain mustard
2 tsp honey
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp minced fresh thyme
s&p

If I'd had a fresh lemon I would have cut it into slices and laid them in a layer on the bottom level of the steamer. Sadly, my kitchen was bare of lemons. I set the fillets on the top of the steamer basket, spooned some vinaigrette over each one, put on the lid, and steamed them until the fish was opaque and flaky, about 7-10 minutes, depending on the thickness. That was easy too!

Just as the fish was cooking I sprinkled some grated cheese over the broccoli that was still in the oven so it would melt a bit. I also added s&p, plus a tiny bit of minced thyme to the quinoa. That dinner came together in about 45 minutes from start to finish! Maybe less!

I love the contrast of colors, and textures. It all tasted SO good! I spooned a bit more of the vinaigrette over the fish once it was served.

The quinoa kept its beautiful color through the cooking process, and the texture was amazing! It was light but almost crisp at the same time. No unpleasant hardness or weird chewiness, just toasty goodness. Everyone in our house was pleasantly surprised! I'd say the red quinoa is a but nuttier and lighter than regular quinoa. I think I like it better, too! Now I really can't wait to try the black variety!

Hope this gives you some quick and healthy dinner ideas! You're halfway to the weekend, and there are more candy posts to come! Hurray!

Southwestern Food Frenzy!

Wow, am I allowed two posts in one day?! He he. I just made some good looking stuff, and wanted to share!

I was feeling sort of snacky, and was looking around for something healthy-ish, but nothing was jumping out at me. What's filling and healthy, that's made with ingredients all ready in my cupboards? Hummus! I pulled out everything i needed and got out the trusty old Cuisinart.

Late last year B and I roasted a bunch of bell peppers, peeled them, sliced them, and packaged them in ziploc bags for freezing. This was such a great thing to do, we've been using them ever since!

Because I knew we had these roasted peppers i decided to make it a roasted red pepper hummus. It is not a very strict recipe, it's more of a guieline (like the pirate's code!), really it's just putting everything in, blending, and adding until it's the consistency you prefer.

I used:

1 can chick peas, tahini (only about 1Tbsp as it's strong), lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, cumin, and roasted red peppers (these can be purchased at you grocery store if you don't want to make your own).

Toss the chick peas, garlic, red peppers, about 1tsp cumin, and 2Tbsp lemon juice into your Cuisinart and blend. As it's spinning slowly add your olive oil until it doesn't look so dry and chunky. Stop and taste it, adding more lemon juice, cumin or olive oil as you see fit.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Use it on crackers or bread, as a spread for wraps and sandwiches, as a dip for veggies, or in whatever way your taste buds tell you to! You can make a plain version by omitting the roasted red peppers. Make up your own flavor combos for never ending hummus possibilities!

Dinner for tonight is not going to be what we thought, those elusive crabs avoided our trap, so it's chicken for us! B is BBQing some drumsticks, so i had to come up with something to go with it.

Keeping in mind the BBQ theme i decided on a black bean and corn quinoa salad, as inspired by a fellow blogger's recipe for black bean and corn salsa.

I used:

1 can black beans, about 1 cup frozen corn, 1 diced tomato, cilantro, green onions, cumin, olive oil, lime juice, cooked quinoa, and some more or our roasted red peppers.

I started out by cooking the quinoa (2 cups boiling water, add 1 cup quinoa, simmer until liquid is gone.). While it was cooking i got the rest of the ingredients together. In a large bowl i put the beans, corn, tomato, cilantro, green onion, cumin, lime juice, and peppers.

When the quinoa was done cooking I added that, tasted and re-seasoned it, then added s&p and a little olive oil and tried it again. Keep tasting and seasoning as needed. Stir well, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

I wanted to grill some asparagus to go with all this, but when i pulled it out of the fridge it was a little slimy, with lots of woody-ness at the ends. By the time i had it all cleaned up there wasn't much left of the asparagus. So i went diving in the veg drawer again and came up with some zucchini. I chopped up both and tossed them with olive oil, s&p, garlic powder, and some lemon pepper. They will go into the grill basket, and hopefully they'll be good!

All this dinner discussion has my tummy grumbling! Time to eat!