Quinoa

Over the past 2 years our family has discovered and enjoyed eating quinoa - a tiny, power-packed little seed.  If you google quinoa you will find a lot of great information, websites and recipes to use this complete protein.  One of our favorite recipes is here .  Another recipe originally used cous-cous which of course has gluten in it, but quinoa is a great substitute for it.  Here is another recipe that looks really good.  We use it as a substitute for rice as well.  


I found a 10 lb bag of quinoa at Costco recently.  Trader Joe's, for those lucky enough to have one, and  Nutsonline.com  are also good resources for quinoa if you can't find it locally and there are also recipes available at the Nutsonline website.  We don't care for quinoa flakes - they have a bitter smell and taste...so if a recipe calls for quinoa flakes - use gf rolled oats instead. 


Last night for dinner I cooked up 1 cup of quinoa and while it was cooking we cut up baby bok choy, grated carrots, chopped up persian cucumbers and fresh basil. When the quinoa was cooked, we stirred it all together and threw in some baby tomatoes.  We drizzled EVOO over the top and squeezed in some fresh lime juice and a few sprinkles of SPIKE garlic seasoning.  Everyone loved it....it was really delicious.  You can use any combination of fresh cut up veggies you like, use a balsamic vinaigrette in place of the EVOO as well.  


Speaking of EVOO - I buy mine from this wonderful organic farm up in the Oroville CA area.  My dad was born on an olive ranch in Oroville...wonder how far this ranch is from his birthplace?  Their website is here .  Their olive oil is buttery and mild - so delicious!! If you're lucky they will still have some left from this year's harvest.