Quinoa Tabouli

I guess tabouli is a traditional mid-eastern wheat based meal. It's a cold salad, so it works best if you cook your quinoa the day before and use the refrigerated leftovers. (Hint: quinoa has really good flavor if you cook it in gluten free vegetable broth instead of just water.) I found a recipe at allrecipes.com and then used what I had.

Ingredients:

2 cups chilled quinoa

1 can black olives

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup shredded carrots

1 sliced cucumber

2 chopped tomatoes

1 cup chopped spinach

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/8 tsp cumin

Add all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. It is on the sour side. So use less juice if you don't like sour flavors as much. This was a great dinner for a hot day!

Bacon Quinoa Salad

Instead of making just one serving per person per meal of quinoa, (or brown rice or couscous) I have started making twice the amount so that the leftovers can be used for another meal to save time. This is a time-saver meal and oh, so yummy! I only had half a pack of bacon and it wasn't nearly enough. So in my ingredients, I'm listing a whole pack of bacon to feed a family of 4.

Ingredients

2 cups leftover cooked quinoa (or 1 cup uncooked)

1 sweet red pepper

1 package of bacon

1/2 cup chopped mushroom

1 handful garlic chives

1/4 cup butter

Fresh spinach

Directions

1. Melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add in quinoa, pepper, mushroom, and chives. Stir occasionally. 

2. In another skillet, cut up bacon in 1-1.5" pieces and fry up. When bacon is done how you like it, add it into the quinoa mix.

3. Layer your plate with spinach leaves. Top with bacon quinoa mix. 

This might be a hit or miss with little ones. Princess #1 (5) doesn't like mushrooms, but she liked everything else. And Princess #2 kept stealing Princess #1's spinach and bacon. 

Quinoa with Eggplant Saute

This dish was a great hit with my husband and may be a new personal favorite.

DH said he didn't even notice it was a vegetarian dish.

My daughters, however, got interrupted by some unexpected guests. So they ran off to play and their dinners sat on the table for an hour. After being reheated, the veggies and quinoa didn't quite live up to the first serving. But they didn't have any protests of not liking it. So, that's a plus!

Ingredients:

1 eggplant (peeled and chopped)

1 Mexican squash (halved and sliced)

1/2 Red onion (chopped)

1 small zucchini (halved and sliced)

2 minced cloves of garlic

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp coconut oil

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, plus a little extra to top.

1/2 cup quinoa

Directions:

Eggplant Saute:

1. Saute veggies in oil and butter over medium high heat. Add in water. Reduce heat to medium heat. Cover and let steam help soften eggplant.

2. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over veggies.

Quinoa

3. Prepare quinoa. Boil 1 cup water. As water is heating, rinse quinoa thoroughly. It is covered with naturally bitter tasting saponins that block nutrient absorption. I use the hottest water out of my tap to rinse. When water is boiling, add in quinoa. Cover and reduce heat to low for about 10-15 minutes. 

4. Serve the eggplant saute over the quinoa. Sprinkle with any remaining parmesan cheese.