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| Here, I mixed the quinoa with black beans and rice. The quinoa are the little round semi-transparent seed-things. |
I've battled my weight for years - basically since I had my daughter almost 20 years ago. I found out about 2 years ago from an extensive blood test that my body doesn't process carbohydrates well, so my doctor recommended that I limit them. I'm doing ok with it, as long as I can resist the cookies and candy the mister brings into the house. :-(
My goal is to cut out as much processed food as I can, as well as limit my intake of added sugars. I'm eating lots of fruits and veggies, complex carbohydrates, meats, seeds, nuts, eggs, legumes, lentils, etc. I've eaten things this year that I've never eaten, let alone cooked, before.
Quinoa is one of those things. Please don't do like I did and go into the grocery store asking where the "qwi-no-ah" is, as that is not how it's pronounced. For the record, and to spare you the embarrassment, it is pronounced "keen-wah." I'll forever be grateful to the random lady in the commissary who didn't bat an eye when she said "the the keen-wah is generally on the aisle with the health or ethnic foods." She was probably dying on the inside.
Quinoa is often referred to as a superfood. It is considered a gluten-free whole grain, but is really a seed. Quinoa comes in various colors, but I've only used the regular white (beigy) one. Quinoa contains whole proteins, the kind normally only found in meats. This means it has all of the amino acids in it, and is good for your body.
A one cup serving of quinoa has 315 calories, 5g of fat, 54g of carbohydrates, 6g of fiber, and 12 grams of protein. It contributes to your daily required intake of magnesium, vitamin B6, iron, and calcium.
I use quinoa as a replacement for rice or as an addition to rice in some meals. I like to mix it with corn, black beans, and rice for a great side or main dish meal. It's great to take for lunch or to just have in the fridge when you want something quick and easy. At this point, I haven't ventured much further than that, but I plan to.
One thing I really like about quinoa is that it takes the flavor of whatever it's mixed with. Although it tastes just fine right after you make a dish, to ME, it tastes much better the next day after the quinoa has had a chance to blend with the other flavors. I have never eaten quinoa alone, only mixed with other stuff.
Since I had no clue how to cook quinoa, I did what any internet-saavy woman that needs to know something does - I went to Pinterest. The link below leads to a post on Surviving the Stores - Saving Money Living Healthy - these are the instructions I used. Easy peasy.
Have you ever considered trying quinoa - or do you already eat it?
