Kitchen Sink KEEN-wah

While cleaning the freezer last week, I realized we had a lot of quinoa – and we haven’t had this amazing grain in a while. 

Here is some information about Quinoa from the Quinoa Corporation:

• It was one of  the three staple foods, along with corn and potatoes, of the Inca civilization.
• Quinoa contains more protein than any other grain; an average of 16.2  percent, compared with 7.5 percent for rice, 9.9 percent for millet, and 14 percent for wheat.
• Besides its unique protein, quinoa also provides starch, sugars, oil (high in essential linoleic acid), fiber, minerals, and vitamins.

Matt and I have made this Greek-Style Quinoa salad many times.  Tonight’s version used the same dressing (olive oil, lemon juice, oregano and garlic), but instead of kalamata olives and onions, we used other veggies.

While the quinoa was cooking on the stove, the following went in a big mixing bowl (which was all that was left in our veggie drawer!):

• 2 ears of corn cut off the cob
• about 3/4 of a pint of cherry tomatoes, diced
• bunch of scallions, minced
• feta cheese
• one cucumber, peeled and diced (from Mother-in-Law’s garden)

It was important to clean out the veggie drawers – tomorrow is Farmer’s Market Tuesday!

One modification; the dressing calls for 3/4 cup of fresh lemon juice.  Matt and I have discovered that if you use the full 3/4 cup of FRESH lemon juice, you will be left puckering your lips.  What we normally do is juice 2 lemons, and make up the difference with this lemon juice from our fridge – it’s not quite as strong. 

I had my Kitchen Sink KEEN-wah over a bed of lettuce – need to get those veggies in!

An excellent summer meal – the prep and cooking time is manageable and the end result is light and not too filling.

For dessert, I needed to have some ice cream – it is over 90 degrees here.

My fave with an sugar cone – Edy’s Slow Churned Mint Chocolate Chip (1/2 a small container)

I am in the process of writing some summaries of the Healthy Living Summit sessions.  Check back later for the first one!