A Quinoa Kind of Night

Hey y’all! Sometimes I wish I was from the south so I could pull off saying things like y’all.  People just look at your weird when you say it with a NY accent.

Anyway, I made something really good for dinner yesterday. Really good and good for you, what more could you ask for? I tried my hand at quinoa for the first time and it turned out great. Before I share my recipe, I wanted to share some quinoa fun facts that I found while looking up what quinoa is, to explain to my dad what he was eating.

1. Quinoa is pronounced keen-wah.  I don’t know where they got the fancy spelling from either.
2. Even though it looks like rice and barley, quinoa is not a grain. It is a chenopod most closely related to beets, spinach and tumbleweeds. I also learned that a tumbleweed was a type of plant and not just random plant parts tumbling around the desert.
3. The Conquistadors forbade the Incas to cultivate quinoa because it was considered a sacred grain and that didn’t fly with their mission to Christianize the world. They obviously didn’t try it before putting this ban in place.
4. Quinoa is a complete protein source, which means it has adequate proportions of all nine amino acids necessary for the dietary needs of humans.  This is very uncommon among plants.
5. It’s delicious!

I’ve seen a lot of recipes floating around the internet for quinoa ‘fried rice,’ which is basically like a fried rice dish but uses quinoa in place of the rice. So, I put my own spin on it and this is what I got.

Quinoa ‘Fried Rice’

• 2 chicken breasts, cubed
• 1/3 cup oyster sauce
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cups quinoa
• 1 8 oz package mushrooms
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 8 oz frozen organic corn
• 8 oz frozen organic peas and carrots
• 1 bunch scallions

Marinate the chicken breast in equal parts soy sauce and oyster sauce. In a large pot,bring the vegetable stock to boil, reduce heat, add quinoa and let simmer for 15 minutes.* Heat wok, spray with cooking spray and add chicken.  Cook chicken thoroughly adding mushrooms and garlic to it,about halfway through. Add corn, peas and carrot and cook until warmed all the way through.  Add quinoa to the wok and combine well with veggies and chicken. Top with finely chopped scallions.

*Follow the package direction for cooking your quinoa because they may differ by brand.

This tasted amazing and is great, healthy alternative to Chinese takeout. Speaking of Chinese takeout, I am reading The End of Overeating and read that many Chinese restaurants give different menus to Americans and to Asians because Americans prefer higher fat dishes with more sugar. Has anyone heard this before? I want in on the Asian menu! The book, so far, is very interesting and I’m planning on doing a post about it when I finish it to share some of the info I learned.

I’m firing up the crock pot for a spicy dinner, so stay tuned for more yumminess!

Have a great weekend y’all! 😉

What are your thoughts about quinoa? What are your plans for the weekend?