Thursday, October 18, 2007

Dinner Update

Quinoa and Chicken

So. Quinoa kind of scared me. It scared me less than lentils, but it's still new and different, difficult to pronounce ("keen-wa" by the way), and, amazingly, even more messy than rice.

But. Hey, it was pretty tasty! And it's very high in protein. And... stuff? ;)

2 chicken breasts, browned in olive oil (2.50)
1/c c chicken (boullion) broth (.16)
1/2 c quinoa (.20)
garlic
thyme
onion (.25)

Brown the chicken with the spices first, then add the broth and quinoa and cook until quinoa is tender (about 40 mintues for us).

I served this with raw carrots (.25).

Total cost: $3.36 D spread it all over his face, which made E laugh and call him "Keen Beard." And then they didn't eat very much. And then they asked for cheese. It might take a couple of tries for them to accept this as food and not decoration for my floor. But I liked it!

6 comments:

jim said...

We tried quinoa with the kids too. Worked for a while using a recipe I modified from Bob's Red Mill. The original was called Quinoa Stuffing. My version was called Broccoli Circles (no broccoli -- just looked like it). I won't post the entire recipe here. If interested, you'll find it on my blog (Broccoli Circles recipe.) Quinoa is a good food to try if you're dealing with food intolerances -- rice, potato, corn, etc.
-- jim at gfcfrecipes.blogspot.com

Li loves David said...

Funny, I can picture a quinoa beard!! :) Hopefully the kids will catch on soon, it's a great alternative to endless rice. I loved the nutty flavor, especially if it's toasted in the pan a bit before cooking. Too bad I can't eat in anymore... :(

vicvic said...

We did the quinoa thing once, years ago. I bought a whole 25 lbs. of it! So then I was stuck with finding creative ways to use it. I would always toast the raw quinoa. We would sprinkle it into salads and once I ground it and made crackers with it. You can also make a pudding creal with it for breakfast - this was the favorite. If you can find it rolled, that's even better for such items as granola.

Lindsey J said...

A little late here, but you didn't mention rinsing before you cooked it... I've always read that you should rinse quinoa before eating to get rid of the saponins that make it taste soapy...so I've always done that.

Unknown said...

I did rinse it, even though I had no idea how to go about doing that. I strained it through a napkin, and then spent most of the cooking time picking napkin bits out of the food. Yeah, I'm awesome. ;) How should one rinse quinoa anyway???

Lindsey J said...

I have a fine mesh strainer that I rinse it in...though it's currently missing so last night I lined a colander w/ cheesecloth and used that (being careful to keep cut edges out so little threads didn't make it into the quinoa. I much prefer the mesh strainer.

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