Vegetable Quinoa Skillet

You know, there really is nothing better than a really easy, vegetarian meal...unless it's a hamburger. I like the idea of vegetarianism, but I don't like it in reality. I'll always like chicken and the occasional hamburger, and you can't have Thanksgiving without turkey, but this little skillet mix is pretty stinking amazing. Original recipe here (warning...very picture heavy post). I didn't know what to call this - skillet, stir-fry, hash, I don't know - but it's good no matter what you call it.

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
1.75 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 cloves garlic - minced
1 small zucchini, cubed
1.5 cups corn
1 cup green onions, chopped
1-2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup feta cheese
15-20 leaves of basil, chopped

Lemon Vinaigrette:
1 lemon, juiced and zested
1-1.5 Tlbs honey
pinch of salt
1.2 tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, finely minced

Directions:
In a saucepan, combine the quinoa and chicken broth. Bring to boiling and then turn down to low. Let it simmer, covered, for about 25 minutes, until liquid is gone. Set it aside. Meanwhile, in a jar with a lid, mix 2 Tlbs lemon juice, 1 Tlbs lemon zest, honey, salt, pepper, and garlic. Shake well, set aside. Then warm 1 Tlbs of olive oil in a LARGE* skillet on mediumish, add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds or so, until it is fragrant. Then toss in the zucchini, corn, and green onions and saute for another 4-5 minutes. Add the quinoa and half the vinaigrette, and stir for another minute. Then add the tomatoes, feta, basil and the rest of the vinaigrette, and toss in a little bit of salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and let it sit and meld for 5 minutes or so before serving.

*She said in the original recipe to use a large skillet, and she wasn't kidding. This is a HUGE recipe. I could have cut it in half and still had enough for at least two more meals, and as it is, my fridge is full of leftovers. My pan was actually kind of crowded. Cutting it in half would probably serve 3 adults comfortably and might make the stirring process easier. She also had less basil, (but we all know how I feel about my best friend basil...) and recommended fresh corn. I had frozen, and threw it in the pan still frozen, and it turned out fine. She also says this is good cold, I haven't tried it that way.

Holy cow, this is freaking delicious. I really don't like zucchini, but I thought I'd give it a shot, and I love it in this. She originally wrote this as a farmers market recipe, and it really seems like it could be really versatile. Be careful with the salt, though, since the feta is pretty salty it is easy to go overboard. I cut it down in my recipe from the original. The feta is super creamy in this, and really goes well with the lemon. I also am not a fan of lemon zest, but I liked it in this. I highly recommend prepping everything while your quinoa is cooking, as the actual sauteing goes really fast...no more than 10 minutes, start to finish.

Rating: 5/5
Why? Fast, easy, delicious, and healthy. Mmmmm....

Quinoa Tomato Mix

I have to confess that I really don't know what to call this. It was one of those nights when I made dinner by throwing a bunch of stuff in the crockpot and crossing my fingers. It's not really a stew, but it's not a casserole either, so I am just going to call it a mix. I generally follow a recipe but tonight I just made this completely by smell - as in I took things out of the fridge, smelled them, and if it smelled like what I wanted dinner to taste like, I threw it in. This, as close as I can remember, is what I put together

By the way, this is a particularly bad picture, but on the other hand, while it tasted really good, I think that red quinoa never LOOKS that good and my camera resents photographing red things.

3/4 cup red quinoa

1/4 cup white quinoa

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, sliced into thin strips

3 cups water

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1/4 cup mirin (rice cooking wine)

1 chicken breast, cut into thin strips

1/4 sweet onion, minced

1/4-1/2 tsp garlic powder

a pinch of oregano

a pinch of thyme (I think)

Throw everything into a slow-cooker and cook until it is the consistency that you want. I put mine on high for an hour, then turned it down to low for about 3-4 hours. I am not totally sure about the spices, I added them after the first hour when I tasted it and decided that it needed something.

I am not kidding when I say that I smelled ingredients to see what I wanted to add. It's what works for me. Either the mirin (which I have never used before) or the hoisin sauce gave this just a slight hint of sweetness that I liked but did cut down just a smidge with the spices. I used the mix of quinoa because I wanted to finish up the red quinoa and I used water instead of broth because I didn't have any broth. I used the sun-dried tomatoes because I had them and wanted to use them up. I know that quinoa has a lot of protein on its own, so I didn't need to add the chicken, but I just like this kind of thing better when it has some kind of meat in it, so I added it. I also wanted to see what would happen if I added raw meat instead of cooked and I think it worked well with the water. I think it would have been too salty for my taste had I used the broth instead.

Rating: 4/5

Why? There is something about these sun-dried tomatoes that I didn't particularly care for, I'm not sure why. I did like this dish overall, it was quite filling, and the perfect thing to eat after my first zumba class in over 2 months. In addition, it is quite easy, and I am a BIG fan of that.