Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Quinoa recipe for healthy cooking

One of my goals in retirement is to cook more healthy and to write down some of the dishes that I have been making on my own.  I love cooking with quinoa but my husband has been having a hard time getting used to it. (We're finally used to wheat bread and brown rice.)  I first ate quinoa in Ecuador.  Or was it Peru?  My favorite was the quinoa puffs cereal that we ate on the cruise ship at the Galapagos.  Now you can get quinoa puffs online though I haven't bought any yet.  But, back to the recipe... I made it last night and Don liked it. I served it with quickly cooked ground round with green peepers, and the last butternut squash from the garden.  Here is a picture and the recipe.

Quinoa (instead of rice)

2 cups of chicken or beef stock (low salt is better)
1 cup of quinoa
½ small onion, minced
¼ cup or so of mushrooms cut small
¼ cup shredded carrots

Bring the stock to a boil
Add the quinoa and the other ingredients
Bring to a boil
Lower to simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
Add any other spices, vegetables as desired.  Make it your own! Makes 4 servings

Microwave.  Use a 4 cup uncovered container.  Bring to a boil on high for 4 minutes.  Bring to a boil again around 2 minutes on high.  Set for power 4 for 20 minutes.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Filled or Fulfilled with Retirement?

Don, me, friends Eileen and Bob in Chattanooga
I spent the morning in my husband's workshop.  Now I know I am living retirement.  We went to Chattanooga last week on our first "escape" and stopped at lots of antique stores.  I started to strip the paint on 3 old pieces of furniture that we bought and plan to experiment on each one.  My daughter got me hooked on Pinterest and I have been getting inspired to refinishing furniture and making things for the condo.  When I was sanding the wood today, I got such a feeling of being "filled",  that I decided to start this blog.  I have been considering it for several weeks but could not decide on a title and where to start.  Now read my profile!