Breakfast Quinoa
I saw a recipe for savory oatmeal somewhere, and I thought, “That would be much better with quinoa, which I happen to have gallons of from my Costco trip“. So I did it, cause I’m cool like that. You will need:
1 cup quinoa (I used red quinoa this time)
2 cups broth or water
1/2-1 cup shredded cheese
2 green onions, chopped
3-4 eggs
optional: leftover cooked veggies
Cook the quinoa according to the instructions, using broth or water. While that’s cooking, either fry or poach your eggs. You could scramble them also, I guess. I won’t judge. I will judge if you hard boil them though, and harshly. When the quinoa is done, mix in the shredded cheese and chopped green onions. I also happened to have some cooked zucchini in the fridge, so I heated it up, and threw it on top, then dropped the egg on top of that. The whole process takes ~20 minutes or so, and yields 3-4 servings. This is a great hearty breakfast, perfect for those days when you have a lot to get done. It will stick with you for hours.
Also, keep in mind, I’m not a food photographer. I make my food, take a picture, then eat it. I don’t sit around, posing it for hours, analyzing lighting, etc. I’m usually starving, and barely remembered to take a picture in the first place. I still think this one came out pretty good, though:
It’s Salad Time
I wish I could show you the salad I’m eating right now. It’s amazing. I mean, techinically I could take a picture and stuff, but then I’d have to stop eating it, and we know that’s not going to happen, so you’ll just have to use your imaginations.
Hubby has recently started working for a Bar B Que restaurant, and was getting a little sick of eating mostly meat every day for lunch. Also, he has no microwave available at work. In addition, there’s the constant battle for both of us to lose weight, and people’s New Year’s resolutions, and then I saw this idea on pinterest:
The advice is to make salads in jars ahead of time for a whole week of work lunches. Why did I never think of this? I’m not going to use jars, just tupperware that we can eat directly out of, but still, this is genius.
Last night I made 5 salads all at once for lunches this week. I would have made more, but was hampered by a lack of clean tupperware. I used one head of romaine lettuce which cost about a dollar, making the cost per salad twenty cents. I can’t really quantify all the other stuff I put in the salads, but I’m guessing I spent between $1 and $1.50 per salad.
I bought a ton of different salad toppings, and put different things on top of each one to give them variety. I chopped up a bunch of veggies at once while I was chopping and cooking our dinner (chicken vegetable curry). A couple of the same items went into both dishes. Here are some ideas for salad toppings:
Radishes
Cucumbers
Soy Beans, or Edamame (you can find this in the freezer section, cook them, then keep them in a tupperware in the fridge to throw into salads)
Peas (you can throw them in frozen if you make these ahead, and they’ll be thawed in time to eat)
Chick Peas (I used rinsed canned ones, or you can make them from dry)
Carrots
Celery
Cauliflower
Avocado
Cherry or grape tomatoes (instead of chopped tomatoes to keep salad from wilting)
Black Beans
Corn
Onion
Snow Peas
Sunflower Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
Bacon Bits
Leftover cooked veggies
Cheeses like feta, blue cheese, or shredded cheese
Olives
Mushrooms
Chopped lunch meat
Leftover meat from other meals
Broccoli
Cooked grains, like quinoa
Nuts like almond slivers, or walnut pieces
Different lettuces and green, like arugula, spinach, or kale
Raw herbs, like basil
Some people even put fruit in salads. I’m not here to judge.
And just now I flung salad dressing all over my desk, reminding me that dressing is important. I like red wine vinegarette. I bring it to work with me in a small container separate from my salad.
Salads are a great way to use up small amounts of leftovers. I know I always end up with a tablespoon or two of leftover taco meat, refried beans, or sauteed zuchinni somehow. Leftover salsa, or even cooked grains, like barley, are awesome, and create variety. You can also marinate chick peas and other beans to add more flavor.
If you’re going to put things in your salads that might not last long, like avocado, put that into the ones you’ll eat the next day, and put more durable ingredients in the others, like cherry tomatoes, carrots, radishes, and cucumber.
Salads are usually good for you, as long as you don’t add a mountain of meat and cheese and a gallon of dressing. I also like them because they are a nice light lunch that enables me to continue working instead of sliding into a food coma.
I will acknowledge that I have gotten a lot of ideas on Pinterest lately. For those of you who don’t know, pinterest is an online tack board. You can find things you like all over the internet and add them to your pinterest, or you can flip through pinterest and see what other people have added. I have several friends that peer-pressured me into joining, and I’m now severely addicted. They have categories for everything, but I’m hooked on the arts and crafts stuff, obviously. Beware of pinterest!
*UPDATE* When I recently made a large batch of salads, I did the math on how much they cost. Here’s the break-down:
Romaine lettuce (on sale) = $1.00
Tomatoes = $1.00
Cabbage = $0.25
Radishes = $0.25
Cucumber = $0.50
Green onions = $0.50
3 mushrooms = $1.00
Soybeans (one package) = $3.00
Sunflower seeds = $0.50
Pumpkin seeds = $0.50
Fake bacon bits = $1.00
Feta cheese = $2.50
That totals up to $12 for ten salads, or $1.20 each. That is damn amazing to me. The soybeans are the most expensive ingredient, so when I use black beans, lentils, or chick peas, they are even cheaper. That kicks the ass of any fast food ever!
My Attempts at Cleverness 