Quinoa

Sitting here I am enjoying 2 of my favorite "dessert" snacks: dark cocoa roasted almonds, and plain yogurt with frozen mixed fruit and some ground flax. Yummy and healthy. However I am going to dedicate this post to a new obsession: quinoa. After almost 3 weeks of no rice, pasta, breads, etc, a friend introduced me to the benefits of quinoa. Below are some recipes/ideas that I have found or come up with.

1. "rice" pudding (you can do this sugar free, too)
2. taco salad: mix with taco seasoned meat, beans, any toppings like tomatoes, lettuce, avocado, salsa, cheese, etc. so yummy.
3. pizza in a bowl: mix with any toppings, pizza sauce, and cheese.
4. Rice. simple as that. however you would use rice, replace with quinoa.
5. pasta/pasta salads. another simple replacement.
6. warm with milk, cinnamon, and honey for breakfast or a snack
7. prepare using boullion in the water, then bake in a casserole

I am sure I can come up with more, but those are enough for tonight. I can say enough that I love this stuff. I pinned a lot of recipes on pinterest that I still want to try, but I love to just create my own that look and sound yummy. Charlie likes it too, which is a plus.

Tomorrow I will post some dessert ideas, and this week I will keep tabs on recipes I use or find and make a post with some new ideas for healthy meals. Please post or email me with anything you have tried, too. :)