The week of Quinoa

Carly here...I guess it's my turn to finally blog.  Eric has been taking care of all of it so far.  So lately Eric and I have begun having "Weekly Planning" together.  Thank you Pres. DuVall and Chapter 8 of PMG! :)  We have a set 30 minutes put aside on Sunday that we take a look at our work/school schedule and make sure that we both know what is going to happen in the coming week.  We also plan our dinners for the week. We are trying to be more health and budget conscious and setting set menu has really seemed to help with that.

Recently we discovered Quinoa.  For those of you who don't know what that is I highly suggest that you google it...buy it...cook it...and love it.  It is our new favorite thing to cook!  It is crazy healthy and we are really having fun finding recipes for it.  That was our goal this week.  We wanted to cook with quinoa at least 3 times.  I'm here to tell you about our results.  Please forgive the amateur photography and I promise the food all tasted even better than it looks in the pictures.

Owing to my recent Pinterest addiction I already had a few quinoa recipes saved up.  On Monday we started with a Quinoa, avocado and cilantro salad.  For our first time with the recipe it was okay.  Definitely some things we would do differently next time.  The recipe called for a bunch of cilantro.  We only put in about half of what it said but it was still over-powering.  We'll use way less next time and I'd also try and make it day in advance.  It was better as leftovers.  A good start, though.  We'd give 3.5 stars out of 5.

Our second meal was a Quinoa Broccoli casserole.  Eric made this one all by himself because I got off late from work.  He had it in the oven by the time I got home.  Best. Husband. Ever!  Sadly, ours didn't turn out as beautifully as the picture that came with the recipe.  It tasted pretty good but left you feeling a little sluggish and heavy afterwards.  We are planning to try this one again next week but replace the mayo with some plain greek yogurt.  Think it will work?  I'll let you know.  3 stars for this one.

The last meal attempt was probably my favorite.  We made Quinoa Stuffed Red Peppers.  Doesn't it just sound good?  Honestly though, it was pretty wonderful.  The filling tasted like quinoa chili. It has black beans, onions, tomatoes, etc.  I ended up taking just a bowl of that to work the next day for lunch.  I don't plan on changing a thing with this recipe when we make it next time.  You should try it!  Really easy, healthy and delicious!  4.5 stars!

We really did have a fun time trying all of the new recipes.  Both Eric and I are getting a little more daring in the types of recipes we will try.  Sometimes it work...and sometimes it's awful.  Luckily for us this past week turned out okay.  If any of you get brave and try them too let me know how it goes.

xxoo,

Carly