A one dish wonder--Quinoa!

I don't know about you, but I always feel great after eating quinoa.  Must be the iron, amino acids, and migraine-reducing magnesium content.

[Hey! I just had a small revelation.  I only get headaches a day before my period--sorry, gentlemen--and isn't that when women often crave chocolate? And don't we crave chocolate because of it's magnesium? I wonder if that's why I get headaches before my per'd...magnesium shortage?  It's worth investigating...]

This combination of random ingredients is what I had left after my kitchen debacle this weekend, but they sure came together perfectly.  This dish paired wonderfully with The Real Housewives of Atlanta (yes, I said that).

It's peppy.  It's sassy.  It's tangy and sweet.  The aroma is rich and the flavor is light and playful.

I will post the recipe but I am bewildered how it turned out so well considering my use of the "a little of this, a little of that" approach.  There may be an element of divine intervention so I hope that if you try it it will turn out as well as it did for me : )

That's the sampe-size portion.  I ate about, oh, ten times this much!

Quinoa Surprise
Surprise! It's great!

Ingredients:
pinch of salt
olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
three small cloves of garlic, minced
1 small carrot, sliced very thin

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

black pepper

two collard leaves, sliced in very thin strips (like threads)

1/2 boullion cube
3/4 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
1 sprig of rosemary
1 teaspoon coriander powder
scant 1/8 teaspoon asefotida
1/4 teaspoon dried ginger
juice of one lemon
pine nuts and nutritional yeast for topping

Set saute pan to medium.  Sprinkle salt in deep saute pan and add a tablespoon of oil.  Add onion.  Saute for 3-5 minutes until soft.  Add garlic and carrots and stir for just a couple minutes.  Add quinoa and stir around for two more minutes.  Add enough water to just cover, along with bullion and collard. Bring to boil.  Add black beans and rosemary and cover and turn medium to very low.  After five minutes, take out rosemary sprig.  Continue to cook on very low until the quinoa is done.  It's okay that the colalrds get a little over-cooked.  They are good that way in this dish.  Remove from heat.

Add coriander, asefotida, and ginger powder.  Stir.

Serve topped with a liberal amount of lemon juice, nutritional yeast and pine nuts.

Happy Valentine's Day...but don't eat too much chocolate!  Remember December? It was awful for the lot of us sugar bingers!