I heart Quinoa

I love quinoa, I really do. It's easy to make & is super nutritious. I usually buy the TruRoots Organic Quinoa from Costco and I don't rinse it beforehand even I've heard that you should due to the saponin causing a bitter taste. The one time I tried to rinse it most of it got stuck in the strainer and just created extra work and a big mess, and since it tastes fine to me without rinsing, I never tried rinsing again. I've been looking for delicious recipes to make with quinoa and one thing I had never done with quinoa was eat it for breakfast, so when I found a recipe in Oxygen magazine for Winter Morning Quinoa I was excited to try it. It's so good & really filling! I've eaten it probably a dozen or so times since I discovered it about 3 weeks ago, and again this morning since I had some leftover quinoa (I usually cook about 4-6 servings at once at the beginning of the week so I have it readily available throughout the week). The only modification I make is that I don't use Splenda, I use a half ounce of walnuts instead of a full ounce & I usually add berries on top.



The recipe as I make it comes out to approximately 388 calories, 55g carbs, 13g fat, 15g protein, 22g sugar (per MyFitnessPal).

This evening for dinner I ended up eating quinoa again since I had about one more serving left, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as breakfast :) Since I was feeling a little run down a friend advised me to eat a lot of dark greens (like kale), and suggested I blanch the kale and mix it with quinoa and a can of tuna (I had albacore on hand).

This was the result:




Doesn't look like much, does it? I squeezed about half a lemon on top, heated it up in the microwave for a minute, and it turned out to be a filling and semi-tasty quick meal.

What's your favorite way to make quinoa?

Introduction

This is probably a not the best time to start a fitness and food blog, given that it's right after the holidays and I've generally been feeling lazy and unmotivated to care about what I'm eating let alone go to the gym. However this chilly (for California) Saturday I find myself a bit lethargic and am praying I am not coming down with anything, all the while thinking how I can be healthier and how I've always wanted to start a food/fitness blog, if for the very least to chronicle my endeavors and maybe even inspire some people along the way. It was one of those things that I always thought about but never actually did, especially since I always figured it would just mostly be recipes I'd tried from someone else's blog (giving full credit of course)... But given that I put it on my 2013 vision (a fancier word for resolutions)  and I actually wanted to try a couple recipes today I decided I'd start writing this stuff down now.

And so "Workout Eat Repeat" was born.