Goosefoot superfood

I just made the most labor intensive batch of quinoa. Well, maybe not the most. I didn't have to thresh the seedheads or winnow the seed (thanks, Wikipedia!) But still.

I'd been thinking about making my first batch of quinoa ever for a few days now, ever since picking up a box of the stuff at Kroger the other day. And lo and behold, today's Eating Rules post was all about the real deal way to prep quinoa. It was a sign.

It turns out I don't have a wire mesh sieve that can hold teensy grains of uncooked quinoa. But I didn't realize that until after I'd already poured an unmeasured amount of cold water over the grain to rinse it. I had to improvise by squeezing it through my tea press, and then I spread it out over some parchment paper to dry. I finally got around to toasting, and then boiling, and I think it paid off. I ended up with a pot of fluffy, perfectly cooked quinoa, ready to be spooned into stuffed red peppers.

Here are today's food choices:

Breakfast: Toad in the Hole! I finally bought some unprocessed bread and this morning I fried an egg in the middle of a big fat piece. And I shook a little Tabasco on it, which has only three natural-ish ingredients (vinegar has sugar in it, but eh).

Coffee with honey and half & half

Snack: Banana

Lunch: Mixed greens with avocado, hard boiled egg, chickpeas and a couple grape tomatoes; brown rice with mushrooms, zucchini, bean sprouts and little chili sauce that had questionable ingredients (but they were in Korean, so I am blameless)

Snack: Apple

Dinner: Half of a leftover chicken breast and quinoa stuffed bell pepper, thankyouverymuch.

Dessert: Greek yogurt with honey and a little homemade granola.