Tuesday, July 15, 2008

re-ci-poo re-ci-pee

spicy sweet potato and quinoa salad

last night i made this dish but with a few modifications of course. here is a yumtastic recipe.

ingredients:

1 cup quinoa, uncooked
2 cups vegetable broth
1 sweet potato, pre-baked and diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green zucchini, diced
1/2 pack of pre-cut and pre-washed white mushrooms
1 onion
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

preparation:

simmer the quinoa in the vegetable broth until liquid is gone and quinoa is light and fluffy when stirred. remove from heat and allow to cool. while this is happening, chop your onion and red pepper. spray a frying pan with cooking spray and heat the the onion and pepper until soft. add mushrooms. when they are cooked, remove from the heat. meanwhile, microwave your sweet potato until cooked then bake it in the oven until the outside is crispy (like a baked potato should be... just not soggy from the microwave). slice the zucchini into half-circles or quarters and add to the now empty fry pan. when the potato is ready, dice it.
toss together the quinoa, sweet potato, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and zucchini in a large bowl.

in a separate small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil and cayenne pepper. i added more lemon juice (i just squeezed a lemon). gently toss this dressing with the quinoa. season with a generous amount of salt and pepper.

i would say this makes about 4 generous servings. delicious. i had one serving of this for dinner along with a spinach salad, topped with light feta and newman's own light thai sesame dressing.

in other news, i did go for a run yesterday at lunch. it was 4.7 miles... not too shabby at all. and this morning i got up and ran for 40 minutes (not all at once) on the treadmill, with arm weights in between the cardio sessions and situps at the end.

tonight is my book club. i didn't finish the book but that's ok, it's long, and we are having a bbq and watching the movie. fun times. i have a skinless boneless chicken breast marinating in my fridge right now. i put some chicken bbq sauce, mustard, and catalina dressing in a ziplock bag and threw in the chicken. i hope it tastes good. i want to get some other vegetables to put on the bbq but i'm not sure what to get (or how to grill them)... any suggestions?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh i DO have an idea. You can get those chishcabob sticks, they are not reuseable at the grocery store, put some veggies like, peppers, brocolli, cauliflower, whatever you want, and brush some pepper and evoo and throw it on the barbie. SOOOOOO good.

Jaime said...

Do zucchini boats! You can precut and scoop out the centers before you go....then just brush with a bit of olive oil and grill...then fill with something yummy...Amy's goat cheese ones always look tasty...or I like to sprinkle with Italian seasoning & fresh parmesan.

Have fun!

Sara said...

I love sweet potato and I love quinoa - thanks for the recipe!

Jen said...

mmmmm that recipe sounds DIVINE!!!

I like both Shannon's and Jaime's ideas!! I LOVE Zucchini on the BBQ!!!

P.O.M. said...

WOW - that sounds DELISH!!! I just had an interesting Quinoa dish at a restaurant - they make it like a veggie jambalaya.

carla said...

sadly I think Im the only one jealous of the socializing funtimes.

definitely a sign Ive spent too much toddler time----I need to get back to my book club too!!

Miz.

Crissy Rae said...

Nice job on the run. I get excited if I can force myself to do 2 miles. Have a great time at your book club. BBQ and movie sound like a good time to me.