For the second week in a row, I have tried to make something new. Last week was yogurt, which I declared a ridiculously easy and resounding success. In fact, I have another batch in the crock pot right now.
I went to Whole Foods on Friday to get their deal-of-the-day which was troll caught coho salmon. I think I could eat fresh fish every day, so I was happy it was on sale. While I was there, I perused the aisles and grabbed some quinoa. Call me ignorant (because I am with all things cooking), but I didn't realize you could make quinoa in the rice cooker. Duh. Anyway, I thought quinoa would be a good substitute for rice, of which I can't control myself much around (unless it's those frozen Trader Joe bags, which are ridiculously good. Given I'm half-Chinese, I think my rice palate is pretty developed).
A quick Google for recipes while I was in the store, and I found something that looked tasty: a mediterranean quinoa salad
Because I'm the laziest cook on the planet, I cooked and cooled the quinoa the night before making the salad. I was too impatient to wait for it to cool, then mix it all. Also? I hate chopping. I don't mind cutting fruits, but chopping onions and herbs? Makes me stabby.
The basic recipe I followed is here. These are the ingredients I used:
- quinoa
- fresh parsley
- fresh cilantro
- grape tomatoes
- kalamata olives
- red onion
- extra virgin olive oil
- apple cider vinegar
- juice of 1 lemon
- chopped garlic
- feta
My lazy instructions: cook the quinoa and let it cool. Whisk together lemon juice, EVOO, apple cider vinegar and garlic. Chop everything else up. Dump it in a bowl and mix together. Serve chilled.
Verdict? Very flavorful! Although I believe I added too much cilantro and parsley. While I still prefer my olives in extra dirty martini's, they were very good in this also. Bonus? It's super filling.
When I put it in MyFitnessPal in the proportions I used (my haphazard mixing method meant my quantities of ingredients were slightly off from the recipe), I'm calculating 301 calories, 34 grams of carbs, 9 grams of protein and 16 grams of fat in one 3/4 cup serving. This could be totally off, but I'm going with it for now.