Love at Last

I have made attempt after attempt to love quinoa. It seems to have superpowers, according to healthy foodies everywhere. All attempts failed until this one. I have discovered, by stealing an idea from a local vegetarian joint, that I love quinoa when it is paired with lots of other crunchy textures of food. So, my last and best attempt...Warm Vegetable Quinoa Salad.

Ingredients

spring lettuce mix

cooked quinoa (I used the red quinoa from TJ's)

tempeh (cut into small cubes, browned in a cast-iron skillet with some olive oil, salt and pepper)

onions (caramelized, lots of them!)

zucchini, tomatoes, peppers (lightly sauteed with a bit of crunch left in them)

herbed goat cheese (from my favorite store ever, of course...see quinoa above)

Just make all of this into a huge salad. Dump it all in. Onions and goat cheese on top, as they are super flavorful and with them added, you really don't need dressing.

I would serve this with some really good crusty bread and real, real, real butter. Yum.

And since it is such a complete protein/animal-friendly/high-in-vitamins dinner, you should definitely eat half of a dark chocolate bar like I did. :)

P.S. Avocado never, ever hurts. Pile it on if you have it.

P.P.S. I need to start taking pictures of our food before it is devoured, so my posts can be a visually interesting. Hunger always seems to beat boring blog post.

P.P.P.S. If you are thinking, "Her kids eat that!?" You are erroneous. But I keep hoping...