cooking with keen-wah

A couple nights ago at about 5 p.m., I thought the old dreaded "what am I going to make for dinner?" thought. You know the one that quickly morphs into the "where could we eat out tonight?" thought? Since we're trying not to eat out and since I had a fridge full of fresh vegetables that weren't going to cook themselves, I decided I better come up with something quick. There was always that three month old box of Quinoa in the cupboard.

Seriously, when people say they like quinoa do you think, huh? And then think, I better try it. And then think, maybe another day.

Well, today's the day, friends. Get that box of quinoa out of the cupboard. Thanks to a little inspiration from my urban gardener friend Monica, I whipped up a Quinoa dish that was yum-o. It's trendy and healthy and easy. And it tastes really good. You'll think you went out to eat after all. Especially if you have a nice husband to clean up all the dishes.

Quinoa Lettuce Wraps

1 cup quinoa, cooked (and chilled if you have time)
2 cups diced veggies (I used green onion, cauliflower, zucchini, corn cut off the cob, beets and carrots, all raw except the corn and beets)
Vinegar and oil dressing
Big lettuce leaves (we used romaine)
Feta (optional)
Kalamata olives (optional)

Toss together the quinoa, the veggies and the dressing. Our dressing was equal parts olive oil, apple cider vinegar and honey. This is a dressing my grandma always made and I use it all the time for salads. A basic balsamic vinegar/olive oil combo would work well, too. Also, I liked adding feta and olives. Dishwashing husband, not so much. Then, once you're finished arguing about which way is better, make a lettuce wrap and eat.

p.s. If you can get your kids to eat this, please let me know how you bribed them. It may have been the red version of quinoa I used peppered with beets. Liam chose to eat a plate of plain old veggies instead, which, I guess, is not so bad.