Uses for Mushy Quinoa: Add Cheese!

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A healthy, multicultural stir-fry with zing, zest and zip! In 10 minutes!

It’s late, you’re hungry, you want Chinese, but that’s just so bad for you. You open the fridge, tap your fingers on the top, searching for something sweet but salty, chewy but with a crunch, meaty but light at the same time. It may seem like a lot for one dish to live up to, but you’re confident and relentless; you will find a way to make it happen.

Wait, you’re also hungry though, so it’s going to have to happen quick. Very quick.

You start poking around in the fridge. Hmmmm….there’s quinoa, some broccoli….there’s peppers/onions in the freezer…oh! And veggie meat. You take everything out and cook it up really quick in a frying pan.

Now what?

Now we add sauce. Sweet, but sour. Didn’t you make a sweet and sour sauce awhile ago. Ok, so now we have a sauce. You should taste it, though before you put it on all this stuff you just cooked……..*taste*

It needs something. Something chatpata. With zing. Like vinegar, but a little sweeter. Something that makes all the molecules on your tongue dance around a little because of all the extra saliva being produced, something like…..

Chat masala!

*taste* Mmmmmm….perfect.

Best pick I could get with my shaking hands

Super-quick Pseudo Chinese-Indian Stir Fry with Quinoa
makes 1 plate

• Cooked quinoa
• 2 Morningstar Farms Original Sausage Patties (feel free to substitute with any other veggie meat (or non-veggie if you go that way))
• 3 pepper onion blend
• Broccoli
• Sweet and sour sauce

→Spray a frying pan with non-stick cooking spray. “Saute” the 3 pepper onion blend and broccoli until the onion is brown on this pan (I steamed the broccoli a little first to make it go faster).

Cook the veggie meat according to package directions.

Make THIS sweet and sour sauce. Add a couple good pinches of chat masala  to it (depending on how much you make). Mix it all together and enjoy.

The Ultimate “Like-Substance”: Chocolate Cake

In a vain effort to increase my readership, I went a-googling for “tips on getting more blog followers”. Now, I consider myself quite a good “googler” and am my family’s (non-resident) google-queen. My obsession with search-engine driven answers has reached to such an extent that I am known to google such phrases as, “help i ate 4000 calories last night” and “gray’s anatomy full-color heart diagram”. So far, I think I’ve saved quite a bit on textbooks and shrink appointments.

This particular google, however, left me with more questions than answers. Perhaps it was just a failure of my googling skills. Or the information I seeked sought just isn’t out there. Either way, the best result I could find was Seth Godin’s List of 56 Tips, which, among other exorbitant ideas, suggested I write in Chinese, write short posts that are at the same time long, and write about Google.

While I did just spit out an entire eulogy’s worth to my love of Google, I suppose, if Seth Godin’s advice is true, my blog is doomed nonetheless. I will, however, persevere, because that is something that even I, princess of Google (yes, I demoted myself), don’t need the internet to tell me.

While I work on learning Chinese, try these variations on Patricia Green’s and Carolyn Hemming’s Chocolate Quinoa Cake from their book, Quinoa 365, the Everyday Superfood. Adapted from “The Family Kitchen”.

Version 1: Chocolate Pistachio Cake
makes 1 8″ round cake

• 1 c. cooked quinoa
• 1/6 c. milk
• 1/2c. egg substitute or 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 c. applesauce
• 2 T. light stick butter, melted
• 8 tsp. (14 grams) sugar-free, fat-free pistachio pudding mix
• 1/4 t. baking SODA
• 3/4 t. baking POWDER
• 7 T. sugar substitute/sugar
• 1/4 c. cocoa powder
• pinch salt

Chocolate Orange Cake Layered with Angel Food Cake

Version 2: Chocolate Orange Cake
makes 1 8″ round cake

• 1 c. cooked quinoa
• 1/6 c. milk
• 1/2c. egg substitute or 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. orange extract
• 1/4 c. applesauce
• 2 T. light stick butter, melted
• 1/4 t. baking SODA
• 3/4 t. baking POWDER
• 1/4 c. sugar substitute/sugar
• 6 T. cocoa powder
• 2 t. (6 grams) sugar-free orange Jello mix
• pinch salt

→Preheat the oven to 350*F and grease an 8″-inch round pan. (This cake is super “pan-philic” = loves the pan, so, if you have it, you might want to line the pan with parchment paper).

Combine the wet ingredients (quinoa, eggs milk, applesauce, butter, and extract) and blend (with a blender) until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (flavoring powder, cocoa, sugar substitute, baking powder, baking soda and salt).

Add the wet to the dry and mix well. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes (the orange one took a little longer for me).

Note: The only thing that changes between version 1 and 2 is the sugar substitute, the cocoa powder, the extract and the orange Jello vs. pudding mix powder.

The orange one came out a little dense for my liking (I guess I’m not used to rich cake anymore) so I layered it with some store-bought sugar-free angel food cake and topped it with orange-yogurt icing (greek yogurt mixed with a VERY small amount of sugar-free orange Jello powder).

It was hard to resist long enough to take the picture!

Let’s just say this cake came out so good it left me googling “desserts with cooked quinoa”. 😉
Any suggestions?

Quinoa

Low-Calorie Pizza Crust

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Indian-Spiced Quinoa Edamame Cutlets (and some ramblings on life)

I went and saw my advisor today. I think I was hoping for him to give me the answers–tell me what to do with the rest of my life. The bureaucratic nightmare that was the posting of my transfer credits is finally over, which means I did indeed graduate this past semester. Yay, yipee, right? Not so much.

What I didn’t realize is that graduating from one degree meant picking another. When my advisor told me that I needed to pick another major, it was like he was telling me to pick the rest of my life.

“What should I choose?” I asked him.

“Well, for med school, you could go human bio or physiology or something along those lines. Most people go with human bio.”

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “I got my 3.5 in anatomy but, as I was sitting there studying for the final, I realized it didn’t even really matter. I didn’t even care about medicine. How am I supposed to be a doctor if, even now, as an undergraduate, I know deep down I’m only studying because getting good grades gives me a modicum of self esteem?”

It was like I had thrown him a curve ball. Hell! I threw myself one! I didn’t even realize until I said it that, even today, after everything I’ve been through during AND after high school, I have absolutely NO clue what to do with the rest of my life.

As far as my advisor goes, he asked the obvious questions after that: Well what do you want to do? What interests you?….the expected. I mean, he’s an academic advisor–that’s his job. What’s more important is that I couldn’t answer any of those. What do I WANT to do? Since when has that mattered?

I WANT to spend my days cooking and eating or writing a book full of novel and altogether fascinating concepts or creating beautiful pieces of art for the whole world to see. But, as I am constantly reminded, those things aren’t real…they’re dreams and, like every other dream of mine, they only exist when there are stars in the sky.

Not everyone can be J.K. Rowling.

I’ve been surrounded by people that have known what they wanted to do since they were in the womb. I mean, I’m indian, right? Be a doctor or an engineer…that’s what indian people do, right? That’s probably the only reason I ever even considered going to med school.

I guess, if I sat down and thought about it, I could TOLERATE being a doctor: given the many perks the job comes with (huge paycheck anyone?), I would be able to find plenty of ways to distract myself enough to make it through the next 50 years or whatever. I think some part of me keeps hoping though that, maybe, one day, I’ll actually be able to have MORE than just a distraction…I’ll be able to be happy.

I won’t have to fake it anymore.

But then the stars go away and I wake up. And I go to my anatomy class and I get my perfect grades and I come home, pet my cat and turn on the TV (or eat myself into a food coma) until it’s dark outside. Then, every night, no matter how bitter the cold is or how sodden the grass, I go outside and look for a star. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to find one through the clouds…

And then I close my eyes and make a wish– the same wish–the only wish I’ve ever had.

And then I go inside and close my eyes and wait for the rays of the sun to burn through my dreams once again.

Sadly, Michigan winters beautiful pictures do not make

Chatpata Quinoa and Soybean Cutlets
makes 16 patties

• 1.25 c. cooked edamame (measured after cooking)
• 1.5 c. cooked quinoa (measured after cooking)
• 1/4c. wheat bran (feel free to sub with oat bran or other floury stuff of choice)
• about 1/2c.-1c. frozen 3 pepper and onion blend
• 1-2 tsp. minced garlic
• 3/4 large egg (or equivalent egg substitute)
• juice of 1/2 a small lemon (I used a new breed of lemon my mom sent me called Meyer lemons)
• salt and pepper to taste
• chat masala (a spice available at most ethnic food stores)

→Process the edamame in a food processor/blender (or just mash it by hand) until it looks like this:

edamame

Then, mix in the quinoa and the wheat bran.

Spray a medium to large size pan with cooking spray (or use oil if you’re not calorie-phobic) and saute the 3 pepper/onion blend with the garlic until onions are lightly browned and garlic is fragrant. Process this in the food processor/blender until it looks like this:

3 pepper and onion blend

Then, add it to the quinoa/edamame mixture, followed by the egg, the lemon juice and the salt/pepper.

Now would probably be a good time to fire up the oven/toaster oven to 395* F. (Why 395? I thought it was set to 400* but realized later that it actually said 395. I doubt it matters though.)

Spray a foil-lined baking pan with nonstick spray (or oil it).

Form the mixture into patties and bake for 20-30 min, flipping patties over half way and rotating the pan. (I stayed in the kitchen after about 15 minutes had passed and started checking them every 5 minutes or so. Some heat was probably lost during this process).

When patties are lightly browned on both sides, take them out of the oven, top them with a liberal helping of chat masala (to taste) and serve with some sweetened yogurt (or, if you have it, mango chutney + yogurt would be even better).

Do dishes and wash pan.

My lovely taste tester, Emma, who found the patties quite delicious

 

 

Quinoa-stuffed Red Pepper

I just realized that, ever since I started abiding by the “two posts a week rule” the online newspaper this blog is part of has, my posts have become…well…post-less.

I don’t know. I mean, I know that the point of having a blog is to post in it. And the point of having a food/eating disorder blog is to post in it about food, but it’s always been a spontaneous thing for me. Cooking, writing, fine arts, you can’t force these things. At least I can’t.

For some reason, I haven’t felt very…creative lately. Maybe it’s the 10 billion hours I spend a week doing science. Maybe it’s the fact that every single second I’m not working, in class or studying, I’m doing one of the other two things. I swear. I even study on the toilet. And while driving. And while eating. And while sleeping, I’m sure.

And, yet, I manage to not be able to comprehend anything in any of my classes because no matter how long I stare at the words on a page, the words don’t register.

I forgot what this post was about. I feel like it’s turning into a rant, though, so here’s something I made up about a week ago when I was sick of microwave popcorn, bananas and cottage cheese. (These are now, unfortunately, my staple dinners because eating at restaurants costs too much and I don’t have time to cook).

Stuffed Pepper

Healthy Taco-y Stuffed Pepper (not soup!)

• 1 bell pepper (I chose red because, not only is it the best tasting pepper, but it also represents my current feelings of rage toward life quite nicely)
• 1/2 ground veggie meat (or a cut up boca burger, but the meat would probably be a little cheaper depending on the brand)
• about 1/4c. chopped onion
• about 1/4c. cheddar cheese, fat free or low fat or full fat (for atkins-ers)
• 1/4c. cooked quinoa (feel free to sub with wheatberries, barley, couscous, rice, breadcrumbs, etc)
• about 1/4c.-1/2 tomato sauce (not the seasoned kind, just the plain old blended tomatoes)
• taco-y spices like garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin or whatever else you feel like

→Cut the top off of the pepper and cut it in half. Scrape out all the internal gunk and roast the pepper on a baking sheet (sprayed, of course) for 15 minutes at 375F.
While the pepper is roasting, mix all the other ingredients in a small bowl.
After 15 minutes, take the pepper out and reduce the heat to 350F. Spoon the other ingredients into the peppers (I had to make little heaps to fit it all in) and stick it back in the oven for 20 minutes.
As always, if you are a child, ask an adult for help with the cutting and oven parts. This is (a parody of) a legal disclaimer.

Quinoa Cereal (with cooked quinoa)

As unfortunate as it sounds, I don’t really have any clever banter today. I do, but it’s fairly depressing and self-pitying so I thought I’d spare anyone who happens upon this blog.

I did come up with this recipe a while back, though. I was waiting to post it until I HAD some non-self-pitying clever banter, but a week is probably too long to wait anyway.

Quinoa Cereal

Quinoa Cereal

• Quinoa, cooked (SEE NOTE)
• Yogurt (preferably of the thick variety, I used kroger carbsmart vanilla)
• fruits of choice (pineapple, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, kiwi…for me)

→Put cooked quinoa in a bowl. Add yogurt. Stir. Top with chopped fruit. Yum.

NOTE (To cook quinoa): Rinse. RINSE WELL. If you don’t rinse it well enough (generally till the water’s clear), it’ll be bitter. If you’re unsure, just keep rinsing it till you feel like you’ve gone mad rinsing and that should be enough.
Put it in a pot. 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water (1.5 parts water if you like crunchier quinoa).
Bring to a boil. Put a lid on top of the pot. Then, reduce to a simmer and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Enjoy.
***You can also replace the water with stock or juice or water + flavoring.

Zen #6: Quality, Not Quantity (and a delicious summer salad)

I’ve been craving carbs. Insanely. I think it’s the long weekend–4 straight days of nothing to do but ponder how no one even cares to call me. I actually attempted to have a real conversation with a telemarketer yesterday. So, do you think your job is pathetic? Oh, no, not at all, I find the colorful array of responses quite amusing. That’s cruel.

Okay, fine, it was actually a conversation that occurred within my head because even the telemarketers are too good for me now.

It’s been a mounting problem ever since my birthday. First, I began to count calories again, then there’s the cravings, then there’s the bingeing to sooth the cravings (which all actually happened as a result of the subconscious craving to feel wanted and the fact that I looked really fat in my press badge photo).

Finally, after screaming bloody murder at my cat for scratching me, I decided to take a big black (non-permanent) marker and write “QUALITY OF KCAL, NOT QUANTITY” on my bathroom mirror. It hasn’t really worked too well, but at least I feel like I’ve addressed the problem and identified a flawless solution. Although most psychologists would consider the lack of ability to implement the solution as a debilitating flaw in it.
To them, I have simply to say, “I’m working on it!!!!!”

For example, I made quinoa yesterday. I didn’t actually do anything with the quinoa, just took a big pot and boiled it. This, however, was the first step. Honestly, how hard is it to take a pot and boil something? Of course, today, looking at the giant pot in my fridge, I thought, You cooked it (a lot of it) and it’s probably a good idea to do something with it before it goes bad.

I considered stuffed roasted red peppers or cookies or just mixing it with some splenda and cinnamon, but realized I was still to lazy for the former and the latter would be aggravating the “bingeing on carb” situation I seem to be in. Salad seemed an optimum choice, especially after recently discovering a quickly rotting mango in my fruit drawer. Mango, quinoa, what else? Beans….

"Clinging to summer" salad

Mango, Black Bean and Quinoa Salad

• 1 ripe mango
• Red bell pepper
• Cucumber and/or a touch of shredded lettuce
• Fresh mint and/or coriander
• Quinoa
• Black beans
• Dressing (lime juice and ground cumin with a touch of jalapeno or something milder like yogurt mixed with a touch of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger)

→Chop the first 4 ingredients. Add in the quinoa and beans. Mix it up. Prepare desired dressing. Dump the dressing on top and enjoy!

Nutty Quinoa Cake

No, there’s no actual nuts in this. I have found, though, that if you rinse the quinoa like you’re supposed to and toast it like some people suggest, it really does taste like something that’s half way between almonds and hazelnuts.

Sorry I haven’t been posting all that much. I’ve been kind of depressed these past few days (it’s been coming on for a few weeks), so no real experimenting in the kitchen. Lots of sleeping though, which I hear tends to happen.

Anyway, here’s the recipe (I just realized all the pics I had for this came out really blurry. I guess I’ll have to figure out how to make my camera work since my phone’s finally lost it).

Nutty Quinoa Cake

Quinoa Cake

• 1 cup dry quinoa (rinse it in water until the water runs clear and toast it on a (non-oiled) pan over medium-high heat until it’s lightly browned)
• 6 cups water
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup milk (soy-milk or fat free will do just fine)
• 2T. powdered milk (skim/fat-free)
• 1t. vanilla
• 3/4 c splenda (I used about 3/4 of the 3/4c in the actual batter and then decided to sprinkle some on top)
• 1/8t. salt

→ Simmer quinoa UNCOVERED for about 13-15 minutes on medium heat (not like pasta where you boil it). Drain.
Preheat the oven to 350 F and spray a 9″X9″ dish with cooking spray. Put the drained quinoa in the dish and spread it out evenly.
Mix the eggs, egg whites, milk, milk powder, splenda, vanilla and salt. Pour this mixture over the quinoa (you should be able to see the liquid, but not so much that it’s soupy).
For an extra little bit, I mixed some pumpkin pie spice and the rest of the splenda together and sprinkled it over the top.
Bake it for 40-50 minutes.
Enjoy.

The recipe above it the one in the picture, but I did this again a little differently. I did the same thing up until the sprinkling. I put it in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Then, I poured a wet mix that was similar to the original over the top of the dish. The new mix used chocolate soy milk and a splash of sugar-free torani syrup, with extra powdered milk and about 1/4 packet of a jello singles sf/ff pudding mix to make it a thicker consistency. I did the sprinkling (splenda with cocoa powder) and put it back in the oven for about 5-10 minutes at 300 F. It came out with a nice creamy layer between the crumb and cake. Mmmmmmm…