Mixed Reviews

My parents always taught me that I should always try new things, new foods, and new experiences. I had to try food 7 times before I decided I didn’t like it (PS Mom, I still don’t like fish). While this was frustrating as a child I am glad that I still like to try new foods and new ways to cook especially because chicken and vegetables can get a little boring. I have come up with a ton of different recipes, I have scoured the internet for more ideas, and I have a pretty core set of recipes that I work from but every now and then I have to find something completely off the beaten fat kid path. So I have a new plan… well maybe not new and not really a plan. I have an Idea! Yes that’s a better word. Every week I will pick something out at the grocery store that I have never had and I will find a recipe to use including my fancy new grocery store pick of the week! Or I will find a recipe with a fun new item… Either way, new foods, new recipes, and hopefully a new addition to the current repertoire.

I came up with this idea after I was talking to a fellow blogger (Life, Babies, & Baking… check it out!) and then later when I was prepping my foods as luck would have it, I was cooking a new and fun ingredient. So then BAM! New idea.

This week’s ingredient is...

 

QUINOA!!! OK..OK.. quit with the eye rolling, and don’t you dare call me a hipster! It’s actually not bad, I was pleasantly surprised. It was also easy to cook which is a plus for me. I was looking for something that was fairly low carb, high protein and would help fill me up and keep me full. Quinoa (keen-wah) fit the bill!

This is what I came up with based on ingredients already in my fridge and a quick look at a few Pinterest recipes

Mediterranean Quinoa

1 Cup uncooked quinoa (boil with 2 cups of water then cover and bring to a simmer until all the water is absorbed)

1 cucumber

1 lemon juiced

½ cup feta

1 Tbls evoo

1 Tbls dried Dill

½ cup chopped parsley

10 chopped Kalamata olives

 

I chopped all the ingredients and added the lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil and put them in a container in the fridge to start the flavor mashing while the quinoa cooked on the stove. Once the quinoa was done cooking and cooled I added it to the rest of the ingredients and tossed it until it was fully mixed.  

 

I could have easily added more cucumber, tons more feta, and I think it would be good if I tossed it in a greek dressing instead of the lemon juice and evoo or added tomatoes. I was trying to make it as low calorie as possible and not taking something healthy and pump it up into a calorie/fat laden meal.

I put 4 servings into my calorie calculator but I think it is more along the lines of 6 servings

This is the breakdown per serving:

CALORIES    234

CARBS            32

FAT                    9

PROTEIN         9

SODIUM     168

SUGAR            1

 

I dumped a bunch on my salad today instead of chicken and it turned out pretty darn good! But Scott wanted to scrape it off his tongue... So we will go with mixed reviews on this one