Summer Salad

Today was a lovely start to May, with temperatures above 70 degrees, blue skies and everything in full spring bloom. I wanted something nice and light for dinner, so I cooked up some red quinoa, cooled it, and added chopped tomatoes, sweet pepper, cucumber, avocado, olives, feta and crab meat. Seasoned with a little balsamic and salt and pepper, and this was a lovely salad. For those of you keeping track, starting with 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa and one can of crab meat yields two servings with 345 calories, 20 grams of protein and 15 grams of fat.

Cold-Buster

Today's lunch was a combination comfort food/medicinal meal, as I have been under the weather for over a week. I'm hoping the copious garlic and jalepeno in this dish is enough to burn away this chest cold and let me breathe (fire). Let's just hope it doesn't burn out my stomach, too.
The beans: canned black beans with a clove of raw garlic, heated just through. The sauce: cumin, smoked paprika, 6 cloves (or so) and a jalepeno brought to life in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, then cooked into diced tomatoes (canned) and pureed (left chunky) with the immersion blender. Two over easy eggs cooked with more garlic and jalepeno, two sprouted grain corn tortillas and a little cilantro. Stand back, germs!

And from a couple of weeks ago, a super healthy corn/bean/quinoa stew with carrots, celery, spinach, tomato and similar spices to the heuvos, but in moderation. This one was excellent on its own and re-heated with some tamales, then later as a soup with tomato soup to thin it out.

Roasted Corn and Tomato Quinoa Tabouli

Round two of our fabulous tomatoes inspired this lunch, chilling in the fridge now. I used red quinoa, cooked and cooled, toasted garlic, oregano and cumin, olive oil, juice of one lime, skillet toasted corn, edemame, salt and pepper, fresh cilantro, and of course the tomatoes. We'll have it with some grilled portobellas and avacodo but it would be nice with corn tortillas or some quorn cutlets as well.