I had a fantastic lunch yesterday made with leftovers from the previous night. A simple, nutritious and super-fast food choice for a snack or meal...
Red quinoa ("keen-wa"), low-fat cottage cheese, organic cherry tomatoes, and toasted pecans. Yum!
A little known fact about quinoa is that the Incans called it "The Mother of All Grains" - They knew their stuff back then! Quinoa is a unique grain in that it is high in protein (12-18%) and it has all of the essential amino acids making it a complete protein {e.g. all the same amino acids of a meat} thus giving it the name "superfood", which is I'm sure how many of you have heard of it.
On top of being a super-yummy super-food, quinoa is high in iron {an element of which many women don't eat enough} and magnesium {needed for metabolism and lots of other things in the bod}, and has a good amount of potassium {helps with balancing blood pressure} and fiber {we all know what that's for}. It's also gluten-free.
Red and "regular" or "white" quinoa don't have much nutritional differences but the red quinoa does have a bit of an earthier, nuttier taste and a more grain-like texture.
I always prepare it with a low-sodium broth as it's a little bland for me when prepared with water alone. It's great by itself or you can mix in nuts or roasted vegetables, or we like the texture it provides when we eat it with our salad.
Click here for amazing quinoa recipes from EatingWell magazine. {Have I mentioned I LOVE this magazine and their website?}
What's your favorite way to eat quinoa?
No comments:
Post a Comment