There’s that word again. Quinoa. Keen-wah.
What is this stuff?
Well, quinoa is considered to be a whole grain but it is a seed that can be prepared like rice or barley. Quinoa is cool because it’s flexible and can be used in many different recipes and the flavor is neutral so it goes with lots of cool things. Just like the color black. I love black. When in doubt wear black. With more black.
Kids love quinoa, I call it pasta balls because it’s basically the same thing. If you make quinoa with a flavored liquid, like vegetable stock or chicken stock opposed to just water, you’ll enjoy it so much more.

This week we wrapped up the Cara Clark Nutrition 10 Day Challenge and quinoa was a big part of our meals. So we made a giant batch and used it every other day with recipes.

Roasted Vegetables & Quinoa was easy and very filling. Here’s the recipe from Cara Clark. If you haven’t checked her out yet, you should! She’s the best when it comes to making easy healthy meals and staying active while managing small people and work! She’s amazing and honest and I love that about her.
Ingredients:

•  2 sweet potatoes, rinsed, peeled and cut into french fry strips (yum)
• 1 red onion, cut into slices / half moon shapes
• 1 head of cauliflower, rinsed and chopped into bite size pieces
• 1 bunch of asparagus, rinsed and woody ends trimmed by breaking
• olive oil
• sea salt and fresh pepper
• 1 cup of quinoa, prepare according to package

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400* and line 3 baking sheets with foil.
2. Once all of your veggies are rinsed and chopped, place them on the lined baking sheets. I noticed with this recipe that I had a TON of vegetables. The thing about roasting is that your veggies need room to roast. If they are crowded on the pan, they will only steam and wilt.
3. Swirl your olive oil across the baking sheets a few times and sprinkle with salt and pepper. use your hands to toss + coat the veggies. This is so they do not stick to the pan and crisp up.
4. Bake for 30 minutes and check on them. Flip them around making sure they aren’t burning.
5. Bake for 15 more minutes or until your level of doneness.
6. Make your quinoa according to package directions.

:::Extra protein:::

We made some chicken breast tenders to add some protein to this dish. It was not my favorite, but here is what I whipped up at the last minute.
Ingredients:

• 1 pound chicken breast tenders
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp parsley
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup Kim Crawford white wine

Directions:

1. In a large fry pan over medium heat, add olive oil and swirl to coat your hot pan.
2. While your pan is heating up, put the tenders in a bowl and coat with the oregano, garlic, onion powder, parsley and s+p.
3. Add the chicken strips to the pan. Feel free to add more herbs as you see fit. I like to add stuff until it starts to smell good. I tend to use more herbs because you cant really mess those up. Garlic and onion, not so much, those can kill your food in a big hurry if you over use them.
4. Cook on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes each side. You’ll see the pan start to get dirty, so this is where Kim comes in.
5. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup Kim Crawford to deglaze your pan and get all the crunchy bits off. This makes washing your pan so much easier when you’re done cooking.
6. If you don’t have white wine, just use chicken stock, or vegetable stock. Just make sure your cooking liquid matches the color of your meat 😉

The kids ate everything on their plates, and so did we. They did need some sauce though because no matter how hard I try to make decent chicken, it always turns out DRY. And mine was dry. So BBQ did the trick. Sweet Baby Rays is safe for nut allergies.
There you have it. Weeknight cooking. It was a lot easier than it looks. My advice would be to skip the chicken and use a store bought chicken strip like Dino Nuggets and focus on roasting some healthy veggies. Quinoa is a no-brainer, just make it.
Have a great week 🙂