Quinoa? What the heck is that?

In our search for the healthiest foods, we came across this strange, incredibly nutritious, and yummy food, quinoa (keen-wah).  We first heard of quinoa when Bob Harper, the Biggest Loser trainer, was giving protein alternatives for vegetarians.  We are not, by any means, vegetarians, but we are always looking for ways to increase our protein intake without adding fat.

Quinoa is a "grain like seed" that is very small and is usually found with the other grains in the store.  We found our quinoa in bulk at Sprouts, but I did see today that Kroger carries it in their bulk area, so I bet other stores would carry it also.  If there was a category for SUPER FOODS I would think quinoa would be on the top of that list.  The benefits are almost too good to be true.  Just a few of these are:
* full of tons of vitamins and minerals beneficial to your body
* rich in protein, it contains all the nine necessary amino acid supplements important for the uptake of protein to your muscles
* rich in antioxidants, helping your body fight and get rid of free harmful radicals
* sufficient fiber content which cleans your colon, keeping your colon clean is necessary to fight cancer
* high magnesium content important in preventing risky diseases like hypertension
* gluten and cholesterol free and low in calories
* still gives you a good amount of starches and carbohydrates to fuel your body

We began cooking our quinoa in our rice cooker, which is super easy, but there are also very simple ways to cook it in the microwave and on the stovetop.  One important tip is that you should always rinse your quinoa before you cook it. We use our metal mesh strainer, with very small holes to rinse it, because the quinoa is very small. 

Once you have rinsed your quinoa, cooking it in the microwave, can be done as follows:
Use 2 cups water to 1 cup quinoa (2:1 ratio anytime you are cooking quinoa as a dish)
Place the quinoa and water in a microwave safe bowl with your choice flavor of boullion (to taste)
Cook on HIGH 100% power for 5 minutes, then 60% for 8 minutes, let stand for a few minutes and it's ready.

If you want to cook it on the stovetop, bring the quinoa, water, boullion mix to a boil for 5 minutes, cover, take off heat, and let stand for 15 minutes. 

We hope you will try this incredible food.  It has become one of our favorite side dishes, as a replacement for higher calorie, less nutritious rice!  We have been experimenting with main course dishes using quinoa.  We made a soup this week that was fabulous.  We will post it and a few more later.  If you would like to try it before we post it, just let us know.

Happy "Quinoa-ing"!
Ronna and Eristeo