Quinoa and Stuffed Pepper recipe

Truth be told, I hadn't tried quinoa until a couple months ago.
I knew it was good for you and all,

(Facts about quinoa here and here )

but I didn't know how to cook it or use it.

I finally decided to bite the seed bullet and try!

Of course I had to do research first to know what to do.
It was this website that educated me.

Parts of the process followed by quinoa cakes.

I have found quinoa incredibly versatile and has become a staple in our household.

It is delicious on salads, AS a salad, in pancakes, AS a pancake... and so much more!

When I cook quinoa I'll prepare one cup at a time.

1/2 gets cooked in a broth (chicken or turkey), half water. 

(In separate pots <--- obviously)

The broth adds flavor to the quinoa to throw on salads.

The plain one is good to throw in smoothies, applesauce (for the Nugget), or for pancakes.

The other night, I made up a delicious quinoa stuffed pepper I thought you might like.

Recipe as follows

Quinoa {half} stuffed pepper

Ingredients:

1 red pepper

3/4 cup cooked quinoa

1/4 cup chopped zucchini

1/4 cup chopped kale

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup Parmesan Reggiano cheese (Shaved or Grated)

Process:

Cut red pepper in half, remove seeds. 

Boil pepper in water for 10 minutes to soften.

Meanwhile, mix quinoa with kale, zucchini, salt and pepper.

Remove peppers from pot and place on baking sheet.

Top peppers with quinoa mixture.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove, top with cheese, broil for 5 minutes (or until bubbly).

Enjoy!!

This worked well for a light dinner, but would be great to fully stuff a pepper and bake.

What are some fun ways you enjoy quinoa?

Smells like and Summer is here

Believe it or not, I did NOT fall off the face of the earth.
Apparently that's hard to do, considering it's a sphere?

Yes, we are still here!!

One of my favorite things the Nugget does as of late is smell things.
It all started when she smelled some sunscreen at the beach. I asked her what it smelled like.
Her response, "ORANGE!"
This made complete sense to me since the bottle was orange!

The next day she smelled a {blue} make-up bag.
Of course, her response to what it smelled like... "BLUE!!"

I know this window of smelling things, and responding to what color the item is won't last long.
 I'm trying to savor all the perfect, innocent fun that it is!

Another fun Nugget bit is her love of those silly monkey's that jump on the bed!

You know the song. And so does Nugget!

{This is our favorite version}

She goes around the house singing, "No monkey's jumping bed!" 

Occasionally she will prompt me to join by saying, "Doctor said!"

I'm officially marking this song as her current favorite!

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The good news is that we made it to the end of August before needing to pump the air conditioning.

The bad news is that it's so HOT and HUMID that we have to pump the air-conditioning!

This is actually very normal for southern California. It'll be super hot for the remainder of this month, through September, and most of October.

Getting up at 6am to run doesn't even cut it in this heat. 

However, I'll try my hardest not to slack off during these months. 

Maybe if I blog more, it'll keep me accountable. 

That, and I have a wonderful running buddy now too!

Sunday long run on Coronado Island

I'll leave you with one more picture of this cuteness before signing off.

Talk soon!!

XOXO

Is it hot where you live right now?