Quinoa stir fry with Pumpkin seed pesto

Quinoa is one of my staple foods along with rice and pasta. This dinner is just a simple stir fry with a pesto sauce so anything you like could go into it.
serves 2
30 minutes

The stir fry.

• 1 large onion, sliced
• half a cube of tofu, cubed
• 10 mushrooms, cut to your liking
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups of chopped mixed greens

1. Dry roast quinoa in a pot until they start to slightly brown.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Turn to low and let cook for 25 minutes.
3. Fry onion, tofu and mushrooms in a pan at medium high for 10 minutes.
4. Add garlic and various greens (spinach, swiss chard, kale) and cook for 5 more minutes.
5. Add 2 cups of cooked quinoa and pumpkin seed pesto.
6. Top with some of your favorite cheese. I prefer Romano or Feta for this dish.

The pesto.

1. Dry roast 4 Tbsp of pumpkin seeds in a cast iron pan until they brown and begin to pop.
2. Grind coarsely in a food processor.
3. Add 1 cup of chopped cilantro, the juice from 1 lime, 1 chopped clove of garlic, a pich of salt and enough olive oil to get everything mixed together well. A little cayenne wouldn't hurt here either.
   

Vegetable wrap

Today's lunch for the boys were some flax meal chapatis filled with some veggies from the fridge. S. had already had a plain warm chapati with butter and was just about to eat another (see the bite) when I told him that I wanted him to eat some veggies as well. I always ask the kids what they want so that they feel like they are in charge. For this wrap S. choose red pepper, grated carrots, and cilantro. Later on he had one with ketchup, red pepper, grated carrot, and spinach. Roll them up and eat them fresh. Hard to beat.

These chapatis follow my standard recipe (April 4, 2008), except that in this batch I added 3 Tbps of flax meal to the flour instead of the previous seed mixture.

And for the grownups...

Nothing beats turning left over rice from the night before into a fried rice and eggs breakfast the next morning.
serves 1-2
10 minutes

• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• half a red pepper, diced
• 3/4 cup chopped cilantro
• salted black beans
• hot sauce
• fish sauce
• olive oil

1. In a non-stick pan, at medium high heat, cook the red peppers in a little olive oil.
2. When slightly browned add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
3. Add the rice and the black beans.
4. Crack the two eggs into the pan next to the rice and cook to your liking (mine is over easy).
   
5. Add the cilantro to the rice while the eggs are cooking.
   
6. When the eggs are done to your liking, remove and serve.
   
7. Add some fish sauce to the rice and some hot sauce to the eggs. My favorite hot sauce for eggs is Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, widely available in most places.
   

Again, you can do what ever you want with a breakfast like this. Much depends on what you have in your fridge and what you may have a hankering for. For me the main ingredients are the fish sauce and the cilantro in the rice and the hot sauce on the eggs. Breakfast heaven.

My Favorite Popcorn

I do a lot of things to popcorn, my favorite night time snack, and this is one I return to time after time.
serves 2-3
10 minutes

1. 2 Tbsp Wakame seaweed, cayenne to taste, and salt to taste, put in a grinder and ground to a fine powder.
2. In a small pot melt 2-3 Tbsp of butter. Add the juice from half a lime. With a garlic press, add 2-3 small cloves of garlic.
3. A small handful of cilantro, finely chopped.
4. Pop your popcorn, add the butter mixture, followed by the grinder mix and then the chopped cilantro.
5. Mix, eat and enjoy!
   

Broccoli, Red Pepper Redux

I still had lots of broccoli and red pepper so here is a heartier version for tonight.
serves 2
15 minutes

• 1 onion, cut in strips
• 1 red pepper, cut in strips
• 1 cup of diced yam
• 2 heads of broccoli, cut into stalks
  
• 4 cloves garlic
• olive oil
  
• juice from half a lime
• good handful of chopped cilantro
• thai fish sauce
• cayenne

1. Fry the onion, red pepper and yam in olive oil until slightly browned.
2. Add garlic and broccoli, put a lid on the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Serve vegetables in large bowl.
   
4. Add lime juice, fish sauce and cayenne to taste.
5. Top with cilantro and serve.
6. Add your favorite seeds or nuts in top.