Eat Well (with the) LBD of the BLD

Hey, you guys. It's me (GGC) this week. I know, sorry, but it's been a few months since I showed my face in my own "Eat Well" section and my poor mother needed a bit of a break. (She'll be back next week with more goods now don't you worry.)

I thought, because everyone is so mad hat right now with holiday craziness (speaking of. I keep forgetting to link to my Hallmark holiday card video so, here is that) it would be fun to do a post about my favorite quinoa three-fer that's ideal for house guests and very little time. It's also a healthy alternative to the caloriefest that is the Holidays. (It took me six months to lose the ten pounds I just re-gained in the last six days. Whoops.)

Anyway. Lots of quinoa buzz 'round the web these last few months so I thought I'd post another quinoa quickie because although my mom is a wiz in the kitch, I am capable of some serious kitchen magic when it comes to everyone's favorite protien-rich grain AKA quinoa AKA the "LBD of the health-cuisine circuit"... That's right. I'm going to show you how you can prepare tomorrow's BLD in 20(ish) minutes!

(If you're looking for other "quinoa quickies" go here and here and here and here. Oh! And this (quinoa stuffed peppers) is from a couple weeks ago but it's one of my absolute favorite dishes in the 'verse.)

Okay then. First. This is what we'll be making:

B. is for Breakfast

L. is for Lunch:

D. is for Dinner

.

GGC'S LBD for BLD RCP

This works best when cooking for (tonight's?) dinner and using leftovers for tomorrow's brekkie and lunch. So let's start with dinner and go from there, or "DBL" if you wish.

You will need (and forgive me, my directions aren't very precise):

1. A bunch of leeks (two? three?)

2. Yellow onions (one large or two small or whatever.)

3. Green onions (a bunch - I picked a bunch from the garden. two large handfuls?)

4. Zucchini (one large)

5. Mushrooms (as many as you'd like)

Throw them all in a giant pan with olive-oil, lemon pepper and a splash of white wine. Meanwhile, grab some chard and throw it in the wok. With a splash of olive oil and more lemon pepper. This is what your stove should look like:

(The chopped cilantro + parsley on the side is for later. Which reminds me, you will also need cilantro and parsley for this. Unless you don't like cilantro and parsley. In that case, just, you know, whatever.)

Moving on.

Go ahead and turn on your stove and cook your veggies. Meanwhile, you should have your quinoa RINSED (don't forget to rinse your quinoa, you guys. Otherwise major stomach upset may occur) and cooking in your veggie broth. (I use low-sodium organic veggie broth from Trader Joes because that's my jam. You can also use organic chicken broth if you're into that sort of thing.)

So. Now that you have your quinoa simmering on the stove, your stove should look like this (please pretend the quinoa isn't already cooked):

Notice that chard is not cooking. That's because we cook our chard + mixed greens (did I mention you can substitute chard for whatever the hell you want? Well, you can. I happen to fancy chard because I'm currently harvesting my own in my vegetable garden but I also like to throw in some spinach, mustard greens and broccolini which is a real steal at the Farmer's Market for $1.00 a bunch. Boom.) Anyway. Wow. Hi. My mom is much better at these posts than I am.

Moving on...

So. Your veggies are cooked through, yes? Good times. Do they look like this by chance?

Solid. Now go ahead and mix them into your cooked-through steaming hot quinoa. Like so:

Get it allllllllll in there, baby. Yes.

...And stir until mixed and even. Uh huh.

Now you can cook up your chard + spinach (or whatever greens you feel like cooking):

Be sure to stir. Five minutes is all it should take for your greens to look like this:

As you can see, my chard has holes. That's because I enjoy sharing my vegetable garden with the local insects. It's a fair trade because now I get to tell my friends, "my meals are holier than thou."

That was for you, dad.

So... chard. That's done. Now go ahead and add your freshly cooked, steaming hot quinoa onto the chard and top with fresh cilantro + parsley (if you want) and crumpled goat cheese and voila:

THE. END!

PSYCHE!

That's only dinner.

Now?

We get to work with leftovers!!!

This is what your leftover quinoa + veggies will look like after cooling on the counter for an hour in a bowl:

Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, go to your fridge. Retrieve the bowl and do this:

+

=

+

(goat cheese)

=

Mmmmmm! A hearty breakfast! (for non-vegans) (obviously).

***

Now for lunch!

+

+

(goat cheese and lemon pepper)

Okay so this is BASICALLY last night's dinner without the chard. But it's an amazing lunch and can be served cold and hot as you wish. Enjoy! And don't worry, my mom will be back next week!

In the meantime, hope you enjoy your LBD! And your BLD!

xo,

GGC