Welcome to our first ever Try This! Thursday (just made that up). This morning (while my baby took a nap and my 3 year old colored and played with My Little Ponies) I made a Swiss Chard, Mushroom and Quinoa salad.
While I was cooking, I started thinking - in an effort to get the most people involved and cooking, starting next week I'm going to choose recipes from the Whole Living (and other) websites so that you can easily access the recipes as well. I don't want anyone to feel left out if they don't have a particular book and I also don't want to run into any copyright issues by posting material on the blog. Fortunately, I found quite a few recipes from the Power Foods book on the Whole Living website so that's great.
As for today's dish, I chose it because I already had all the ingredients and I've been in a mushroom kind of mood recently. You can find the full recipe on page 256 in Power Foods.
I started off with the last of our rainbow chard from the garden. Oh, I'll miss you.
Chopped it up and cooked in some olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put aside.
Cremini mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and garlic. (Cremini mushrooms are more mature than the regular white button mushrooms so they are a bit more flavorful. They're "younger" than portobello mushrooms, and are often called "baby bellas") Cook for about 5 minutes on medium, until the juices start flowing.
Quinoa. If you haven't tried quinoa yet, you MUST! It is considered a complete protein, as it contains all 9 essential amino acids. It is loaded with vitamins and minerals and is gluten-free. I use it in soups, salads, in place of rice, you name it. I do 1 cup quinoa to 1.5 cups liquid. I say liquid because I usually use vegetable broth for part of the liquid (ex: 2 cups quinoa, 2 cups water, 1 cup vegetable broth). It cooks super fast too (like 15-20 minutes). Try it and tell me what you think.
I added 1 cup of cooked quinoa to the mushrooms then tossed with fresh thyme from our herb garden. Heat through.
Yum! It was delicious. Personally, this would be a complete meal for me, but I'll probably add some fish for my husband.
Okay, now I'm off to take my shot (with a little less dread this time).
Have a great day,
Kim
