Wesley on quinoa.

Wesley: Mommy, is this birdseed?

Me: No. It's quinoa, kind of like Peruvian rice.

Wesley: Oh.

It's taken me awhile to get up the nerve to try quinoa again after my experience in Peru. It wasn't the quinoa that made me sick, but I saw it up and down so I swore off of the stuff. There are a couple of dishes like that...the ones that you just cannot fathom eating because of a negative experience. Peppered pork roast is another one of those for me.

Last night I got creative with my Epicurious application and a very large bag of quinoa from Costco. We ended up with a combination salad/stir fry/quinoa dish that I really liked. It went something like this:

3/4 cup quinoa
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup water.

Combine, bring to a boil, reduce heat for 10 minutes and fluff.

Stir fry chicken, whatever farmer's market veggies you have (zucchini, carrots, red pepper) with a bit of olive oil and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste.

Combine fluffed quinoa with stir fry mix. Top with this dressing:

4 tbs. olive oil
3 tbs. lemon juice
1 tbs. agave nectar or other sweetener
1 tsp. salt

Serve over a bed of baby spinach.

Good stuff and awesome served cold the next day for lunch. The dressing has this sweet/salty/tangy thing going that just makes you want bite after bite.