five new recipes | recipe one

One of my February goals was to make five NEW recipes. I cook every night, and if you cook every night as well, you know how hard it is to come up with around 20 recipes per month. Well, it's easy if you repeat I guess...which is the rut I had gotten in to. I am hoping this goal leads to some yummy finds! (It helps that this month, I meal planned in advance for the entire month as opposed to week by week!)

I am always looking for good and healthy sides for when I cook chicken. A believes that every meal needs a protein, so I let him gobble down on some chicken while I stick to the sides, so that means the sides have to be good. (No, not a vegetarian, but I'm not the biggest fan of chicken.) This is a side that I will now gladly incorporate into my meal planning, and you should too! Don't let the fact that it's quinoa scare you away. Embrace the quinoa! 

Quinoa is probably one of the more difficult foods to photograph, so I apologize for that looking like a pile of mush. My first venture into quinoa was with quinoa pizza bites, which are delicious, but I knew I had to figure out a way to make it and have it replace some of the rice we eat. And let me tell you, this is a great way! 

I based my recipe off one from Beauty & The Beard, but of course had to change it up a bit. Here's how I did it, and how you should, too! (And if you click over, don't think this will replace Mac and cheese. It's good, but nothing will ever replace Mac and cheese. Nothing.)

1 cup quinoa

2.5 cups water

Salt + pepper 

1 T olive oil

2-3 cloves minced garlic (I tend to over garlic) 

1 T dried basil (I use the kind you have to refrigerate. If you use true dried basil, use a little less) 

1/3 cup parm cheese (I used asiago and it was delish!) + parm to top with

Dump the quinoa and water in a small pot and add in some salt- not too much because the cheese is salty! Turn the heat on high until it reaches a boil. Lower the temp to a simmer, then cover and simmer for 18 minutes. When the timer goes off, if water is absorbed it is done, if not just add a few minutes on and cook until absorbed. 

While that is cooking, sauté garlic in olive oil for 30 seconds, just until fragerent. 

When quinoa is done, turn off heat and stir in cheese, garlic, basil and pepper to taste. Serve and top with parm cheese. 

I promise you will like this! It's super creamy, which surprised me because terse nothing but cheese in it, and salty and delicious.

One down, 4 to go! Except I planned 10 just in case something happened!