Mexi-quin-oa with black beans

Sorry for the cheesy title :grin:

I was getting tired of the one quinoa creation - Upma I blogged about earlier.  Since just about any dish can take on a Mexican avatar, I thought why not quinoa.  Around the same time I learnt about this recipe posted on my running forum. So this is a take on B's recipe.

Quinoa with Black Beans


Ingredients:

- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- 3/4 cup quinoa, dry roasted
-  1 1/2 cups vegetable broth or water
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 Tbsp taco seasoning
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 jalapeno chopped or 1 tsp cayenne (depends on how hot you like)
- 1 cup corn, frozen, or can
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup salsa


I know it looks like a really long list of ingredients but a lot of it is seasoning so you could do any combination of the spices and it will still taste excellent.

Method:

I prefer to cook the quinoa separately and then mix to sauteed ingredients.

- Bring broth to a boil, add quinoa and then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- In a separate pan, sautee onion, red pepper, garlic, spices, jalapeno.
- Mix in corn and the quinoa and black beans and cook for 5 minutes till everything is combined well
- Turn off heat and add in the cilantro and lemon juice

3 mile milestone

I w-ran (walked-ran) 3.1 miles today! Less than a week after I bought new kicks. Pics of said kicks to be posted soon. They are Saucony Grid Cohesion 3's. I didn't do a whole lot of research- a quick google told me they were decent shoes for neutral feet.

Why am I blogging about this? Because it's a milestone I'm more relieved than happy to have achieved. Of course I always knew I could run 3 miles but still, getting there validates that belief, ya know?

I need to get better at conquering distances rather than worrying about my pace.

Running Milestone

Total number of miles ran/walked in Feb 2010 - nearly 30. :)

That makes me happy. It's been a long long time coming. After facing a few roadblocks in the last couple years, I decided it's time to get my once fit self back. one step at a time. one free weight at a time.

Who knows? I might even enter a race again at some point. But I wouldn't hold my breath for that. Just logging in a few miles has been huge for me. I'm sure there's more to come.