experiment

So I already miss oatmeal. So breakfast was an attempt to remind my stomach of oatmeal and, as an added bonus, finish up my quinoa.

I decided to try the overnight soaking method to soften up the quinoa, and then do a microwave type thing this morning. So last night I put 1/4 cup (1 serving) of quinoa with 1/2 cup water and 3 chopped dried apricots.

Here’s what it looked like this morning:

Some of the water had definitely been absorbed, but I think the apricots did most of that.

Here’s my cooking technique:

Add 1/4 cup milk. Microwave on 60% power for 5 minutes. Stir. Microwave on 50% power for another 5 minutes. Stir. Add another 1/4 cup milk. Microwave on 50% power for another 5 minutes. Stir. Add cinnamon. Microwave on 50% power for a final two minutes.

Here was the result:

 

My verdict? Not bad. The soaking and gradual cooking did GREAT things for the apricots- they were way less chewy than when I just microwave them with quick oats, and the apricotty goodness infused the whole dish. The quinoa was fine. I mean, it’s no oats. I like my breakfast oatmeal to be kind of sticky and risotto-y (which is why I love Kath’s stovetop method so much), but this was still good.

I decided that the bowl looked pretty meager, and since quinoa is awesome and a perfect protein already, I decided I didn’t need to add my usual apricot accompaniment of slivered almonds and instead added more fruit, and thus more volume, in the form of half a banana, chopped up.

Then I worked out and hit up the grocery store for a few staples (I am only doing teeny trips because I will be home in a week, and I want to avoid wasting food!), and they were giving out pretty hefty samples of stovetop lasagna. It was tasty, but the woman working there said they made it with 80% lean ground beef :( That means 20% cow fat, which is heavy on the saturated!

My lunch was basically delicious and awesome. So simple, but really really just good. I made two small plates and incorporated like every food group ever:

A whole wheat english muffin topped with a little bit of salad mix for crunch, 2 oz deli smoked turkey and pesto, with a side of chopped green peppers (although honestly I just wasn’t feelin’ them and only had a few. I get a lot of vegetables. It’s cool).

    

And the last of my low fat cottage cheese with YUMMY GRAPES which were on sale for $.99 a pound (?!?!?!)

I’m going to meet up with my friend for a nice long walksie (apparently there is some kind of LAKE nearby?!?! How did I not know this? I am such a lake lover!) and then we’re doing something for dinner… we’re going to make it up as we go!