What Am I Going to Eat Tonight?

From Desperation Comes Inspiration

Even though I try to plan out meals or at least base foods I can doctor up in a pinch, I found myself staring into the fridge Saturday night wondering what I was going to eat.  I was playing that evening at a wonderful pub (Pour Girls), where they specialize in Wings and other meaty delights.  I had two options.  I could use this as an excuse to go hog wild (or chicken wild, or cow wild), or I could fill up on some healthy grub at home, and then enjoy maybe one or two fabulous wings at the gig.  Option 2 sounded better to me.

There was no prepared food, and we had polished off the leftovers that afternoon.  We needed to go grocery shopping, but there wasn't time for that.  My fridge looked like a boring chopped basket.  I spotted some leftover quinoa, about 1/2 a cup cooked. What am I going to do with THAT?   I had some very basic veggies as well:  Carrots, celery, onions.  The most basic of the basics.

I'm not quite sure how I got this idea, maybe it was thinking about the yummy asian style wings at pour girls, but it hit me.  Fried Rice!  Or Quinoa, as the case may be.

(This photo is from www.Jehancanckook.com , check them out!)

This was going to be my dinner, so I wanted it to be veggies with a little grain...pretty much the inverse of your typical vegetable fried rice.  When it was finished, it didn't LOOK like veggie fried rice, but I was surprised at how well it turned out.  Here's what I did, for a one person serving.

Here's What I Used

• 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa
• 2 large carrots
• 2 large stalks of celery
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp or less Braggs Aminos (or low sodium soy sauce)
• 1 tbls peanut butter
• 1 tsp Olive Oil (or use a mister)

Here's What I Wish I Used In Addition

• Broccoli (fresh or frozen)
• Mushrooms (preferably a nice variety pack)
• possibly some black beans and/or bell pepper

Here's What I Did

• Dice the fresh veggies
• Heat the pan and mist with Oil
• Sweat the onions, carrots, celery until they are a bit soft (5 mins?)
• Add the garlic (I like to put mine on top of the onions etc and make sure the pan is not too hot - I HATE burnt garlic) and toss for about 30-40 seconds to sweat the garlic too.
• Add everything else, except the peanut butter, and warm through
• Once it's hot enough to eat, melt the PB into it, toss and enjoy.

The end result was really delicious.  If you are not used to eating salt free, then you may need some more soy sauce, but while not tasting exactly like fried rice, it was delicious and captured the essence, and held me over quite well.  I bummed 1 delicious Buffalo Wing off a gracious band mate and washed it down with an adult beverage, and was set for the night.

Here's a few other related recipes I found after the fact.  I will borrow a little from each to fit my taste in the future - if using as a main course I like the veggie to grain ratio be at least 1:1 veggie, but as a side dish it can be less.

Alyssa from Simply Quinoa adds egg and sesame oil.

Chungah at Damn Delicious has another take on it, also with egg.  If you try any of these or come up with your own twist, let me know how it comes out! Cheers!