Thursday, March 19, 2009

Quick-fix quinoa and veggies - postpartum meal!


Thanks to a~, I ventured into the realm of the unknown -- quinoa (pronounced keen-wah)!
It is one of the current super foods, I say current because you know how it is with super foods -- broccoli today, gone tomorrow!

This post is all about super quick means because when you are a new mom and are juggling things until help arrives, every second is precious!

Anyway, the procedure to cook quinoa is super simple (thanks again to a~):

Measure one cup quinoa and one cup water (a bit more if you like), pressure cook for 3 whistles. Chop an onion, two green chillies, grate an inch-sized ginger. In a tablespoon of oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry onions, then add ginger and finally add the quinoa and toss a few times and you are done! Garnish with lemon.

The next item on the menu today is the quickest way to cook vegetables when your baby naps :p
The vegetable can be potatoes, brinjal, zucchini, squash and onion, etc. The method is always the same. Chop the vegetable into any sized pieces (Yup, you read that right), coat an oven-safe container with olive oil, add vegetables, sprinkle a generous amount of black pepper, Italian seasoning, add salt in the end and drizzle some more ahem...EVOO :) Don't ask me why I picked Italian seasoning and not say oregano/rosemary in particular. There was this huge bottle of Italian seasoning staring me in the face and so off it went into the dish! Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 30 mins, mix once and bake for 10 more minutes. That's all. Baby's up, time to play!

Oh! And here is a neat picture of the poha that k always makes (used to make...although I think a~ made this one). He is all into proper presentation as you can tell :)