Last night at 3 a.m. I pulled into the driveway after a 15-hour drive from Florida. We took the kids to Disney for Spring Break in honor of The-Now-5-Year-Old's birthday. We had a blast but I'm happy to be home.
Although, being greeted by an empty fridge is never fun.
Well, empty besides the crap-ton of beer we've had in there since our Christmas party in December.
December!
Anyway, battling an empty stomach and armed with only what I could dig out of my bare fridge and pantry, I set off to make myself a wholesome meal to help me feel slightly better about all the junk I ate this past week. The three things that inspired me the most were my last pillow pack of beets, some quinoa from the pantry and a bag of pumpkin seeds I've been keeping in the fridge.
I started to cook the quinoa and thought, hmmmm I need something green. That's when I checked on my herb boxes outside and... Bazinga! I have fresh chives and mint!
This is how I pulled everything together to make myself a fun dish when nothing else was available. As soon as I post this I'll be off to the store! It's time to prep for the week. I need some vegetables up in here!
Here's what I did...
Ingredients
- ½ cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 cup water
- 5 cooked beets (~270g)
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- 10g fresh chives, chopped
- 2g fresh mint, chopped
- Pinch of salt
- ¼ cup pumpkin seeds (30g)
Instructions
Cook the quinoa according to the package -- bring 1 cup of water and ½ cup of quinoa to a boil, cover and then simmer. I replaced a bit of the water with the juice from the beet pack so I didn't waste it. It tinted the quinoa a nice shade of pink.
While the quinoa is cooking, cut the beets into quarters and toss them with the oil, chives, mint and salt.
Once the quinoa is done, add it and the pumpkin seeds to the beets and toss.
I really wish I had some feta to go with this but I didn't. Instead I topped with a little freshly grated parmesan just to get a little bit of that cheesy saltiness.
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📖 Recipe
Quinoa With Beets, Pumpkin Seeds and Chives
Ingredients
- ½ cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 cup water
- 5 cooked beets ~270g
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- 10 g fresh chives chopped
- 2 g fresh mint chopped
- Pinch of salt
- ¼ cup pumpkin seeds 30g
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa according to the package -- bring 1 cup of water and ½ cup of quinoa to a boil, cover and then simmer. I replaced a bit of the water with the juice from the beet pack so I didn't waste it. It tinted the quinoa a nice shade of pink.½ cup uncooked quinoa, 1 cup water
- While the quinoa is cooking, cut the beets into quarters and toss them with the oil, chives, mint and salt.5 cooked beets, 2 teaspoon olive oil, 10 g fresh chives, Pinch of salt, 2 g fresh mint
- Once the quinoa is done, add it and the pumpkin seeds to the beets and toss.¼ cup pumpkin seeds
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