Friday, March 09, 2012
C's Quinoa Salad - #PresidentsChoice #PCOrganics
- "What on earth is Quinoa?!"
- "Man, you guys eat weird stuff!"
- "I feel sorry for your husband. You always cook weird food."
- "Sushi? Gross! I hate fish!"
- "Blech! Couscous?! Tofu?!? What is that?!"
- "I can't believe your 3 year old eats that stuff!"
It's not like I never feed my family chicken fingers or Mac 'n Cheese. I do on occasion. Mostly, I don't deprive my child of foods common to her peers, because I don't want her to be ostracized in school as being "the kid who eats weird food" and I don't want her to feel she needs to hide in a corner and eat these "treats" in the closet. I want her to have a healthy relationship with food. Everything in moderation.
Though we try not to give her too much sugar, she does get treats every now and then. I've even bribed her with chocolate when she was potty training! Hey, stickers didn't work on her because they weren't a treat. She gets to play with stickers all the time. She rarely gets candy or junk food, so potty incentives that include things that she rarely gets were very effective!
This said, I'm not so secretly elated that my 3 year old isn't a junk food fan. She absolutely loves food of all kinds, but doesn't like fried, greasy, overly sweet/sugary foods. I know! What 3 year old doesn't love French Fries?!? Mine!!! Yes, the kid will not eat fries. "They're yucky and greasy!" I totally plead innocence on that one. She came up with that on her own! She does love chicken strips though.
Anyway, I wanted to share a fabulous recipe that my little one and I both love, love, love! Hubby says "It's pretty good for something that doesn't have any meat in it."
Hubby is still getting used to Quinoa. He is a veritable meat and potatoes farm boy. When I received that package of President's Choice Blue Menu and PC Organics items, I noticed a box of golden and black Quinoa. I normally buy the regular Quinoa, but this one looked really interesting with the variety of colour.
Yet another reason I love President's Choice products! They offer a huge variety of healthy items from their Blue Menu and PC Organics lines! I love that President's Choice has launched their Live Life Well campaign too.
Ingredients:
1 box of PC Organics golden and black Quinoa
mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves or garlic, chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1 pkg of firm tofu, diced
a little bit of oil
freshly ground black pepper
- Cook Quinoa as per package directions (bring water to boil, add Quinoa, cover, simmer for 25 minutes).
- In a pan, heat oil and sautee onion and garlic. Add tofu and mushrooms. Season as desired.
- Once Quinoa is cooked, fluff it with a fork (as you would with couscous). Put cooked Quinoa into a large serving bowl.
- Add browned tofu and cooked mushroom, onion, and garlic to the bowl of Quinoa. Add grated carrot. Gently mix so that ingredients so that each serving has an even distribution of ingredients.
- *Optional* I love President's Choice Memories of Thailand Fiery Thai Chili Pepper Sauce. I sometimes add some to the dish to give it a little bit of kick. LOVE IT!
Little One loves her Quinoa salad. She shocked us when she had three helpings!
Disclosure - To help spread the word about President's Choice's healthy food items and the Live Life Well program, we received a variety of President's Choice Blue Menu and PC Organics products to try. The opinions on this blog are honest and my own.
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City girl moves to the country, falls in love, and marries a farmer. She tries to incorporate her city ways with her new country lifestyle and blogs to keep in touch with friends, family & students who live far, far away :) Can this city girl go country? Watch as she learns all sorts of exciting things about life on the farm and in a small rural community. *UPDATE* We are now parents! Our baby girl was born on Nov. 11, 2008 (at 28 weeks gestation- 12 weeks premature, but she's quite the trooper)!!!
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14 comments:
My newest food craze is with Quinoa. It's so yummy and a healthy alternative. I wish I could get my hubby and children on board.
That looks delish!!!
Nicole:
I'm with you! LOVE Quinoa! :-)
DYKC:
Thank you :-) We're addicted to this salad! LOL
Mmm, we love quinoa! They girls prefer the red!
That looks so yummy and how cute is your little one and her plate, LOVE IT!
sweetie there is NOTHING wrong with feeding your kiddo the foods you do!! And they are NORMAL foods for LOTS of people!!
so PFFT on those other people.
If I could get my kids to eat a wide variety of foods I'd do it in a heartbeat- and in fact my daughter does. My boys are much more difficult though.
That being said- I fully agree with you- we try to limit the sugar/ junk food/ general CRAP that the kids eat too. That's just smart in my opinion :)
I am so in love with Quinoa right now!! it's funny, my brain just doesn't want to say it right... it pauses and wants to call it something else. :)
I'll have to pick up the golden and black Quinoa, I didn't know there were different kinds.
Mommy Moment:
Oooh! That is awesome! Little One didn't like the texture a year ago (same with couscous). This year, she's all about the quinoa! LOL
Just Us Girls:
Thanks! :-) I love that plate too! So much fun! A university friend of mine gave it to Little One last year when he came to visit us! She uses it all the time.
Tara:
Oh, I luv you! Thank you for that comment! :-) I was beginning to feel a bit badly. okay, maybe insulted is a better way to describe it. It actually shocks me that some people can be so closed-minded when it comes to food. There are some foods that I think are not so common, but I wouldn't tell someone that their food is gross or weird. When I was teaching in Japan, things like NATO (Japanese fermented soy beans) or eel or sea urchin were not appealing to me, but I tried them.
I totally get it if people like to stick withttheir comfort zones, but don't be rude and disrespectful. It's the same people who say quinoa or tofu or sushi are all gross who complain or wonder why their kids are such picky eaters. I may have just stepped over so e boundaries here. Totally don't mean to offend anyone. I realize most kids get picky/show preferences for certain foods and it's normal. It's just that parents who say certain foods are weird or gross don't make it easier. I met someone whose child refuses to eat vegetables because the father said he hates veggies. Sorry for the rant! LOL :-)
ooh, sexy photo of you for your avatar! woo hoo!
i think it's great that your daughter likes all kinds of foods. aren't you glad she's not that picky of an eater? i was blessed with tc at least trying and eating what we gave her. we mixed it up a bit as well.
love the face plate that LO has! i saw the male version somewhere. looks like fun to use, decorating those faces with food!
Canine:
SuPER relieved LO isn't a picky eater! :-) She only has two options in our house. Take it or leave it. She LOVES food of all kinds. As for the plate, Stephen and Elisabeth gave it to her when they were visiting last summer! I wonder if they'll be visiting again when you're here. They want to come back this summer.
I am right in reading that your house is also Gluten Free??? I have a daughter with Celiac Disease well newly diagnosed this fall... so we are a gluten free house also!