Quinoa and Veggies - Recipe for Life

This probably won't even qualify for sharing a recipe with you this month, which will make a little more sense once you read through the rest of this entry.

To begin with, the following recipe calls for, among other things, celery, small carrots, frozen peas, brown mustard seeds, paprika, coriander, and cashew pieces or sunflower seeds, all of which I did not have in the house when I decided to make this dish.  Did I go to the store?  Guess again.  I substituted frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower for the veggies that I didn't have on hand, prepared mustard for the mustard seed (is that legal) and I ignored the rest of the missing ingredients. 

The recipe also calls for soy sauce, which I had on hand, but failed to add.  Go figure.  Just one of those days.  And isn't that what life is sometimes like.  As Miss Piggy would say, "You got to go with what you got."  She also said, "Never eat more than you can lift," which I consider words to live by.

But on to the recipe in its original form.  What you do with the recipe once it's in your hot little hands is up to you.

Quinoa and Veggies

Ingredients
  2 cups cooked quinoa
  2 T cooking oil
  1 stalk celery, sliced
  1 small carrot, peeled and sliced
  1 cup frozen peas
  1 t brown mustard seed
  1/2 t dry ginger
  1 t paprika
  1/2 t ground cumin
  1 t ground coriander
  1/2 t turmeric
  pinch cayenne
  1 T soy sauce
  1/4 cup cashew pieces or sunflower seeds
  1/4 cup chopped parsley - optional

In a large, shallow pan heat the oil.  Add the mustard seeds and cook on medium high heat until the seeds begin to pop.

Add the carrots, celery, peas and nuts and stir-fry for about 5 minutes.  Add the remaining spices along with 2 T water.  Cover and steam until the veggies are tender.  Mix in the quinoa and steam for a few more minutes until everything is hot.  This would be a good time to stir in the optional parsley. 

Serve and enjoy.

OK.  You'll notice that the picture with this recipe is not a picture of quinoa and veggies.  That's because we ate it all.  Every last bite.  It was simply delicious in its cobbled together form.  The picture included is dad at age 96 and still finding things to smile about.  Isn't life just full of wonderful moments!