Old favorite/New Favorite: Whole grain deliciousness

Old Favorite: So I've always been a big rice, pasta, basically whatever type of carb you could throw at me, type of person. I ate mostly white rice and regular pasta. Lately though I've been trying to be more health conscious. I'm trying to replace the nutrient empty foods in my diet with foods that pack more of a nutritional punch. Beau and I are doing this my eating more fruits and vegetables, cutting out unnecessary carbs and making healthy substitutions of items we can't stand to live without (in my case...rice).

Picture source (and a great article on the many health benefits of quinoa)

New Favorite: Enter quinoa...this is like my new fave! I've never really been a huge brown rice fan so I was a little late to try this out but it is so delicious. If you haven't tried it, you have to go out and buy some. Quinoa is a delicious whole grain and while it's a bit pricier than brown rice, it's totally worth it because it tastes so good. Even if you aren't as sold on it as I am, you'll at least be able to agree that it's a nice way to mix up the whole grains in your diet.

Picture source

I bought the Eden brand of quinoa which was available at my grocery store, but there are also bulk grains available at your local co-op, you can even purchase it online at Amazon.com.

So here are a couple of the ways I've served quinoa in my house over the last week.

1) Instead of black beans and rice, try black beans and quinoa. Beau and I make a dish with black beans, diced tomatoes, onions, kielbasa and usually rice but quinoa made for a delicious substitution.

2) What about cabbage rolls? Okay, okay, Beau gave me that look too but the minute he saw these guys come out of the oven he was hooked and has been raving about them ever since. I saw this recipe on the Ingles site. I didn't quite follow the recipe exactly. I forgot to get fennel and celery. I am not a huge almond fan so I left those out and subbed Oyster sauce for Soy sauce. Even with all the changes these things were amazing. Trust me! Oh and this Nantahala sausage is awesome...not to mention local.

Picture source

3) Stuffed peppers. I actually had quite a bit of the quinoa/sausage mix left over from the cabbage rolls so I used it in stuffed green peppers...delish!

4) Next up is this recipe...how delicious does that look?