Here is a delicious and easy 1-pan meal which E and I whipped up after we both got off work. Simple, quick and relatively healthy. We altered the recipe a tad by adding some peanut-spice rubbed grilled chicken. Quinoa has tons of protein anyway, so you don’t really need to add the critter; we had a hankering for some grilled meat.

Step 1: Get a chopping! Saute up some diced red onions and bell peppers. Unsurprisingly, chopping is the longest and most arduous part of this meal.

Step 2: Your house should be smelling reeeallly good by now. It will start to smell *even better* because you are adding a bunch of minced garlic, minced ginger, and bruised lemongrass at this point. I’d never really cooked with lemongrass before, but was happy to find some at the hippy grocery store and have been using it in soups and recipes all week. Really good!

Step 3: Here is a step I would advise you to alter. The recipe calls for you to cut a lime in half, squeeze all the juices into your sauteeing veggies and then throw the lime rinds in as well. The taste of lime *alllmost* was too much for us- I would maybe add 1/2 of the lime juice or even 1/3rd of the called for amount. Coconut and chili combined is such a tantalizing flavor that it was a bummer the lime overpowered everything else. Also, add your quinoa at this point. You are going to saute the quinoa until it is a “toasty golden brown.” Took us about 5 minutes with constant stirring.
Go easy on the lime!
Step 4: Now the fun part! Add one can coconut milk and a bunch of chili powder and cayenne pepper to taste. We increased the amount the recipe called for because we are sadists :) Doesn’t this look like it’s just going to come out delicious? You basically boil the quinoa in coconut milk instead of plain old water. Splendid!
doesn't this look delicious?!
Step 5: Boring part. Cover and simmer 35 minutes. We went and chilled in bed, taking turns every five minutes to come stir. It was fun watching the quinoa sop up the milk as smells of Thailand invitingly wafted through the house.

Step 6: When your quinoa has reached full size (and absorbed most of the liquid), uncover and fluff with a fork. This was the point where we added our grilled chicken.

Step 7: Stir in your chicken if you went that route, and also add in some thin sliced green onion for flavoring. Let sit for five minutes to let all the flavors settle. Sample generous amounts while waiting and ruin your dinner :) ps- remember to remove the lime rind and lemongrass sticks at this point.

Step 8: Beer me!

Step 9: Ess! or Fress, if you’re particularly ravenous ;) Want to hear the saddest part of this tale? I was still feeling rather under the weather from my nasty cold last weekend and couldn’t even finish my one beer! Travesty. ::shakes head:: That Alaskan White beer is so freaking good.

All in all, a great healthy meal which is pretty easy, healthy and unique! I think a lot of the ingredients- onions, lemongrass, garlic, ginger and chili powder were great for helping us get rid of our colds. Just remember to go easy on the lime. Cheers.