Mushroom infused Quinoa?

Oh man did I have a cool dinner last night! As many of you know, I have been taking some of the responsibility for caring for my dad while still working, treating patients and working with coaching clients. All-in-all it is a crazy time and Wednesday nights are particularity hectic because Jen, my wife, works late. Last night by the time I had finished tucking dad in and running kids to and fro, it was 7:30 before I had a chance to fire up the stove to make dinner. 

Frankly, I almost had the inclination to order out but, it is hard to get an all natural, organic, vegan take-out meal at 7:30 at night in Cutchogue. So, Nikki, my aspiring natural chef daughter, and I opened the pantry and refrigerator to see whet we could see. 

Nikki thought it would be cool to steam up some veggies in the wok. Within minutes she had peeled and cut a carrot, cut some broccoli, sliced some mushrooms and washed some spinach and opened a bag of snow peas. Then she decided to drop some Pacific Foods boxed mushroom stock into the wok with the veggies until they softened just a bit. While she was cooking she said, "Hey dad, can I put grapes in this?" to which I replied as I always do- "Gee honey, that sounds interesting - why don't you try it." The next thing I know she is cutting up some grapes and proclaiming, "Well, if they don't taste good, we'll just pick 'em out." Honestly, the grapes worked!! Go figure. They added just a bit of sweetness to the veggies.  . . . way to experiment girl.

While I was excited with the sweet veggie medley,  I was in the mood for Quinoa. The cool thing about Quinoa (or any grain) is that it can be cooked in any liquid. That means it can be made with broth, soup, juice, tea, water . . . or whatever. So, I decided to sweat up some sliced onions, a little minced garlic and some sliced mushrooms (you can even use canned mushrooms if you are really tight on time) with a little of that Pac foods mushroom broth. Once the onions were translucent, I added 1 cup of rinsed Quinoa, let it roast for a minute-  and then added with 2 cups (remember the secret formula for cooking grains is 1 part grains to 2 - 2.5 parts liquid) of this really cool "Creamy Portobello Mushroom" soup from Imagine foods. I then added a can of rinsed chick peas (garbanzo beans) brought it to a boil and then let the whole thing simmer for about 20 minutes (stirring from time to time). When the I saw that the Quinoa had become saturated with the soup, I knew it was done. I added a bit more creamy portobello soup and I was in heaven. Quick, easy, healthy and delicious . . . all in less time than it would have taken me to go pick up take-out food. And, as an added bonus, my daughter and I got to bond in the kitchen. (My son played X-box - but we made him clean up - next time I think he will be cooking with us)