I made this quick dish a couple of days ago as a lunch for Mr. Man, Miss Thing and myself one afternoon. Miss Thing has a tendency to skip lunch at school and then come home and chow down on whatever isn’t nailed down or healthy, so when I’m able, I like to make a late lunch or early dinner instead. As always, I wanted to use some of the fresh veggies from this week’s FFTY box. The beauty of this dish is that it is really easy to toss together in just a few short minutes. Quinoa only takes about 15 minutes to cook, so this is a perfect meal for a busy weekday or a quick lunch.

Mr. Man was working at home, and it was one of those rare, rare days where Miss Thing and myself were getting along well for a change. She grumbled a little bit about not being able to mack down on the Blueberry Rhubarb Buckle Cake rather than having a healthy dinner, but thats fairly typical. As a nice change of pace, she actually liked the Quinoa, considering how difficult she’s been about everything of late, it was nice to hear “yeah, it’s okay” from her instead of “Ewwww… you’re putting X in that!?!?”

I did have a nice little find today – while I was cooling my heels waiting for Miss Thing during her extracurriculars, I popped on over to Goodwill and perused a little bit, and made a super-awesome find. I picked up three pieces of unglazed stoneware – hawt! Two of them are Pampered Chef and one of them is Pfaltzgraff. The round pfaltzgraff is shallow and similar to a the piece of stoneware I already had. The pampered chef pieces are a rectangular cake pan and a round bowl shaped piece that I already had – which is really cool, because 1) I’d been toying with the idea of picking up a rectangular baker for a while now, and 2) now I’ll be able to bake two loafs of No-Knead bread. WOOT! I’ve got them in the oven right now, curing. Now I just need a flat baking stone, and I think I’ll be set on stoneware.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups Quinoa
• 2 and 1/2 cups Broth
• 4 sausages; cut in to thick slices (I used fully cooked bratwursts, but any will do – italian, kielbasa, etc…)
• 1 Spring Onion; diced
• 4 cloves garlic; minced
• 1 bunch Carrot Greens; finely minced
• 1 large Tomato; cut in to 1″ chunks
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh seive until water runs clear
• Heat a large skillet over medium heat
• Brown the sausage slices
• Add the onion and saute until onion is translucent
• Stir in the rinsed quinoa, garlic, and carrot greens
• Add the broth and one or two generous pinches of Kosher Salt.
• Bring to a simmer
• Cover and reduce heat
• Cook for 15 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed
• Remove from heat
• Stir in tomatoes and kosher salt to taste