Spinach Pesto Quinoa

 Its a Saturday night in Madison, Wisconsin. What do you think a group of college girls are up to? Maybe getting drinks at the bars on state street or dancing at frat parties??

Nah.

My friends and I took a trip to the grocery store and made ourselves dinner for a GNI.

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We wanted to make something healthy before bikini season is in full swing. I was in charge of finding a healthy & cheap recipe to make. With the help of Pinterest recipes, I created a Pesto Quinoa recipe.

This dish is great because its healthy, nutrient dense, and doesn’t take long to prepare; quinoa cooks incredibly fast and spinach wilts fast. If you haven’t tried quinoa, now is your time to shine.

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Quinoa is a fabulous source of:

protein – complete protein with all 9 essential amino acids

fiber – contains almost twice as much fiber as other grains

iron – keep your red blood cells 🙂  & helps supply our muscles with oxygen

riboflavin (vitamin b2) – improve energy metabolism & energy production in cells

manganese – relaxes blood vessels; body temp regulation, energy production

lysine – tissue growth and repair

& it is gluten free.

Bring on the quinoa !!

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Quick tip: Prepare quinoa in the beginning of the week and store in the refrigerator. This way, you will have easy & quick access to this amazing protein source. I love to toss quinoa into my salads, make a quinoa/oatmeal breakfast ( recipe coming soon ), OR create this pesto quinoa dish.

Lets get to it.

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Recipe

2 cups uncooked quinoa

2 HUGE handfuls of spinach ( or more – cooks down  )

4 -5 T pesto

dash of salt

squeeze of lemon

sun dried tomatoes

parmesan

Optional

chicken

 chicken stock ( to replace the water to cook in )

Directions: cook quinoa with 2 parts water, 1 part quinoa. sauté spinach. spoon cooked quinoa into a large bowl and add spinach, pesto, and salt. mix ingredients. top off with sun dried tomatoes and parmesan.

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ENJOY!! xx