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.
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.
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 !!
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.
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.
ENJOY!! xx