Lemony Chicken Quinoa Dinnery Thing Part 2

OK Dinner is done and eaten! Here is how I would make it if I made it over again (and it was pretty darn tasty so I probably will!):

Same ingredients EXCEPT add 2 cups more of water as that Quinoa sure does soak it up!! Also there is virtually NO salt going on in here. I added Lawry's Seasoned Salt to taste. I think I used about a teaspoon of it or so. Not sure though...just put a bit in and test, then repeat :)

A note about the lemon: The lemon in our opinion tasted GREAT. IF YOU LIKE LEMON!!! It adds a nice tangy aftertaste. You will have to pull out the rinds though as the inside part dissolves and the rinds break apart. No biggie but if you serve it to kids you may want to sift through or find a better way (just put in the inside part maybe?).

I also think that cooking it for less time perhaps would result in more of a soup than a stew. Its very thick if you cook it for 7 hours even on Low. 5 hours would probably do.

I am thinking this would make a GREAT weight loss dinner. Quinoa is the only thing that has real calories in it (ok ok so does the chicken) and it has 162 cal per 1/4 cup dry. I used 1 cup dry in this stew. When you cook it the outer part which is indigestible separates from the inner part and forms a little curly "s". Its extremely filling so you wouldn't need much, and it has a LOAD of good stuff in it:

From Wikipedia

Its protein content is very high (12%–18%), making it a healthy choice for vegetarians and vegans. Unlike wheat or rice (which are low inlysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source.^[4] It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.

Caution: I do not know for sure yet, but because of the amount of fiber in this, 7g per half cup, it may cause GAS!!! LOL!!! I didn't think of that till I ate a whole bowl oh boy!! Its gonna be a fun evening!!!

Homemade-ish Tomato Alphabet Beef Stew Soup Edible Mostly Food

This dinner is rated SM for Super Messy!

What are YOU lookin' at?

I have been wanting to make my own tomato soup for a long time. I hate how much sodium is in canned soup and while there is probably a reason for it (i.e. tastes like doggie doo with out it) there must be a way to make it taste tasty without it.

Ok well that was a nice dream. Here's what I really did:

I took 1 can Campbells' tomato soup (sodium and all)
1 pack stew beef thawed
1 can water
1 cup alphabet pasta
chopped 1 celery stalk
2 cloves garlic
teaspoon or so of oregano
4 shakes of dried basil
1 huge can of diced tomatoes

I started this adventure around 3:30pm. Honestly I had no idea how long it would take, but I was so damn lazy all day that this was when I remembered I was going to make it!

So I hear that roasted tomatoes make tomato soup taste amazing. I am new to roasting, and cooking in general so I looked at Astrid's recipe. It said to heat the oven to 450 and drain the tomatoes, put the nast...I mean tasty chunks in a roasting pan (I used a 13x9 non stick metal brownie pan) drizzle with olive oil and roast for 15-20 minutes (until carmelized). She has some beautiful pics that seriously if I had not had them to look at I would have been baffled. It showed this strainer thingie that I do NOT own so I asked Maggie, "What, should I use pantyhose or something?" She suggested my bare hands. BARF no way. In one of my "mystery cupboards" as I like to call them I found one of those collapsible collanders that I used to like to wear on my head as a child and pretend I was one of the Star Troopers.



Here is my "Life Lesson for the Mentally Challenged" tip of the day: Do not use a collapsible collander thingy to strain diced tomatoes. You may as well use your bare hands. Trust me on this one. Go to the Dollar General and BUY A STRAINER for a dollar. :)

Once I had cleaned up the huge mess of goo from straining the tomatoes, I dumped them into the pan. OH and save the juice. Hopefully if you are crazy enough to read this and follow the instructions, you read them all first and aren't like me who does things as she goes hahaha

ANYWHO put the juice in a pan of some sort.


Now, just because I like to think outside the crack pot, I decided to chop up the garlic cloves with a Kitchen Aid (yeah I need a lot of that) chopper thingy, and throw it in with the tomatoes because I LOVE roasted garlic.



I also chopped up about a third of an onion and put it in the tomato juice just because I can.


PS. Kitchen Aid Chopper Thingy does NOT work well with onions.



I should have called this blog "Creative Cooking" LOL!!!

I found out that to roast things you want the oven rack in the middle, not up at the top. No, I didn't find that one out the hard way. Although unusual, sometimes I DO manage to think ahead like a normal person and ask questions of those more mentally endowed than myself :)



I let the tomatoes roast for 15 minutes. I'm still not sure the answer to "Does carmelized mean burned into the pan" but whatever, I scraped them out and threw them into the crack pot. Then I poured the juice in with the onion also. I garnished with the oregano and the basil and put the lid on.



As I still have no sense of smell due to this annoying cold that won't go away I had to have my husband do a taste test:

He likes it! He really likes it! Ok ok it was really hot and he's trying not to drop the baby

The only thing I regret doing after all was said and done was putting another cup of Alphabet noodles in. I did it for my daughter's sake. It made a hell of a mess in the bottom of the ceramic part of the cooker though. I left that for my darling husband.

Here is the finished product:

If my 5 year old looks at it and says "That looks DELICIOUS" then I feel that I have accomplished something today.

The cat, however, did not throw up during the making of this meal so perhaps she was just humoring me...

Autumn sez "I'm scared."