New recipe!

Okay, so today I bought a bunch of produce from Marvin's Market ( my favorite place to get produce! 3 bags FULL of fruits and veggies for about $13! Can't beat that!) and I was thinking... hmm... what do I want to make? I haven't cooked a large dish in awhile, lately I've been eating alot of salads and sweet potato with kale/spinach sauteed with mushrooms/chickpeas. I guess that's "cooking," but to me, what I count as cooking is more like an art form. I love to just put things together and try to create interesting combinations of foods. It's like an experiment! Over the past year and a half I've become quite a good cook if I say so myself- I am able to not follow recipes anymore and I enjoy just coming up with my own types of things based on the knowledge that I now know.

Today I came up with something especially tasty so I thought I would share! :)

I'm not sure what to call it really- it's some sort of mix between a chili/stew paired with organic red quinoa that I got at the Fresh Market. (Quinoa, like I'm sure I've mentioned before, is a type of grain that is akin to rice that is an amazing source of protein- especially great for vegan/vegetarians!

But anyways this is what you will need.

1/2 cup Quinoa
1 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 green bell pepper
half a can of black beans
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
2 roma tomatoes
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 tbs. cumin
1 tbs. chili powder
1/3 tbs. red pepper flakes
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
(I threw in some extra cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes bc I love some HEAT!)

To start,bring 3/4 cup water to a boil, then add the quinoa and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
While the quinoa cooks, sautee the onion in olive oil in a large pan on medium/high heat for about 5 minutes, then add garlic, bell pepper, tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, and spices. Bring down to medium heat and let it cook for about 15 minutes. Continue tasting and add whatever spices you want. When it's done, you can either mix the quinoa and stew mixture together in the pan, or serve it by putting quinoa on a plate and putting the mixture on top. Either way it will be mixed together!

This dish is very healthy and very flavorful! It contains a ton of protein with the quinoa and black beans, and lots of veggies as well. It sure beats trying to swallow down mushy mixed veggies from a can. And it's pretty cheap to make- while a bag of quinoa may be around $4-5, it lasts for a long time and making this dish barely puts a dent in it. (This dish makes 3-4 servings, too!)

Black beans are cheap too, as well as the veggies. (I'm telling you, Marvin's Market is amazing. it's beside B. Merrell's on Veterans, close to Moon Rd.)

So there you go! I hope maybe someone out there in the interwebs tries this recipe! Let me know how you like it. I don't know how good I am at translating the things I just throw together into a calculated recipe haha.