A Great Spring Lunch - Moroccan Quinoa Salad

One thing that helps keep me sane, when I'm working and participating in a fast, is having things in the fridge that can be grabbed quickly.  Especially when I'm getting school lunches ready.  This Moroccan-inspired quinoa salad helps boost the protein in my diet while giving me the flavour boost that makes eating not quite so boring.

~ Moroccan Quinoa Salad ~

1 cup quinoa, cooked by absorption method

2 spring onions, finely sliced

1/2 red capsicum, finely diced

1/3 cup currants

1/3 cup pine nuts, dry toasted

finely chopped parsley

zest of 1 orange

olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Once the quinoa and pine nuts have been cooked, combine all the other ingredients in a bowl, up to the parsley, and mix well.
2. Zest an orange and add to the bowl, then add the juice of the orange.
3. Drizzle a little olive oil over the salad and then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste - mix again to ensure all ingredients are well combined.

I'm sorry I can't give you a measurement for the olive oil.  I have a bottle with a metal top that lets me drizzle more slowly than straight out of the oil bottle.  I just drizzle 'til it feels right.  You could also add in any other ingredients you enjoy, like avocado or celery...anything that can be finely diced I guess that seems to fit with the other flavours.

If I were eating meat I would have this for dinner paired with chicken fillets that had been rolled in dukkah and then pan fried.

A Season of Fasting

My favourite smoothie

Our church routinely has a season of fasting each year.  In the past it has been during Lent.  This year it is the first three weeks of October.  I've started a little early, because I have a couple of events on my calendar for which fasting just won't be practical or appropriate.  Also, the detoxing at the start is not something I wanted to do as I begin the school term next week.

And so it begins.  A season of physical restraint to see spiritual release.  I have a couple of specific areas I'll be praying about through these next few weeks.  And in the day-to-day I'll be trying to negotiate the challenges of what to eat, and having the kids cooking!

This year, unlike others where we've chosen our own fasts, our church is corporately doing the Daniel fast.  If you've read here long enough you'll know this is the fast we chose to do in the past two years.    I feel somewhat prepared.  I have quinoa and brown rice in my pantry.  There are a number of fruits with which I will make a fruit salad today.  Avocados are ripening in my fruit basket, and there are a mountain of different vegies in the fridge.  Meanwhile, I need to freeze the stock I made for the steamboat the other night and meat products that need to be frozen.  A little bit of reorganising, if you will.

Some of the things that see me through well include:

• My favourite smoothie: almond milk (unsweetened), banana, raspberries and cinnamon
• A very grainy sourdough toast with avocado and then topped with diced tomato & basil or cooked mushrooms
• Fruit salad
• Plain popcorn
• Almonds with dried fruit
• Vegetable curries with brown rice
• Vegetable stir fries with brown rice or brown rice vermicelli
• A plate of roasted & steamed veggies
• A Mediterranean style salad made with quinoa instead of couscous

I know that legumes should probably fill a larger place in what we eat, but none of us enjoy them overly.  And certainly we don't enjoy the after-effects.  I have discovered that legumes soaked and cooked at home, and then stored in the freezer have the least impact....but we still don't enjoy them.

A Season of Fasting

My favourite smoothie

Our church routinely has a season of fasting each year.  In the past it has been during Lent.  This year it is the first three weeks of October.  I've started a little early, because I have a couple of events on my calendar for which fasting just won't be practical or appropriate.  Also, the detoxing at the start is not something I wanted to do as I begin the school term next week.

And so it begins.  A season of physical restraint to see spiritual release.  I have a couple of specific areas I'll be praying about through these next few weeks.  And in the day-to-day I'll be trying to negotiate the challenges of what to eat, and having the kids cooking!

This year, unlike others where we've chosen our own fasts, our church is corporately doing the Daniel fast.  If you've read here long enough you'll know this is the fast we chose to do in the past two years.    I feel somewhat prepared.  I have quinoa and brown rice in my pantry.  There are a number of fruits with which I will make a fruit salad today.  Avocados are ripening in my fruit basket, and there are a mountain of different vegies in the fridge.  Meanwhile, I need to freeze the stock I made for the steamboat the other night and meat products that need to be frozen.  A little bit of reorganising, if you will.

Some of the things that see me through well include:

• My favourite smoothie: almond milk (unsweetened), banana, raspberries and cinnamon
• A very grainy sourdough toast with avocado and then topped with diced tomato & basil or cooked mushrooms
• Fruit salad
• Plain popcorn
• Almonds with dried fruit
• Vegetable curries with brown rice
• Vegetable stir fries with brown rice or brown rice vermicelli
• A plate of roasted & steamed veggies
• A Mediterranean style salad made with quinoa instead of couscous

I know that legumes should probably fill a larger place in what we eat, but none of us enjoy them overly.  And certainly we don't enjoy the after-effects.  I have discovered that legumes soaked and cooked at home, and then stored in the freezer have the least impact....but we still don't enjoy them.