Quinoa, and other dietary diversions

[mellicious]

I am sitting here eating quinoa, which I have never had before in my life, to my knowledge. It's pretty good, really. Like rice with a little more body, or something. I cooked it (and almost scorched it) and then I didn't know what to do with it, so I just threw a little garlic butter in it. I'll have to look for some alternate uses for it. (I guess any recipe with rice would pretty much be a candidate.)

I tried it because it's on Weight Watcher's "filling foods" list, which is sort of a new thing they've come up with this year. I like it, because I am not good with the meal planning, but I can get down with "eat a lot of fruit" as the basis of a diet plan. - That's not all that's on the list, you understand, but I like fruit, generally, so that's the piece of it I gravitated to.

I couldn't find the whole list online, but here's the gist of it:

It's pretty similar to what used to be called the "core plan" except now it's not a separate plan, it's just a suggestion. Basically they encourage everybody to eat off this list - at least partially - because it's not only healthy, it's filling, see? (Which is true enough.) Don't be fooled by the vagueness of some of these categories - fruit and vegetables are pretty broad, but pasta and cereals, not so much. It only includes whole-wheat bread, brown rice, whole-grain cereals (and no sneaking in the kind with fruit or nuts, either**), and so forth. The soups have to be made out of other Filling Foods. The milk has to be skim, I think - and the only thing in the "snack" category is 94% fat-free popcorn, so I think they were being a bit misleading by even putting that on there, really.

Well, anyway, I haven't lost a bit of weight yet - probably because I'm still eating a lot of totally wrong things interspersed
with the Filling Foods - but I feel like I'm eating better, on the whole, and that's a start.


**That's not to say that WW is saying you can't eat the cereal with fruit and/or nuts, just that it's not in this list. I guess nuts, especially, are too high-calorie to be here. And a lot of those cereals with a lot of fruit and nuts also have honey and other sneaky calories added, I suspect. So you can eat them, you just gotta watch the points on them much more carefully.

Comments

[nonelvis]

Quinoa makes great pilafs and is good as a stuffing as well. One of the grocery stores near us stocks a red quinoa, and I'm wondering whether that tastes any different from the white version of the grain.

[sanders268.livejournal.com]

I will send you a really great recipe when I get home later for a tabouli made with quinoa.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

What is it with quinoa all of a sudden? I'd never heard of it before, and then my wife tells me she's feeding it to the baby. Now you're eating it. Next I'm going to find out it's the main ingredient in Happy Meals. It's like "plate of shrimp" from Repo Man.

[mellificent.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to try something different and see if I liked it, and it was on the list that I was discussing above. Barley was on there too and I think maybe one more grain that I don't usually eat - the quinoa was just the one that I found first! I do have the impression, though, that it's something that's relatively new in stores - in the last couple of years, at least.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I love to make quinoa with broth instead of water, and I throw in dried sour cherries and pecans or hazelnuts. Nom.

I have also made a cold quinoa salad with cucumber, red bell pepper, avocado, garlic, lime juice, and whatever else was around, I forget what.