BY STEPHANIE NAVARRO (Special to the Morning News)

When I get really busy with work, time becomes a limited commodity, and, I’ll admit, some household responsibilities begin to be neglected. While I enjoy cooking, it’s often the first task to go so I can ensure that I have room in my schedule for children’s homework, working out and household chores.

But you have to eat, right? And you still have to satisfy the appetites of a variety of people in the home (for us, it’s two children, one a picky eater, one a dump truck; one uncle, also a picky eater; and two adults who prefer to eat healthy, meaning lean protein, high fiber and limited sodium.) That’s plenty of mouths to feed and many palates to satisfy! That’s why, on nights when cooking time is limited, we turn to what we call Quinoawesome.

Quinoawesome

Make 10 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• Rotisserie chicken (grilling or baking chicken yourself is the healthiest option, but for the family in a time crunch, rotisserie is a fine second option. Remove skin and avoid the dark meat. It has slightly more calories than white meat. Make sure you check the labels to look for the brand and flavor with the least additives.)
• 1 lb. quinoa
• 3-3 ½ cups of low-sodium chicken broth

Optional

• 1 portabella mushroom cap, chopped
• 2 jalapeños, chopped
• 1 serrano chili, chopped
• 10 olives, chopped

*The great aspect about Quinoawesome is that you can add anything you want to the raw quinoa and let it all cook together, saving you time. We don’t mind a spicy, tangy dish, so we use hot peppers but you could try adding any of your family’s favorite vegetables, such as squash, green beans, zucchini, bell or sweet peppers.

1. Pour 1 lb. quinoa into a rice cooker. (You can also cook quinoa on the stove top, but a rice cooker is much easier.)
2. Pour chicken broth over quinoa (broth should be about 1 inch above the quinoa – that’s roughly the distance from the tip of your thumb to the first knuckle.)
3. Add any vegetables you’d like to the quinoa and stir.
4. Set rice cooker to “white rice” and let it go to work. Generally, quinoa in the rice cooker will take about an hour.
5. In the meantime, separate the meat from the rotisserie chicken. With the remaining 45 minutes, you can do a load of laundry, finish up homework, sweep, whatever you want. Isn’t time-efficient cooking fun?
6. When quinoa is ready, allow each person to individually flavor his or her ¾ cup serving. Try vinegar, garlic powder or pepper. Our sons ate theirs topped with chicken and corn while the adults ate the quinoa alongside sauteed zucchini, squash and chicken.

Ready to save more time? Put the leftovers in the fridge and eat it again tomorrow night! Try it topped with scrambled eggs – also awesome!

 

Read the full story at SCNOW.com!