Quinoa Tabbouleh and Mini Meatballs

delicious, nutritious, and adorable. cause mini.

Recipe courtesy of Michael Symon, of course. It comes with a meat option as well, but it's not what I had defrosted so I didn't use it. I pretty much followed his recipe except I didn't add quite as much mint or lemon. hubbs is not a lover of all things lemon like I am.

And I just through the mini meatballs together.

1/2 lb organic grass fed ground beef
1 organic egg
1-2 slices of bread soaked in milk (I used some of the baguette I made. If you use sliced bread I would only use 1 slice)
a spoonful of roasted garlic
salt and pepper

mix all together. make small balls. toss em in a hot cast iron skillet with some extra virgin olive oil.

Dinner is served. In about 40 minutes, including quinoa cook time.

Spicy Peanut Butter Chicken over quinoa lime salad

I knew we needed to eat chicken. We admittedly eat a LOT more beef or pork because they just taste better and I don't tend to find exciting chicken recipes. Plus the hubbs only likes breast meat which lacks in taste and fat, and we haven't had much luck looking for breast meat that's not skinless and boneless. And due to a stint working at Boston Market when he was a teenager, he really super does not enjoy when I make a whole chicken. Regardless of how I make said chicken. Traumatic flashbacks and such.

I also defrosted chicken stock a few days ago and need to use it up before it goes bad. So I knew quinoa was on the menu because the ONLY way to make quinoa is in homemade chicken stock. So. Much. Flavor.

As always, I check my ever faithful The Chew website to see what they've got cookin. Since we cancelled cable and our antenna super sucks, I don't really get to watch it much anymore, which bums me right out. But at least I can still use their recipes and watch clips. And today, Michael Symon's recipe for pork caught my eye. The marinade uses peanut butter and siracha so YES and YES. And why not marinate chicken in it. I'm a rebel.

As usual, I had most of the ingredients. Instead of sesame oil, I used 1/2 tbsp of peanut oil and 1/2 tbsp evoo. And instead of rice vinegar I used apple cider vinegar. I'm always surprised at how well apple cider vinegar works as a replacement for the rice one. And since I'm drinking 3 tbsps of it a day (for allergies and heartburn and general good health things), I always have it on hand.

And as for the salad he makes? That looks delicious, but I have practically none of those. We just ate up all our radishes, we don't have bean sprouts, and hubbs and babygirl don't love raw jalapenos. So I just did beet leaves, celery, and cucumber with lime and evoo and mixed it in with the quinoa.

Note: I used siracha I got from whole foods which seems to be a lot stronger in flavor than the more popular brand. So I had to add a little extra peanut butter so we didn't only taste the siracha. Always taste your food in stages before it becomes unfixable!

PS- babygirl cannot eat enough quinoa.