Something kind of Mexican?

I'm trying to get at something, but this isn't quite it.

I had this craving for something spicy - I'm not a spicy food person at all, but I think I'm going to start pushing that a little. I'm not ready for jalapeños, but that's the goal.

Having these liking-things goals really works for me... I find if I just eat something often enough, I'll eventually become okay with it. I did it with mustard, pickles, sugarless coffee, and I think I can do it with heat.

So for lunch today, I threw this together. I kind of went with my gut about what to put it, and it told me cauliflower, spinach, black beans, and salsa, on top of quinoa. I didn't embellish with garlic or onions or spices because I thought the salsa would have all that covered and I was a little nervous about overdoing it.

It actually turned out almost on the bland side. I think I could have added more salsa, but I think next time I'll do some more experimentation with individual ingredients and the same amount of out-of-the-jar salsa.

For the next iteration, I'm thinking more pepper, chopped onion, and possibly stirring some chili powder or something like that into the quinoa. We'll see.

Quinoa, Chickpeas, and Veggies

After a long, McDonald's-filled hiatus, I'm back to cooking meals from scratch on a regular basis. I cleaned out the cupboards, which had been collecting an assortment of "maybe I'll use this someday..." products, shoved to the back, lentils and popcorn kernels loose on the shelves, and a surprising amount of dog hair. Now it's all orderly, and I'm trying to work my way through all stored food in there before I buy more. 

Because it was there, since I always passed it over, I finally started using my quinoa and found a way to like it. Quinoa always seemed like a huge hassle to me because every single time I cooked it, it stuck like glue to the pot and I'd end up with half of what I put in and a difficult mess to clean. 

Then I realized I could make it like pasta,  with tons of extra water, and just drain it at the end. It's been revolutionary. 

I don't really know what I'm doing in the kitchen, so I usually just throw some things in a pan. I think I've developed a very.. accepting palette because of this. Stuff tastes good to me, but I'm rarely confident that I could serve it to anyone else. But this particular variation worked, and not just on a good-enough-for-me level - I'm pretty pleased.

I used:

1/3 c. quinoa

1/2  fake-chicken bouillon cube

1 tsp. olive oil

1  garlic clove

1/4  of a big tomato

1/3c. chick peas

a handful of green beans

a stalk of broccoli

pepper

The quinoa went into a pot of water and boiled for just under 15 minutes. Around 10 minutes in, I threw in the chopped up bouillon cube - I found that when I let it soak in too much, it was overwhelming. 

In the meantime, I put the garlic in oil on the pan, let it get brown, then threw in the chopped tomato. It hung out there for a while during the bean/broccoli chopping. I threw in some chickpeas, then steamed the vegetables in the microwave before adding them to the pan.

I spooned the quinoa from the pot to the pan, not draining it very thoroughly. Mixed it all up, ground some pepper over it, and that was it. 

It tasted like Chinese fried rice, a little. The garlic and the moderate broth were an awesome combination. 

It'll be hard not to just do this every time and eat the same thing every day.