Got Quinoa?

Tonight for dinner we had quinoa salads, leftover soup, and a splash of red wine.

First, the quinoa salads--something I was introduced to at the Farm. Because the woman who made them is a published author, I'm probably not at liberty to publish her recipe. But, you can find several recipes for good Tofu Aioli on the internet--one is here--and you can get creative in combining the quinoa (or another cooked grain) and a variety of cooked vegetables, using the aioli as a binder. Over a bed of greens, it's delicious, filling, and healthy, as well as vegan.

The soup was something I concocted over the weekend, and contained tomatoes, carrots, celery, potatoes, black beans, corn, and a few pinches each of salt and chili powder. The pureed tomatoes, combined with water, were the base. To thicken it, we used cornmeal, a tip we'd read somewhere which lends a Mexican flavor to sauces and soups (we also used it in Matt's hot sauce).

And the red wine was a bottle of Stump Jump Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre, which a friend brought over for dinner yesterday. I'm usually a wimp when it comes to red wines, but I found this one delightful.

Other than that, I worked last night and came home to sleep the sleep of the dead (or at least the night nurse). Starting on a holiday night was a pretty good way to ease back into the swing of things after being gone 2 of the past 3 weeks. 

After dinner tonight, we went out for a bike ride to pick up a few things. We're in a money-saving mode (more extreme than usual) this month since I haven't been around to work much, so since we were both desperately craving dessert (perhaps in reaction to our ultra-healthy vegan dinner), we decided to do the frugal thing and whip up a batch of ice cream using things we had on hand, and eat it over a leftover brownie.

Saving money never tasted so good.