My healthy go-to dinner does not have a name.
I usually call it the beef, quinoa and pepper dish. A bit wordy. It needs a better name.
And I have a confession to make. I usually make this sprinkling seasons in willy nilly. So I made this with measuring spoons in my hand and it tasted about right with these amounts. But I’m sure I could make it tomorrow and change the amounts and it would taste good too. It’s a very forgiving recipe.
1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 lb. organic grass-fed ground beef*
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
pepper
Preheat large non-stick skillet to medium and add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil.
Add onions and peppers, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and few grinds of pepper and saute until lightly browned ~7-8 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute.
Remove vegetables from pan and set aside. Brown ground beef in the skillet and add seasonings and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt (and a few more grinds of pepper).
When beef is cooked through and beginning to brown, stir in quinoa and add remaining 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil (to cook quinoa so it doesn’t get too dry). Add vegetables back in. Taste for seasonings and add more salt if necessary. Serve immediately.
This recipe makes a lot. I’ve never actually sat down with my family and finished it in one sitting. But since I don’t eat sandwiches (well, the bread that holds the sandwich together), I often turn to leftovers for lunch so I’m not cooking 2 hot meals a day.
So this was my lunch, complete with tomatoes from the garden. Yum. (We had no leftovers since we just got back from vacation! Plenty of laundry, but no food in the frig.) And in case you’re thinking about following the Phase 1 diet that I’ve talked about before, this is a perfect recipe.
Anyway, play around and adjust the seasonings to your taste. Add other vegetables. So many possibilities. Let me know what your favorite combination is.
And PLEASE. Name this poor recipe!
* I buy my grass-fed beef from Trader Joes and it’s prepacked in 1 lb packages. It’s 85/15 and tastes really good! (One day soon I’ll write a post about why I choose grass fed…it’s more expensive, but once you know what is in conventional beef and how they raise and slaughter the cows, you might reconsider too. And there are additional health benefits to eating grass-fed beef too…)
