Fried Rice...errr Fried Quinoa

One day after making Tropical Quinoa Granola I decided to make something else with it...this time I wanted to try fried rice. I pinned a recipe, but didn't even look at it. I just used my own Fried Rice recipe and substituted quinoa for the rice. This recipe changes a little bit each time I make it - it all depends on what I have on hand. I used chicken adobo again b/c my mom made a huge batch when she visited this past weekend, but I've used the other half of the steak the kids didn't eat, some grilled chicken, and shrimp all at once. It just depends on how much meat I want to use or have on hand. It's a great way to use up leftovers. We cap out at eating leftovers once...after that we throw it away even though it's still good. Re-using the leftovers in fried rice makes it seem like we're not eating the same thing for the third time.

The kiddos ate this all up and didn't even bat an eyelash at the new texture. Kevin's response: "It's different, but it's good." lol

My quinoa turned out a little mushy b/c I did not let it cool completely b/c I had some hungry kids to feed. Cool your quinoa COMPLETELY. If you have time to do it earlier in the day or the night before and throw it in the fridge then even better. 

Gather it:

- 1.5 cups cooked (and cooled off) quinoa (it doesn't sound like much, but holy moly, we've got a lot of leftovers!)

- 1.5-2 cups of chicken adobo 

- 1 medium white onion, diced

- 5 cloves of garlic, minced

- 1 red bell pepper, diced

- frozen peas

- frozen corn

- dried parsley

- freshly ground pepper (to taste - I didn't use much since the Adobo had a lot of pepper in it already)

- soy sauce, to taste (I didn't use much since I used the sauce from the Adobo)

- about 1.5 Tbsp oil 

- about 2-3 Tbsp butter 

Make it:

1. Heat oil in a wok or a large skillet under medium/high heat. Saute onion until slightly softened. Add garlic - do not let it brown.

2. Add quinoa and red bell pepper and toss it in oil, onion, and garlic. Add butter. Let it "fry" for about 5 minutes - stirring every now and then to evenly fry the mixture.

3. Add frozen peas, corn and meat and let it warm through. Then add parsley, pepper, and soy sauce. Stir everything together.