Quinoa Tabouleh and Real Estate Woes

When last I checked in I had recently put my house on the market.  Well..... my house is STILL on the market, not a good thing in my world.  There were two offers and both fell through at the last minute.

A common comment from people viewing the house is that they were hoping for more of an open concept.  Ummmm....people it's a 50 year old house, open concept didn't exist then, what did you expect.  Unfortunately for me this house was a rental, my tenants moved out so it's killing me to pay the mortgage while it sits empty.  Needless to say I'm not in my happy place right now.  I'm not sure what I did to PISS OFF the real estate gods but whatever it was I'M SORRY!!!!  Please let my house sell.... SOON!!

Moving on to the food.  Quinoa seems to be a recurring theme on the blog.  Considering I hated it the first time I tried it that's progress.  I'm sure most of you already have the scoop on it but in case you don't here a few tidbits

• It's a seed not a grain
• Gluten free
• High in fiber 
• Complete protein containing all of the essential amino acids.

One of my favorite foods is Tabouleh I could eat it every day.  It's a refreshing and healthy salad. Sometimes I find it hard to get my hands on the small bulgur and a lot of it that I have purchased has a stale taste to it which I don't like. Also, I'm trying to cut out as much gluten as possible so Quinoa makes a great substitute. 

Tabouleh with Quinoa

** Measurements are only estimates, I've never used a recipe to make it.**

Ingredients

1 cup cooked quinoa cooled ( I use red and white)

Juice of one lemon approx 4 Tbsp or more to taste I like mine lemony

1 large or 2 small green onions finely chopped
2 or 3 large mint leaves finely chopped
2  Tbsp EVOO

3 garlic cloves grated or minced ( I always grate my garlic using a microplane grater)

3 or 4 medium ripe tomatoes seeded and chopped

1 large bunch of parsley finely chopped (I prefer curly but you can use flat leaf too)

Sea Salt and fresh cracked pepper

Combine the lemon juice, EVOO, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Whisk to combine.  Add remaining ingredients and refrigerate for an  hour or so to let the flavours combine.

You can play with this to make it your own.  More tomatoes, less parsley, more garlic... whatever your tastes are. 

Slather a cracker with some crack hummus aka Sabra roasted garlic, and top with a scoop of this soooo good.

With any luck I'll get a couple of posts in this week.  I'm on vacation and it looks like rain for most of the week here in Halifax, so I'll have time on my hands.  

Have a great day!!