Quick Quinoa Beef Soup And New Link

Many of the readers of this blog will know that we are big fans of quinoa. It is nutritious, tasty, versatile and easy to make. (We usually make it in a microwave rice cooker).  The other day we made some to go  with a rotisserie chicken and we made enough so we would have some left over for another use.  That "future use" turned out to be a ground beef soup.

We bought another package of ground beef and before we froze it, we took some of the beef and the liquid from the cooking and used it as a base for a soup. We also added some onions, celery and carrots, plus a bit of seasoning and some quinoa.

This dish came together in minutes, it has some solid nutritional value and it sure was tasty!  Having the right ingredients around speeds up any food preparation and this is a classic example of that. It also illustrates the value of quinoa as a soup ingredient.  Aside from being nutritious and tasty, this also helps make the dish gluten-free for those that have that requirement.

As I said, we are big fans of quinoa and I am pleased to add another fine blog to our list of links: Queen of Quinoa.  This is a wonderful blog with lots of great recipes and I hope that you will take the time to visit it.

Tasty Bites Madras Lentil Dip And A New Link

My wife and I are big fans of the Tasty Bites Madras Lentils we get at Costco.  They are delicious, easy heat up and a great way to work some fun flavors into our menus.  Recently, we had a family reunion to go to and my wife suggested making a dip out of them. I thought that was a fabulous idea so I did some research online and then went grocery shopping.  After provisioning for all the raw materials, my lovely wife was eager to spend a few minutes making the dip. (We got the recipe from the appetizer section of the Tasty Bites website. The specific recipe is the Madras Lentils Dip).

The recipe was easy, quick and delicious.  It was also a bit of an exotic change of pace from your normal bean dip.  But while it was a bit on the exotic side, it certainly went well with tortilla chips.

This dip was a huge success and I think I will probably bring it into work for my friend Bill that has Celiac's Disease.

I am also adding a link to Tasty Bites recipe page.  We think they have a great product lineup and I am looking forward to have more fun with variety of their products.

Jarlsberg Cheese Dip With Gluten Free Crackers From Costco

My friend Bill at work requires a gluten free diet and so to celebrate Fat Tuesday and my six months at the job, I brought in a treat he could eat.

There are only four ingredients in this recipe that I found and the prep is very easy. This makes for both a great return on time and money.

I served the dip with two types of gluten free crackers: the Mary Gone Crackers ones that are on sale this month (until 2/26) and the Food That Should Taste Good Sea Salt Brown Rice Crackers.

I was pleased with the result and I enjoyed the crackers with the dip.  I will say though that for this particular dip, I thought the Food Should Taste Good Sea Salt Brown Rice Crackers went with the dip a bit better than the Mary Gone Crackers one did. This dip had a couple of onion flavors in it and I think the Sea Salt crackers with a more subtle flavor made for a better pairing.

But let me be clear that I  think both of them worked fine. And I have to say, the price on gluten free crackers at Costco is a bargain compared to other stores.

So be nice to your friends Celiac Disease and serve this tasty, easy dip with fun and safe gluten free crackers.