Seriously. I feel better when I eat more protein, but I don't always get it, because sometimes it's just easier to make pasta for dinner.

I'm finding quinoa just as easy to make as pasta and it's a complete protein.

The trick, it seems, is to rinse it before cooking. I never rinse any grains because I'm lazy like that, but rinsing the quinoa makes is taste a lot better. I cook it in a savory broth, which adds flavor.

10-15 minutes later, voila, nom!

Plus, it is good cold, unlike most pastas I've cooked. Also, any sauce I'd put on pasta works great on quinoa...just ask the puttanesca I made the other day...Oh, wait, you can't...it's in my belleh!

I love quinoa! I can't eat wheat or things with wheat in them. So i eat a lot of rice, quinoa and some non-wheat pasta.

You guys will be thrilled to know that as of Saturday night, I no longer think quinoa is pronounced "KWIN-OA".

MsBelle, happy 40th!! I have loved my year and a half of 40 so far. Hope you love it, too.

"KWIN-OA"

I can't even remember how I thought it was pronounced but it certainly wasn't keen-WAH. Who knew?

Note to self: It's keen-WAH.

I thought it was "quin-OH-nah".

I don't remember what I originally thought it was, but I definitely remember it being one of those words that I read, and that I heard pronounced, and I had NO IDEA they were actually the same word.

For the longest time, I thought the plant Kalanchoe was pronounce Ka-lan-show. Nope.

When I was little, I had a friend named Xochitl. She must've had a hell of a time in school. Hippies.

Christmas tree lights all rolled onto their holders. That will fill another box. Then I need to decide how and where to store all the new outside decorations.