Healthy Happenings

I made butternut squash soup for the second time last night, and quinoa for the first time.  What I learned was: 

*I could not taste a difference between boiling the squash in chicken stock versus roasting it first.

*Adding yams and carrots added only a slight flavor difference versus just squash alone.

*I did not need to add cream or any type of (fattening) dairy product in order for the soup to be rich and satisfying.

*Quinoa is expensive, but much easier to make than rice.

Here is the recipe I used for the soup: 

Squash soup

Aaand my recipe for the quinoa salad is ... 

1 cup dry quinoa

1 14.5 oz jar chicken stock, plus 3 tablespoons water to make 2 cups

1/3 cup dried cranberries

3/4 to 1 lb cooked chicken, shredded into small pieces

5 oz goat cheese

3 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Heat the liquid just to a boil.  Turn the heat down to medium low and add quinoa, stir, and cover for 15 minutes.  In a separate small bowl, whisk together oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper to make a vinaigrette. Remove quinoa from heat after the 15 minutes and add in cranberries.  Cover for 5 additional minutes.  Fluff with a fork and add vinaigrette, then chicken.  Crumble the goat cheese and stir gently to combine.  Makes 4-6 side dish servings.  

There are probably thousands of different combinations of things that you could put into quinoa.  Next time I might try something more savory, such as feta cheese, kalamata olives, and kale.