Quinoa with spinach and roasted garlic

Warm, simple, and delicious. Is there a better kind of meal for a suddenly-chilly day? Michigan's weather has once again played a trick on us and gone from sunny and spring-like to temps in the teens overnight. The little guy is at daycare today so I was on my own for lunch and looking for inspiration. Nothing too time-consuming (I am working, after all), something with protein (I went for a run first), and above all, something tasty.

Then I read about Mary Ellen's Quinoa with Roasted Garlic, Tomatoes, and Spinach, and I knew what lunch would be. Of course I slightly modified the original (as you have probably come to expect from me).

I set the rice cooker to cook the quinoa in vegetable broth while I ran, then after my shower quickly tossed the rest together. And it was quick, too--just about 20 minutes from swirling the olive oil in a skillet to sitting down at my desk to eat. In between those steps, here's what I did:

Sliced 1/4 Spanish onion into thin strips and sauteed until lightly browned, then added two handfuls of fresh baby spinach. While that wilted, I chopped a Roma tomato and got out my container of homemade roasted garlic paste from the fridge. I put a scoop (tablespoon-ish) of the garlic into the skillet and let it warm up, then added the tomato and stirred everything around. Salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper were added to taste, and the last step was to stir in about half the pot of cooked quinoa--maybe a cup. I let it all heat through while I put the rest of the quinoa in the fridge, then poured the contents of the skillet into my dish and trekked back to my desk for lunch. (And work. But mostly lunch.)

This would make a wonderful side dish to grilled or roasted chicken, and could even pass as a one-pot meal if you wanted to add cooked shrimp or chicken right to the skillet.