quinoa & sweet peppers

i spent the better part of april & may living at chris's apartment while he traveled the west coast for work & just avoiding my house all together (i had a crazy landlord, not just ha ha crazy...but really nuts). for that time period, i didn't do a whole lot of cooking. i spent a lot of time at in the bowl & ha na on capitol hill. i moved into my new apartment almost 2 months ago & have found pure happiness & comfort in spending time at the apartment making myself dinner & enjoying over-easy eggs & an english muffin on saturday mornings.

the majority of meals i cook have the same composition, i don't use recipes & rely heavily on red pepper flakes & olive oil. the usual composition being:

• carbs (whole wheat pasta, quinoa, arborio rice)
• meat (usually prosciutto, pork or chicken)
• some sort of veggie (eggplant, sweet baby peppers, asparagus, spinach)
• cheese (mostly goat cheese)

i like my meals in a bowl, so i cook these things separately & then mix into a bowl, portion out that meal & garnish with cheese & more red pepper flakes.

so, the point of this post is my recent rediscovery of quinoa & sweet baby peppers. it is an edible seed that has a similar texture to cous cous, the flavor is mild & slightly nutty. outside of the texture & flavor, quinoa has great nutritional value, as it is super high in protein & fiber. the sweet baby peppers from costco are such a great deal & perfect to have on hand. they are about $10 & you get a boat load of them.