Last week we challenged you to start cooking outside the box! Our first ingredient highlight is Quinoa (KEEN-wah) for the {Create Your Own} series. What is it? Check it out.

Long before I had ever eaten it, I heard random people talking about Quinoa and how much they loved it. I had no idea what it was or what you would do with it. I can’t remember the first time I had it (probably with my sister), but I remember the first time I ever made anything with it was a delicious salad with spinach, feta, and cranberry I had seen on Pinterest. I was hooked! We started using it all the time in salads. I almost won’t eat a salad without it now!

After awhile, we started using it in other things. One of our favorite recipes is for Korean Beef, but we replace the rice with quinoa, the brown sugar with honey, and add in some stir fried vegetables. It’s DELICIOUS! A super easy recipe for when you need dinner fast! We eat some kind of stir fry with quinoa every week, whether its beef, chicken, or just vegetable. Another great sauce I make all of the time for stir fry is this recipe.

Chicken, zucchini, onion, and cabbage stir fry with Quinoa and honey garlic sauce

Because Quinoa is a complete protein, you can use it to replace some or all of your meat in a recipe. One night, in a pinch, I made quinoa tacos! We didn’t miss the meat at all (which is saying something for My Hubby to think that). I didn’t make the exact recipe, but I used this recipe for a sauce to top off the tacos. We have also made Sloppy Quinoa Joes without the ground beef. I have also added quinoa to soups and chilis.

Just recently I have ventured into some new uses for quinoa–baking! I made these muffins. The quinoa keeps the muffin nice and moist. However, I used coconut oil instead of vegetable, cut the white flour in half and added whole wheat to replace it, and subbed local honey for the brown sugar. My kids and I almost had them devoured before My Hubby got home. You could use the same recipe and replace the raisins for another kind of fruit, and I bet they would taste awesome.

Just type Quinoa into Pinterest and you can find lots of recipes and inspiration. If you have never tried this delicious and nutritious food, we hope that you will give it a go. We wanted to share an In a Tickle {Create Your Own} Quinoa Salad Recipe to get you started:

Salad with spinach, quinoa, feta cheese and strawberries

Not a salad fan? Try chopping the lettuce or spinach up and mix it in with your other ingredients. My Hubby likes it better with the spinach whole, but I like it better chopped up. Try it both ways and see what you like best!

Want to make your own dressing? Check out these salad dressing recipes:

Greek Dressing from Allrecipes.com

Poppyseed Dressing from Simple Bites Blog

Comment below with your favorite {Create Your Own} Quinoa salad combination.