Quinoa (KEEN-wah)

So last week I made quinoa for the first time. I hear tell, from a friend whose husband studies the wonders of quinoa, that it's a near-perfect healthy food. Wikipedia agrees:
Quinoa is

"highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%), making it a healthy choice for vegetarians and vegans. Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source.[5] It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten free and considered easy to digest."

And another quinoa nutrition link, a bit more official than Wikipedia, from Nutritiondata.com.

Yay for nutrition! But, um, the two really great things about it, that make this nutritious food a viable addition to my family meals, are:

1-it doesn't taste yucky. It's pretty good, in fact. This means that there is hope that one day my kids may eat it, although they rejected this first try. Of course.

and

2-It cooks up FAST! Instead of waiting a full hour for my rice to be done, I can cook up some uber-healthy quinoa in fifteen minutes!

Apparently you can buy quinoa flakes, quinoa flour, eat it as breakfast food, serve it in all manner of ways. Is it cheap? Um, no. $3.59 for twelve ounces. So not cheap, compared to rice. Or whole wheat flour. Sigh. But you always pay a bit more for fast food. And it's the healthiest convenience food I've ever heard of.

Saffron Risotto

Serves 4
Ingredients
28 oz chicken stock (can substitute with vegan, organic or low sodium stock)
1 tbsp olive, coconut or organic sunflower oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 cup organic brown rice
1 cup white cooking wine
Large pinch of saffron
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus shavings for garnish (optional)

Preparation
Bring stock to a low simmer in a medium pot. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat for 1 minute. Cook onion until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add rice and a pinch of salt. Sauté until rice is translucent, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine and saffron; bring to a simmer, stirring, until rice has absorbed most of wine. Add 2 ladles of stock to rice; simmer, stirring, until rice has absorbed most of stock. Continue adding stock, allowing rice to absorb it before adding the next ladleful. Cook until rice is al dente and mixture is a little loose. Stir in butter. Turn off heat. Stir in grated cheese. Cover and let sit 2 minutes. Divide among 4 bowls. Garnish each with cheese shavings, if desired.

Can add chicken and pine nuts, but it will change the nutritional statistics.


Nutritional stats
298 calories per serving
8.3 g fat (2.8 g saturated)
39.2 g carbs
0.7 g fiber
5.1 g protein
(w/o chicken or pine nuts added)

Six Dollar Special

Registration for tae kwon do classes is a mere $6 tomorrow, for our anniversary and grand re-opening. That is a steal of a deal. I know from speaking with Master Sorenson that she would love love love to be able to just offer tae kwon do classes for free, so that anyone who wants to could come and work out. I love her sentiment, but I think it would be a bad idea. She would run out of money and have to close the studio, and the rest of us would be stuck working out in front of our television sets. Billy Blanks Tae Bo anyone?

Okay, not necessarily the rest of us. Other people are not like me, with my little exercise video collection I buy, use a few times, and then get tired of. Not everyone in the womens class is a recovering non-athlete. In fact, most of us aren't. We've got a former P.E. teacher, a marathon runner, and a dancer (on pregnancy leave), among others. I was talking with our marathoner the other day. She just completed the Saint George Marathon, a feat which makes me sore just thinking about it. "You're a marathon runner," I said. "Is tae kwon do a good workout for you too?"

"Oh yeah," she said. "It's different muscles, and it's cross training. It's fun."

Which left me thinking about how versatile this sport really is. It's possible for someone like me, who struggles with weight, and with coordination, and fitness, to work out alongside a marathon runner, and both of us are learning, growing, and enjoying ourselves.

So, come to the anniversary party tomorrow afternoon, from 2 to 4. And take advantage of the special: you can't even buy an exercise DVD for six bucks.

If you come to the women's class, you'll fit right in, whether you run marathons or huff and puff walking the kids to school (that would be me). Either way, you will be welcome.

A Modest Proposal for Tae Kwon Do Form Creation

A couple of weeks ago I attended the evening class on a form-practicing night. I like forms, even though I have a hard time wrapping my head around them. I get all the tae guks mixed together, and before every testing I have to review and sort them out again. But I do like the way forms give me a good workout--I practice forms for fifteen minutes, really focusing, and I'm sweating.

But mostly, folks, when they're done right, forms just look cool. At the evening class I attended each belt rank performed their forms, from white belt to black. The black belts did... um, a form with a Korean name that I don't remember. I told you, they all run together to me, especially the ones I don't know yet. But I'm starting to understand things well enough to pick apart what they're doing a little--I identify a block here, a kick there. I watched the black belt form performed twice. Just amazing.

What's missing from these forms for me, though, is the materialization of the Mythical Form Opponents: we're supposed to be blocking and kicking these Imaginary Bad Guys. I want to see the form performed with all the Bad Guys doing their thing, and then the form performer kicking the heck out of the Bad Guys. The Mythical Form Bad Guys, though, are apparently not bright enough to join together and gang up on the defender, by all coming from the same direction at once.

Is there someone in charge of new form creation? (I am so new to tae kwon do, there could be and I've just never heard of it). I think someone should invent a form where the Mythical Form Opponent is a gang of eight or nine thugs all coming at you from the same direction. Smart thugs. That could be more useful. Or maybe a form where you beat up the first guy, and then yell "The rest of you bad guys hiding in all the other directions? Y'all go home now, cause I'm gonna turn around and do the same thing to you I just did to this guy." And then you can give a courtesy Kiyup and bow, and be done.

Or not. Because let's face it, that would look lame. And the best thing about learning forms? Being able to perform something that looks sharp, precise, and just plain cool.