Acorn Squash with Quinoa and Rosemary Biscuits

Known as the "Gold of the Inca's" quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") is one of my favorite foods. I'd take it over gold any day of the week. Typically thought of as a grain, quinoa is actually a seed that comes from a high in amino acid leafy green similar to swiss chard and spinach. Native to South America, quinoa is chalked full of protein - it's actually a complete protein which means it contains all nine essential amino acids. According to whfood.com (which stands for world's healthiest foods) quinoa is well endowed with the amino acid of lysine, which is especially good for tissue growth and repair.

This recipe is awesome. I threw in this and that and it all worked itself out into a nice little melody. Please, do your body a favor and have yourself some quinoa!!

Acorn Squash with Quinoa
(this will serve 4 hungry people, with maybe left overs for lunch)

-1 acorn squash medium in size
-2 tbsp. earth balance
-dash of cinnamon
-2 cups quinoa
-4 cups water
-2 apples - diced
-1/2 cup almonds - diced or sliced
-1 tbsp. maple syrup
-1 tbsp. nutritional yeast
-1 tsp. red miso
-1 tsp. cayenne


Preheat oven to 400. Cut the squash in half, from the stem down. Pull out the seeds and strings. Rub a table spoon of earth balance in each half and sprinkle with cinnamon. Place facing down on baking sheet and cook for about 30 - 45 mns. You can tell if you squash is done if it is soft when you poke it.

While the squash is cooking, place the quinoa and water in a large pot. Bring to a boil. AS soon as it starts boiling, turn the heat down to low and let sit for about 15 minutes. When the quinoa is done the water will be gone and it will be nice and fluffy with a pretty ring around it.

Add the rest of the ingredients into the quinoa along with the baked squash when it is done.

**the miso isn't nesessary, but I just used that instead of salt, because I'm kind-of on a miso kick.

Rosemary Biscuits

-2 cups flour
-1 tbsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. salt
-1/4 cup earth balance - room temperature
-1 cup rice milk
-1 1/2 tsp. rosemary

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together. Cut the butter in using a fork or pastry knife. Add the milk and rosemary and stir until it's all clumped together. Place onto ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

This is a wonderful seasonal meal! It's super hearty with the quinoa and squash, so you may want to serve it with some hot cider! I accidently grabbed the cumin instead of the cinnamon and sprinkled that into my cider. Once realizing (the smell gave it away) that I was sprinkling cumin into my cider, I tried to undo my mistake by also putting cinnamon in, thinking the cinnamon would over power. It didn't, but the result was actually really great! Go out on a limb and with cumin.

Enjoy!

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