I first learned about quinoa from my hippie parents who went on about how its an ancient grain with so many good qualities blah dee blah. They are easily excited, my folks, by healthy food. Then I saw an episode of Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda where he spent time on a reservation somewhere in the American southwest and learned about traditional "ancient" foods like cactus and prickly pear that are good for you because they slow-release sugars into your body. The episode explained how a move away from these foods meant a steep rise in diabetes for the groups that used to eat them regularly. Heck, that's pretty convincing, especially when told by silver fox Alan Alda.
So I'm kind of on an ancient grain kick lately, eating cooked quinoa with dinner occasionally and exploring its ancient glory. The first baking I did with quinoa was with a recipe from my fave magazine, Vegetarian Times: Maple-Quinoa-Oatmeal Cookies. I didn't use the pecans like the recipe said, but the cookies were so delish that the boyfriend ate them en masse before they cooled from coming out of the oven and packed the leftovers as a snack for a weekend trip we took. There have even been requests for an encore appearance on Super Bowl Sunday. This would make the boyfriend AND the hippie-ancient-grain-loving dad happy, as they'll be watching together, the former supporting the Giants (crazy!) and the latter supporting the Patriots. At least they will have some ancient goodness in their bellies. Plus, it will give me something to do to avoid watching the game. Yawn.
To link to the Vegetarian Times recipe online, go here: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/8984
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