Quinoa with Shrimp, Zucchini, Peppers, and Kale

Happy Friday!!!!!

This week actually passed pretty quickly for me; I hope that's the case for you too!

Speaking of quick, one of my favorite quick and healthy go-to ingredients for weeknight meals is quinoa. Loooove quinoa! Quite often, we'll make quinoa with a variety of veggies and possibly some meat (usually chicken or kielbasa). This past week we changed it up by adding some shrimp to the mix. Frozen shrimp is such an easy item to keep on hand because it can be thawed and cooked in no time! All in all, this meal took about 20 to 25 minutes to prepare. The longest part was simply cooking the quinoa!

The ingredients below are approximate. This was one of those recipes that I made up on the spot as I went...not much thought went into it! But the final product was yummy, so I wanted to share it with you. :) I kept the seasonings very simple - garlic, pepper, and some fresh basil that we had on hand. I also just chose to use whichever CSA veggies we had on hand. That's the beauty of this common veggie and quinoa combination that we make - any veggies will work with this!!

Ingredients:

-1 cup quinoa

-2 cups low sodium chicken broth (or vegetable or fish stock)

-1 small onion, finely chopped

-1/2 medium zucchini, chopped

-1 pepper (I used green; use any color)

-6 leaves of kale, chopped into "bite-sized" pieces

-frozen, peeled, pre-cooked shrimp (however many you want :))

-2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced

-2 Tbsp. fresh basil, finely chopped

-ground pepper to taste

-grated parmesan cheese, if desired

Instructions:

Cook quinoa and broth according to package directions; this should take about 20 minutes. In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute the onion, zucchini, and pepper. After about 5 minutes of cooking, add the garlic. Stir in the shrimp (they can be completely frozen when you add them; they'll thaw in the pan, no problem). Continue to stir the veggies and shrimp for another 5 minutes or so, over low-medium heat. 

When the quinoa is done cooking, mix in the chopped kale with the quinoa (the kale will wilt once it's mixed in with the hot quinoa). Next, mix in the rest of the cooked veggies and the shrimp, and also add the fresh basil at this point. If desired, sprinkle on some grated parmesan cheese when this dish is served. Add salt and pepper to taste too (although, my guess is you won't need extra salt; even low sodium broth adds plenty of salt flavor, in my opinion!).

I didn't take many photos of this dish...well, because I was lazy. After taking a couple bites of the dish, I thought, hmmmm, this is yummy! Guess I'll snap a few pics and post the recipe on the blog.

:)

Happy almost weekend, friends!