Lentils and quinoa are hip.

Bleh.

I dont really hate any particular food. Sure there are foods where I would say, "I'd rather not." But I would eat them anyways, but lentils and quinoa are one of those things I really struggle with. Lentils much more so than quinoa. Usually when I share this with people though I get a response like, "oh really?! I love lentils!" Or "I just love quinoa!" Proceeding there declarations of love they will continue to share with me all the ways they use it and where I can find it made really well. Dont get me wrong, I have had good quinoa, but nothing which has been produced by my own two hands.

I've begun to get the impression that it's "cool" or "hip" to like quinoa. As a result I almost feel embarrassed to tell people I dont like it. I've begin to wonder if admitting I dont like quinoa is like telling people you don't like fluffy cute bunnies.

Really I want to like it but... EEK GAG! It's disgusting.

The first time I found quinoa was at Costco, in a really large bag. Matt and I thought we'd take it home and try it. We did and after 3 years that bag is almost gone and I promise you I haven't eaten more than a couple spoon fulls from that bag of quinoa and most of what we made got chucked. (I am thinking about those poor kids in destitute third world countries. I'm sure they'd eat it.)

For the record, I have tried to like quinoa! I promise! So how have I tried to make quinoa??

One week I thought I'd make some quinoa breakfast with fruit. However, when Day 1 hit no amount of sugar was going to make the quinoa taste any better with my blackberries.

I've tried cooking it like Brazilian rice, which gets it's delectable flavor from garlic, salt, and sometimes onions. Not even my Brazilian rice recipe could make it taste better.

I tried to imitate the Whole Foods black bean and corn quinoa salad recipe. It's actually pretty good. It's flavored with a red wine vinegar. It tasted great at Whole Foods.... not in my kitchen. 

Matt & I are turning into those parents. The kind that read labels and count how many things we can't pronounce or how many things look strange and decide we are not going to give our child THAT. We haven't given our child any candy and we waited until he was one to give him fruit.

There's a specific brand of baby food I really like. It's called Ella's kitchen.

It is "organic" but they have fun mixes of veggies and when Calvin was only eating veggies and no fruit they had lots of fun selections. They had a LENTIL and Rutabaga one that I loved. I'm not sure if Calvin loved it.... but I did! :)

In order to be a good parent I once decided that I needed to love lentils and quinoa for Calvin's sake. So one week I sat down and planned what meals I would eat that would involve lentils or quinoa.
Day 1 lentils with sweet potatoes. Gross.
Day 2 quinoa black bean salad. Whole Foods makes it better.
Day 3 pizza. No, that's not quinoa crusted pizza or pizza covered in lentils. It's the regular kind with cheese, tomatoes and whatever else you'd like to throw on it. We really didn't make it to day 3. :)

I still make lentils now, but I just feed them to Calvin. 

Anyways, when people say their children are like garbage disposals.... I KNOW WHY. Because they will eat anything. I'm sure people mean to say that there child will eat paper, little plastic tidbits, zippers, dirt, little rocks, etc.  Calvin will eat our QUINOA and LENTILS!

When I made red lentils with sweet potatoes on Day 1 that Matt and I struggled to eat, I gave it to Calvin. I told some colleagues at school what I made and they said it sounded delicious. (bleh)
And to Calvin, it was absolutely delicious.

This kid eats better than I do! I blend up parsnips, eggplant, zucchini, and beets cooked in vegetable broth and puree it and he eats it all with brown rice. :)