Week 5: Quinoa Chili

I was really looking forward to this recipe.  Until I was prepping on Tuesday night and I discovered how poorly written the recipe was.  For example:

It lists onion in the ingredients but never mentions onion again.
Ginger makes a surprise appearance in the instructions.
It calls for both "2 tbl minced jalapeno pepper" and "1/2 jalapeno pepper seeded"
What? I'm confused.

I had very low expectations.  I came home from work and peered into the crock pot with concern. Uh oh.  Looks too watery.  Isn't chili supposed to be hearty?  But it was good!  Really good.

I liked the texture of the quinoa and the chili was not too "soupy" as I first thought.  I realize now I left out the last step of adding soy sauce and molasses, probably because at that point I had mentally given up on the recipe and was already trying to figure out what we could eat.  I added some Maldon salt, Cholula and red pepper flakes. Andrew added shredded cheese to his.

Special shout out to mom for adding the water and quinoa and then starting the crock pot for me.  I was worried about letting the quinoa soak all morning before the cooking started.  Just another benefit to living next door to mom.  (Although hands down the best thing about it is the babysitting.  FREE babysitting!)

Another tip:  Take your contact lens out before slicing jalapeno.  Although it had been hours and I washed my hands repeatedly before removing my contacts, there must have been some extra strength jalapeno juice aka capsaicum on my fingers.  Because when I put my contacts in this morning there was some serious burning. I had to throw them out and use a new pair.   Google confirmed this is a common phenomenon.

I won't list the recipe here since it was so confusing but it can be found here on Savvy Vegetarian. It also gives stove top directions.  I might try that next time. I will definitely make this again, but I'll think of the recipe as a guide rather than a blueprint.