Gosh I love quinoa

The past couple weeks I've been saving time and money by making some form of quinoa salad on Sunday night to last for lunches the rest of the week. I'm really liking this system -- it keeps well, it's never boring, and it is delish! I've definitely posted about quinoa a few times before here. If I turn even one person on to quinoa from this then my job is done.

Here is an umbrella recipe for 5 servings of Quinoa Salad:
Rinse 1 cup quinoa and cook it like rice. Mince 3 cloves of garlic and dice 1 medium yellow onion. Saute garlic and onions in olive oil until fragrant, then put in a large (I mean large) bowl with the quinoa. Add any combo of veggies, protein, and herbs, plus salt and pepper (I've been picking things based on what's on sale) and mix. For example:

Variation #1: Mexicana
2 cans black beans
Kernels from 3 ears of raw corn (it's yummy!)
1 cup chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper

Variation #2: Italiana
1 can garbanzo beans
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 large red bell pepper, diced
Kernels from 3 ears raw corn
Dried basil, salt and pepper

Variation #3: Americana? (pictured)
1 can garbanzo beans
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 green bell pepper, diced
Kernels from 3 ears raw corn
1 cup chopped baby carrots, lightly sauteed
1 cup chopped and sauteed asparagus spears
1 cup sliced mushrooms, lightly sauteed
Dried basil, salt and pepper

Dispense into tupperware for lunches:

(I ate some for dinner, so there was 4 left for the week.) I usually supplement it with string cheese, yogurt, and fruit/veggies. I tend to get hungry like clockwork at 11am (eat yogurt), 12:30pm (eat quinoa salad and fruit or veggies), and 3:45pm (eat string cheese and fruit). Gotta be prepared!

Hohn hohn hohn...*

Oh wow, I find this really funny. A (French) group of scientists recently published in the Journal of Food Science an article titled "Optimization of Gluten-Free Formulations for French-Style Breads" (or, trying to make a decent gluten-free baguette). Now, I know first-hand that current gluten-free French bread is terrible and desparately needs optimization. However, can't we leave that job to the awesome and smart GF bakers out there and let the scientists try to find a cure for Celiac Disease instead?

As someone who reads scientific journals regularly, I found this one hilarious. It has an abstract, materials and methods, results, statistical analyses, AND discussion! But its tested variables were things like, "crumb softness" and "crust hue." I mean, look at this figure...I hope you don't have to be a scientist to find this funny:

And, for all their super-sciencey analyses, they didn't even do a taste test! It is, however, one of their future directions:

"In addition to this physical characterization (specific volume, hardness, gas cell distribution, crust color, and bread dry matter), sensory analysis [a.k.a. taste test] is now underway to evaluate the acceptance of this formulation by a panel of consumers."

Because really, all that matters is how it ranks on the yumminess index.

*That's supposed to sound like a French laugh...