My grandmother used to use an old jiggle top pressure cooker. I remember hearing it sputter and hiss and thought it sounded a bit scary. She cooked some great meals with it though! Pressure cookers have progressed quite a bit with time, and there even exists an electric version, which I own. I love it! I first heard about it listening to a special on BYU TV, a chef that concentrates on cooking whole grains, beans, etc. was talking about how wonderful pressure cookers are when used to cook those items. It takes approximately 1/3 less time to cook in a pressure cooker versus stove top. Plus, with the electric model you can just cook and go, no need to wait and watch. It even keeps the food warm if you are not home! I checked out a pressure cooker cookbook by Lorna Sass at the library and just loved her recipes. She also has a wonderful book on whole grains. Anyway, I have really enjoyed using mine. We eat beans 2-3 days a week now, and many grains that just take too long to cook on the stove. It makes wonderful brown rice and pot roast and steams a delicious cheesecake in 10 min. of cooking time! Our grocery bill has gone down noticeably since we got the pc (which is nice, since the pc wasn't cheap), because we bought bags of bulk dried beans and grains from the cannery and a local health food store and use those almost daily.
My next favorite item is quinoa (pronounced keen-wuh). We recently started using this grain, (no need for a pressure cooker on this one, it cooks in 10-15 min., just like pasta) and just love the flavor, and of course it is really good for you! The quinoa seed is high in protein, calcium and iron, a relatively good source of vitamin E and several of the B vitamins. It contains an almost perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids needed for tissue development in humans. It is exceptionally high in lysine, cystine and methionine-amino acids typically low in other grains. It is a good complement for legumes, which are often low in methionine and cystine. The protein in quinoa is considered to be a complete protein due to the presence of all 8 essential amino acids. Some types of wheat come close to matching quinoa's protein content, but grains such as barley, corn, and rice generally have less than half the protein of quinoa. Quinoa is 12% to 18% protein and four ounces a day, about 1/2-cup, will provide a childs protein needs for one day. Wow, 1/2 cup provides a child with all their protein needs for one day! We like to cook ours in chicken broth with some onion and herbs and then add fresh spinach at the end (pictured above). Rachel really eats it up, and the other kids like it on some days, and not on others. Go figure.
We also bought the quinoa in bulk, which saved us a ton. The grocery store was selling it for $4.99 a pound, and the health food store sold it to me for $2.30 a pound in bulk!
5 comments:
You are so inspiring! I need to get back on the wagon of cooking better. My problem is that I wait until it's time to eat, then throw together something like spaghetti, which the kids love, but isn't terribly nutritious (at least the pasta). I love legumes! I must get busy and do what you're doing. I didn't know about the fancy pressure cookers. My MIL bought me one a few years ago, but it's the old fashioned kind, which is fine.
I am glad that you found quinoa, we love it! I don't think I have cooked with rice for almost a year.
This all looks soooooo good, the pc, the quinoa, your dish, the nutritional info. I'm going to try this out.
Where is the best place to buy quinoa?
Lucy, they do have it at our Costco now, so you might check there if you have one. They had it for just a couple more cents than what I paid buying it in bulk. We got ours at a local grain/health store. If you buy a big bag, ours was 25 pounds, they usually will give you a nice discount. But, you might want to buy a smaller amount first to try it out. I went through the phone book and called around for the cheapest price.
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