Staples in my Refrigerator

I work. A lot. My day job, for which I am very grateful, takes up the majority of my waking hours. I don’t have Martha Stewart time on my hands.

And this diet is not so easy to eat out of a package. It requires a little pre-planning for some quick, healthy eating. On any given day, you can open my fridge and find the following items ready to go for my next gluten-free, vegan meal.

Quinoa and Brown/Wild Rice.

These staples are the base for many recipes and keep nicely, precooked in the fridge. Because I use them in a variety of dishes, I cook them spice free and add the spices later.

Basic Quinoa:

1.5 cups Quinoa

3 cups purified water

Bring water to boil. Add Quinoa. Bring to boil and turn down to low heat. Cover and simmer for 12 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for five more minutes. Add to your favorite recipe or let it cool and store in the fridge in a tightly covered container. This recipe makes about 4 cups of cooked Quinoa. You can easily adjust 1 part Quinoa to 2 parts water to make more or less. It still takes 12 minutes to cook.

Basic Brown Rice:

1.5 cups brown or brown/wild rice (I like to mix in red rice and wild rice to make it interesting.)

3 cups purified water

Bring water to boil. Add Rice. Bring to boil and turn down to low heat. Cover and simmer for 60 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for five more minutes. Add to your favorite recipe or let it cool and store in the fridge in a tightly covered container. This recipe makes about 4 cups of cooked rice. You can easily adjust 1 part Rice to 2 parts water to make more or less. It still takes an hour to cook.

Pretty easy, huh? Check out the Quinoa recipe I brought to a vegan potluck.