Emma Schalk - Quinoa Cookbook: The Complete Guide for Quinoa Recipes

Quinoa Cookbook

The Complete Guide for Quinoa Recipes

Emma Schalk

Copyright 2013 Emma Schalk

All rights reserved.

Health or wealth? Often we feel pushed into a corner by asking ourselves to opt for luxury or a life without physical discomfort. This book will lead us just how old knowledge of the Incas helps modern life, to draw fresh energy from the newly discovered quinoa. Simple tasty food with high nutritional content builds the bridge connecting our lifestyle with the health of our youth. 2013 has been declared as the year of quinoa. This book sheds light on the reasons.

Modern life gives us many conveniences and facilities that our forefathers could not enjoy. At the same time we feel pressure, caused by the high speed, our life proceeds in front of our eyes with. Often as we slither unnoticed in this cycle we wonder its effects, and eventually the mirror and the doctor give us with a wagging finger bids of limitations and to waive restrictions on what sweetens our daily lives. Is that really fair?

We are just looking for a little compensation from the ubiquitous stress, and fast food, a small bar of chocolate here and there just are the price we have to pay for a high level lifestyle. But are we in fact forced to acquire an unhealthy lifestyle, just to enjoy more luxury? Or is there not the possibility to connect it all together and be happy and satisfied? Many profound questions, but the solution may be easier than most people believe.

If we reach a point where we notice that the button does not reach the buttonhole and more and our clothes no longer fit, we admit our radiant youth seems to disappear too quickly. No one turns their head around for us which often causes a frustrating feeling. We feel our advancing age, and we would give anything to be able to reset the clock again. The good news is that this is quite possible in certain limits. All we need is to adopt a new way of life.

Our food takes on the central role. Without healthy food, nothing will work. But who is longing for agonizing long diets with continuous hunger that keeps us from our work? It seems that we are in a cycle from which we cannot escape. Far from it! We are actually able to build a better life than we could ever enjoy before.

To combine the comfort of adulthood with the advantages of youth, this is the solution envisaged by anyone, and that is exactly what we want to achieve with this description. Our new lifestyle is characterized by the idea of absence of compulsion and urge and we just want to get more out of our lives. And the more we deal with casual diet, the more often we stumble over quinoa. Quinoa is touted as a miracle food worldwide and receives praise for taste and health effects by all nutrition specialists. Maybe we look at what quinoa is and why it deserves our full attention. So what is quinoa?

In most dishes, we find that quinoa replaces grain of any kind. But technically it is not a grain, but seeds like peas or lentils. Cereals are also seeds, but they all grow on grassy plants from wheat to corn. Quinoa (also spelled quinua) is so new that we do not even know to refer to quinoa as her or it, but it is clear that it is a plant from the Amaranthus family that is related to the orach, a native weed.

The plant grows vigorously upright with diamond-shaped leaves that get smaller towards the top. Some varieties reach a height of nearly 2m, while others are only knee-high, some varieties develop a strong red-brown color with very dark seeds, others are green or bluish green with beige, off-white seeds. The inflorescence is somewhat reminiscent of millet and is interspersed with a few leaves. In his homeland, quinoa climbs in the Andes to dizzying heights, proving its endurance and robustness. The seeds look like small white or brown-red lenses.

If we look at these small, about 2mm granules, involuntarily the question arises how they can improve our life style. The big difference in comparison to grain lies, of course, in the nutrients. The table with the percentage analysis might give us an answer to our question, but we will find that the quinoa is far superior to grain of any kind and is considered a complete protein provider. Many other good features make quinoa more than just a saturating food.

The housewife of the 19th and early 20thcentury could not rely on pre-made and pre-packaged products. In addition to her scores to tame their brood, she had to prepare each meal from scratch. Foods were usually much richer in nutrients, concentrated, and healthier. Today, the modern housewife has technology at her fingertips for each task, which she can use as a relief in any respect. But often she shares the task of income with her husband. Far too often, the quality of the dinner will be lost. Prefabricated, frozen dishes in teamwork with the microwave replace balanced meals.

Quick and easy preparation gets a high priority in the choice of food, with the effect that creep deficiencies creep in our health, but we hardly notice it. If we are often tired and exhausted, we quickly find the culprit: Too much work and too much stress. Maybe the stress is not increased, but only our opinion and perception of stress. Previously, we did not even notice the daily pressure because we were fit, and nothing could stop us. Must we now conclude that we grow old too fast? Far from it! There are many people who bring back their youth and feel fresher and more energetic than twenty years ago.

They realized that they could turn the clock back by years or decades by changing their outlook on life. These people are no different than you or me. They come from all backgrounds, rich or poor, sensitive or robust, old or young. But each of them admitted to themselves that something was wrong, and that something must be changed. This is the first necessary step to recovery. Each of these people found out that their diet was not optimal.

Consider once with awareness of what you eat. Although we would like to provide no mathematical instruction, but do you realize that some desserts hide more than 10% of your daily energy needs? By substituting them, we can reduce this number to a fraction and introduce new flavors that were unknown to us until now.

At the present time, we are exposed to so many temptations to increase our weight, we sit too much and we digest unhealthy food. We already noted that there is not enough time devoted to the preparation of meals. If we cannot or want to divert more time the food should be better. The dishes must not be one-sided. But this does not mean that we have to toil with tables to find the best compilations of nutrients.

The simple solution is to go for quinoa! The small, flat grains contain almost everything we need for life; they are healthy and put a lot of positive effects in motion. Quinoa, cultivated for millennia in the high Andes, suddenly found the answer for modern nutrition. Therefore, we give quinoa the center position, and the entire cookbook is all about quinoa recipes. In fact, they can replace all cereals and suddenly give us a healthier lifestyle. But what is the difference between quinoa and the usual cereal?

Almost all cereals lack high protein content. That is why we never see wheat and rye or rice on the top of lists, when we speak of protein content. Quinoa contains a lot of it, more specifically 15% and can thus replace meat that is certainly good news for vegetarians who are always on the lookout for a replacement for meat dishes. As a grain, quinoa not only contains protein, but it contains 18 different amino acids, the building blocks of all proteins. However, while all cereals contain the two essential amino acids, lysine and isoleucine, in only low concentrations, the composition in quinoa is fully sufficient and may be described as a food with a complete protein provider.