My Story

When I was younger, a couple of times my mom gave me quinoa and I didn’t mind it, but it wasn’t something I paid attention to. In April 2010 that changed when I decided I wanted to become a vegetarian.  Since I no longer got protein from meat, I needed to get it for somewhere else. At first I wasn’t getting enough; I was eating lots of pasta and other carbohydrates. Then when I realized how much protein I was missing I started eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches and chili.  Then my mom told me that I couldn’t just eat that and she made a quinoa salad for me. I had had it a couple times and liked it and she told me how much protein I was getting. It looks like we had found a solution.

            Soon after, we started to use quinoa more. I remember one time my mom made a big batch of quinoa pancakes and we froze them and I would take them out and pop them in the toaster for breakfast every once in a while. They tasted so good and gave me so much protein to start my day.  Since quinoa doesn’t have a strong flavor we would add half a cup to things like chili to give me more protein then I was already getting.

            I started to realize how much one grain could influence my diet and my health. I still need to have a little bit more protein in my diet, but after doing this project I have found some good recipes I want to try. I am excited to try them because they might help me obtain the right amount of protein leading me to live a healthier lifestyle.