Sesame Bok Choy with Quinoa

What have I been up to lately?  Reading, yes reading.  I made a personal resolution to finish the eight or so books I have started but not finished.  I began with John Robbins Diet for a New America.  Many vegans I know were vegetarian until they read this book.  I am starting to see why.  John Robbins was one of the first speakers I stopped to listen to when I started really learning about plant based eating.  I remember his talk. He was very interesting, but I hadn't really gotten deep into his book until now.  He really brings home the idea of the suffering animals endure in the name of making money.  Even though I began this journey to improve my health, I am starting to take on a little empathy for the animals. I've heard that there are three main reasons people go to plant based eating:  health, the environment, and the animals.  Once one door was opened the other reasons become clearer and it just all became part of what I think about when it comes to choosing what we eat.

We're going on vacation this year to see my son and meet my newest granddaughter.  We're going to be staying in a small two room dome made from earth and rock in the desert.  There's an outdoor kitchen with a cooler.  I thought I'd spend some time practicing some really easy recipes.  With those kind of meals in mind I can pick up some fruit and veggies, a little quinoa, some dates & nuts, and some beans and we're ready to spend the week eating plant based with a little decadence while camping. I flipped through the Vegan on $4 a Day cookbook I picked up this summer and it didn't take long to find an easy recipe with few ingredients.  It's a great book to practice those quick and easy meals.  I have some fresh locally made tempeh and started looking for a nice tempeh recipe. I found an easy tempeh recipe pretty quickly, but on the opposite page was a recipe for Sesame Bok Choy.  I remembered I picked up a couple nice heads of Bok Choy at People's Coop last weekend.  I'll use the tempeh tomorrow.

This whole meal didn't take longer than 30 minutes to prepare.  I diced an onion, sliced four carrots about an inch thick, chopped three nice cloves of garlic, and thinly sliced up two medium heads of Bok Choy.  I put 1 cup of quinoa on to simmer for 20 minutes in 2 1/2 cups water with a little sea salt.

While the quinoa was simmering I sauteed the onion, garlic, and carrots in 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil until they were tender.  Then I added the bok choy, about a tablespoon of tamari, , a teaspoon of chopped fresh ginger, a teaspoon of maple syrup, and a half a cup of water.  I let that all simmer together about five minutes.

I served that on top of the hot quinoa and sprinkled a few toasted sesame seeds on top.  Lovely meal and quick too.