It's Just Food Y'all

Sometimes, we all feel like cooking food. Cooking food. Not heating up frozen dinner. Not thawing leftovers. Actually cooking behind a stove, with heat, and fresh food. But as a college student, I say from personal experience that it is very difficult to make myself cook at home when there are other easier options, like ordering pizza, or heating leftovers. But occasionally I too get a wild idea to cook, and one of my favorite dishes is thus: Beans, Tuna, Rice, and Quinoa.

You're probably going to want to buy the 16 oz bag of Goya Kidney and Goya Black beans, the ones that you have to soak overnight. You may have to soak them, but we are cooking here, nobody said it was easy! Quinoa you can take or leave, but I find that it adds a nice flavor that sometimes bland beans cannot give. Rice is used as a little additive and filler. Brown is better than white, but all rice is good for you! Tuna out of a can is the only thing you can do unless you go to the market and catch or buy your own, which is up to you.

Ingredients:
Goya Black Beans (Soaked overnight)
Goya Kidney Beans (Soaked overnight)
Quinoa (Soaked overnight)
Rice (Brown or White)
Tuna salad (Mayo and Relish, if it tickles your fancy)

It stays good, long: At first glance, this meal seems to be sub-par compared to pizza out of a box, but the best part of this combination is that you can buy it in bulk, and it will take a very long time to go bad. Because you have to cook it each time you want it, the dried ingredients will keep for a very long time, a perfect quality for saving money and eating healthy and well.

The steps: (Keep in mind, the amounts of ingredients you insert are depending on your appetite, and the amount of people eating with you, etc.)

1. Soak the beans and Quinoa: This not only makes the beans softer, but it will allow the cook time of them to hasten drastically. If you don't you'll be boiling water for over an hour trying to get the beans to be edible without breaking your teeth. the Quinoa? Same deal. If you don't soak it, it will be rock hard.

2. Cook the rice: Got a rice cooker? Perfect! If not, a pot and boiling water will work just as fine.

3. Make the Tuna Salad: Unless you are in love with mayonaise, go easy on it, and add some relish to your can of tuna to make it delectable. A good consistency will make or break your tuna experience

4. Mix it all together: I like to add rice first, then beans, then quinoa, then tuna. Salsa (especially Newman's own) is also a nice flavor to add to the mix on top.

5: Take a picture of your food: Send it to your mom. She'll be happy you are eating.

6: Ignore step 5! Just Dig In!

-Mark Overstreet
Blogger
Food 411