Quinoa with Leftover Pork Chop and Roasted Red Pepper Crab Bisque

Yay for me! It's my first time making and eating quinoa. I was home alone for lunch this weekend. I'm definitely on some sort of kick where I feel like I should be cooking more (and eating out less). So in that spirit, there was Trader Joe's Quinoa in my pantry that I had bought a couple months ago--saying to myself, I should try this... I wonder if I might be able to substitute it for the cous-cous in my Thai curry shrimp recipe (see August 19, 2008 post). But after trying it, I can see how it's it's own "animal".

Sadly, a lot of the times when I'm cooking, I get a lot of help. I buy some pre-made items and I'm starting to put them together. Last trip to Safeway, I was craving soup because we're having these flash rain storms in Sacramento in May! I saw this Roasted Red Pepper and Crab Bisque that sounded good. After taking it home, it was disappointingly overpowered with roasted red pepper flavor that I couldn't taste any crab or even fish stock... if it had any in it.

So to give my lunch dish some flavor, I poured some of the Red Pepper Crab Bisque into the quinoa in the last 5-10 minutes of cooking. I also threw in some frozen corn and leftover pork chop. This dish was delicious, and didn't take long to make--which was a good thing because I had only had my morning coffee.