If you’re keen on quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), I’ve written a bit of a cheat sheet on how to cook and eat it before, and I’ve also posted additional quinoa recipes here. I’ll be honest, a quinoa post always gets folk going, so I’ve posted some extra recipes…each has a fun twist and all are great for lunch.

Everyone keeps asking me for lunch ideas…here you go.

I love making a hash of my lunch. Hashes are all about efficiency and sustainability and heightened flavour. For me they entail mixing up leftovers – grains, meat, beans, vegetables – from the night before and frying them with some cheese and/or an egg and tossing through some fresh herbs for zing. I also like to squeeze lemon on mine, to cut through any saturated flavours. And invariably I throw in capers. Oh, and some chia seeds! See what you think of these hashtastic ideas:

Rebecca Woolf’s “Quinuevos Ranchero”

• Leftover quinoa (for other quinoa ideas, see here and here)
• Eggs (two per adult, one per child. For a family of four, I cook six eggs.)
• A spoonful of butter or olive oil
• An avocado
• Shredded cheese of your liking
• Coriander (or something similarly green. Chives may just be equally delicious.)
• Salsa
• Seasoning of your preference

Cook your eggs as you usually do. I cook mine in a weird-wackadoo way which consists of cracking the eggs over the pan and letting them sit for a few seconds before kind of mixing the yolks and sort of pushing it around for three minutes before it’s cooked through.

Sprinkle the eggs atop the quinoa [me, I'd personally toss the quinoa through the eggs and the cheese - Sarah] then add a few pinches of shredded cheese, ASAP so it melts from the heat.

Then top with chopped coriander, avocado, salsa and seasoning for taste.

How’s this. I post about how tough it is to eat breakfast when you’re on this sugar-free challenge. And hello! I’m emailed this rippa recipe. Randomly.

I met Samantha Gowing randomly a year or so ago. She’s a therapeutic chef who travels the world creating “Surf Spa Cuisine” for luxury hotels and spas. This is her “Emperor’s breakfast”…fit for kings.

Red quinoa with goji berries, macadamias and vanilla

• 1 cup red quinoa (plain is fine too…remember to rinse well!!!!)
• 2 cups water
• 1⁄4 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped. Or almonds.
• 1⁄4 cup goji berries (which contain sugar…but not so much)
• 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped
• 2 teaspoon chia seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• Pinch cinnamon
• ½ lime, juice only
• Yoghurt for serving if desired

Cook the quinoa in 2 cups of water until boiling. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes
Transfer cooked quinoa to a mixing bowl, add goji berries, macadamia nuts, vanilla seeds, chia, ginger and cinnamon
Spoon into serving bowls, add a squeeze of lime and your favourite yoghurt

*Quinoa cooking tip: If all the water has not been absorbed, cover pot with a tea towel then place lid on top. The remaining moisture will dry, leaving lovely, fluffy quinoa

I’m shifting my eating a little at the moment. I’ll post more on this shortly. But in a nutshell: I’m on a protein mission. When I eat a solid portion of protein at lunch, I’m not hungry until dinner. Again, I’ll explain soon.

In the meantime. I just ate this for lunch, prepared in my office kitchen (a microwave…which isn’t ideal…but…): two eggs and some Parmesan cheese shavings whisked with a fork in a bowl with a nob of butter, microwaved for a minute or so. I sprinkled basil leaves (chopped), cherry tomatoes, witlof leaves (chopped) and olives on top and stirred through the “omelette”. Then poured anchovy oil (I keep the jar of oil after I’ve eaten the fish) over the top. Holy yum!

Another trick I’m into: taking in ziplock bags of frozen par-cooked broccoli (I do in bulk when it’s cheap at my organic veggie shop) and leaving in the office fridge. Then I bring in a quarter of a roast chook (from dinner the night before). I heat a little. With salt and pepper. Plus quarter of an avocado. Happy.

I asked a few of my nutritionist mates for their favourite lunches. My gorgeous e-pal Aran at cannelle et vanille provided this one:

Mushroom, Walnut Quinoa with Fried Egg and Watercress Salad

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup mushrooms (shiitake, oyster and baby bella)
• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbs mascarpone
• 1 Tbs walnuts, chopped
• 1 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 Tbs chives, chopped
• Eggs, to fry
• Watercress to garnish
• Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium pot, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic and mushrooms on medium heat for about 2-3 minutes. Add the quinoa and stir for about a minute. Add the chicken stock and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 15 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and add the mascarpone, walnuts, parsley and chives. Adjust seasoning.

Gently cook the eggs in a little bit of olive oil and serve on top of the quinoa. Dress the watercress with olive oil and place on top of the egg.

A few weeks back I got some tests back saying my immune antibodies have chilled out and are back to normal after three years of being off-the-scale-crazy. My body is no longer eating itself…and is slowly repairing!

The doctor was impressed. How did I do it? It was a bunch of things, most of which I’ve documented on this blog…but if I had to narrow it down to One. Main. Factor. It would be:

I cut out gluten.

I’m going to post on this again soon. But for now, some tips on how to cook other grains…and a guide to which are gluten-free. Feel free to print out and magnetise to your fridge.

Some little extra tricks:

*ALWAYS rinse quinoa before cooking. Here’s why.

Oh. Yeah. I’m quinoa obsessed. For now. So are many of you, it would seem, because EVERYWHERE I go people tell me they discovered the stuff on my blog and …blah, blah, blah.

So, here we go again. I came across this recipe for quinoa crumble on the New York Times website. Fills the gap in my baking repertoire.
It can be made into a berry-rose crumble. Or a plum and fig crumble. Or the one below.

* The crumble part – you can store it in the fridge for months.

* Or you can sprinkle it over porridge.

* And just a reminder: always rinse the grain SUPER well before cooking.

Quinoa-Oat Crumble Topping

This topping can be used to make any number of delicious, gluten-free crumbles.

1 1/4 cups gluten-free rolled oats

1/2 cup quinoa flour (grind quinoa in a spice mill to make the flour)

1/3 cup unrefined turbinado sugar

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)

3 ounces (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with parchment. Place the oats, quinoa flour, sugar, salt and nutmeg in a food processor fitted with the steel blade, and pulse several times to combine. Add the butter, and pulse until the butter is evenly distributed throughout the grain mix. The mixture should have a crumbly consistency.