Last night I was reminded of a two valuable rules when it comes to cooking:

1) Follow your instincts before following a recipe
2) Improvisation will always put dinner on the table

Of course these "rules" weren't apparent to me when I stood in the kitchen feeling defeated when things didn't work out as planned. I had even posted on Facebook that I was planning on making Quinoa Stuffed Peppers for dinner and that I was going to post the recipe later. But, when it didn't turn out I was a bit embarrassed and was just going to ignore my promise and not post the recipe or write a blog post about it.

Then, I checked my wall this morning and got a really sweet note from a friend telling me she enjoys seeing what I'm cooking for dinner. (Or, as she called it - my "ingestibles" :) At first I was even more embarrassed because my inspiring cooking from last night had actually turned into a bit of a failure.

But, her kind comment reminded me of my cooking rules that I try to follow and I realized that I had actually followed one of my two rules and dinner turned out just fine in the end.

Rule #1 - Follow your instincts before following a recipe (FAILED!)
I am not that great at following most recipes in the first place - I tend to scan the recipe and then improvise. For me reading through a recipe is time consuming and I prefer to just get dinner ideas that I can pull out depending on what I have on hand and time for.

I had found this recipe for Quinoa Stuffed Peppers in an old issue of Vegetarian Times that I dug out over the weekend. As usual, I scanned through the recipe and saw that I had most of the necessary ingredients and could substitute for what I didn't have. To save time in the evening I prepped all my veggies in the morning (chopped the carrots and turnip, defrosted and squeezed the spinach, drained the beans etc). I was also going to cook the quinoa ahead of time but then looked back at the recipe and saw that it said to cook the quinoa together with the veggies and a few other ingredients - this is where I didn't follow my instincts. I didn't have time for all of that so I decided to just soak the quinoa for a bit and then do all the cooking in the evening.

When I got around to cooking I followed the recipe and threw all my veggies together with the quinoa, added a 2 cups of water and put on the lid. In the back of my mind I was thinking; "hmmm....simmering this for 20 minutes means that I'm cooking the be-jesus out of my vegetables. And then I have to bake it for another hour?" This is where I didn't follow my instincts again. 

I dutifully followed the recipe and let my pepper stuffing simmer away for the full 20 minutes. It looked and smelled delicious! But, when I gave it a quick taste I realized my fears - my veggies and quinoa were pretty mushy. I was supposed to then stuff the peppers and bake them for an hour. If I did that I was going to have liquid stuffing. I was pretty bummed and frustrated, but all was not lost.

Rule #2 - Improvisation will always put dinner on the table (PASSED!)
After I realized I had quinoa mush instead of quinoa stuffing it was time to take a quick break and pick Dani up at the train station. After she told me that she was starving I confessed my dinner failure. What should we have instead? I remembered that I had defrosted a few chicken breasts and could quickly grill them in a pan and we could use the quinoa on the side or on top. Dani was game.

So, when we got home I quickly pulled the chicken breasts out of the fridge, patted them dry and sprinkled them with salt and pepper and grilled them in coconut oil. I finished my prepped cucumber salad with dill, put the chicken on plates and added a scoop of the quinoa on the side. We agreed that the quinoa was a bit mushy but Dani said that is wasn't "that bad."So nice of her :)

I'm not giving up on making quinoa stuffed peppers - I plan on giving it another go later this week. One technical mistake I think I made was to soak the quinoa which the recipe did not call for. This probably also led to a bit of the mushiness. I'll keep you posted on how it goes :)

I guess after reading all this you could say that it was my own fault and if I had just followed the recipe exactly we would have had stuffed peppers for dinner. Yeah, maybe. But, I'm pretty confident that my original plan would have worked just fine. I believe that it's important to make a recipe work for you and not the other way around. Don't be a slave to the recipe!  :)

In the end, I was proud of myself for not completely giving up on my dinner plans and improvising an alternative. We ate - that's all that really matters. For lunch Dani agreed to take more of the quinoa and I cut some of the chicken into it which she will just warm up in the microwave.

This is what I love about cooking (well, most of the time :) There is always something to learn and you always have the chance to try again without too much tragedy. It teaches you patience, persistence, improvisation and creates memories.

Here's to Quinoa Stuffed Peppers, take 2!


Side Note: If you don't use coconut oil you MUST check it out. It's has a high smoke point so it's great for grilling and sauteeing and leaves chicken and pork incredibly juicy. Don't like coconut? I don't either. But, this doesn't taste like the fake coconut flavor most of us are used to. Plus, coconut oil has been show to have many heath benefits from maintaining good skin to lowering cholesterol levels.

1 Comment

1. Marion on February 16, 2010 at 9:21 AM

   Take 2, indeed. This is lovely and smart. And thanks for the great tip on coconut oil, which I have been meaning to try. Cook on, sister!