Veggies and Sausage with Quinoa

Tom and I are always trying to get more vegetables in our diet. Don't get me wrong, we eat a lot of veggies but for some reason it always ends up having tons of cheese and oil. Kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion. I will admit though that I am really lazy. I don't always want to chop and wash and clean a million fresh veggies, nor do I want to head out to the store every day for the freshest produce or have it rot on me cuz we didn't eat it.

This recipe is a direct result of this desired "healthier eating" and my laziness. It  uses only two fresh tomatoes, the only vegetable Tom and I almost always have on hand. Everything else is frozen! Here's how it plays out.

Main
1 package (8) Spicy Italian Sausages (the pre cooked kind.)
1.5 cup boxed tomatoes (or canned chopped same thing)
1 bag of frozen green beans (we buy the young ones that are multi colored cuz they taste far better than the
                                              regular ones)
2 tbs balsamic vinegar (do not waste the good stuff here, cheap is perfect)
1 tsp olive oil, salt and pepper

Topping
2 roma tomatoes

Starch
1.5 cups uncooked quinoa that I make in the rice cooker cuz I am again, lazy!



Here's what it looked like on the stove. Check out that steam!

This is what the tomatoes looked like. I like to sprinkle them with salt and half the olive oil cuz it pulls out the juices and makes the flavor and texture better, so I think.

I put the quinoa in the rice cooker, it cooks just like white rice. I then cooked all the main together until it was, well, done. Then I tossed it all together with the quinoa and added the raw tomatoes. We think the quinoa makes it healthier than if we had used rice. I have read it's a complete protein. Don't know if I believe it or not but in the end it tastes great and I don't feel guilty eating it. Win-Win.

The finished dish, YUMMM!