Quinoa Chili "Mac"

I absolutely love chili mac and I have for as long as I can remember. My mom still makes the best version of it, but I think that I make one that is pretty good too. The other day we decided that we would be having chili mac for dinner, but then remembered that we didn’t have any macaroni. I quickly came up with a solution and a recipe was born.

What You’ll Need…

 2 Cups Quinoa

3 Cups Unsalted Chicken Stock (You can also use water instead.)

1lb Ground Meat (Turkey, beef, chicken…)

1 Bell Pepper (Diced)

¼ - ½ Medium Onion (Diced)

1-1 ½ Cups Tomato Sauce

4-6oz Cheese (Grated, Your choice)

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Chili Powder

½ Tablespoon Black Pepper

1 Tablespoon Herbes de Provence

Start out by chopping your vegetables and then setting them aside.

Rinse the quinoa before adding it and the water or stock to a 3 quart pot. Add the chili powder, pepper, and herbes de Provence directly to the stock/quinoa mixture. Stir and allow to simmer, stirring occasionally.

While the quinoa is cooking brown the ground meat and sauté the vegetables, in separate skillets of course.

When all of the stock has been absorbed the quinoa is done, remove it from the heat.

Now, mix in the vegetables, meat, sauce (to your liking), and cheese into the quinoa.

Spoon into bowls, top with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese, and enjoy!