Tag Archives: foods with amino acids

5 Ways to Eat Quinoa

Posted in Nutrition Now by

One of my favorite foods is quinoa.  It tastes great and is extremely versatile to cook with.  You can use it in so many different recipes and flavor it many different ways.  Plus, it’s super nutritious packing in those essential amino acids and nutrients such as vitamin B6, thiamin, and not to mention iron!  And it’s full of protein!  A cooked cup of quinoa has at least 8 grams of protein!

quinoDid I mention you can cook it in various types of ways?  In fact, I think quinoa is one of the healthiest grains that you can eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  In fact, today, I want to share with you 5 different ways you can eat quinoa.

For Breakfast

Quinoa makes a great replacement for oatmeal!  All you have to do is cook your quinoa like normal, but use milk instead of water.  Once the quinoa is cooked, you can add in your favorite morning flavor such as maple syrup (the natural kind of course), or cinnamon.  Within 15 minutes you have a nutritious quinoa oatmeal.

Bake it into a breakfast bar

As I’ve recently posted on this blog before, using a few ingredients such as quinoa, oats, and peanut butter you can make an easy, no bake quinoa and oat breakfast bar.

If you’re feeling extra fancy you can get more intricate with it!  Since quinoa makes such a great replacement for oats you can use it in many different breakfast and protein bar recipes!

Use it as a rice replacement

Whether you are making stir fry, stuffed peppers, or just need it as a side, quinoa can replace rice any time you need it!  In any situation where you think to yourself that you need rice, really all you need is quinoa!  It’s a much healthier alternative and if you cook in in vegetable broth with a little season it tastes just a wonderful as a good flavored rice would!

I love to mix a little quinoa with some broccoli and cheese or to use in with my favorite mix of stir fry vegetables!

Feeling super adventurous and making some good veggie burgers?  Use the quinoa to help hold it all together instead of breadcrumbs and as a filler to get more protein in your burger!

Use it in cold salads

Yupp, I said it.  Salads.  Quinoa is a great mix in with salads!  Cooked and dried quinoa gives a little added protein to your green salad without adding a lot of extra weight to your light meal.

Or you can use quinoa as the base for your salad and mix in things like peppers, artichoke hearts, or heart of palm to give yourself a quick, easy to throw together cold salad.  (You can also buy these pre-made at some grocery stores and they are my absolute favorite thing to take to work on those days that I don’t have the time to cook myself or to prep for myself a meal that day!  Fast, easy, and really healthy!)

Use it in your favorite desserts

Bet you weren’t expecting those words today.  Quinoa in a dessert?  Surely she must mean oatmeal and protein bars, right?

Wrong.

I mean chocolate cake a cookies!  There are hundreds of cake and cookie recipes out there that use quinoa as an ingredient to make them healthier and less guilt wrenching!  Don’t believe me? Check out Simply Quinoa, a site completely dedicated to all the things you can do with quinoa!  They have an entire page just dedicated to all the delicious desserts you can make with quinoa!

Quinoa is so much fun and easy to work with.  You can do so many great things with it, so it’s really an important staple to have in the house for anyone trying to live a healthy lifestyle!

What is your favorite quinoa recipe?  Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time,

Kat

Essential Amino Acids and Where to Find Them

Posted in Nutrition Now by

Vegetarians face a lot of difficulty when creating a well rounded diet full of vitamins, minerals, and of course protein.  If you recall from a previous post, proteins are constructed from chains of the same 20 amino acids.  Most of these amino acids can be obtained by the body without help, but 9 of them need to be obtained through food sources.  These amino acids are called essential amino acids.

Essential amino acids can easily be obtained through proteins that we eat.  In fact, animal products such as meat, eggs, and cheese are considered to be complete amino acids, meaning that they contain all 9 of the essential amino acids our bodies need.  Proteins from plants, however, are often incomplete, meaning that they lack some of the essential amino acids.  This means that mixtures of plant based foods need to be eaten in order to obtain all the essential amino acids that are needed on a daily basis.  That is why it can sometimes be more difficult for vegetarians to obtain their needed amount of protein on a daily basis and why some people need to be more cautious about what they eat than others.

So what foods contain what amino acids?  I did some research on popular protein sources for vegetarians and what amino acids you can find in each of these foods.

It’s important to note that you don’t need to eat all 9 amino acids all at the same time in order to build proteins, but all 9 amino acids should be consumed at some point in a 24 hours time span.

What are the 9 essential amino acids?

Here is a handy chart showing the 9 essential amino acids that we need to consume daily.

proteinpower1

What foods contain what amino acids?

  • Tofu– Good news for tofu lovers. Soy is actually a complete amino acid and contains all 9 of the essential amino acids.  This makes tofu a great meat substitute.  Read More  

    tofu

    Tofu is a great source of all 9 amino acids. (www.bbcgoodfood.com)

  • Black Beans- Black beans also contain all 9 of the essential amino acids. Read More 
  • Kidney Beans – Just like black beans, kidney beans have all the amino acids your body needs. Read More
  • Edamame- Edamame is high in most of the 9 amino acids. However, it has a lower content of valine (about half the amount of this amino acids compared to the others) and also contains slightly less isoleucine and threonine.  So pair your edamame with a protein containing those three amino acids and you’re set to go.   Read More
  • Peas- Peas are particularly high in the amino acids lysine and phenylalanine. Read More 
  • Chickpeas/ Garbanzo beans- Garbanzo beans contain a small amount of all 9 essential amino acids, but have low amounts of leucine, lysine, methionine, and valine. Read More
  • Quinoa- This new health craze, often labeled as a great food for vegetarians, is a complete amino acid. No wonder everyone’s so obsessed with it!
  • Peanuts/ Peanut Butter- What peanuts lack in methionine, they make up for in lysine. This is also true of peanut butter.  Read More
  • Almonds/ Almond Butter- Unlike peanuts, almonds are low in lysine. They are also low in methionine and cysteine.  Almond butter is just the same. Read More
  • Chai Seeds- Chai seeds, a popular snack among vegetarians, are a great source of leucine, lysine, and tyrosine.  Read More
  • Poppy Seeds- Poppy seeds are considered complete although they contain smaller amounts of some amino acids than others. Read More
  • Sunflower seeds- Sunflower seeds are not only a great snack; they are also a complete source of amino acids. Read More
  • Spinach- Although spinach is great for most amino acids, it lacks methionine. Read More

Whether you’re a vegetarian or you just don’t eat meat that often, other foods can be a great source of protein for you.  Making sure you get all 9 essential amino acids isn’t something that you honestly need to spend a lot of time fretting over either.  As you can see, a lot of food contains most, if not all the amino acids you need daily, so we almost naturally get all 9 amino acids that we need every day.  That being said, it’s always a good thing to know exactly what we are consuming and how it contributes to our healthy diets and lifestyles.  Knowing that we’re doing everything in our power to take care of our bodies is a great feeling and it keeps us feeling like we are at our best.

So what’s your favorite food from this list?  Do you have a favorite protein source that wasn’t mentioned here?  Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time,

Kat