I'm grateful to live in a part of the country where anything and everything I could possibly want is within a 5-mile radius. My husband and I have occasionally talked about moving out to the country, but then we quickly realize we wouldn't do well out there. Personally, I'm not what you'd call hearty folk. Besides, I couldn't imagine having to drive 30 minutes just to get to the supermarket. Let alone not living a stone's throw from a Whole Foods.

I do the majority of my grocery shopping at a regular supermarket, but a few times a month I make a special trip to Whole Foods. I love that they have ready-to-eat meals that don't wreak havoc on my blood sugar. (READ MORE)

Whole grains are an important part of my diet. Lately, I've been shying away from wheat and corn. In addition to the havoc they play on my blood sugar, they make me feel kind of gross physically. I don't know why, but they seem to make my aging muscles ache a little more. When I don't eat wheat or corn, I feel a little better.

But that leaves me with very few traditional grains to choose from. Basically just brown rice. Or black rice. Or wild rice. Just rice. And really, how much rice can one person eat?

So, I've been experimenting with different whole grains. I tried a quinoa-rice blend I found at Whole Foods a few weeks ago, which was pretty yummy, but frankly still had rice in it. And I'd about hit the wall on rice.

I wanted to try to cook just plain quinoa, spiced up in any way I could concoct. In the "pour-your-own-grains" section, I found the empty quinoa bin. Dang popular grain.
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