Quinoa with corn, cilantro and tomatoes

In addition to being cheap and gluten-free, quinoa is also a complete protein. Grain-like, it comes in three colors--regular, red and black. The red and black taste a little nuttier than the regular, but the regular is most easily found, so don't worry too much about the color.

To cook it, just add a cup of quinoa to about a cup and a half of water or broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until the little curly grain inside the beads of quinoa is revealed. That means it's done. You can do pretty much anything you want at this point--adding frozen corn, chopped cilantro, and some halved cherry tomatoes is quite lovely, but you can also add frozen peas, edamame, walnuts or pecan, dried cranberries, olives, whatever. Go nuts. It's filling and very good for you.

One cup of quinoa plus additional veggies will feed 3-4 as a side dish or 2 adults as a main dish.