Roasted Vegetables with Quinoa

Heat oven to 400. On a baking sheet, arrange areas of different cut up vegetables such as:

carrots (in spears, or use baby carrots)
beets (in chunks)
baby red potatoes (cut in half or bite sized chunks)
red onion (sliced)
red pepper (in chunks)
grape tomatoes, cut in half

Drizzle with olive oil and grate on Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper or sea salt and pepper.
Stir minced fresh rosemary into the potato section.
Place a cube of frozen garlic in the potato section and another in the tomato section and pour a little olive oil right on the cubes.

Bake for about 15 mins. Take out of oven and stir the melted garlic to coat the tomatoes and the rosemary potatoes. Shift vegetables a bit with a spatula but keep them in their own sections.
Bake for about 10 more minutes and then take out and make room for broccoli florets in a middle area. (These will burn if they are put in at the start.) Give them the same olive oil and garlic cube and lemon pepper treatment, coating them with the garlic when it melts).

Cook till everything is nicely roasted, checking and turning now and then. Add a bit more olive oil and lemon pepper as needed. (Total time will be about 45 minutes, depending on size of chunks.)

About half way through the roasting of the vegetables, put 1 1/4 cups of quinoa, 1 1/4 cups of water, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into Instant Pot and set for 2 minutes of pressure cooking. Let it decompress on its own for 15 minutes. (Or cook in a regular pot according to quinoa package directions.)

Brown butter almond and ginger quinoa with apricots

Put in Instant Pot:
1 cup of quinoa
1 cup of water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 - 1/2 cup of chopped dried apricots (I use Trader Joe's frozen semi-dried ones.)

Stir, put on lid, make sure lid is set on closed pressure, and set for 1 minute pressure cooking.
Then let quinoa decompress on its own for 15 minutes.

If you do not have an Instant Pot, cook the quinoa according to the directions in a saucepan (adding the apricots before cooking).

In a frying pan, melt about 1 Tablespoon of butter and let it brown, being careful not to burn it. Add 1/4 cup of slivered almonds and cook on low until they are golden brown and crispy. At the end, add about 1 Tablespoon of minced fresh ginger and cook it all together a little.

Serve the apricot quinoa with the toasted almond and ginger topping. Add freshly grated sea salt and pepper. Eat piping hot.