Mystery Dinner

Mmmm! Doesn't this look colorfully delicious? This is the dinner that was brought to my family last night by a very kind friend who thought I might not want to be doing a lot of cooking with just 6 days left till the move. She was right. This is a black bean quinoa dish with fresh vegetable salsa on top. It was even tastier than it looks. What's the mystery, you ask?

Well. The mystery is why my kids ate it without ANY fuss whatsoever. No sideways glance of suspicion as they approached their plates. No tentative queries into its unique components. Daniel simply asked, "What is this?" I told him what it was and that my friend had brought it for us, and he replied, "It looks yummy!" and dug right in and ate the entire portion on his plate. This is, indeed, a mystery! Did he do this because it was brought by someone else, not made by me? Was it the smell? All the beautiful colors? I guess I should ask him because if I could crack this mystery, we could have success at every meal. Nathan and Stephanie ate theirs with no trouble as well (though Nathan is typically a very adventurous eater anyway).

Eric was the only one who seemed to think twice about it. After I told him what it was called, he said, "What is quinoa anyway?" I told him it was a kind of grain. He froze mid-bite and asked, "Brain?"

(Note: I have since learned that it is not a true grain, but a kind of seed. But hey, that's better than brains.)