PENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm here!!!!! I dragged my sore tummy to a water fitness class this evening. It hurts to move and it hurts to stay still, so I've decided to move. But I'm back now and ready to wax poetic about stevia.
And, hi again, Joe! Yes, I grow stevia outside and, next month, am going to bring it inside to try indoor winter growing as well. It gets to about 3 feet tall and is a pretty plant -- okay, it's kind of thin and floppy, but I think (almost) all plants are pretty. The leaves taste very sweet with a good dose of wintergreen or maybe just plain chlorophyll mixed in. The leaves are to be harvested, dried, and then ground into a powder. I'll be doing that next month before the snow flies. I enjoy picking a leaf and enjoying it whole and fresh, too. It's a nice snack and goes well with rocking on my balcony swing while watching the baseball game in the park that's over a ways...okay, I sound old now.
While I'm waiting for my own stevia to "mature," I've picked up a bag of the powdered version at my local grocery store. A pinch of stevia in a cup of tea is delish! It has a zero glycemic index, which is especially good while on prednisone.
Getting back to the thread topic, I love quinoa, too. Quinoa cooked in chicken broth with soy sauce on top is a particular favourite. Sweet quinoa pudding (various recipes available online) is quite nice, too. It is a good source of protein, which you wouldn't necessarily expect from an ancient grain like quinoa. If you can find quinoa flakes cereal at your local organic store, I heartily recommend it as well (although I haven't tried it since I got Crohn's -- cereal in general is hard to eat these days).
