Remember my quesadillas from an earlier post?  In typical form, I can never make just the right amount of any food and I always have leftovers – in this case, I had sweet potatoes left over, and decided to make an easy dinner out of them.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked
• 3/4 cup leftover sweet potato filling (or you could always cook up some cubed sweet potatoes)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp prepared brown mustard
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup finely shredded fennel
• 8 to 10 kalamata olives
• arugula (or your favourite salad green)

Instructions:

1. Cook the quinoa to your liking – I generally double the water, bring it to a boil, add the quinoa and then leave it covered to simmer for about 12 minutes.
2. Once the quinoa is ready, add the sweet potatoes, garlic, brown mustard and olive oil, and mixed it all together until everything is warmed through.
3. Right before serving, I add in the fennel and olives – that way there is still a bit of a crunch to it all.  Serve it on a bed of arugula.

It was a random experiment to add fennel and kalamata olives, but I considered it a success – the saltiness from the olives added just the right touch.  And because I was using leftovers, tonight’s dinner only required me to use a single pan (for the quinoa), so cleanup was a cinch!