Quinoa Salad

Mmmmm, this is definitely a favorite.  Which is really good news because it is actually healthy!!! I care a lot about eating healthy and trying to be better to my body, but in reality I am not very good at it.  I like to eat things that I think that taste good and if I don't love it, I'll eat it....but not very often.  Example? Raw vegetables. I would really love to love raw vegetables.  I go out and buy celery and carrots and all those good veggies for you and even chop them up and put them in to go bags in the fridge.  Then they sit there. For days. It's sort of embarrassing.  So I have embraced that raw plain vegetables are not for me and so now I am on the mission of how to find places in my diet where I can fit in vegetables that I actually like to eat.  Because, let's face it, life is too short to eat stuff you don't want to. I've found that soups are wonderful to hide lots of veggies and I love stir frys. I've even been hiding kale and spinach in my morning smoothies. Delish!

Here is a recipe that I got from my wonderful cousin in California.  I love cooking with her and a couple years ago she introduced me to this wonderful quinoa recipe.  What I love about this recipe is that it is easy, quick, I feel good about eating it, and it's delicious!! This recipe is also super adaptable to whatever fresh vegetables you have and you really can make whatever you want off of this base recipe. 

Ingredients 

Quinoa (I cooked 1 cup)

Couple tablespoons of olive oil

Couple tablespoons of rice wine vinegar 

Juice of one lime

Finely cut shallot (I used just one)

Minced garlic (I used about 5 cloves)

Salt and pepper to taste

Whatever vegetables you want!!!! (Chop into small pieces)

I used:

2 tomatoes 

1 cucumber 

1/2 cup edamame

2 ears of corn (Just cut off the cob, raw)

Other ideas:

Feta cheese

Black beans

Avocado

Bell peppers 

Kale

Carrots 

Broccoli

Mushrooms 

Instructions:

1. Cook the quinoa according to the instructions on the box.  

I recommend cooking the quinoa in some chicken stock instead of water. 

2. Chop up all the vegetables and throw into a bowl with the vinegar, oil, garlic, shallots and lime juice

3. Put the warm quinoa in with all the rest and mix around.  

4. Let chill in the fridge!