Have you tried quinoa yet? It’s a delightful grain, I like to imagine that it’s what rice and coucous would produce if they had a child. I love mixing it with all sorts of veggies and a light dressing. The key to amazing quinoa? Avocado. There’s just something about the magical marriage between quinoa and avocado that makes the world a better place to be in. Seriously, how beautiful is this avocado? It made my day

I made two different quinoa salads this week for lunch. The first I cleverly titled “Spinach Quinoa Salad.”

Ingredients: Quinoa, Spinach, Red Pepper, Red Onion, Cucumber, Avocado, and Shrimp. For the dressing I combined olive oil, sriracha, lemon juice and tzatziki sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.

The second salad I made was a “Mexican Quinoa Salad”

Ingredients: Quinoa, Black Beans, Corn, Tomato, Onion, Black Olives, Cilantro and you guessed it…Avocado! For the dressing I combined olive oil, taco seasoning and lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste.

The beauty about these salads is that there’s no science to them, I don’t even measure anything. You could add as little or as much of any one ingredient as you wanted, or take it out all together. I just mix the dressing a little bit at a time until I think it tastes right and mix everything together! I would advise against mixing in the avocado right away unless you’re going to eat it immediately. I just brought an avocado to work with me and cut it up and mixed it in right before eating. You could also add it in the morning if your office (or school) doesn’t have a kitchen, the lemon juice in the dressing should keep the avocado good until lunch time.

For snacks this weekend I packed my new addiction – Dried Mango! I also cut up some beautiful veggies and since it was my birthday this week (woot woot!) I threw in some of my absolute favorite chocolate.

What did you eat this week? Have you tried quinoa? If so, what is your favorite recipe?

Happy cooking,
Jennifer