When All Else Fails... Quinoa

Big Announcement my pinning friends - we are moving!! Wait, the blog isn't moving - my family is moving. Yup, we are picking up and getting the heck out of Maryland (no offense Marylanders). My husband got a new job in North Carolina so we packing it up and moving back. I'm sure you are wondering why I'm bothering to tell you this since it really doesn't matter where I write from. It does matter my friends, it does. Once we move Miranda and I will again live in the same city and once we live in the same city we can do bigger projects and bigger projects will make for bigger better posts! See? It suddenly matters to you! It also matters because for the next couple months, my life is going to consist of chaos and boxes and more chaos and more boxes (aren't you jealous??) and I may slowly begin to lose my mind. I'll keep you posted on that though. 

Today was one of those losing my mind sort of days. Everything I touched seemed to turn to crap-tastic (let's just say my sewing machine and I are no longer speaking). By the time dinner rolled around I thought I was going to have to call it quits because I couldn't handle ruining that too. As it turned out, I was missing a key ingredient for dinner so it became time to improvise. After muttering some things under my breath, I surveyed the pantry and Pinterest and came up with this:


Oddly enough, I had every single ingredient in the house to whip up this quinoa salad from Freshly Vegetarian. I am a sucker for mexican flavor which is probably why we always have half of these things on hand. Quinoa is something that I have recently started buying. If you haven't tried it, imagine  couscous and rice having a baby - it would be quinoa (I think). Since my day had been so - ahem - successful, I was a little concerned about the salad turning out to be horrific. Friends, this was the highlight of my day. It was sooooo good. I could have eaten the entire bowl. As I absently munched away I imagined this salad as my new go to side. I can't wait for summer to make this for cookouts. Allen and Macie loved it too. Macie was a maniac, she completely devoured her entire plate and held it out for more. I only made a couple changes to this one - here's the recipe. You should make it for your own bad day pick me up.

Quinoa & Black Bean Salad with Lime Dressing - printable version
adapted from Freshly Vegetarian

Ingredients:
1 C dry quinoa, rinsed
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 3/4 C water
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 avocado, chopped into chunks
3/4 C cherry/grape tomatoes, quartered
1/4 C red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced
1/4 C cilantro, diced
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tsp cumin (and 1/2 tsp cayenne if you like it spicy)
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Directions:
 
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.Add the rinsed quinoa and toast for about 3-4 minutes until it starts smelling nutty and gets a touch brown. Add water, stir and cover. Simmer  for 20 minutes.
While the quinoa is cooking, get all the other ingredients together. Prepare the dressing by combining the lime juice, oil, cumin, cayenne and salt. Whisk it together and adjust seasoning as necessary.
When the quinoa has finished cooking, remove it from heat and fluff with a fork. Add the black beans to the quinoa and mix through. Let the quinoa cool for a couple minutes and then add all the remaining ingredients.  Add the dressing and mix. This can be served warm or cold.