RECIPE- Quinoa Salad

Due to individual schedules, Justin and I take turn making dinner during the week.  Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays it's Justin's turn while Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays it is my job. (Sundays are usually a mutual thing.) I admit that I am not much of a cook and I leave the kitchen creativity to my dear husband (for he is amazing) but when I do make something great (or even good in that matter) it is definitely worth a blog post...

So for dinner last Wednesday I decided to try to make a quinoa salad with cilantro and lime. Now, l have had quinoa before, mostly at other people's houses, but I had never actually made it myself so my first challenge was finding the stuff in the grocery store. Okay, it wasn't much of a challenge because (being a type of grain) it was by the rice.

Then I remembered I needed cilantro. I am not much of a cilantro lover so I actually debated whether to skip that step, but in order to achieve my goal to try new foods, I decided "Oh why not?" So off I went to the produce department to find cilantro. They were sitting there with a bunch of other types of green herbs that look quite similar. So found myself smelling all of them to make sure I got the right one. It wasn't until after my smell-a-thon that I realized that each one is actually labelled .. Silly me..

The Recipe:
1 cup of uncooked quinoa (about one package)
1/2 to 1 cucumber, diced
2 cups of corn (frozen or fresh)
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup of chopped cilantro
1 tomato, diced
1 lime
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Sea salt to taste

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions. Refrigerate for about an hour.

2. Add quinoa to a large bowl and add cucumber, corn, black beans, cilantro and tomato. Mix together.

3. Squeeze the lime juice over the salad and add the oil and garlic powder and salt. Mix together and enjoy!

The result:
I am actually quite pleased with this dish! It was yummy and healthy and it was quite easy to make. And not to mention colorful :)
And I must say that the cilantro wasn't at all that bad! (I also cut the tomatoes small enough so I wouldn't really be able to taste them.) This recipe is definitely one I would make again! (oh and Justin liked it too so that's always a bonus!)