.week 16.

Whew, I am on top of things this week! I'm actually cooking with my bump update fruit or vegetable at the beginning of the week instead of the end. I feel productive. I also tried out a brand new food! It was an exciting night in the .baking and wine. kitchen.

This week the baby is the size of an avocado. Which happens to be one of my favorite things. I was oh so happy to cook with the delectable little fruit. I also decided to try out a wonderful grain called quinoa. I was pleasantly surprised by this as well. I've been seeing quinoa all over the blogosphere and found a delicious quinoa salad recipe over at Oh She Glows. I really loved this salad. The quinoa doesn't have a whole lot of flavor by itself, but when added with other things and a nice, light dressing it is delicious. Even the man liked it pretty good, although he did say it was "interesting." Which it is, particularly the texture, but it's a good interesting.

Additionally, for you Alaska folks, the man and I thought it reminded us of Bear Tooth burritos! Kind of weird, ha, but it did. I bet this salad would be great in a tasty, wheat tortilla. Next time this will be what we try. I think it would also be great with tomatoes. The man thinks it would be better with some cheese sprinkled in, or some sour cream as well (he has burritos on the brain I think!). In the meantime though I switched up the recipe a little bit. You can find the original recipe at the above link. Here is what I put in it.

Red Quinoa and Black Bean Vegetable Salad serves 4
1 cup uncooked red quinoa
1 (14 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
2 small avocados, chopped

Dressing
Juice from 2 small limes
Pepper to taste
Garlic powder to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

Start by cooking the quinoa according to the package. Every quinoa recipe I've seen has stated how important it is to rinse it under cold water multiple times, and the packaging does the same. The quinoa only takes 15 minutes to cook, which is nice.

While the grain is cooking, chop up all of the vegetables and add them together in a bowl. Whisk the dressing together in a separate bowl.

When the quinoa is done add the vegetables to it, drizzle the dressing over it, and mix to combine everything. The salad wasn't completely cooled but was almost at room temperature when we ate it, which worked out pretty well. We also used some Trader Joe's Soy and Flax seed Tortilla chips to dip into the last bits of the salad in the bowl. Crazy tasty! So, basically, this dish could be a salad, a burrito filler, a dip for chips.... and probably tons of other things. It's full of healthy fats and tons of protein, which really filled both of us up.

Two thumbs up for quinoa!

XO