Quinoa Fresh Medley

I love quinoa. It's an awesome food. It's got more nutrition than rice and in fact has protein and the fun texture of this curious little grain makes it my favorite. A lot of grocery stores today still do not carry quinoa, but you can find it at any health food store. Costco carries the "white" quinoa in large bags at a decent price, but I prefer the red quinoa, which holds its shape when cooked and has a more earthy, nutty tast. (I tend to think that vegetables, fruits, etc that have more color tend to be healthier. Take lettuce for instance: spinach, red leaf, arugula are far more nutritious than their friend Iceburg, who is very pale in contrast to the others. Also green cabbage compared to red cabbage; red cabbage has far more phytonutrients than green. But alas, this is not so with quinoa! Go figure!)

On to the recipe!

Since this is such a forgiving recipe, I'll leave it to you to decide how much of each ingredient you want to use.

- Quinoa (red or white)
- Black or kidney beans
- Dark leafy lettuce or greens (green lettuce, red leaf, spinach, kale, etc)
- Diced tomato
- Diced avocado
- Chopped bell pepper (of your choice; I prefer red!)
- Chopped cilantro
- Chopped green or red onion
- Fresh lime (squeezed to taste!)
- Fresh salsa or pico de gallo

It's seriously so good. You can wrap it up in a whole grain tortilla wrap with some fresh salsa or just eat it like a salad. It keeps well in the refrigerator (be sure to squeeze that lime on the avocado to keep it from turning colors!). Now, these are just the veggies we add. You can use anything you like! It's a very nutritious meal and even my 5 year old loves it. If you're a chip eater, this is a great dip for tortilla chips!