Quinoa Salad

This weekend we celebrated my sisters birthday with a day in the pool and a cookout.

This salad made a delicious side dish to the meat we grilled, but it's good enough to stand alone and the leftovers have made for a few tasty lunches for me this week.

Perfect for when you want dinner to come together quickly, you can precook the quinoa and set it in the fridge up to a day ahead so all you need to do before serving is chop the cheese and veggies and toss it together.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Quinoa, uncooked

• 8 oz Fresh Mozzarella, chopped

• 2 Roma Tomatoes, chopped

• 1 medium Red Onion, chopped

• 1/2 cup Fresh Basil, roughly chopped

• 2 TBSP EVOO

• 1 TBSP Balsamic Vinegar

• 1 TBSP Lemon Juice

• 2 cloves minced Garlic

• Salt and Pepper to taste (I use ~ 1/4 tsp each)

Instructions:

1. Cook quinoa according to package and then allow to cool.

*I prefer cooking mine in the rice cooker so I don't have to pay too much attention to it. Just add 2 cups of water for 1 cup quinoa, close it up and hit the white rice button-

perfectly cooked every time!

2. Chop the onion, tomatos, basil and mozzarella and stir them into the cooled quinoa

3. Make the dressing by whisking the remaining ingredients together.

4. Just before serving, drizzle the dressing over the salad and fold in to evenly coat everything.

This tastes great next to some simply grilled meat or it's perfectly delicious on it's own as a light meal or lunch.