Quinoa Salad

In the last heat wave, I wanted to find a recipe that was protein heavy but good for cool weather. I stumbled upon this quinoa salad. It's full of healthy veggies and great flavor. 

Like always, I got my "recipe book" set up on the microwave as I got ready to cook. 

Next I laid out all the componants. This salad is very easy, as you simply add all the parts to the quinoa, so while the quinoa cooks, you can prep. 

In this salad, I put a bunch of mint and cilanto, a container of grape tomatoes (cut in half), the zest and juice of 3 limes, 1/2 a red onion, scallions, and an avocado (which I added right at the end). The second time I made this, I also added cucumber and bell pepper. 

We also had some very delicious ahi tuna from costco to use, so I grilled this up to add to the salad. 

I cooked up a cup of quinoa in 2 cups of water (the second time I did 1 1/2 cups of quinoa since I had more veggies to add)

First I stirred in lime zest and the limes (the zest wasn't part of the recipe but I love lime flavor and knew this would make it stronger). I also added olive oil at this time (a pretty good amount of drizzling, to taste, until it seemed moist).

Then, I just added all of my chopped veggies.

Once I added the tuna, I stirred it all together and threw it in the fridge to let it cool.

A few hours later, it was ready to eat! This is a great meal to make a lot of, as it tastes even better after a day or two, doesn't need to be heated up, and is a perfect healthy summer meal.