My Marine and Me: Quinoa and Avocado Salad+ XFit 4

Requested by my friend Marisa: Quinoa Salad

Quinoa is pronouced keen-wa, you will see in the video that I have some difficulty with the pronunciation!

Quinoa is a complete protein, meaning it has all the essential amino acids that our body needs. Complete proteins are normally found in meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk and cheese. So it is pretty cool to have a grain that is considered a complete protein!

For those who are wondering what an amino acid is- amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Imagine a pearl necklace, where each pearl is an amino acid and the necklace as a whole is a protein. Our bodies form all sorts of amino acid combinations (protein) to form our hair, skin, tendons etc.

Quinoa and Avocado Salad
* if you do not enjoy avocado, you can replace it with cucumber in this recipe

What you will need:

1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup shredded spinach
1/2 cup tomatoes
1/2 cup red onions
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
1 avocado
2 tbsp feta cheese

1. Cook quinoa as indicated on respective package
2. In bowl, mix quinoa, spinach, tomatoes, onion
3. In another bowl, mix lemon juice, olive oil and salt
4. Pour wet ingredients over salad
5. Serve with sliced avocado and feta cheese

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook 15th Edition

Last September I filmed the preparation of this recipe. If readers enjoy video preparation of recipes, I may think of making more! Our new apartment in Quantico, VA has an island in the kitchen- perfect for filming. We move there on September 27th.