Mexican Quinoa

Ingredients:

• 4 cups quinoa
• 15.5 ounce can black beans, cooked and drained
• 15.25 ounce can whole kernal corn, cooked and drained
• 2 cups diced red bell pepper
• 2 cups diced tomato
• 1 cup green onion
• 1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon pink hamalayan sea salt

Directions:

1. Add quinoa to a medium saucepan along with salt and pepper. Cook according to the directions on the bag.
2. Add the cooked quinoa to a large bowl. Mix in all of the vegetables.
3. Mix in the lime juice, chili powder and cilantro to taste. You can add more or less than the recipe calls for.
4. You can enjoy this hot or cold.

*Usually whenever I make this recipe, I will half it since it is only for myself and my husband. Instead of mixing all of the ingredients together, I'll half them between both of our bowl. I'll divide the vegetables as evenly as I can, but I add less chili powder and lime juice to his, and more of each to mine. Those ingredients are just based on taste, so if you have someone who prefers different amounts of things, you can always separate the ingredients that way.

*Instead of mixing the ingredients altogether, you can set them all out separatly in a self serve manner, kind of like a taco bar. This way everyone can have as much or as little of specific items as they like.

*This recipe is very easy to change. I just usually get whatever the best looking ingredients are that my grocery store has out. For example, if the green onion doesn't look as good then I'll opt for a red onion instead. Sometimes I'll get different colored bell peppers instead of just red. It just depends on what you and your family or guests like.

*You can also add some sweet potato to make this meal a little extra filling. To do this, you'll cut one to two potatoes into small 1/4 inch chunks. Next you'll coat them with a little olive oil and place them onto a large cookie sheet. They'll bake for 10-15 minutes at 350 F. Then you'll just add them in with the rest of the vegetables, mixing them in evenly.

*This meal is very quick to make. Usually it takes me less than 15 minutes, because the quinoa cooks so quickly. You can also cut down the prep time by checking to see if your grocery store sells pre-cut veggies. You can also cut them ahead of time to make the meal come together faster and easier.

Serves: 4