a couple weekends ago, chris and i went to the beach.  i love going to the beach.  definitely prefer hawaii beaches over the beaches here on the east coast.  but really any beach with sand, water, and sun will do.  it was an amazing day relaxing on the beach, reading and just soaking in the sun.

as we drove back to virginia we passed by a few farmer’s stands and we stopped by one and picked up some sweet corn, zucchini, and watermelon.  nothing is better than fresh produce straight from the farm.

i used the corn and zucchini to make this bright and fresh honey lemon quinoa with corn and zucchini.  i found the recipe for the honey lemon vinaigrette on a super awesome blog, iowa girl eats.  i used her honey lemon quinoa recipe and adapted it just a little bit adding some extra vegetables and herbs – just some zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, and cilantro.  it worked beautifully and chris and i had a couple delicious, healthy lunches ready for the week.

the vinaigrette comes together quickly, just mix up some lemon juice and zest, honey, chopped garlic, salt and pepper.

then chop up the zucchini and cut the corn kernels off the ears of the corn.  we grilled the corn before hand, but you don’t need to.

saute the zucchini in a little bit of butter.

once it’s almost tender add the corn.

now add some chopped sun dried tomatoes.

once everything is mixed together, add the cooked quinoa and honey lemon vinaigrette.

mix well and add some chopped green onion.  you can probably see some ice crystals on the green onion.  this is because i keep a ziplock of chopped green onion in the freezer that way i always have some on hand.  this makes it so much easier since a lot of recipes only call for a couple stalks at a time.

once the green onion is mixed in, the honey lemon quinoa with corn and zucchini is done. oh wait, you can also add some cilantro if you want.  i like it but chris doesn’t so i added it to my portions later.  also, you can serve this quinoa warm, but chris and i preferred it cold.

hope you enjoy this super summery quinoa soon!

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last week, chris and i moved to a new apartment.  i love it here.  our old apartment was fine, but this one is so much better.  we have our own washer and dryer which is absolutely amazing.  it’s a pet friendly, which is perfect for when we get a dog (yay!  i can’t wait). plus it’s just overall a nicer building and apartment.  but the one downside is that the kitchen is much much smaller than the one in our old apartment.  so we don’t have quite enough storage space for the many small kitchen appliances we own, or enough space for all of the food i tend to buy in bulk at costco.

therefore, i’ve resolved to stop buying so much food from costco because it’s actually quite unnecessary with only two people living in our apartment and we just don’t have enough space anymore.  i also need to work on using up some of the bulk food that i already bought.  one of those things is a large bag of quinoa.  so last night i made some southwestern quinoa to pack up for lunch the rest of this week.

it was absolutely delicious!  along with the quinoa, there is also black beans, corn, bell peppers, seasoned with cumin, taco seasoning and oregano, plus some cilantro and cheese!  sooo yummy!  i can’t wait to bring this for lunch and i think it’s good enough to keep me from wanted to buy lunch at the school food court.  yay for saving money and healthy eating!

p.s. want to know an awesome tip?  pick up some of these tubes of herbs next time you go to the grocery store.  if you’re like me and like to have herbs on hand but don’t tend to use them up in time before they get yucky, this is the perfect solution.  i often have some tubes of cilantro and basil in my fridge and it’s super convenient and actually affordable since i’m not throwing away spoiled herbs.

back to the southwestern quinoa, it starts of with of course some quinoa.

then in a large pan, saute the chopped onions and bell peppers.  next add some garlic.

now add the tomatoes.  i used some red and yellow cherry tomatoes i got from the farmers market at university of maryland.

time for the spices – add some cumin, taco seasoning, and oregano.

mix it up and then add the black beans and corn.

add the quinoa and mix to combine all of the tasty ingredients.  then season with salt and pepper and finally, some chopped cilantro if desired.

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