Heat Waves & Quinoa Salad

The past week has been incredibly hot in southern Ontario.  So hot in fact that I have only found the time to run twice in the past week.  Running only twice in a week typically happens when I'm on vacation were running isn't really feasible or if I've been really really sick.  But now that I'm off any sort of running schedule I'm finding it difficult to get back on.  I am looking for a fall half marathon to motivate myself for and I have something else in the works that I'll talk about in a bit.

In the meantime, I've been eating a lot of salads and things that don't require much cooking to heat up my kitchen.  This salad is perfect, because it has a good carb to protein ratio and fills you up without making you feel too full.



Black Bean Quinoa Salad

Salad

1 cup quinoa uncooked
1/2 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 red pepper chopped
1/2 cup carrots chopped
1/2 cucumber diced
1/4 finely chopped fresh parsley

Rinse and cook quinoa according to package directions and let cool.  Mix salad ingredients together.

Dressing

2  tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried oregano

Add all ingredients in a jar, seal jar and shake well.  Pour over salad and toss.  Let sit for about 1/2 hour for the flavours to combine.