Tomorrow I’m running my first 5K. Eeek!! I’m really nervous even though it is not a timed race. I am not as prepared as I’d like to be, but we’ll see what will happen.
After running a couple miles yesterday in preparation for Saturday, I wanted something healthy, delicious and fresh to munch on. I’ve had a bag of quinoa in the pantry for a while and finally had a chance to use it.
Growing up, whenever we had company over, Dad would cook a fancy Italian meal. This would usually include homemade bread prepared by Mom, roasted portobello caps with parsley and garlic, Caprese salad, veal Marsala and ice cream with berries. Um, delicious.
So yesterday I went back to my roots and made a Caprese salad and added the long-neglected quinoa. It was delicious, healthy and really easy to make. That’s the best kind of food, right?!
Quinoa Caprese Salad
Tomatoes, basil and mozzarella are the stars of any Caprese salad.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
- small carton grape tomatoes
- fresh mozzarella (I used a 7 oz. package of “little mouthfuls” that I found in the deli section)
- a few leaves of basil
- extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
- After cooking quinoa, place in fridge to cool.
- Cut grape tomatoes in half and cut mozzarella in bite-size pieces. Cut basil leaves into slivers.
- Mix quinoa, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil together in a big bowl. Drizzle with EVOO and mix again.
See, that was easy! I made a batch and ate some of it for dinner, some of it with leftover pasta at lunch and gave some to my mother-in-law.
I’ll have a post in a few days about my 5K, but does anyone have any last-minute race-day advice?
food and focal points 