Garden Quinoa Salad

Good morning y'all!  How's your day going?  I've had a productive morning so far.

I mowed the grass!  Now this might seem like a normal chore for you, but I just learned how to use a lawn mower last Friday.  It isn't very hard to do, but I'm proud of myself for taking on this "manly task" as I never thought I would ever actually mow the grass.  Go me!

So, I've started jumping on the quinoa bandwagon lately!  I originally tried quinoa when I made the stuffed peppers in the crock pot.

On Monday, when I made the parmesan and sage-crusted pork chops, I made a little quinoa salad as a side dish.

There are a lot of benefits of quinoa, including protein, iron, and fiber.  This article has a lot of good information about the other nutrients in quinoa.  I wanted to share with you the recipe for the side dish I made since it was tasty and good for you.

Garden Quinoa Salad
Serves 3
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 8 grape tomatoes, diced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook quinoa: Put 1/2 cup quinoa in a small pot in 1 cup of water.  Bring to boil.  Then cover and lower heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes until the water is gone.
2. Cook vegetables: While cooking quinoa, sautee vegetables in olive oil, stirring occasionally until zucchini turns slightly golden brown.
3. When quinoa is ready, pour vegetables into the pot with quinoa.  Stir everything together.  
4. Salt and pepper to taste, then enjoy!

Next time I make this, I think I'll put some diced onions in this salad for some additional vegetables.

Last night, I got in Workout B from Best Body Bootcamp after a 20-minute speed workout on the treadmill.  This was an upper body workout featuring drop sets.  What are drop sets, you might ask?

Image Source

Drop sets involve completing a weighted exercise with maximum weight first, doing reps until fatigue, dropping your weight, then doing the same exercise to fatigue with that weight, etc.  (Read more about drop sets at the link under the picture)

I've never done this method of weight training before, and I really enjoyed it!  It made me feel very powerful lifting heavier weights than I usually use and gave me confidence that my strength is actually building.  I definitely felt the burn last night and I'm feeling it again today.  Fun stuff!

Question for you: Are you on the quinoa bandwagon?  Have you used drop sets in weight training before?

I'll have a book review for you tomorrow, as well as catching y'all up on what I'm learning from the Gideon Bible study.  Hope your weekend starts off well!