Cucumber Caprese Quinoa Shells

I would be lying if I said I haven't been eyeballing caprese recipes lately. To be honest, I have never tried a caprese salad. But I don't understand why... I love all of the basic ingredients!

Lucky for me, my coworker brought me a big bag of homegrown basil today. I searched through the last few recipes I starred, compared to what was in my kitchen and came up with this: a random, combination of these two recipes.

• Cucumber Avocado Caprese Salad
• Orzo Caprese Salad

I loved the idea of adding cucumbers to the caprese salad (since cucumber + tomato = legen... wait for it... dary! legendary!) and I liked the idea of the salad mixed with the orzo (or more specifically, any sort of grain... I was thinking quinoa, cous cous, brown rice... something along those lines to stretch the flavor and make it more filling). So I mixed and matched and made some changes based on what I had on hand, but I really want to try the originals someday!!

Cucumber Caprese Quinoa Pasta

Ingredients (my version):

• 1.5 cups uncooked quinoa pasta shells
• 3 cucumbers 
• 10.5 oz cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup fresh basil (firmly packed)
• 1 cup mozarella (the little balls)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• garlic, salt, and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Cook the pasta according to directions. Rinse with cold water and mix with a small amount of olive oil to prevent from sticking. Set aside.
2. Follow the directions from this site (excluding avocados because sadly I didn't have them on hand).
3. Eat. A lot.

Yum!

Disclaimer: I am not attempting to call this a recipe, or take any credit for it. I just wanted to share with you the goodness that was my dinner :) 

Easy Recipe: Gouda and Avocado Salad

i saw this recipe today and i had to have it 

i had all the ingredients already in my fridge

it was a match made in heaven

kinda

in truth, i had all the ingredients to make the lazy easy version

i didn't want to make the dressing 

and the dressing looked kinda like caeser to me

but what do i know? i have no clue what's in caesar dressing

either way, i decided to use some lite caesar dressing i already had

i also added some tomatoes, because who doesn't like tomatoes?

ingredients

• romaine lettuce
• smoked gouda 
• 1/2 of the worlds smallest avocado 
• 1 roma tomato
• caesar dressing

lets get real for a second. 
lets talk about this avocado. 

really?!?!? 

maybe i'm spoiled, being from california

but come on! 

you should also know that i have freakishly small baby hands

so while it fills my palm, that doesn't mean nothing

anyways

instructions

combine into salad form: wash and cut lettuce, cube gouda, slice the worlds smallest avocado, slice the tomato, drizzle with dressing. eat.

easy peasy lemon squeezy! 

size of the avocado aside, this salad was bomb.com

loved the flavor combo 

perfect for a night of packing and harry potter watching 

what do you do with your gouda? 

if its something with fruit, i don't wanna hear about it 

ok fine, i want to hear about it, but i won't make it 

i think i missed the fruit+savory gene when god was handing it out
but i'd love to hear any gouda suggestions!