John and I just returned from the This American Life Live! event and I’m awash and aglow with satisfying happiness.
It seems that happens more and more. When I look around me. Marvel at this world. Take a moment to look–really look–at the stories happening all around me. The lives moving past me. The mothers bending to kiss toddler curls propped into a shopping cart, the old man with a hat riding his jazzy scooter up the long hill that winds it’s way near our old house, the two girls and one boy clearly ditching high school at ten ‘o nine in the morning. This world is a wonder, isn’t it? Ira Glass has found a way to bottle that and bring it into my ears every week via podcast. Sitting tonight and seeing it all happen live? It was worth every minute to laugh, cry, ponder, ache, sit in silence.
The event airs again this Tuesday. Go. You won’t be sorry.
This recipe sat ready to be posted since early this morning, but it was off to the races from the sound of the alarm, and I literally just got this house quieted down. But not clean. No, clean is aiming high for today.
Since posting my Avocado-Chicken Salad sometime last year, my site has seen an ample amount of visitors oogling all over that recipe. It’s a great recipe, full of loveable things like avocados and avocados. Need I say more? I think avocado’s are the vegetable equivalent of the biblical manna. Gather it in the morning and eat it fast, lest it turn brown and mushy on your arse. But, oh. That flavor. That texture. That avocaaaado.
Now that we’re steering clear of chicken for our souls and bellies and this world we love, I thought is was high time we make a vegan revamp of that Avocado-Chicken Classic. It has strawberries. In avocados.
It’s like manna with lipgloss smeared all over it.
Vegan manna with Lipsmackers.
I think we’re onto something here.

Strawberry Avocado Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups quinoa cooked and cooled
- 1 can black beans very well drained
- ½ small Vidalia onion finely diced
- 3 avocados peeled with innards diced and skins saved
- 12-14 small strawberries washed and sliced
- 3 fresh ears of corn kernels sliced from the cob
- juice and zest of 3 limes
- 3 tablespoons agave
- ½ cup fresh cilantro
- salt to taste
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine quinoa, black beans, diced onion, avocado pieces, and strawberry slices.
- Stir together and toss with corn. In a blender, combine the lime juice, agave, and cilantro. Blend together. Toss over salad and stir gently until coated.
- Sprinkle just enough sea salt on the salad to give it great flavor. Spoon into empty avocado skins.
- Enjoy.
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