Whew, it was a long week!  I’m not yet used to my committee schedule at the Capitol.  I’m still trying to make sure I’m where I need to be at the right time.  Needless to say, I’m very dependent on my phone calendar to ensure that happens.  I’ve also started calling myself the Bag Lady.  I have a computer bag, a pump, a bag of pump parts and bottles and then my cold lunch.  Oh yeah and I carry around my giant puffy coat.

On one particularly unfortunate day this week I went from one hearing in the State Office Building to my next one in the Capitol.  I walked into the room (you know one of those rooms where you can’t sneak in, yeah that was this room) and I completely dropped my lunch bag so in front of everyone-Senators and the presenter, my lunch went tumbling out the bag.  I heard gasps and laughs.  I juggled all my bags and started stuffing my cold lunch back into its bag.  Why is it that you feel so exposed when your lunch is spread across the floor?  I shouldn’t have cared that everyone saw my orange, trail mix, microwave popcorn and my tupperware filled with quinoa salad but I just wanted to die and crawl under my seat.  As I took my seat, I didn’t move a muscle for fear I might drop something else.  I sat there cursing my cold lunch and the stupid paper bag I stuffed everything into that morning.  I even started thinking maybe bringing my cold lunch every day wasn’t a great idea with all these bags. Then I realized I love my cold lunches and so what if everyone saw my quinoa salad, it’s delicious.

Here’s my recipe for Quinoa Salad it is the second installment in my Creative Cold Lunches series.

Ingredients:
4 cups Quinoa (cooked)
1/2 cup Sunflower Seeds
12 Dried Apricots (chopped)
1 cup Cranberries (cooked)
4 ounces Feta Cheese (crumbled)
1/4 cup Honey

Directions:
Combine cooked quinoa, sunflower seeds, apricots, cooked cranberries, feta cheese and honey.

Makes 5 1/4 cups

Cooking quinoa: You can cook quinoa just like you would cook rice.  I used my rice cooker and I did one part quinoa to two parts water.

Cooking cranberries: Rinse bag of fresh cranberries and place in large bowl, pour boiling water over cranberries and let soak until cool.  These cranberries will be tart and will pop in your mouth when you eat them.  If this sounds like far too much trouble, just sub in dried cranberries.