One thing I do love eating, especially during the summer months is salads. You can put together a salad in no time, and dressings are so easy as well. They do sell so many different salad dressings in stores but they often have sugar and other ingredients that are not so health for us. Today I made my own healthy quinoa salad. Salads don't always have to be just vegetables, you can add nuts/seeds, beans, and grains. Last night I soaked my quinoa and chickpeas overnight in water, you don't have to do this, but it does help reduce the cooking time. Here's my recipe:
1/3 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/3 cup chickpeas
4 radishes, sliced
1 cup of broccoli, cut into bit size pieces
1 cup of cucumbers, cut into bit size pieces
1 red pepper, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
A handful of toasted pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp of fresh parsley, minced
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp agave syrup
Salt & Pepper
In a pot, cook the quinoa and chickpeas, let it cool. Prepare all your vegetables, and in a large bowl mix everything together, add some pepper, and a touch of salt, then add your olive oil, balsamic vinegar and agave syrup and mix. This made 4 lunch servings.
When it comes to a salad, I often don't follow a recipe. It's a great way to use up whatever vegetables you have in your fridge, and it's a great way to have a nice healthy lunch for work. Quinoa is a complete protein, but any mix of grains, beans and vegetables also creates a complete protein, just make sure to add a healthy grain, like brown rice, quinoa, millet, barley, buckwheat, amaranth and wild rice. You can also put together a garden salad, and add some meat/fish, or even some hard boiled eggs. There are so many different ways you can put a salad together, and make it healthy and delicious. Another ingredient I sometimes add to my salad is feta or goat cheese. As for dressings, you can use different vinegars, like apple cider vinegar, and red wine vinegar. For added zing, you can use the juice of a lemon or lime. There are even other healthy oils out there that you can also use, like flax seed oil, and hemp seed oil. You can even create your own creamy dressing by using an avocado, plain yogurt, mayonnaise, and you can even add some Dijon mustard. There are also a lot of herbs and spices out there to add flavor to your salads.
I also had a bit more fun in the kitchen by making more of the crispy almond butter chocolate chip cookies, which was requested by my hubby. I also tried another new recipe from the cook with kindness cookbook, I made the peanut butter cups, which were so easy to make and there was just 4 ingredients! They are delicious and so much healthier then the store bought ones.
Where you able to get into the kitchen this weekend? If so, what did you make?
