Quinoa Pasta Salad

I absolutely love pasta salad! You know what else is great about finding quinoa pasta? Finding multi-colored quinoa pagoda pasta! Now I can have some pasta salad that looks very similar to traditional pasta salad!

In fact, I found out that someone at the party didn’t even know it was quinoa! I tried to make sure and tell everyone but I must have missed some people.

Well, this salad turned out very well. It probably could have used a little more dressing as I’ve found that quinoa pasta requires more flavoring than rice or traditional pasta. The texture is also a little firmer than traditional pasta.

All in all, this was an enjoyable treat for me to have and quite a bit had gotten eaten. I’ve actually been having a little bit of the leftovers all week and have been really enjoying it. I just wish I could freeze some. I like to make food ahead and freeze it for laziness convenience…actually, both. 😉

I didn’t really measure anything out. I like lots of veggies so I use a lot. The key is to use whatever veggies you enjoy and how much you like in your pasta. I will list what I used.

Quinoa Pasta Salad Recipe

Ingredients:
Quinoa pasta pagodas
Green bell peppers, chopped
Red bell peppers, chopped
Baby portobello mushrooms, chopped
Tomatoes, chopped
Green onions, sliced
Italian Salad Dressing

Instructions:
Toss veggies and pasta together and add Italian dressing to taste. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight to blend flavors well.
Enjoy 🙂

Grilled Chicken Salad

I love having salads! Especially in the summer time! I know for where I live, summer is a long way off but I can always dream it will be here tomorrow!

Anyway, this salad is actually one I made up for my truck driver hubby who can’t heat anything up. He absolutely LOVES it and for him to love a salad, it is actually a miracle! I was so glad that he liked it because it’s so hard to find cold healthy food for him to eat.

This will definitely be one of my regular meals for the summer months! Has everything you need all in one bowl!

Grilled Chicken Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

1 shredded grilled chicken breast

Your favorite salad lettuce

Onion, chopped

Sweet peppers, chopped

Grape tomatoes, cut in half

Italian Salad Dressing

Instructions:

Put your favorite lettuce in a bowl. Add shredded grilled chicken. Top with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and salad dressing.

I am sure there are other veggies that would be good as well but I know my hubby is not a veggie lover so I had to choose what he  would like. Experiment with your favorite veggies, I bet it will be delicious no matter what!

Enjoy! 🙂

Fiesta Salad

I absolutely love avocados. They make so many things taste better. I’m learning to be more creative with flavors and using them in ways I never would have thought of before. This salad is perfect for summer time. It is so fresh and green tasting.  I can already see that this will be a summertime staple in my house. I could sit and eat the whole bowl and make a meal out of it! It is so colorful with different textures and flavors that just meld together in your mouth into one big fiesta! (On no! I can hear the gabba characters singing…there’s a party in my tummy! So yummy!)  🙂

Fiesta Salad Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 medium tomato, diced

2 avocados, peeled and diced

1 c frozen sweet corn

6 green onions, sliced

Black beans (1/2 c dried then cooked and drained)

1-2 handfuls chopped fresh cilantro (did I mention I love cilantro too?)

splash of lime juice (probably a tsp or 2)

Instructions:

Combine everything except avocado in bowl. Mix well

Add avocado and stir gently to mix so you don’t mash it.

Enjoy!

Now That’s A Salad!

Now I am pretty sure that everyone knows how to make a salad….well except maybe the restaurant I went to last month….but I thought I would tell you how I like my salad and maybe it will give you some ideas, or maybe not. I am a bit lazy about my lettuce. Yes, I purchase bagged salad. My favorite is the butter bliss. Unfortunately it is expensive but I guess that’s the price you pay for convenience. Well, I had heard about Costco having a lot of foods that I can’t find in my regular stores so I broke down and got a membership. I am so glad I did!. For $2.79 or something like that, I get this HUGE bag of salad! It’s not the butter bliss, it’s just plain old garden salad but I eat salad nearly everyday and my daughter eats a lot of salad everyday so this works for us financially.  Besides, everything I put on it makes it not just an ordinary salad.

So here’s how I do my salad:

bagged lettuce, fresh spinach, shredded carrots,

mini sweet peppers cut into strips,

purple onion cut into strips,

grape tomatoes cut in half,

homemade no salt dill pickles, chopped

(Hardboiled egg slices when I remember or feel like it)

topped off with homemade Italian Dressing

then because I really love red wine vinegar I put a dash or two of that in there. Now THAT’S a salad!

Broccoli Raisin Salad

While I was pinning around on Pinterest a little over a week ago, I found this recipe and shared it on my clean eating group’s wall saying that it looks yummy and then totally forgot about it. Then the other day one of the ladies said she tried it and it was amazing and that I had to try it! So, of course I went to the blog I found it at and printed it out to make the next morning. Boy am I glad I did! Even my hubby loved it and he’s not a cold salad person plus it was another item that could be packed in his lunch box! Now when you go reading the ingredients, keep an open mind because it is unbelievable how something doesn’t taste like what it actually is! Here is the original recipe for Broccoli Raisin Salad. The only thing I changed was that I took out the salt, who needs it anyway? This is so good you don’t even miss it!

Broccoli Raisin Salad Recipe

Dressing:

1 c Cashews, soaked at least 2 hours

Juice from 1 1/2 lemons

2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

1/4 c water

1 shallot ( Don’t use a large one. I did and it was a little over powering)

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp agave

1/2 tbsp mustard powder

Salad:

6 c chopped broccoli (I was lazy and used a 12 oz bag of fresh florets)

1/2 medium purple onion, chopped

1 c raisins

1 c unsalted sunflower seeds (That aren’t in the shell)

Dressing

Instructions:

Place cashews in a bowl, add water to cover and let soak for at least 2 hours.

Drain cashews and put in blender with all of the ingredients listed under “Dressing” and blend until smooth.

In large bowl, mix broccoli, onion, raisins, and sunflower seeds. Add dressing and mix to combine

Best if you let sit for a few hours for the flavors to mix and develop.

This is yummy! Enjoy!

Steacon and Egg Salad

No, the title doesn’t have a typo…I will explain in a minute. First, my husband has finally decided to mostly conform to my new way of eating clean and healthy foods. I know it was a hard decision because we ladies all know the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Men just love to eat and they want their food as unhealthy for you as possible. I guess he finally decided he was sick and tired of being sick and tired and wanted to give this a little more effort than he had been.

The only dilemma with him eating this way is his lunches for work. He is a truck driver so he doesn’t have any way to heat up his meals so he has to eat them cold. So, I had to come up with some things that I know (or at least hoped) he would love and would be tasty cold. I have made several things for him now that he has loved but this one I just made for him yesterday. I thought it was a pretty ingenious idea *pats self on the back* 🙂 and he loved it so I wanted to share it with you.

I decided to call it steacon and egg salad because I used steak, bacon, and eggs. I know, I’m so original.

Steacon and Egg Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 breakfast steak cut into strips

2 pieces of bacon cut in half (uncured, nitrite/nitrate free)

shredded lettuce

braggs to taste

Instructions:

cook bacon and set aside on towel to drain.

Using grease left in pan, crack eggs and cook them over easy. Make sure you leave it yolky because when you go to eat it, it will add a creamy texture, like a dressing. Remove eggs and set aside.

Sautee steak in same pan with what is left of the grease until cooked through or your desired doneness. Season with a little garlic and onion powder. Let sit in pan and cool a little.

He takes his salads in 5 cup containers. Fill the container half way up with shredded lettuce (Yes, I cheat and use the bagged stuff)

Next, put the cooled steak on top of the lettuce

Add the eggs on top of the steak

then spray the eggs with braggs to taste and top with bacon

You can either eat it now or cover and take with you in a lunch cooler to enjoy later!

Enjoy!