Zoe's Kitchen Inspired: Quinoa Salad

I don't know if you have a Zoe's Kitchen in your area, but if you do and you haven't been there yet, YOU NEED to go there! It is so good and most of their options are much healthy than other alternatives out there. One of my favorite things to get there is the Quinoa Salad. It was soooo good that I wanted to be able to try and recreate it at home! With the help of a few other recipes I found online plus my own trial and error, here is my copy-cat Zoe's Kitchen Quinoa Salad recipe! (Btw, if you want to add on some chicken like I did, I just baked a small chicken breast with olive oil brushed on and some seasoning!)

Quinoa Salad
Serves: 4-6

3 cups Quinoa, cooked

1 Tablespoon Chopped Oregano

1 Cup Diced Tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes cut in half)

1 Cup of Diced Cucumbers

1/2 Cup Chopped Green Onion

1/2 Cup Celery Diced

1 1/2 cups Blanched Broccoli (cut into bite size pieces)

1 cup black olives

2 – 3 Tablespoons Lemon Vinaigrette

Juice of Half a Lemon

1 tsp Zoës Spice of Life (or lemon pepper or Greek seasoning)

4 cups of Spring Mix

1/2 Cup Feta Cheese Crumbles (if desired)

Toss all ingredients together in a mixing bowl, except the feta cheese & spring mix, and mix well.

Place about 1 cup of spring mix in the center of each plate and portion prepared quinoa over the lettuce.

Top with feta cheese crumbles.

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Like this recipe and want to see more? Be sure to sign up for me to be your free coach to recieve my newsletters every Friday! Click HERE to sign up!

-Ashley

3 Ways To Live a Positive Life

3 ways to live a POSITIVE life:

1. Wake up early to have alone time: Yes, I said wake up early! Give yourself an extra 15 minutes in the morning to get up and have quiet alone time. Drink a glass of water (extra bonus if it is warm lemon water - gets your digestive system going for the day!) while you take that time to pray, read your Bible, read a personal development book, or just concentrate on good thoughts of what you are thankful for and how you want your day to go (or a combination of them!). Doing this will give you a POSITIVE start to your day and help you be a blessing to others! (Btw, for a good recommendation on a personal development book, check out The Compound Effect by, Darren Hardy - it will change the way you think - in a good way!)

2. Focus on the GOOD by doing GOOD: Give compliments, put a stray grocery cart away (without wanting to curse the person who left it in the middle of the parking lot), and most importantly: SMILE! Did you know that smiling uses a lot of muscles? So think of it as a good workout and flex that smile! You never know how giving someone, yes even a stranger, a smile can change their day for the better! Be the good in the world.

3. BELIEVE in YOU: This one seems simple and yet you can be the hardest, am I right? I know that this is true with me. But, we really can’t be a blessing to others or even take care of ourselves right if we are busy looking down on ourselves. Tell yourself that you are WORTH the effort to be a happy, beautiful, healthy human being! Yes, it may take time, effort, sweat, and even money to take care of yourself, but again, YOU ARE WORTH IT! Start telling yourself this everyday. Sure, that may sound weird, but the more we tell ourselves that can achieve what we put our minds to, the more we believe it and then those thoughts will take root into ACTION!

So, moral of these 3: LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO BE A NEGATIVE NELLY OR NED. BE POSITIVE!

Healthy Pumpkin Oatmeal in the Crock Pot

I have been measuring out a yellow 21 Day Fix container full and counting it as that (not enough of the pumpkin and sweetener in 1 serving to count, in my opinion)! I keep this in my fridge for the week and when I'm ready to eat it, I add a little water and heat it up in a microwave safe bowl for about 45 seconds. This will store in the fridge for 5 days. Didn't last that long in our house though!

Enjoy!!!!

-Ashley

Chocolate Covered Strawberries with Coconut Oil

Here's what I made my Valentine! Yes, we do splurge and eat treats sometimes!!!

Enjoy and leave me a comment if you try this!

-Ashley

Quinoa Crusted Chicken

Oh my yummy! We made this the other night with some leftover quinoa I had in the fridge. Sooooo good! 

How did I make it? Well, I started out by roasting the quinoa to dry it out a little. 

Then, I combined the quinoa (it was 1 cup cooked), some Panko breadcrumbs, Parmesan grated cheese, and Italian seasoning. 

Then I set up my trays to dip my chicken in: whole wheat flour, 2 eggs beaten, and the quinoa breadcrumb mixture. 

Then I went to work with my chicken tenders, after washing them and patting them semi-dry. Flour, then egg, then the breadcrumbs. Then all went onto my stoneware. Meanwhile, the oven had been preheating to 375F. 

I cooked them for about 15 min, or until the chicken centers were no longer pink. Served 2 chicken tenders with a small side alas and 1/2 sweet potato that was sprinkled with cinnamon. Mmmmm, delish!

(21 Day Fixers, this plate is equal to 2 red, 1 green, 1-1/2 yellow- that sweet potato was pretty big!)

Quinoa Crusted Chicken

7-8 chicken tenders

1 cup cooked quinoa

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (add more if needed)

1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1-2 tbsp italian seasoning

2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 425F. Spread out quinoa onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 8 min. After roasting, change oven temp to 375F. Meanwhile, get 3 trays/plates ready. Add flour to one, eggs to another. The last you will combine the roasted quinoa, panko, Parmesan, and seasoning. Pat chicken dry and cover in flour, then eggs, then breadcrumbs. Add to stoneware. Continue until all chicken are coated. Bake for 15 min, or until center is no longer pink.

(Note: 1 chicken tender equals 1 red for the 21 Day Fix plan! In my opinion, there aren't enough other ingredients in the coating to count any other colors!)

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Like this recipe and want to see more? Be sure to sign up for me to be your free coach to recieve my newsletters every Friday! Click HERE to sign up!

-Ashley

21 Day Fix Recipe: Superfood Salad

That is definitely my motto: It's not about perfection, it is about PREPARATION! And this recipe is one that is SUPER EASY to prep and have ready for your lunches for the whole week! WOOT!

This is ANOTHER reason that I love the portion fix containers!!! I know that my body is getting the exact types of food I need everyday! So simple. This recipe is a GREEN (veggie), YELLOW (grains/carbs), and ORANGE (seeds/dressing). And the great thing is, you can use different veggies than I use, so don't stress about having the perfect ingredients, just use what you have! Ok, let's do this!

Can I tell you just how much I LOVE my chopper? (another of my Pampered Chef obsessions - and no, I don't sell it, I just LOVE it!). So, get out your chopper (or food processor) and throw in some veggies. I usually do this in a couple batches, starting with the leafy greens (with a few of my chunky veggies to weight the leaves down) and throwing them into my big bowl. Then I will add in the rest of the chunky veggies (carrots, celery, red bell pepper, red onion). Chop, chop, chop! If you have little ones, let them help you with this part! If they are a part of the prepping process, they will be more inclined to want to eat their "work"!

Then, stir it all together. So colorful and pretty!

Quinoa... this is one of those foods that is hard for people to pronounce so they think it probably doesn't taste good - NO WAY! I like to cook a batch in chicken broth and have in the fridge to use all week, so that is what I did for this recipe. If you are cooking it as you are chopping veggies, be sure to let it cool down before the next step.

Next comes the fun part, because I am kind of a geek and like having perfect portions! So now you will fill up 1 green container of the chopped veggies, 1 yellow container of quinoa, and 1/2 orange container of sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds are a great way to add a little crunch to your salads! I try to always keep it on hand at our house! Then mix together in your lunch container!

And there you have it! Lunch for the week! Well, in this case, the amount I made was lunch for 4 days! So, when you are ready to eat, add 1/2 container full of dressing and then you are good to go! 

To change things up, you can always add in a BLUE container of feta cheese and/or a RED container of grilled chicken breast!

SUPERFOOD SALAD:

Equal parts of:

kale

spinach

carrots

celery

red bell pepper

red onion

sunflower seeds, unsalted

cooked, cooled down quinoa

Chop all the leafy greens and veggies into less than bit size pieces (use a chopper or food processor if you have one!). Then add into a big bowl and mix. In your lunch container, add in: 1 green container of the chopped veggies, 1 yellow container of quinoa, and 1/2 orange container of sunflower seeds.

ENJOY! And be sure to PIN IT HERE!

-Ashley

2 Delicious, Healthy Snacks to Keep You Fueled!

SNACKS!!!! One of the biggest parts of eating healthy is to make sure that you are eating several times a day! As in 5-6x! Today, I thought I would share with you a couple of my favorite snacks: Avocado Toast and Blueberry Parfait.

So, I try (no, I am not perfect at it) to plan out my day and I will keep in mind what I am going to eat. I use the Portion Fix containers from the 21 Day Fix to help me to plan this out to make sure I make enough of each type of food (protein, fruits, veggies, grains, healthy fats, etc). On days when I drink Shakeology as one of my meals, I eat snacks such as these below. Shakeology is also a great snack replacement and I do drink that a lot in the afternoons to give me an energy boost with superfood nutrition! So, here are 2 of my favorite delicious, healthy snacks to help you stay fueled throughout your day!


Avocado Toast

1 piece of Ezekiel bread, toasted
1/4 avocado

Toast bread and mash up avocado. Spread on toast. Enjoy and try not to melt away in the YUMMY goodness of this snack!

(Fix Portions: 1 yellow, 1 blue)

Save it for later: PIN IT


Blueberry Parfait

3/4 cup Plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 tsp Pure Maple Syrup (organic if possible!)
2 Tbsp Your favorite granola (organic - my favorite is Nature's Path Pumpkin Flax granola)

Mix yogurt and syrup together, Stir in blueberries and granola. Enjoy! (This can also be eaten as a yummy breakfast too!)

(Fix Portions: 1 red, 1/2 purple, 1 yellow (even though I measured it in a orange container, it counts as a yellow!)

Save it for later: PIN IT


Want more info on how you can plan out your eating? Need help with portion control? What about exercise - are you getting in the recommended amount of daily activity? If you need help in any of those areas, please contact me! I am a Beachbody coach whose mission in life is to help individuals JUST LIKE YOU! Why? Because I was once in your shoes too. (Check out my story HERE).

Find me on FACEBOOK and connect with me OR click HERE to sign up for free for me to be your coach and get weekly newsletters with tips, recipes, and more!


Hope you have a great, healthy day!

-Ashley