Quinoa Salad! - E or Crossover

Hello friends! Today is the 5 Day of the 30 Day Challenge  I started on Facebook... Hopefully you'll join us! It is a quick routine of exercises to tone some muscles and I am definitely starting to feel it! It is great to have somebody else to do it with me (Thanks Karen) as it is helping me stay accountable!

Now... of course exercises are great but we need to also watch what we eat ... I am making all the right choices and eating until I am satisfied (or a little more, yeah... that's me) and I am starting to see the scale slowly (oh so slowly) go down again! It's been a while since it did that for ME so I am ecstatic (even if it's an ounce... we're headed in the right direction!)

If you already know the Trim Healthy Mama Plan then you know what I talk about when I mention "E meals or Crossovers"... if you're not on the plan you can also enjoy the recipes I share because they're healthy, yummy and nothing like your "typical Diet Food" ...

So... today I am going to share with you an amazingly delicious (and easy to make) Quinoa Salad, which you can eat in an "E" setting or as a crossover if you're at that point where you incorporate healthy crossovers to your menu.

Here it goes:

You can see it with avocado here, it is a yummy crossover!

 Quinoa Salad (E)
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

- 2 cups of cooked red quinoa (1/2 cup uncooked)   I use this one
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/2 medium zucchini (or yellow squash) - cubed-
- 1 medium red tomato
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- the juice of 1/2 a lime 
- about 1 tbsp. of olive oil (you can add this if you keep it to only 1 serving and do not incorporate any other fat in your meal, it would still be an "E")
- 1 clove of garlic (very finely chopped)
- salt to taste
- 1 avocado -cubed- (ONLY FOR CROSSOVER, omit if you want to keep it an "E")
- Add 1/2 a fresh serrano or jalapeño pepper (chopped) if you can handle the heat, (you can seed it if you want to tame the heat down a bit), this will add a bit of a quick and give it more of a "Mexican flare" to it.
 
Directions:

Mix the quinoa, cilantro, zucchini, tomato, onion (and avocado if using it) in a big bowl, separately whisk together the lime, olive oil and garlic, drizzle over the quinoa mixture, season to taste and let it sit for about 10 minutes to let the flavors "mingle". Serve at room temperature (or even cold), this salad is a great accompaniment to any meat (keep your meats lean for the "E" setting).

I soooo can see it served in this salad set... I am going to add it to my Christmas List! 


 Enjoy!

© Paloma K.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. All the recommendations and suggestions are entirely my opinion.