I went through our kitchen and pulled out some ingredients that I felt would work well together and viola, the Asian quinoa salad came to life. Not only is it delicious, it is packed with veggies. While it is pretty healthy, the taste reminded me of some of my not-so-healthy favorites from Chinese takeout, without the empty calories and MSG.

4.2 from 5 reviews

Asian Quinoa Salad

 

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Recipe type: Sidedish

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa uncooked
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoon sesame oil
• ½ red onion
• 1 red pepper
• 2 cups shelled edamame
• 1 cup frozen corn
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ¼ teaspoon grated ginger (or powder in you don't have fresh)
• sesame seeds to garnish

Instructions

1. Cook quinoa according to package instruction in water, chicken broth and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Let cool.
2. Defrost corn.
3. In a large bowl, combine red onion, pepper, edamame, corn and quinoa. Set aside.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, remaining sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger and red pepper flakes.
5. Pour over the salad and combine well.
6. Refrigerate for at least a half an hour for best results.
7. Garnish with sesame seeds before serving.

3.5.3208

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Speaking of Trader Joe’s, I’ve also been enjoying their pre-made sushi. I love that they use brown rice!

My number one new favorite thing in life is the Almond Coco Loco Chobani. If you can find these in your supermarket, jump on them. They are like dessert in Chobani form.

Another thing that I’ve been slightly obsessed with are English cucumbers. I have been eating these as a crispy treat with Chiptole Pepper Hummus. Delish!

This is Vegetarian Duck with Mushroom in Garlic Sauce from Chai Thai, where we went for dinner over the weekend. I’m not sure where vegetarian duck comes from, but it might just be heaven.

Lox are one of favorite things to get when we go out for bagels for breakfast, so I decided to recreate it at home. Not as great as it would be on a fresh bagel, but not too shabby either.

Black Bean Veggie Meatball Pitas. When I told Tommy what I was making for dinner, he told me that he wasn’t looking forward to it until he tried them. They were very yummy.

Soy Glazed Salmon. Only 15 minutes under the broiler and dinner was served.

So these are my meatless eats so far. I thought that I would miss eating meat, but it’s been a week and I haven’t had a single craving. I always had a feeling that I would do well as a vegetarian. I think that Lent will show me that I don’t really enjoy eating meat as much as I thought I did and that veggies are my BFFs.

What was the best thing you ate this week?

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Lean Cuisine partnered with some of the nation’s hottest chefs to put out a new line of meals with bold flavor combos, the kind of things you usually wouldn’t find in the frozen section. I chose to try the Chicken Carbonara, Chile Lime Chicken and Ranchero Braised Beef.

While I loved the chipotle sweet potatoes from the beef entree, my favorite of the three I’ve tried so far was the Chile Lime Chicken. The chicken was tender and you could really taste hints of the lime. The rice was a punch of color and flavor, and I really enjoyed it mixed with the sauce. The portions were not huge, but they were the perfect size for a satisfying lunch.

The new Lean Cuisine line is the perfect thing to have in your freezer for one of those days where you need to eat something yummy and quick, and without killing your diet!

Do you eat frozen entrees? What’s you favorite?

I have partnered with Lean Cuisine through DailyBuzz Food to help promote their new line of Chef’s Pick products. I have been compensated for my time commitment to work with this product. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments. Thank you Lean Cuisine!

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First on deck is something I threw together after work one day. I was hungry, hungry, hungry so I just basically threw a bit of everything in a bowl, stirred and ate. Totally yummy and veggie and protein packed. Win-win!

This baby was inspired by a recipe in my Everyday with Rachel Ray magazine and came together super quick to make a yummy, Mexican Chicken dinner on a red of avocado and arugula. I wish I had leftovers!

Quinoa egg bowls have made a return! This was Trader Joe’s tri-color quinoa with corn, black beans and white button mushrooms. When the yolk breaks on a bowl like it, I swear it is magic!

This dinner brought back memories of my summers in Poland. Strawberry pierogi topped with a lightened version of the typical polish heavy cream topping. Instead of heavy cream and sugar, I used plain Chobani, a splash of skim milk and a bit of brown sugar. Y-U-M-M-Y!

This baby is Zucchini Cacao Nib Bread. The recipe will follow shortly, but I can say this is short of heavenly.

When I topped it with Coconut butter it was heaven on earth. Sorry for the blasphemy, but it is that good!

Last but definitely not least, my birthday surprises! Tommy had told me not to buy or bring lunch on my birthday, but I didn’t know what he had up his sleeve. He showed up with a huge cooler filled with sushi and a homemade cake, which he made! So sweet!

And as if that wasn’t enough, I came home after class to be surprised with a little party with some of my best friends, ice cream cake

and champagne, all organized by Tommy too. Is he amazing or what?

That’s all I got for this week! We are hitting up Hershey, PA this weekend, so expect to see lots of CHOCOLATE in next week’s WIAW!

What’s the best thing you are this week?

The post Birthday Surprise WIAW appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

We shared some seared tuna as our appetizer and I dug into a crab stuffed portabella mushroom. OMG amazing!

As amazing as the crab mushroom was, the best meal of our vacation was a little Mexican spot off the boardwalk in Virginia Beach called Side Street Cantina.

We started with guac which was made right in front of us at our table. It was hands down the best guac I have ever had, and that is a big statement for me to say since I consider myself to be somewhat of a guac connoisseur. Tommy and I also split a Chicken Tortilla Soup before I moved on to a Fajita Burrito which was sauteed onions, peppers and chicken in a tortilla. We where kind of gluttons and went for dessert. When I see churros on the menu, I cannot help myself!

We went for a late sushi dinner one evening and even though the sushi was amazing, I cannot for the life of me remember what these rolls were. I do remember how amazingly sweet the sushi chef was. When he saw that Munchkin was chowing down on sushi, he was super surprised and made him his own little plate of sushi using Kani. So sweet and so unpictured!

On our last day in Williamsburg, we went to Trellis for our last lunch in town and it was an amazingly cute and yummy place. The ambiance of the restaurant made it feel warm and homey and the food left me smiling.

I started out with Clam Chowder and was surprised when the waitress brought out a plate for the shells. I had never had clam chowder with real shells, but this was amazing. For my entree, I got a crab BLT with a side salad. This was on point. I could not get over how cute Munchkin’s meal was – a fresh mozzarella sandwich with a sizd of shoe string fries.

When I saw Death by Chocolate on the menu, I knew I had to try it. It was seven layers of chocolate, covered in chocolate and served with a side of homemade chocolate ice cream. Incredibly indulgent and just wow!

If our vacation was just judged solely on our eats, it would get an A+. It gets an A+ either way, but the food was great!

What was the best thing you ate on vacation?

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This is another amazing breakfast. Dippy egg, two slices of Oatnut bread, homemade guac and broccoli slaw. My food processor makes the best

guac hands down. It same out smooth and chunky all at the same time, not to mention it had quite a bit of kick.

As if I didn’t get enough avocado from eating a huge bowl of guac in two days [I had help!] I made chicken salad stuffed avocados again.

I had this amazing meal at Carlucci’s when we were in Philly for the weekend. It’s shrimp and asparagus skewers on a bed of veggie “pasta.” I had to stop myself from licking my plate, this stuff was so good!

And what would a WIAW be without sushi, right? We went out for sushi, post WOD yesterday and it was mighty tasty. Of course, the boys started digging in before I could snap a picture. Guess they were hungry?

I have also been snacking away on my NatureBox goodies all week. The Sunny Trails is like crack. I.could.not.put.it.down!

We also stayed hydrated this week with our Camelbak bottles. Munchkin got his first Camelbak this weekend because he kept stealing mine, and sometimes I don’t like to share. A hydrated mama is a happy mama.

I also drank the Kool-aid this week. Not this guy..

But the Crossfit Kool-aid, and let me tell you, it is some delicious stuff. I’m still in the Foundations portion of Crossfit, but I am in love. Yesterday was my second fondations class and we learned the proper forms of some moves before doing another mini-WOD.

We practiced proper form for dead-lifts, presses, push presses, burpees and ab mat sit-ups. It is such an amazing feeling to finally get the proper form of a move down after doing it wrong for a million times. The dead-lifts owned me, but I owned the burpees. Yes, you read that correctly, I owned the burpees, and I think I might even like them! See, told you, Kool-aid!

Our mini-WOD was AMRAP:

• 5 burpees
• 10 dead-lifts
• 15 sit ups

I got through 2 1/2 rounds and felt amazing afterward. Sore. Sweaty. Amazing!

What’s the best thing you ate this week? Have you tried the Crossfit Kool-aid?!

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Chobani plain yogurt, farm fresh peach, Love Grown granola and a spoonful of strawberry preserves.

Two egg scramble with cherry tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts and turkey.

I’m horrible at eating lunch at work. Even when I do pack a lunch, it often doesn’t get eaten until I get back home. Because of this I’ve started packing smaller snacks instead of a whole meal.

Luna Bars have become my go to snack. The White Chocolate Macadamia is to.die.for!

Sometimes we girls get a little crazy and order takeout for lunch. Luckily, the area that I work in has a ton of amazing restaurants to order from.

Nicoise salad with seared Tuna. Who said take out can’t be healthy AND delicious?!

Dinner is a meal I have no problem with eating.

Chicken Pad See Ew. One of my favorites dishes in life. Try it!

Salmon Explosion Roll. Salmon tempura and asparagus topped with more salmon and salmon tobiko.

Seaweed Salad. Recipe will follow..this is so good and easy to make!

Some Tai Thai goodies. Tom Yum Soup, Calamari with Sweet Chili Sauce, Red Curry and oh yea, some white Sangria.

Life ain’t worth living if you don’t enjoy dessert once in a while.

I shall call these quinoa fail cookies. They tasted great, but looked horrible and fell apart when touched. It was my first time baking with quinoa and coconut oil and with some tweaking, I’m sure I can make these look as good as they taste!

If you can say no to fresh cut watermelon, you have superhuman powers. End.of.story.

Since July’s theme is Food and Fitness, let’s move on to the calorie burning portion of the post. Just last night, my new home gym was completed. Tommy ran all the cables and I got to do a killer arm and back workout. I am seriously in love, but was not in love when Tommy asked me to read the instruction while he was putting it together..check this out.

Yeaaaaa…luckily, Tommy is pretty handy without my help. The boy knows how to read plans for skyscrapers, so what’s a little home gym to him!

Don’t mind the curtains, they are coming down as soon as I can find something to replace them. That’s what you get when your dad buys new basement curtains at Walmart!

It’s small and cramped, but it is coming together. I also want to buy some mats to put down under the machines. And maybe some posters and pictures on the walls. We shall see!

I have a feeling that soreness will be coming on rather soon and I could not be happier! Feel the burn!

What’s the best thing you ate this week? Do you go to the gym or work out at home?

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And since it is Wednesday, I will be sharing my yummy eats thanks to Jenn and WIAW!

After breakfast, Munchkin and I braved the rain and headed out to Long Island to go to the Long Island Children’s Museum. We had an awesome time and had snack time while there. Two Clif Kid Z bars – one for me, one for Munchkin.

I also drank a Cheribundi juice on the way home. It was my first time trying Cheribundi and I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted great and I will be picking up some other varieties of the juice to try out.

After the museum and running a new errands, I came home famished. I wanted something warm, quick and yummy. I had been craving quinoa for quite some time, so I threw together a quick quinoa and veggie dish – quinoa, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, bell peppers with some soy sauce and spices. It totally hit the spot!

After Tommy got home from work, we headed out to run some more errands. I had to stop at work to pick up some paperwork that I have to bring to court in the morning and we did some shopping for my Foodie Pen Pals package. Rachael, get ready! We had to fuel for our errand running in the form of Starbucks iced coffee.

We stopped by Stanley Pierogi to stock up on pierogis and enjoyed some Potato and Spinach pierogi for dinner. Yummy!

Dessert came in the form of Justin’s peanut butter cups. I am a huge fan of all the Justin’s nut butter and these PB cups do not disappoint.

There was also a banana eaten somewhere during the day, but it didn’t get a picture before getting in my belly. Overall, I had a day of pretty good eats and snacks. Sensible snacking achieved!

Have an awesome Wednesday!

What’s the best thing you ate yesterday?

The post Day Off WIAW appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

When I saw what Jen had up her sleeve for June’s WIAW, I thought to myself, now this is something I can be good at. Serial snacker over here!

Luckily, I’m usually a pretty sensible snacker and usually turn to fruit when I’m feeling snacky if there is no chocolate in the house, of course. Let’s get to the eats!

Breakfast was packed to the brim with strawberries and therefore DELICIOUS!

Kashi Strawberry Fields cereal, topped with freshly sliced strawberries and with the last strawberry muffin on the side. Those babies went quick!

Honest Tea was on sale at the supermarket this week, so I picked up a few or 10. They are my favorite iced tea. Not too sweet, not too bitter, just right!

When I got home from work I was starved since I didn’t bring lunch with me. I had some stuffed cabbage that my mom had made the day before.

It might not look too hot, but trust me this stuff is good. We Polaks love our cabbage!

I was in the mood for something on the sweeter side after finishing my lunch, so I turned to sensible snack numero uno…grapes!

After my food settled, I decided to go for a run. Even though I was still super sore from Sunday’s workout (which I’ll be sharing manana) I pushed through to finish 2.15 miles in 30 minutes. Not my best, but not my worst!

After my run, it was time for dinner. I was in the mood for something packed with veggies, but not a salad. I sauteed spinach, green peppers, tomatoes and black beans which I topped with a dippy egg.

And of course no day is complete with just one snack, so snack numero dos came into play after Munchkin hit the sack and mommy had some time on the computer.

Banana with half a packet of Justin’s Honey Almond Butter. The rest of the packet may or may not have gone directly into my mouth. So good!

The only things missings from my day of eats are two cups of coffee and a whooole lot of water. I am trying to stay on top of my June goals!

Have an awesome Wednesday!

What’s the best thing you ate yesterday? What’s your favorite sensible snack?

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Lunch didn’t happen until after I got home from work. I had two slices of leftover grilled pizza with a pepper on the side. I am also in love with my new summery plate, which

matches the tray from yesterday’s post!

Munchkin was pooped from spending the day with his aunt so he napped his butt off while I made dinner. It was so quiet and peaceful in the kitchen without him trying to help! Since it was incredibly hot out yesterday, I made a pretty light dinner. I don’t have much of an appetite when it’s almost 90 out and as soon as you step foot out of the house you’re covered in sweat. Dinner was Asparagus Soup and a salad.

The soup is super simple to make and the salad consisted of spinach, romaine lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, orange and green peppers and olives. I topped mine off with some honey mustard dressing. Every time I make Asparagus Soup, I say I have to make a double batch to have leftovers next time, but it never happens. Next time I have too, it’s too good not to have leftovers!

After dinner we headed right back out the door and to pick up my cousins to go air conditioner shopping. The poor girls have been suffering all weekend in the heat! ACs were selling like hot cakes. We stopped at Costco first and they were sold out of the size they needed. We managed to snag the LAST one at Best Buy for a decent price. And even then some guy made a stink because he said he was looking at it when Tommy took it off the shelf. You snooze you loose!

We got back to their place and Tommy installed it for them right before it started thunder storming like crazy. Perfect timing! I love evening summer thunderstorms. There’s something comforting about watching a storm rolling in.

We came back home and had a late night snack before heading for bed. I have a bowl of Love Grown Sweet Cranberry Pecan with some almond milk.

Thus completes my day of eats! Tommy and I are going out for dinner to one of out fav places tonight, so stay tuned for some food goodness!

What’s the best thing you ate today? What’s your favorite late night snack?

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