Quinoa Salad

Every year, I find that the holidays become somewhat of a Food and Drink Olympics. I start each day with good intentions-a bowl of cereal there, a workout here- and then by lunchtime I'm eyeing leftovers, candy dishes, and cheese plates from the couch, where I am buried six feet deep with my dog watching a Modern Family marathon. This year, I'm going to try reaaallly hard to be a bit more balanced during the day. I'm going to do my best to keep breakfast and lunch as healthy and small as possible, allowing more wiggle room later in the day for plenty of wine, cheese, and big dinners with family and friends. However, there are only so many salads and soups one can eat before you feel like you're going crazy. Enter...grains. More filling than lettuce but healthier than bread, grain salads can be the perfect way to curb holiday cravings. Plus, you can throw any kind of protein in with them and get a full meal going. Quinoa is my favorite because it's easy to make, not too filling, and goes with everything. Also, you can eat it hot or cold, which is ideal for my sloth-esque laziness when it comes to preparations when I'm home for break. I throw in as many chopped veggies as I possibly can, then come up with a great dressing to drizzle on top. You can keep a big tupperware of this and put a scoop over greens, by itself, or what I did with my friends for an impromptu dinner party: throw in some marinated shrimp and chopped mango, and scoop into butter lettuce for little tacos!

Ingredients: 

-2 cups quinoa, rinsed under a strainer for 2 min.

- 4 cups chicken/vegetable broth.

-1 red pepper, chopped.

-5 green onions, chopped.

-4 basil leaves, chopped.

-3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil.

-2 tbsp. red wine vinegar.

-juice of 1 lemon.

-1 tsp. paprika.

Instructions:

-Once the quinoa is rinsed, place it in an oiled saucepan for 2 min on medium to evaporate water.

-Add the chicken/vegetable broth. Wait until it boils, then place a cover over the saucepan for 15 min, stirring occasionally.

-In a bowl, combine all chopped vegetables.

-In another bowl, combine olive oil, vinegar, paprika and lemon juice. Whisk gently.

-Strain quinoa, pour into large serving bowl, and add veggies and dressing. Let sit for 5 minutes.

-Enjoy!

Thursday Thought Process

Something I've realized after being a student for the past seventeen years (just counted that for the first time...on my fingers...) is that I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to the end of the week. I don't mean to be self deprecating, because I have the ability to focus very passionately on a range of subjects including a friend's boyfriend's inability to text her back within the hour or, say, my senior seminar, which scares me more than sharks and commands my wide-eyed attention each week. However, when it comes to mundane end-of-week tasks such as my hour and fifteen minute morning class or deciding between hot or iced coffee (Went with iced, duh), I just start to lose steam by the time Thursday rolls around. On Mondays you can find me prancing around my room color coordinating outfits and picking out the perfect jewelry, but by Thursday, I consider it a GREAT success if I brush my teeth hair.

THUS, making sure I eat healthy after hump day is important, and planning ahead is ideal. Enter: the Thursday salad bowl. By the end of the week, groceries have dwindled a bit and most of the good stuff is gone (cheezits, Chobani, pepper jack...I'm looking at you). So you're faced with the remnants. However, don't fret! All these leftover ingredients are dying to hang out in your Thursday salad bowl. You can literally throw whatever you have left in a pan with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and a few spices (I'm a big fan of fresh basil, a bit of garlic salt, lemon juice, and paprika). For this particular bowl, I only used my remaining mushrooms because my red peppers were frankly wilting, and that's gross. I chopped up some carrots, the last of my cherry tomatoes, and put it all over arugula. I opened up a can of tuna and put that on as well. While canned tuna is not exactly gourmet or fresh seafood, it is a good way to get some protein and tastes 10X more fresh without mayonnaise. I finished it off with some balsamic.

 While my ideal Thursday meal probably looks more like this:

I have neither the patience nor $$ by Thursday to create steak frites...for lunch. Lezbehonest, I never have the $$ for that. That's what parents weekend is for. And it's probably for the best, because the Thursday Salad Bowl is tasty, filling, and super easy. Also, don't be fooled by by running sneaker in the photo. My Thursday workout is a sad, bizarre looking walk-run that can barely be defined as exercise. I didn't have the energy to crop the picture.