A perfectly healthy and nutritious lunch can be manageable even as a busy working outside the home or as a stay at home momma. Prepare ahead and you’ll be blessed! You make lunch for your kids, don’t forget yourself!

This is easy to put together, really it is. Make the Greek Quinoa salad and you will get 4 servings out of it. Enough for you and the hubby to split for lunches for 2 days or keep it all to yourself.  Add some easy sides and you’re done. 🙂

Don’t you love recipes that you make once and eat twice or more?! I live on them!

Other Meal-To-Go lunches you might like:

• Mayo Free Chicken Salad
• Taco Salad & Peanut Butter Mousse
• Mayo Free Waldorf Salad
• Veggie Quinoa Salad
• Chicken Salad Wrap

Nutrition Info

Servings: 1* Calories for entire Meal-To-Go: 577* Fat: 26g* Cholesterol: 2mg* Sodium: 423mg* Carbs: 64g* Fiber: 8g* Sugars: 26g* Protein: 28g* Points+: 13*

Greek Quinoa Salad Meal-To-Go: [Gluten Free]

Ingredients

• 1 cup Greek Style Quinoa Salad
• 1 cup romaine lettuce
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, nonfat
• 1/2 cup pineapple chunks, drained if canned
• 1 ounce (49 kernels) pistachios

*Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

The post Greek Quinoa Salad Meal -To- Go: [Gluten Free] appeared first on Sugar-Free Mom.

A beautiful and hearty salad with a Greek style flare! This recipe is perfect for company as a side dish or even a main dish salad over a bed of mixed greens and more veggies.

Wonderful for vegetarians and those who are gluten free, but especially helpful for regular families as well! If you try to serve meatless meals to your family on Mondays as is the common theme these days, they will certainly not notice the lack of meat in this yummy salad!

You can make this with white quinoa, red or this wonderful tri-color mixture I found at Trader Joe’s. Taste is still delicious and for me not much of a difference in flavor compared to typical white quinoa, but it surely is pretty and rustic don’t you think?

Other Meatless Meals you might enjoy:

• Kale Pear Blue Cheese salad
• Zucchini Ricotta Whole Wheat Pie
• Sun-Dried Tomato Feta Frittata
• Pomegranate Sweet Potato Quinoa
• Roasted Asparagus Mushroom Onion Pizza
• Quick Italian Marinara Sauce

Print

Meatless Monday: Greek Style Tri-Color Quinoa Salad

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Calories 280kcal

Author Brenda Bennett

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa tri-color, red or white
• 1/4 cup crumbled light feta cheese
• 1/4 cup or 12 pitted kalamata olives sliced
• 1 scallion chopped
• 1 cup English cucumber sliced
• 1/2 cup shelled edamame soy beans
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Pour 2 cups of water into a medium sized pot and add quinoa.
• Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until all water is absorbed. Set aside to cool.
• Add remaining ingredients to a serving bowl and stir to coat with dressing.
• Once quinoa is cool, add to the serving bowl.
• Add salt and pepper to your liking.
• Serve over a bed of fresh kale, mixed greens or romaine.

Notes

Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 7*

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 280kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 2mg | Sodium: 379mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 1g

Directions

Pour 2 cups of water into a medium sized pot and add quinoa. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until all water is absorbed. Set aside to cool. Add remaining ingredients to a serving bowl and stir to coat with dressing. Once quinoa is cool, add to the serving bowl. Add salt and pepper to your liking. . Serve over a bed of fresh kale, mixed greens or romaine. Makes 4 cups

The post Meatless Monday: Greek Style Tri-Color Quinoa Salad appeared first on Sugar-Free Mom.

A simple healthy lunch to go or dinner to go can be yours with a small amount of time the night before to pack it.  Quinoa is the quickest ingredient to cook and everything you put with it tastes fantastic. The recipe takes under 20 minutes to put together and once done provides you with 4 servings.  You can certainly have more than one in your meal-to-go, totally up to you. 🙂

Making a recipe that provides a  few days of left overs for lunch is what I live for! Adding the balsamic dressing into the salad the night before is wonderful since the flavors will have time to gel and get delicious for you the next day.

I made this last week for my homeschool co- op day and always feel happy when my packed lunch is the envy in the parents lounge! It smells amazing and tastes even better!

If quinoa doesn’t’ suit your fancy, you can check out all my other Meal-to Go recipes!

Nutrition Info [Entire meal]

Servings:1* Calories: 551* Fat: 30g* Cholesterol: 0mg* Sodium: 320mg* Carbs: 68g* Fiber: 12g* Sugars: 28g* Protein: 10g*

Weight Watchers Points+:

• Veggie salad: 6*
• Pecans: 5*
• Apple: 0*

Veggie Quinoa Salad Meal-to-Go

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Ingredients

• 1 serving Vegetable Quinoa Salad with Balsamic Dressing
• 1/4 cup raw pecans
• 1 apple

Keep refrigerated until ready to eat. Enjoy!

The post Veggie Quinoa Salad Meal-To-Go: Vegetarian, Dairy Free & Gluten Free appeared first on Sugar-Free Mom.

This is my second recipe with Quinoa! My first on this blog was Quinoa Chicken Cherry Salad which I love, but sometimes I just don’t want chicken, know what I mean?

Variety is my middle name! Staying healthy, eating well, exercising, it requires work friends. Can’t eat the same foods all the time, too monotonous for me and for you!

Quinoa is so versatile you can add whatever you like and it will be fantastic.

So here’s my other favorite toppings I shared one day with a friend for lunch. We each enjoyed our yummy salad, so filling! The best part was we both had an already- made, healthy lunch for the next day, which for busy momma’s is PRICELESS!

Have you tried Quinoa before? What are your favorite toppings for salad?

The post Quinoa Edamame Feta Salad appeared first on Sugar-Free Mom.

I have committed to at least sharing one day in my life of eating so you can use it as a sample for yourself. Hopefully it will motivate you and encourage you to use food journaling for accountability. Some fabulous sites that have wonderful free calorie trackers that I  have used are Sparkpeople, Nutrition Data, and My Fitness Pal.

If you are in weight loss mode it really is the only way to really know and not guess how much you are eating.

I’ve been feeling a bit sluggish lately and I think it is because I have been overloading on carbs. So I am working on limiting the carbs this week which usually helps me get over that sluggish feeling.

My breakfasts will consist of egg muffins and smoothies which are both super simple. My lunches will consist of tuna or chicken with fresh veggies like tomato, cucumber, carrots. I will only be having a carb with dinners this week.

Yesterday this is what I ate:

• Breakfast: 1 spinach, bacon, egg quiche , 4 tbsp creamer for coffee
• Lunch: Quinoa chicken cherry salad, 3 oz carrots with 2 tbsp. hummus, 1/4 c. roasted chickpeas
• Afternoon coffee: 4 tbsp soy creamer
• Dinner: 1 chicken thigh, no skin, 1 c. brown rice pasta, 1/2 c. tomato, olive, artichoke sauce (recipe coming this week) 1 c. fennel salad
• Snack: 1 Greek Yogurt

Calories: 1324 Fat: 47g Carbs: 149g Protein: 82g

PointsPlus:30

Upcoming Recipes this week:

• The crepes I fought and won!
• Bacon, Cheese, Broccoli Quiche
• Tomato, Olive, Artichoke Sauce
• Sugar Free Dairy Free Strawberry Whipped Cream

What’s the hardest thing about food journaling? Are you currently using a food tracker? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comments are welcomed and appreciated!

The post SugarFreeMom’s Food Journal & Upcoming Recipes (1/22/12) appeared first on Sugar-Free Mom.

I absolutely LOVE quinoa! It is so nice to take a break from the same brown rice, barley and pasta and add something new every once in a while.

I used to eat Quinoa alot and hadn’t bought any in a long time. It is the easiest food to prepare and is really much quicker than rice or barley to cook as well.

If you have never prepared it before it may seem a bit scary, but really its so simple. Rinse the quinoa in a colander before using. There may be some dark pieces you can simply pick out.  Place the 1 cup quinoa in a pot with 2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil then reduce to simmer. Cover and cook 15 minutes till all the water is gone.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO DRAIN anything!

I just love that part!

It should be soft and translucent with a germ like ring visible along the outside. 1 cup of quinoa is about 4 cups cooked. Here’s what it should look like after its cooked.

Quinoa is so versatile. You can add almost anything you like and it will be delicious! Here are my favorite picks for this yummy salad.

Scallions, already prepared from my freezing cooking day, cooked chicken breast, dried cherries, and my Toasted Tamari Almond Snack, chopped! I will be featuring MANY more quinoa recipes to share with you how versatile it really is!!

Nutrition Info

Servings:1* Calories: 355* Fat: 18g* Fiber: 3g* Carbs: 26g* Protein: 21g* Points+: 8* Old Points:8*

Quinoa Chicken Cherry Salad

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Ingredients

• 1/2 c. cooked Quinoa
• 2 oz. cooked chicken breast
• 1 scallion chopped
• 1/2 tbsp. toasted almonds
• 1 tbsp. dried cherries
•  1/2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. fresh parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1.  Mix the oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and pour onto the quinoa, combine well.
2. Add toppings!

The post Quinoa Chicken Cherry Salad appeared first on Sugar-Free Mom.