Hummus and Quinoa Salad

What motivates you to workout? The other day someone asked me how I stay motivated to workout six days a week.  The answer is I like food.  All joking aside, I’ve always been pretty good about sticking with a workout routine.  I feel that it’s good for the body and the mind.  I even work out when I’m on vacation.  Yup, I’m serious and my husband can vouch for me.  I still manage to gain weight on vacation, mind you, but it does help to counteract all of the extra calories that I consume. Food, on the other hand, is my downfall because… …

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Spring Salad

I don’t like naming a recipe after a season because no one but you knows what that really means.  However any other title that I came up with was just too dang long and I don’t like that even more. This is a Caprese salad with lettuce, chickpeas, and pasta with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  See what I mean?  It’s a mouthful.  Now that tomatoes and basil are in season around here I’ve deemed this a Spring salad.  You can call it what you like, but at the end of the day it’s a bowl full of deliciousness and that’s …

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Pesto Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables and Chickpeas

Quinoa is like sprinkles.  My husband wholeheartedly disagrees with that statement on the basis of quinoa being gross, and sprinkles not being gross.  I don’t mean how they taste though. I know that sprinkles and quinoa are two very different ingredients and that they are not normally found in one recipe.  (Thank goodness!)  However, every time I cook with either one I end up spilling them all over the kitchen counters and floor.  No matter how much I clean I still find some days later.  Am I the only one that experiences this? Anyway, I’ve been on a quinoa kick lately and this …

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Italian Chopped Salad

Wow, writer’s block stinks. I blame January.  It’s the middle of winter, it’s cold, it’ dark all the time, and there’s absolutely nothing interesting going on.  Nothing.  At.  All.  I suppose one could say that finding a new salad recipe is interesting but that’s not what I really had in mind. I’m really into this salad combo, but I’m especially loving the Kalamata olives and chickpeas.  And this salad dressing is the bomb digity.  I have to admit that I’m not always in the mood to make a dressing because it tends to take too much time, but this one is quick …

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Sweet Potato and Hard Boiled Egg Salad

I don’t usually like unitaskers.  You know, a kitchen gadget that only has one purpose.  However, I have an exception today. I’m talking about an Eggsact Egg Timer.  It was one of the best things that we registered for when we got married.  I don’t mean to sound like a infomercial but this thing really works and it’s under $5!  Yes, we registered for something that was only $5.  You never know what someone’s budget is and we wanted to make sure everyone had a shot at it.  That was eight years ago and we still use it all the time.  It …

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