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You guys, I have to admit something to you. Even though I’ve been scheduling posts for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as usual, I wondered if you noticed that something seemed “off” around here.  I mean, I’ve been posting a lot of round-ups lately.  That’s all well and good and a great way to discover new blogs, but I usually make them filler posts from time-to-time.  Not a constant occurrence.  I had been going through a bit of an uninspired blogging rut.  It happens.  Thankfully, this one was pretty easy to get myself out of.  All it took was a little downtime and a lot of fresh air!  

Monday morning, I was ready to get back to it!  Sunday afternoon was spent outside on the deck planning my week ahead.  I woke up on Monday, got myself ready, and headed to the farmer’s market bright and early.  You know what I love about the farmer’s market?  The produce is fresh and you can get so much for so little!  And I did!  For $20, our fridge is stocked!  Since it’s officially salad season around here, I’ve been making all sorts of dinner salads to either eat as meals or with a meal.  With all of the veggies that I bought, I knew I could put together one of my new favorite quinoa-based salads.  It’s one that I can’t believe I haven’t shared on the blog before!

I’m basically obsessed with cooking with quinoa these days.  It’s full of protein, fiber, and all sorts of good stuff!  Like rice, it’s a great base for building flavors, which is why I love using it in salads!  this Mediterranean Quinoa Salad originally happened one afternoon when I needed to clean out the fridge.  Sometimes, the best food creations seem to happen at random.  Don’t they? 

So I whipped up a batch of quinoa and started adding all sorts of colorful veggies and a can of chickpeas to a bowl.  When the quinoa cooled down, I mixed it into the bowl.  There isn’t any fancy dressing on this salad.  All it needed was a little lemon juice and olive oil to do the trick!  Top it off with some crumbled feta and boom!  You’ve got yourself one hell of a healthy salad that you’ll want to eat all week!

Here’s what I love about this salad:

It’s got awesome, fresh flavor and a whole lot of crunch. It might be full of healthy stuff, but your taste buds will be far from bored eating this!  Plus, I totally believe in the saying that we “eat with our eyes” first.  I mean, look at all of that color!  Come on!  It’s pretty!

This is definitely a salad that’s worth making ahead of time.  It gets better after a day or two.  It’ll make a big batch, so if you’re into meal prepping, this is perfect for it!  You can easily add some grilled chicken to it to make it a complete meal.  

During the summer, this will be great to bring to barbecues or to use up veggies from your garden.  I mean, it’s not that expensive to make, but with garden veggies, it’ll be a super budget-friendly meal or side dish!  It doesn’t get fresher (or tastier) than that!

Oh, and my biggest selling point is that my sometimes picky husband will eat this for days!  Winner, winner, quinoa dinner!

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If you like this quinoa recipe, you might enjoy these as well:

• Everything Seasoned Breakfast Quinoa Bowl
• Chicken Cacciatore with Quinoa
• Quinoa Stuffed Eggplant

There’s just something about springtime that makes me want to get a good loaf of bread and make a sandwich. Am I right? Maybe it’s my desire to be outside as much as possible that makes sandwiches such an easy and convenient lunch option! We spend a lot of time outside on our deck during nice weekends. Sandwiches are so easy to make and take outside with us on warm and sunny afternoons.

Besides, with the warm weather just ahead, I can finally visit the farmer’s market again and load up on all my favorite fresh veggies. I know some people are all about stacking up the meat on their sandwiches, but I love to load up on the veggies (probably why I love California style sandwiches)! Plus, you know, you’ve got to have a good loaf of bread to start with!

In our house, we’re big fans of Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse® Hearty White Bread. Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse® Hearty White Bread is thick-sliced with no added colors, high fructose corn syrup, or additional colors or flavors from artificial sources. Farmhouse Hearty White bread’s new improved taste and softer texture will definitely help step up your sandwich game!

We always seem to have a loaf of Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse® Bread and a package of bacon in the house at all times. So I picked up some veggies and deli turkey to make California Turkey Club Sandwiches. What makes a sandwich California style? Quite frankly – avocado. It’s a total West Coast thing that has become quite a big food trend here in the East, as well.

I also added alfalfa sprouts to my sandwich. Have you ever had them? I can thank my mom for my love of alfalfa sprouts. They really don’t have much of a flavor aside from, maybe, a slight earthiness. My mom used to make us alfalfa and cucumber sandwiches as kids. Now, I put them on top of eggs, on salads, and definitely in my sandwiches! They totally add another level of that hip California vibe to recipes!

The first thing I did to make my sandwich was lightly toast two slices of Farmhouse Hearty White Bread. The now softer texture of this bread allows the inside of the bread to remain soft while the outside gets a nice, toasty crunch to it. This thick-sliced bread also makes it the perfect vessel for stacking on the ingredients! Once my bread was toasted to golden perfection, I slathered a little mayo onto each slice.

From there, I started building my sandwich. Instead of lettuce, I layered a small handful of alfalfa sprouts on one of my bread slices. Alfalfa sprouts still give a sandwich a little green, crunchy texture, but with a slight difference of flavor. If sprouts aren’t your thing, you could definitely use your favorite lettuce in place of them.

Then, I layered on thin slices of avocado and slices of Roma tomato. The smaller the tomato, the sweeter they are. Romas are somewhere in between. That’s why I love using them on my salads and sandwiches! Plus, their smaller size usually means I can get a whole tomato onto my sandwich!

After my veggies were piled on, I added a few slices of oven roasted turkey. Turkey is definitely my go-to sandwich meat. It’s a lean protein option with lots of homestyle flavor. Deli sliced chicken is also a good option for this sandwich!

You can’t have a club sandwich without the bacon! If I’m making bacon for breakfast and pretty much know that I’m going to make a sandwich for lunch, I’ll make a few extra bacon slices to save for the afternoon. Stack a couple slices of bacon on top, close your sandwich, and get your nosh on!

The next time you want to step up your sandwich game, consider giving your classic club sandwich a California vibe with avocado and alfalfa sprouts on toasty slices of Farmhouse Hearty White bread. Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse® Hearty White Bread is available in select locations. Find out where you can buy it here.

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How will you step up your sandwich game with Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse® Hearty White Bread?

This post may contain affiliate links.  Making a purchase through one of these links helps support this blog.

Do you remember when you were a kid, learning about the food pyramid in school, and being told the importance of starting your day with a balanced breakfast?  Then, we all became adults and a balanced breakfast started to mean getting to work on time while eating the contents of last night’s Chinese takeout, or grabbing a cookie off the counter, because coffee became more of a priority in the AM than a nutritious meal. 

Yeah.  About that.

I’m totally guilty of those, “Do I really need to eat?” mornings.  Or even mornings when I’m digging out last night’s leftovers just so I don’t pass out before lunch.  Even working from home, there are just those mornings when I roll out of bed and am already engrossed in my day.  I don’t know about you, but my body definitely suffers those days.  Sure, it seems all well and good in the AM, but by 2 or 3:00, watch out!  The afternoon sluggishness takes over.  Bye-bye motivation!

So maybe there’s something to that whole “balanced breakfast” thing after all.  Huh?  I mean, think about it. You never see a cereal commercial with just a bowl of cereal pictured. There’s always fresh fruit and a glass of milk or orange juice pictured alongside it.  Gotta get those food groups in!  That’s why I love quinoa bowls so much!  I like cooking up a batch of quinoa at the beginning of the week to keep in the fridge and add into breakfast bowls or salads.  So easy!

Recently, I decided to watch my carb intake again (yeah, yeah, I know).  I discovered how easy it was to make homemade bagels with just flour, baking powder, and Greek yogurt and got hooked!  My everything bagel habit had to go!  So instead, I used Trader Joe’s awesome “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning to make a breakfast quinoa bowl taste sorta-kinda like a deconstructed bagel sandwich.  Or at least trick my mind into thinking I was eating one.

That’s what I love about quinoa bowls.  You can load them up with all kinds of wholesome ingredients, but if you season them right, you’ll never get bored with breakfast!  It’s kind of like how I am with salad.  I can’t just eat lettuce and dressing.  I need to build it up into something that will excite my taste buds.  It’s the same thing with a quinoa bowl!  The more you add to it, the better it will be!  It also doesn’t hurt to eat it out of a really cool bowl!

But yeah, that everything seasoning is where it’s at and this quinoa bowl is all kinds of awesome!  Eggs, bacon, everything seasoned quinoa – what’s not to love? I also really love blistered tomatoes. Just cook them with a little olive oil until they burst. Then sprinkle them with some sea salt. So good! 

I’m really into alfalfa sprouts at the moment, too.  They’re great on salads, sandwiches, and really good with eggs.  You could always add spinach or kale instead of alfalfa sprouts. Just make sure you get that wholesome balance of protein, grains, and veggies in your bowl. 

Prep your ingredients beforehand so you can easily throw your bowl together in the morning before you head out the door! It might not be an everything bagel, but it’ll taste just as good, if not better!  Don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby?  You can make your own everything seasoning with this recipe!

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If you liked this quinoa bowl recipe, you might enjoy these as well:

• Apple Pecan Quinoa Breakfast Bowl
• Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Buddha Bowl
• Greek Goddess Buddha Bowl

This post may contain affiliate links. Making a purchase through one of these links helps support this blog.

When I used to work in an office, I would be so jealous of people who got to spend their days outside during the spring and summer.  So I made it a point to take lunch out of the office whenever the weather was warm and sunny.  Even if I was just sitting in my car, reading a book, it was nice to have that moment of peace and quiet outside.  I worked in an office when Pinterest was just becoming a thing.  I could have used a Pinterest-worthy lunch like a salad in a jar back then!  Instead of one container for salad and another for dressing, I could have packed everything all in one jar!  So easy!

Now, before you dismiss salad in a jar as some crazy, hipster trend, hear me out.  Mason jars are basically the perfect container for a salad because they’re airtight.  If you pack your lunch the night before, you won’t find soggy lettuce in the morning!  Just layer your jar with dressing on the bottom, then your favorite salad mix and toppings, close it up, and you’re good to go!  And let’s not limit salad in a jar as just a meal prep wonder.  The weather is getting warmer and you might find yourself spending more time at the park or beach (lucky you!).  A salad in a jar would be a pretty easy lunch to take on your summertime adventures, too! 

Your take-and-go lunch option just got easy! Healthier, too!  Get inspired to eat more greens with these 20 flavorful salad in a jar recipes.  Eat the salad right from the jar or dump it on a plate and enjoy! It’s an easy lunch option to make and take on-the-go!

1. Chicken Bacon and Ranch Mason Jar Salads – The Seasoned Mom
2. Mason Jar Salad: Italian Salad with a Twist – Lemon Lime Adventures
3. Tropical Sriracha Chicken Salad – The Healthy Maven
4. Easy Loaded Tuna Mason Jar Salad – Confessions of an Over-Worked Mom
5. Tyson Chicken Salad Jars – See Vanessa Craft
6. Mason Jar Broccoli Salads with Kale and Apple – Kristine’s Kitchen
7. Turkey Burger Mason Jar Salad Recipe – Food Faith Fitness
8. Sweet Kale Superfood Mason Jar Salads – Must Have Mom
9. Zucchini Noodle Mason Jar Salad With Farro and Mozzarella – Super Healthy Kids
10. Mason Jar Zucchini Noodle Salads — Inspiralized
11. Chicken Salad Mason Jar Salads with Creamy No-Mayo Dressing – Kristine’s Kitchen
12. No Guilt Mason Jar Kale Salad – The Cottage Market
13. Mason Jar Greek Salad To-Go – Scrappy Geek
14. Thai Chopped Chicken Mason Jar Salad with Chili Vinaigrette – Lexi’s Clean Kitchen
15. Rainbow Salad in a Jar – What Mommy Does
16. Chicken Taco Mason Jar Salads – The Seasoned Mom
17. Mason Jar Broccoli and Pomegranate Salad – SubjectVerbObject
18. Spinach Blueberry and Blue Cheese Mason Jar Salad Recipe – Gretas Day
19. Barbeque Chicken Mason Jar Salad – Nutritionist Reviews
20. Strawberry Spinach Salad Recipe – Mama Loves Food

 

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What’s your favorite lunch to take on-the-go?