Superfood salad

I have been really focusing on eating healthy this year after having baby.  I have also only recently discovered the superfood quinoa.

I fancied a filling salad this evening so a quick search online and a few tweaks later, I ended up with this yummy recipe below.  It uses four superfoods so there is no guilt whatsoever, but is certainly not lacking in taste.  Trust me - I don't do bland!

Ingredients

Salad
1/3 cup quinoa
1 1/3 cup water
1/4 cucumber chopped
6 cherry tomatoes halved
1/2 avocado cut into pieces
1 small red onion chopped
A small bunch of kale leaves
1 tsp chia seeds
2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese (optional)

Dressing
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small pod garlice minced (or you can use garlic powder)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
Salt
Crushed black pepper


Method

1.  Bring quinoa to a boil with the water.  Once boiling, simmer for about 15 minutes covered until cooked through. 

2.  Steam the kale for about 7 minutes until the leaves are tender. 

3.  In a bowl, place the kale, add the quinoa followed by all the other ingredients except for the cheese.

4. Mix the ingredients for the dressing together.  If you like it less strong, reduce the quantity of mustard. 

5.  Drench salad ingredients with dressing, top with cheddar cheese and give it all a good toss. 

6.  Enjoy your bowl of goodness!  

I promise you, it tastes yum :)

'Carrot Cake' Pancakes

I am trying to reduce refined sugar from the family's diet.  Some days are huge successes and some days are epic fails but I keep at it in the hope that one day we will habitually say no to refined sugar.  In keeping with this, we tried a 'carrot cake' pancake. 

100 g oats

3 eggs

1 medium carrot grated

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp low fat natural yoghurt (you could use flavoured or low sugar if you prefer)

Blitz all the ingredients in a blender.  This makes four large pancakes or eight little pancakes.   Serve with your choice of topping,  Lil Man J happily ate 4 little ones with just a little blob of butter! 

Even if you did dish this up with maple syrup or honey, you have cut out refined flour and sugar in normal pancakes.