Asian Quinoa Cabbage Salad with Almond Dressing

I know it’s winter. I’ve looked outside – no need to remind me. This is what I see. SNOW.

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Yes, it may be gloomy and snowy (but somewhat pretty, right?). But still, we all need a pop of color sometimes. And bright salads. All year round – don’t we? While I do enjoy eating seasonally, I do also enjoy salads in winter (and soup in the summer). And since we go meatless on Fridays during Lent, here’s an easy meatless meal you can enjoy  then – or even for Meatless Monday or any day of the week.

Asian Quinoa Cabbage Salad with Almond Dressing - icrashedtheweb

Asian Quinoa Cabbage Salad with Almond Dressing

Here’s what you need:

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa* – I like red quinoa, but other varieties should work fine
  • ¼ cup all natural almond butter*
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 3 Tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon (or more, based on taste) Sriracha
  • 2 Tablespoons water
  • 2 cups shredded cabbage – I like using 1 cup red and 1 cup green for color
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1/2 cup shredded carrots
  • few handfuls chopped cilantro
  • ½ cup chopped unsalted cashews*

Here’s what you do:

  1. While the quinoa is cooking, you can make the nutty Asian dressing. To do so, mix the almond butter and honey in a medium bowl. Add in soy sauce, vinegar, Sriracha and water and mix well until dressing is smooth. and stir until mixture is smooth and creamy.**
  2. Mix half of the dressing with the cooked quinoa.
  3. Add in vegetables – cabbage, pepper, carrots and then add in remaining dressing.
  4. Before serving, top with cilantro and cashews.  Add more Sriracha if you like more spice and enjoy!

Mine made four servings – perfect for dinner and lunch leftovers!

*Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post, but thanks to Swanson Health for providing some of the ingredients (quinoa, cashews, almond butter).  My views and comments are solely my own and do not represent those of Swanson. AND I’ll  be doing a giveaway so you can get some goodies too, soon 🙂

**I used all natural crunchy almond butter which is pretty oily – if you were using a less oily spread you may need to microwave the almond butter first or add in a little oil / more water to get your consistency to be dressing-like.

Asian Quinoa Cabbage Salad with Almond Dressing

Some questions for you:

  • Do you eat seasonal?
  • What’s your favorite hot sauce?

For more vegetarian posts, check out some of my past recipes or visit the linkup below! I’m linking up with Sarah and Confessions of a Mother Runner.

WIAW #21: Ice Cream For Dinner

I have a confession. These eats are from my Monday, and I had ice cream for dinner. That’s right – for this week’s What I Ate Wednesday, I’m putting it all out there and sharing with you a day with dessert for dinner.

The day started out healthy enough 🙂 B made me breakfast, which was great. I had some great egg whites with hot peppers, spinach and other assorted veggies.

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I was hungry a little after that and had a nectarine. I saved the apricot for later 🙂

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Lunch was a salad I had made ahead of time. Yay for Sunday meal prep! Grilled chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, pepper, olives, beans and roasted sweet potato.

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Snacks during the day included a sweet/salty bar (okay, actually 1.5 of these. I had started one Friday and forgot about it and found it after I ate the full one…)

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And some cashews. And the above apricot! Yum!

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After work, I had plans to meet up with a friend and take a walk and grab ice cream. We walked to Ohio City from downtown and went to Mitchell’s. I got a cup of their Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzel. Peanut butter yogurt with chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels. Oh my goodness.

Dinner.

Dinner.

I just hit a milestone birthday and am officially – and more than officially – an adult. Which means that sometimes, you just gotta have ice cream for dinner – because, well, you can. And that is what I did on this fine Monday. Peanut butter chocolate pretzel ice cream for dinner. #Noregrets

Was it a super healthy day? Not at all. But was it delicious? Yes! Well, that concludes this week’s  WIAW! Click on the badge below to see what WIAW is all about.

Some questions for you:

  1. Have you ever had ice cream for dinner?
  2. What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

WIAW #12 : Donut Day!

I can’t believe I’m already on my 12th What I Ate Wednesday post. It seems like yesterday was just my first one and now I love them. I just LOOOVE seeing what everyone is eating, getting inspired for some new eats, and documenting my own.

This WIAW features last Thursday actually. Why? It was a busy day. I worked late, didn’t have time to make dinner, and ate a dinner that B made for me and left out while he was at volleyball. But it ended up with some dessert –  woohooo! Because that’s how my Thursday was.  

 

I did about 55 minutes of the elliptical before work and was hungry by the time I got in around 8. I scarfed down the breakfast that B had made for me – egg whites and frozen veggies. Yup, the usual.

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At around 9 a.m., all of these GLORIOUS donuts arrived in the office. I have a confession – I’m not a huge donut fan. I do love some apple fritters, however. Anyway, someone ended up cutting one of the glazed ones in half and then in quarters so I had a quarter of one. The picture of the quarter donut didn’t look as good – so instead, look at ALL THOSE AMAZING DONUTS.

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For lunch, I hadn’t had time to make anything (again, busy day), so I grabbed something from my freezer. Surprise! It was some black bean butternut squash chili I had made (recipe here). It was so good.  Better than it looks, I promise!

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With my chili, I had a clementine and half a bottle of the Gingerade Kombucha. This is my favorite kombucha flavor so far – so yummy!

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And a side of radishes finely sliced. I love these. I need to buy them again.

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For snacks during the day I had some carrots and unsalted cashews.20150422_154904

I ended up having to work pretty late, so I had a protein shake also around 5-ish, knowing I wouldn’t be home for dinner for a few hours. Gotta love the Biotrust low carb vanilla! #ShakeSelfie Oh and LOVE that it’s light out so late now!

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B made me dinner even though we didn’t get to eat together! I got home to a plate of salmon, broccoli, shallots and boo chou. It was SO good and I even had some leftovers for the next day.

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I decided to make myself a sweet concoction for dessert – introducing Arctic Zero, PB2 and peanut butter, honey, white chocolate chips and a few peanuts. I reallllly enjoyed it.

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Some questions for you:

  • Have you made any Arctic Zero sundaes? I want to know!
  • What’s your favorite donut? Do you prefer old fashioned or the new ones I see everywhere now with fun toppings?