Recipe Review from 7/2 and 7/9/2018

Doubling up recipe reviews because most of these are repeat recipes or didn't need a recipe - weather has been too warm to do much more than salads or something on the grill..  And the July recipes are still not posted on the Cooking Light website, so anything from there is on hold until there is something to link to. 

Meal Plan from 7/2
Sat - leftover chicken
Sun - leftover chicken
Mon (yoga)  salads with  blue cheese dressing 
Tues - salads with blue cheese dressing
Wed - BLTs with egg and avocado
Thurs (yoga)   out for dinner
Fri - BLTs with egg and avocado

Lunches - chicken and pineapple salad

Meal Plan from 7/9
Sat - tempeh rubens
Sun - grilled pork roast and turkey breast
Mon (yoga)  leftover pork and corn on the cob
Tues - chef salads
Wed - chef salads
Thurs (yoga) leftover pork and corn on the cob
Fri - leftovers

Lunches - Southwest Chickpea Salad

The tempeh rubens were from Cooking Light and reviewed here: 3/13/2017.    I'm a little more loosey-goosey with the recipe now: fry onions; add tempeh, soy sauce and seasonings all at once; let tempeh warm up.  Toast the bread, and assemble sandwich.  Comes together in about 20 minutes and is a filling meal. 


Southwest Chickpea Salad (The Recipe Critic Blog) vegetarian, vegan option**
A tasty summer salad that is great for lunch, supper a potluck or picnic doesn't get much easier than this.  I did one significant modification: I added quinoa, cooked according to the directions on the package.  I just wanted to up the protein a bit and stretch out the dish.   Bright flavors, didn't get "mooshy" in the fridge after a couple days, and very portable for lunches.  Recommended!

Serves: 4  (I did get 5 lunches out of this by adding the quinoa)

photo from The Recipe Critic blog

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
1 15 ounce can black beans, rinsed & drained 
1 15 ounce can chickpeas, rinsed & drained
1 15 ounce can corn
1 pint cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
2 medium avocado, diced
1 small can of diced olives
Juice of one lime
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp salt
1⁄4 cup cilantro, chopped
¼ cup feta cheese for garnish (optional**)

For quinoa, bring 1 cup water and 1/2 cup quinoa to a boil, cook until all liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes.  Let stand to finish absorbing liquid. Cool before adding to the rest of the ingredients.  

In a large bowl combine black peans, chick peas, corn, tomatoes, avocado, and olives. In a small bowl whisk the lime juice, olive oil, cumin, chili powder, salt and cilantro. Add to the salad and toss ingredients until combined, Garnish with feta cheese.