Toasted Sesame Quinoa & Edamame Salad

Quinoa tossed together with edamame, carrots and cucumber drizzled with a freshly grated ginger and toasted sesame dressing.

It sure feels good to be back blogging!

The past few weeks have been craaaaazy with horse shows, snowstorms, seeing my family....but now I'm back!

Over here in New England, we received over a foot of snow on Friday, and now 3 days later, it's sunny and 60 degrees.  One might think this is shocking, but this is New England of course...it'll be freezing rain one minute but blink and magically it's summer outside.

"Clean Eating" Made Easy

Naturally this weather makes me crave fresh vegetables and healthy ingredients, so what's not to love about ?!

When you want a salad that's going to keep you full until the "3pm snack time", try adding quinoa instead of lettuce like in this recipe.  This salad is made up of only fresh ingredients, nothing processed, and perfect for any "clean eating" diet.

The dressing contains toasted sesame oil, low sodium soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and fresh grated ginger with a tough of salt.  The outcome was an authentic dressing that you would think came right from a japanese restaurant...so fragrant and full of flavor.

I have enough of this to last me for lunches through the week!

The edamame can be found in the freezer section - look for a "shelled" version so all you get is the beans.  Quickly boil some water and let them cook for up to 7 minutes and voila - edamame.  Edamame is considered a wonderful low-carb snack that can also be eaten on it's own, toasted in the oven for a little crunch, or added into just about anything.