Roasted sweet potatoes! On a salad.
Genius, right? I’m not really sure what else I need to do to get you on board with this new lunch recipe.
I’ve been seeking some different lunch recipes these days. The same goes for dinner, actually. Not that our food doesn’t taste great…it’s just been repetitive. You’d think that running a food blog would prevent this from happening. Like, ever. But we’ve realized that laziness has crept into our meal planning schedule. Whether this is because of our switch to Paleo and we’re feeling out of options, or we really are just lazy has yet to be decided. It could ALSO be my lack of meal planning for July, so we’ve been going with the basics. In any case, our meals have been looking awfully similar the past few weeks, and it’s time that we change it up.
Strangely, salad isn’t a lunch option I pack very often. Usually, salads that taste really good need a lot of different ingredients to make them less boring—which in the past has been more easily prepared at home for dinner. I like salads with cold lettuce and warm ingredients on top, plus I like the lettuce to be tossed in dressing, and that sounds like waaaaay too much work for me to do over lunch!
…I’m starting to think that lazy is the meal plan culprit at work here.
Last week I brought this detox paleo power salad with lemon chia vinaigrette dressing to work and had a delicious meal with no hassle at all! Except for some extra Tupperware and dishes. I even got several compliments from my co-workers about bringing in delicious looking homemade food. Per usual. (I’ll toot my own horn on that one!) It’s like a gourmet salad from Panera Bread at a fraction of the cost. Win!
Vinaigrette dressings have definitely been the way to go whenever we want a salad. Actually, they’re almost the only way to go since ranch, and other like dressings are no-gos on the Paleo Diet. I’m very particular when it comes to vinaigrette dressings, and this lemon chia vinaigrette has been my favorite so far! And it pairs very well with this cleverly-named Paleo Power Salad. It’s a super filling, super nutritious recipe, unlike many salads you’ll find in a food court.
Who wants to grab a fork and dig in?
Lemon Chia Vinaigrette Dressing
- Total Time: 12 mins
- Yield: 14 tablespoons 1x
Description
Get this paleo power salad with lemon chia vinaigrette dressing to work and a delicious meal with no hassle at all! A good detox salad.
Ingredients
- juice from one lemon
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Stir together lemon juice, olive oil, white wine vinegar and honey.
- Then stir in chia seeds, salt and pepper.
- Let chill for 10 minutes in the fridge.
- Prep Time: 12 mins
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tablespoon
- Calories: 80
- Sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: 22 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Saturated Fat: 1 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 7 g
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 2 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 0 g
Paleo Power Salad With Lemon Chia Vinaigrette Dressing
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 2 salads 1x
Ingredients
- 4 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 8 oz. grilled chicken breast
- 1 sweet potato
- ⅓ cup uncooked quinoa
- ½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- garlic salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon lemon chia vinaigrette
Instructions
- You will need a grilled chicken breast for this recipe. Or, you can bake it in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes in a little bit of water, covered in your favorite seasoning blend.
- To cook quinoa: Add ⅓ cup quinoa and ½ cup water to a pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cover. Cook for 15 minutes, then remove from heat.
- To roast sweet potatoes: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut sweet potatoes in small cubes, and line on a greased baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil and lightly cover with garlic salt over the top of the potatoes. Roast for 10 minutes. Flip, then roast additional 5 minutes.
- Prepare salad dressing while potatoes and quinoa are cooking.
- Assemble salad: Toss chopped romaine in 1 tablespoon of lemon chia vinaigrette dressing. Top with 4 oz chicken, ½ cup cooked quinoa and ½ roasted sweet potato.
Notes
Prepare chicken, roasted sweet potatoes and cooked quinoa ahead of time to bring this salad for lunch!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Category: Lunch
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 salad
- Calories: 434
- Sugar: 4 g
- Sodium: 300 mg
- Fat: 14 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 10 g
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 36 g
- Fiber: 6 g
- Protein: 41 g
- Cholesterol: 96 g
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