Chicken and Quinoa Power Bowl

There's nothing better than delicious and nutritious food that's easy to make. With my schedule, I typically don't even see much daylight. I leave my house as the sun is rising, work a 9+ hour day, hit the gym, and am home long after dark. The easier the meal is to make (and the more prepared I can be ahead of time), the better. There's certain meals that you can totally cook ahead of time and they're just as good. One of my favorite things to do is build in leftovers. For example, I'll cook some quinoa (2-4 servings) on Sundays. That will give me a few lunches and a side dish or two with dinner. If you purposely cook multiple servings, and measure serving sizes, you'll be so much more prepared for a successful week of eating.

One of the new foodie trends is power bowls. Super broad term, I know, but you can literally do ANYTHING with them. Pick a base- typically a grain/protein. My favorites are brown rice, wild rice,  quinoa, and chickpea pasta. Pick a protein- chicken, shrimp, salmon, steak, etc. Pick your toppings- literally any vegetable. My most common go-to's are sweet potatoes, kale, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli/broccolini. Lastly, pick a sauce- this can also be anything you want. Tomato based, pesto, tahini, lemon drizzle, avocado crema, the possibilities are ENDLESS. I do a lot of surfing to get new ideas for these power bowls because I always tend towards the same components. I found power bowl inspiration a few weeks ago that I cooked ahead of time and threw together on the fly, and it was so good. There were a ton of different flavors and textures, but it also felt light and refreshing while filling me up.

gluten free

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cooked quinoa (cooked in vegetable stock, much more flavor)
chicken breast, marinated in lemon juice and grilled
kale, marinated in 1/2 tsp olive oil and juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 avocado
1/2 hardboiled egg
sundried tomato and lemon sauce

Ingredients for the sauce:
10-12 sundried tomatoes - use fresh if you can!
handful of almonds
juice of 1 lemon
generous splash of olive oil
a few tablespoons of water to smooth

Directions: If you're trying to eat this on the fly, you can prep everything beforehand. Cook the chicken, quinoa, and boil the egg. Refrigerate. Add all sauce ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. When ready to eat, massage kale until it gets bright green and breaks down a bit in texture. Combine all ingredients and top with some sauce. I mixed mine all together as soon as it hit the bowl, and then added red pepper flakes.
*Tip: use the extra sauce! Throw it on a salad, use it as a spread for a sandwich or avocado/egg toast (toast Tuesday anyone???)