Kale Quinoa Power Bowl

Since the holiday I’ve been “trying” to eat healthier. Like I might wash my girl scout cookies down with a smoothie or follow up my mid-day candy binge with some kale. This pregnancy sugar has been all I have been craving. Around the holidays I lost track of how many cookies I ate but let’s not focus on numbers shall we? So after the New Year I decided that I really needed to at least try to eat healthier, so I stocked my fridge with fruits and veggies but the motivation other than a few smoothies just wasn’t there.

Then I remembered a kale quinoa power bowl that I had at a restaurant early in my pregnancy. I remembered it being really delicious, fresh and fulfilling (which when you are pregnant is super important, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone back to the cabinet because what I ate wasn’t just right). So I decided to recreate one at home and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much it makes me feel like I’m indulging in something rather than eating a kale salad, but that’s mostly because it involves bacon and the words “power bowl” are so much cooler than “salad”.

Kale Quinoa Power Bowl

About 2 cups of Kale chopped

2 slices good quality bacon, cooked and torn into chunks

1/4 Cup quinoa

1 Apple chopped

1/2 Avocado

Craisins

Pumpkin seeds

EVOO and balsamic vinegar

Place first 4 ingredients in a bowl, top with craisins and pumpkin seeds. Dress with EVOO and balsamic vinegar. I tend to go light on the dressing since I think this is flavorful enough on its own but how you dress your salad is totally up to you.

What I like about a kale quinoa power bowl is that if you don’t like one of the ingredients you can swap it with something else or just omit it. Here are a few items that you can consider adding to your kale quinoa power bowl: pears, clementines or mandarin oranges, pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, dried cherries or use a different kind of dressing.