Cafe Zupas Cookbook, Quinoa Salad Recipe and a Giveaway

Cafe Zupas is one of my all-time favorite restaurants.  Seriously.

I’ve absolutely loved everything I have ever tried there.  I particularly love their salads and sandwiches and Kev thinks their soups are the best ever.  The staff is always friendly, the service is quick and the food is so fresh and (mostly) healthy too!  Love it.  Kev and I always love to go there on our date nights.

I told you guys all about the wonderful Cafe Zupas VIP event I went to a couple months ago, right?  It was such a fun event and Kev and I of course loved the food!  I also won a wonderful Cafe Zupas Blogger’s Annual Cookbook and a gift card too.

Shortly after I got home, I flipped through the pages of this cookbook and was so excited to try out a bunch of the recipes.  It’s full of beautiful pictures and all of the recipes look so yummy and are easy to make!  Each recipe is written by one of four Bloggers and includes tips, tricks and a personal commentary.

I sincerely love this book.

I really want to make this recipe for Cheesecake-filled Pumpkin Cupcakes.  Yum!  Sadly, because of my little No Sugar Challenge I won’t be making these for about 7 more weeks (52 days to be exact…whose counting??) 😉

However, I did make a yummy recipe the other day that I LOVED!

It was for Quinoa Salad and it was fabulous!  If you’ve never had quinoa salad, I assure you it is so good!  It reminds me of a mix between pasta salad and Cowboy Caviar and it’s full of stellar ingredients.

Anyway, I really loved the Qunioa Salad recipe in this book.  It was quick and easy to make.  I also love that it’s easily customizable.  If you don’t like one of the ingredients, just leave it out!  Also, if you really love one of the ingredients, you can add more!  You could also get creative and throw in extra things too.

Cafe Zupas Cookbook Quinoa Salad

• 1 cup quinoa, dry
• 1 can black beans; drained and rinsed
• Cherry tomatoes; quartered
• 3 green onions; chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper; thinly sliced
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper; thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup Anaheim peppers; chopped
• 1 avocado; sliced
• 1/3 cup cilantro; chopped
• Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
• flavored olive oil (1 used 2-3 tablespoons)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Prepare quinoa (the cookbook includes directions, but you can also click here for directions)

• Place the beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, avocado, cilantro and lemon juice in a large bowl.

• Mix in quinoa and drizzle flavored olive oil on top to taste.
  • Note:  I didn’t have flavored olive oil, so I used regular olive oil and added a little garlic salt (I’m sure you could get more creative than that too.)

• Add preferred amount of salt and pepper.
• Enjoy warm of cold.

This recipe is fabulous!

It’s wonderful when it’s freshly made, but I also enjoyed the leftovers for several days afterward.  I paired it with some chicken to create the perfect Body for Life meal.

I also chucked some leftover chicken, leftover quinoa salad and leftover sweet potato in a bowl one day and called it a meal!

Loved it!  This salad is so tasty and so healthy!  It’s even good as a chip dip.  I’m sure I’ll make it all the time.

Giveaway!

Well, I’m happy to tell you guys that Cafe Zupas is giving one of my readers a Cafe Zupas Blogger’s Annual Cookbook AND a $15 giftcard to Cafe Zupas!  Yay.

Now, I understand a lot of you guys don’t live near a Cafe Zupas (they only have locations in Utah, Arizona and Nevada right now), but if you just want to win the cookbook (not the gift card), you can still enter!

Just leave me a comment saying that you only want to win the cookbook and if you are selected, I will draw a second winner for the gift card.  Make sense?

So, if you would like to be the lucky winner of a Cafe Zupas Cookbook and/or a $15 Cafe Zupas gift card, here is how you enter….

You can do one or all of these things.  Just make sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do because each comment=one entry!

1. Leave a comment here telling me whether you want to win the cookbook, the gift card or BOTH!
2. Visit Cafe Zupas Facebook page and “like” their page.
3. Visit and “like” my Facebook page too! (If you already “like” my page, just leave a seperate comment saying you do!)
4. Tweet about this giveaway: “I entered @happybnghealthy @CafeZupas cookbook and gift card giveaway http://wp.me/p2c7Oo-2fD”
5. Follow my blog via email, RSS feed or BlogLovin’ (if you already do this, just leave a seperate comment saying you do!)
6. Follow me on Twitter (if you already follow me, just leave a separate comment saying you do!)
7. Share about this giveaway on Facebook or your own blog.

Soooo, you can have up to 7 chances to win (just make sure to leave a seperate comment for each thing!)

Cafe Zupas Quinoa Salad

 

Author: Melanie @ HappyBeingHealthy.com

Nutrition Information

• Serves: 8

• Serving size: ⅛th of recipe
• Calories: 195

• Fat: 8
• Carbohydrates: 27
• Sugar: 1
• Sodium: 169
• Fiber: 7
• Protein: 7
• Cholesterol: 0

Prep time:  20 mins

Total time:  20 mins

Print

This is a wonderful Quinoa Salad recipe from the Cafe Zupas Blogger's Cookbook. I love it!

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa, dry
• 1 can black beans; drained and rinsed
• Cherry tomatoes; quartered
• 3 green onions; chopped
• ½ red bell pepper; thinly sliced
• ½ yellow bell pepper; thinly sliced
• ¼ cup Anaheim peppers; chopped
• 1 avocado; sliced
• ⅓ cup cilantro; chopped
• Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
• flavored olive oil (1 used 2-3 tablespoons)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Prepare quinoa
2. Place the beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, avocado, cilantro and lemon juice in a large bowl.
3. Mix in quinoa and drizzle flavored olive oil on top to taste.
4. Add preferred amount of salt and pepper.
5. Enjoy warm of cold.

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