Cranberry-Pecan Quinoa Chicken Salad

Confession:  I totally did eat the ice cream last night.  I regret nothing.

Anyway, here is the recipe for the quinoa salad that I made yesterday. Enjoy!

Cranberry-Pecan Quinoa Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 lg chicken breasts, cut into 3 strips each
• 4 cloves chopped garlic
• 3/4 quinoa, cooked & cooled
• 1/2 c. chopped green onion
• 3/4 c. dried cranberries
• 3/4 c. chopped pecans
• 3 T. red wine vinegar
• 2 T. olive oil
• 3 T. balsamic vinegar
• 1 T. honey
• 1/4 c. + 1 T. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. dried sage, chopped; salt and pepper

The night before you are going to make this, prepare a marinade for the chicken using the 1/4 c. lemon juice, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic, and sage.  Let chicken marinate overnight.  For time management’s sake, I suggest cooking the quinoa and grilling the chicken at the same time.  I actually used my broiler for the chicken because we don’t have a grill.  That way, everything will cool at the same rate.  When you are waiting for everything to cool, prepare the dressing by whisking the balsamic vinegar, honey, 1 T. lemon juice, and olive oil together in a small dish.  Once the chicken is cool enough to work with, add the green onions to the vinegar  mixture and let the flavor really soak in while you cube up the chicken.  I cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  Then, mix the chicken and the balsamic dressing with the quinoa.  Toss the cranberries and pecans in last.  Super easy!