Many Mondays I kick off the week meeting my web designer, Dana Arnold, for a working lunch. She’s so fun to work with that we typically start our sessions with a lunch followed by a primer on yet another aspect of social media… (Most of you know that I was a social media virgin until May of this year when I decided to start this blog!). But learn I must and thus the Lunches with Dana continue. Here’s what we had:

Hummus Bowl

Ingredients (makes one serving):

2 cups mixed greens

1/2 cup cooked quinoa, warmed

1/2 cucumber, sliced thinly

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup hummus

2 Tbsp crumbled feta cheese

2 Tbsp plain 2% Greek yogurt

1/8 tsp dried dill or 1/2 tsp fresh, plus more for garnish

Put the greens in a medium bowl or arrange on a dinner plate. Top with quinoa, cucumber, tomatoes, chickpeas, hummus, feta, and yogurt. Sprinkle with the dill. Enjoy! The neat thing about this recipe is that all the flavors come together in such a great way you don’t even need salad dressing!

Instead of cooked quinoa you could use cooked brown rice. Both are available (fully cooked!) at Trader Joe’s in their freezer case.

For this casual lunch I wore a new pair of khaki shorts from the spectacular Talbot’s summer sale. They’re so cute because they have this great button detail on the side of the legs.

I paired the shorts with a new black cotton tee also from Talbot’s. I love the tee because it has twill tape across the back of the neckline. This little trick helps to avoid the neck stretching out from washing and hangers.

For accessories I wore a little tortoise shell bangle (old from Ann Taylor) and a little delicate brown beaded choker that was a gift from a friend. Lastly I wore leopard slip-ons from Sperry to complete the look. Leopard like denim is actually considered a neutral so it goes with many outfits. These colors will transition nicely into the fall, especially paired with a jean jacket.

NB. This great recipe comes from a wonderful cookbook entitled The Superfood Swap by Dawn Jackson Blatner, RDN. It’s such a terrific book. You’ll see numerous recipes on my blog from here. Every recipe for any meal is between 380 and 420 calories. And they’re all so wonderfully filling, delicious and straightforward! Best of all on this hummus bowl both Dana and I were so full we couldn’t finish our plates.

So when I couldn’t finish my portion I decided to keep my remaining portion until dinner. I just covered the plate with this cute silicone sunflower cover. Worked like a charm!

Have a great weekend! I’m going to head to the Farmers market to hopefully buy some sunflowers for my Sunday dinner table. Stay tuned…

PS The striped placemats are from Pier One, the plates are from William Sonoma, flatware and tumbler is from Crate and Barrel. Lastly the great cookbook and silicone sunflower cover are both from Amazon.

* Please note referral and affiliate links in my post may generate a small commission for me at no extra cost to you.