Pork Chops & Pear Quinoa Salad

This is a great weeknight meal - speedy & good! I made a lot of extra so we could have lunch the next day too (and we ended up with a little left for the next night)

1 1/2 cups quinoa

3 green onions

4 cups chicken stock (make sure no sugar added)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup spinach roughly chopped
1 cup kale roughly chopped
1/2 cup chopped almonds

3 pears, cut up into small pieces
1/2 cup kale salad mix**

Dressing:
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 cup oil (whatever you prefer, I used coconut)

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon gluten free soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons fresh ginger
salt and pepper

Directions: 

• Cook quinoa according to directions (I use the chicken stock instead of water to give it a lot more flavor). 
• Chop up onion, parsley, spinach and kale and put in a bowl. 
• Chop almonds, and in a dry pan, saute them for about 5 minutes. You will smell them when they are ready, you just want to get some heat on them to bring out their great flavor. Once they are done. Roughly chop them. 
• Mix all the ingredients of the dressing together
• Let the quinoa cool a big and then add the quinoa to the salad mix, then add cut up pear and dressing mix. 
• Serve up next to some amazing sauteed pork chops seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder!

** The kale salad mix is optional. It was a bagged kale mix that had Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and a couple different kale types!