Southwest Bowl with Avocado Cream Sauce

This meal is brought to you by the Suedbeck pantry!!!  One thing that has changed around our house is having quality ingredients around so that we can throw together healthy meals from things we have laying around.  Yeah it might take a little more creativity but that's fun right.  This recipe was actually inspired by a recipe we have on our 5 Day Clean Eating Guide that we use with our Clean Eating Groups.  If you want more information about those feel free to click CONNECT and reach out to us whichever way you feel the most comfortable.  

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked Quinoa
• Pulled chicken from a rotisserie chicken
• Bell peppers, use any combination you want, roughly 1 cup once diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 tbsp diced garlic, 2 cloves roughly
• 1/2 tsp red chili flakes, feel free to adjust up or down depending on your spice tolerance, this amount had a good heat too it.  
• 1 15 oz can of black beans, liquid drained and rinsed

Avocado Cream Sauce

• 1 avocado
• 1 cups cilantro
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 water, may need more depending on the size of your avocado and desired thickness of the sauce
• 1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions

1. If you quinoa is not cooked, do so according to package directions.  Quinoa roughly doubles in volume so to get 2 cups of cooked you will need 1 cup of uncooked.
2. In a skillet, add 1 tbsp of some sort of fat (coconut oil, butter, lard, bacon fat) add peppers, onions, and chili flakes and cook for 5 minutes, then add garlic and cook for additional 5 minutes until onions and peppers are softened.
3. Add drained beans, and chicken to warm them through.  Should only take 2-3 minutes.  
4. Meanwhile in a blender or food processor, add all the ingredients for the avocado cream sauce and blend until smooth.  As noted in the ingredients you may want to add more water to the mixture depending on the thickness.  I wanted it a bit on the thicker side.  
   
5. To serve, pile the chicken, veggie, and bean mixture on top of the quinoa and spoon/pour avocado cream on top of that.  Garnish with some chopped cilantro and enjoy!!!