Quinoa Salad with Moroccan Spiced Dressing

We eat healthy, balanced meals when we're watching our weight, but often we sabotage our best efforts by snacking on junk food. We can avoid this weight-gain trap by eating nutritious snacks. For weight management, snacks need to feed our cells with vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, some complex carbohydrates, protein, and essential and polyunsaturated fats - just like our main meals, only smaller. Unless we supply these nutrients at each meal, our bodies will cry out for them through food cravings. For example, if we haven't provided the essential fats we need for cell membrane, skin, immune and hair health, we crave unhealthy, fatty fast foods. If we have eliminated complex carbohydrates (found in whole foods such as oats, brown rice and vegetables), then our brains scream for them and we crave sugar. This recipe features all the basic food groups: leafy green vegetables and tomatoes that provide vitamins and lycopene; apricots that provide iron; and whole grains that satisfy our need for fibre, B vitamins, protein, and minerals. The quinoa used in the recipe has a protein profile similar to eggs, without the saturated fat, The almonds add some polyunsaturated fat, as well as more protein and calcium.
I love this salad as I can make it at the start of the week and store in small containers to use when I need a lunch in a hurry or a side dish with dinner.

4 cups water - pinch of salt
1 cup quinoa
In saucepan boil water, add salt and quinoa. Lower to medium-low, cover and cook 15 minutes. Drain cooked quinoa and rinse under cold water.

1 cup cherry tomatoes chopped
1 small red onion chopped
1/2 cup dried apricots chopped
1/2 cup toasted almonds, coarsley chopped
2/3 cup Moroccan Spiced Dressing
Mix above with quinoa and keep in separate container from spinach
8 cups (2 L) baby spinach leaves
Put spinach in bowl, add quinoa salad on top and add some dressing when ready to eat.

Moroccan Spiced Dressing
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp natural soy or organic yogurt
1 1/2 tsp honey
1/4 tsp of sea salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup flaxseed or extra-virgin olive oil
Whisk together above ingredients adding oil last.
These ingredients provide so much more nutrition than a commercial dressing. Cumin, ginger and cinnamon have a multitude of healing properties, including aiding digestion and helping to reduce blood pressure.