Tag Archives: healthy eating

July 12, 2015 · 3:57 pm

Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Feta, and White Lemon Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

This is an easy but yummy pasta salad dish.  I usually pack it up to take with me to work for a healthy lunch.  But it makes an2015-07-12 14.46.04 equally good side dish–especially for something like a neighborhood potluck.

What I use:

  1. 6 ounces uncooked pasta (I used Garden Delight Trio Italiano this time, but I’ve also used bow tie pasta)
  2. 2 cups grape tomatoes, halved (I had some grape, some cherry, and quite a few Roma from the garden, so I used a mix this time)
  3. 1 cup seedless green grapes, halves
  4. 1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
  5. 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar (I used white lemon balsamic vinegar from Carolina Olive Oil, but a plain white balsamic works fine)
  6. 2 tablespoons chopped shallots (I omitted these this time because I forgot to pick up shallots at the grocery!)
  7. 2 teaspoons capers
  8. 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  9. 1/2 teaspoon bottled minced garlic (I used fresh)
  10. 1/2 teaspoon salt
  11. 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  12. 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (I used Persian Lime olive oil from Carolina Olive Oil because I thought it would make a nice citrus-y summer dressing when paired with the white lemon balsamic vinegar, but again, you could use plain extra virgin olive oil)
  13. 1 (4-ounce) package crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

What I do:

1. Cook pasta. Drain. Combine cooked pasta, tomatoes, grapes, and basil in a large bowl.

2. While pasta cooks, combine vinegar and ingredients 5 through 11 in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add oil to vinegar mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Drizzle vinaigrette over pasta mixture; toss well to coat. Add cheese; toss to combine.

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March 3, 2014 · 6:31 pm

Black Bean Burgers of Awesome

So I’ve never been much of one for veggie burgers. But in keeping with my commitment to new, healthier foods in the new year, I decided to give these a shot.

What I Used:

  • 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained & rinsed
  • 1/2 small onion, chopped (via food processor, of course)
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped (again, via food processor, of course)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 tablespoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon chili sauce
  • 3 slices toast (turned into bread crumbs via food processor…of course)

(Note: the recipe I linked calls for bell peppers, but I think I’ve mentioned a few times how my husband doesn’t eat those)

What I Did:

Verdict:
Mucho Yummy-o! I didn’t even tell Trent what I was making before I had him try this. He agreed with my assessment: these are a keeper. We just had them for the second time, and this time I made a double batch, freezing four patties for an easy dinner sometime in the very busy future. And I highly recommend you give them a chance, too! Trent enjoyed some frozen french fries with his, while I had some of my beloved Mojo Corn Salad–which was a perfect accompaniment.

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March 1, 2014 · 3:37 pm

Homemade Pizza Love

I am pizza lover. Pure and simple. I could probably survive on pizza alone and be completely happy. And I like all kinds of different pizzas. Unfortunately, ordering pizza is both expensive and (generally) unhealthy.

So since my 2014 commitment is to cook more, order out less, and eat healthier, I figured–after 2 months without it–that I needed to ry some homemade pizza.I could have gone all out and made on of those cauliflower crusts I’ve got save on Pinterest. But I didn’t. I bought crust.  In fact, I bought some thin & crispy personal-sized crusts because I was pretty sure Trent would want pepperoni and LOTS of cheese and have no interest in my planned veggie pizza. I may have bought the crust, but I did make the sauce myself instead of relying ons something in a jar.

I used this recipe. Here’s confession number 2: while I think it definitely would’ve been better in both taste and health to use real tomatoes, I did not do that this time (I plan to next time–maybe this summer when tomatoes are more in season)


Of course, sauce alone does not a pizza make! I decided my pizza would be veggies, specifically mushrooms, red onions, spinach, Kalamatta olives. I actually had a dream about making this pizza last weekend, which is what started this whole thing. So I basically followed my dream to make mine. 😉  First, I chopped up all my veggies (except the baby spinach leaves).  Then, I sautéed them in a pan with EVOO over medium heat until the spinach leaves wilted. I used feta cheese for mine because feta is one of the lower calories, healthier cheeses (so sayeth Google). Also, it’s just a yummy treat on pretty much everything.  I used a store-bought 3-cheese pizza blend for Trent’s pizza.  We actually got three meals out of this: 2 dinners and a lunch (3 total mini pizzas each!).  The first time I did Trent’s I put the meat under the cheese; he requested that I put the pepperoni slices on top of the cheese to see if it would make his pepperoni crunchier, which it did.  Overall, this was a hit–and something I’ll do again.

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January 30, 2014 · 8:21 pm

Back to the Kitchen for Argentinian Red Shrimp Arrabbiata

When I posted the picture of this completed meal to FB and Instagram, I’m pretty sure people might’ve actually drooled on their laptop/mobile devices.  I got a lot of request for the recipe.

As you know, if you know me, I learned everything I know about cooking from Google. And most of my new year healthy recipes are on Pinterest. And that’s where this one for Shrimp Arrabbiata came from too (although I am now becoming more daring/confident and I’m not always–gasp!–following a recipe!).

Voila!

Voila!

I highly recommend you make this yourself because it was AMAZING. Trent and I both loved it. Devoured it. And writing about it right now and looking at the pics again just makes me want to make and eat it again. So.

So here’s what you’ll need:

  • 6 ounces fresh linguine (I used the Garden Delight kind for the extra nutrients. Trent thought this would taste terrible. He was wrong.)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used Trader Joe’s Argentinian Red Shrimp because that’s what we had in the freezer.)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Here are the directions:

  1. Cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and keep warm.
  2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle shrimp with salt; add shrimp to pan. Cook 2 minutes on each side or until shrimp are done. Transfer shrimp to a bowl. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in pan. Add onion, minced garlic, basil, and crushed red pepper to pan; sauté 1 minute. Add tomato paste and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cook 3 minutes or just until sauce begins to thicken. Return shrimp to pan; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Add parsley to the pan, stirring well to combine. Serve over pasta.

And here’s what it looked like:

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January 15, 2014 · 5:50 pm

Lemon Salmon with Lima Beans

So far I’ve been doing pretty good with my new commitment to healthier eating. Part of that commitment is a commitment to cooking more meals–you know, as opposed to take out, delivery, or heating up frozen, processed foods. I didn’t learn a lot about cooking growing up, so this is really an adventure of sorts. I’m not sure how I’d do it without Google, which comes in handy for figuring out strange cooking terms I’ve never hear before in addition to figuring out techniques for making food.

Another thing we’re trying to do is sit down at the kitchen table to eat together and talk–you know, as opposed to sitting in front of the TV, eating off TV trays. We even got some new chair cushions for the kitchen chairs, so they’re actually comfortable enough to sit on for more than just a minute. So far, so good. I hope we can keep it up–I’m really enjoying it.

Anyway–one of my recent kitchen adventures was this Lemon Salmon with Lima Beans recipe. We had a piece of salmon in the freezer and a bag of frozen lima beans. All the other ingredients were also already on hand (this is really one of the keys to successfully making good, healthy homemade meals on a regular basis–keeping the kitchen stocked with the right ingredients, so they’re always on hand). I’ve been trying to do that, too, and again, so far, so good.

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Even though I accidentally put all the paprika into the yogurt mixture, this came out good. Both Trent and I enjoyed it, and Trent noted that the sauce would be good to use on other fish dishes in the future. He really liked it. So we’re filing this one under “Make Again.” Success.

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January 13, 2014 · 5:48 pm

Grilled Tuna and Broccoli w/ Garlic Drizzle

My latest kitchen adventure in the new year was this recipe for grilled tuna. As it happens, Food Lion had some frozen Ahi Tuna steaks on sale last week when I was there, so this was a good choice.  I used a little less garlic than the recipe called for because our tuna steaks were smaller, and it just seemed like 2 tablespoons was a lot.  Otherwise, I basically followed the recipe as written…with the only change actually being an error. See what happened was I was doing more than one thing at a time–which never works that well. I was trying to read the recipe, cook the broccoli and prep the tuna.  So where the recipe says, “Combine 1 teaspoon oil mixture and Broccolini; toss.” I actually put the whole mixture in with the broccoli in the pan.  So then, I made another little extra side of garlic drizzle in case we needed it for the fish.  While I was doing that, some of the broccoli burned just a bit. This is why there are also no pictures of the broccoli part of the recipe in the slideshow below. But all in all, it was a delish meal–Trent agreed–so we’ll probably do this one again in the future.

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