Eat Yo Greens!

Didn’t your mother tell you to eat your greens?  Considering it's the day after St. Patty's, I feel it only fitting to use green.  Kale is a great, green veggie.  It happens to be a personal favorite of Madre and myself.  If you ever get a chance to eat at True Foods Kitchen, their kale side dish or kale pizza are my absolute favorites.

After a night on Mill Ave. with the girls, a light and refreshing salad was exactly what I needed!  This chickpea, avacado, & kale salad gives just the ingredients used and a picture, so you can personalize it with how much lettuce to goodie you want.  At first, I was kind of upset because of my structured cooking personality mixed with lack of ingredient amounts.  But, on the upscale I was able to personalize for my particular taste buds.

Some tips for making this salad even better:

1.     Sweat the onions! Raw onions can be strong.  Even with red onions being rather sweeter, they need a little help.  Sweating them allows for that sweetness to rise.  It can also add a hint of warmth to the cool salad.

2.     Make sure not to use the stems of the kale, just the leaves.  If you really don’t care for kale, substitute spinach.

3.     Mix the salad dressing separate from the actual salad.  I used olive oil (1tbsp), fresh basil (1tbsp finely chopped), honey (1½tbsp), & lemon juice (2 tsp).  You mainly need to balance the sweetness (honey) with the acidity (lemon juice).

4.     Make sure not to overpower the dressing with olive oil.

5.     Have the kale on the bottom or else you’ll lose the toppings (chickpeas 

      and such).

6.     You could try the crunchy kale that Brook from Top Chef did on the opening episode.

7.     Also, make sure your avocados are ripe.  With the ripeness and chickpeas, you’ll use less dressing because you already have some creaminess.

Viola! This fresh salad is light and easy to make and personalize.  There is room to add various flavors you might like on salad.  Need a crunch, add walnuts!  Enjoy this yummy goodness as a side dish to steak or salmon or just enjoy as a main dish.  Either way you eat it, you’ll get your greens in.  Madre liked it so much she dove into some of the planned leftovers! J

Luck of the Irish

Top of the mornin’ to ya.  According to an Irish name game, today I’m Greenie McFeverish.  Although we have no Irish heritage, we still wear green and decided to try this scrumptious recipe: shepherd’s pie.  It was so yummy that we scarfed it down and there was a fight over the scraps in the pan!

If you want a simple, healthy dish, check out skinnytaste.com for several ideas.  This recipe was easy to make it just took time.  It takes about an hour total if multitasking the potatoes and meat mixture.  FYI in case your family is starving…like mine.

I had my Irish style on with top hat and necklace part in due because I didn’t have any other green and part in due because I’m going out tonight with the girls in Tempe. :P 

My helper did the potatoes because I hardly make them and I was focusing on the main ingredient of veggie and meat mix….YUM!

Some tips about this recipe

1.     It takes about an hour so don’t wait before you get hungry to start cooking.

2.     We skipped the parsnip because the grocery store was out (WHAT), but it worked out.  Parsnips are a starch that would have taken the place of regular potatoes in actual shepard’s pie.  It would have soaked up more of the gravy sauce, but we decided that we liked the gravy, so make your own decisions.

3.     If you’re like me and really don’t care for cooked celery, get over it!!! It adds another dimension to the dish.  So, don’t skip it.

4.     We substituted yellow sweet potatoes for the white ones.  Again, we blame the grocery store, but the white ones are sweeter making the dish delish!

5.     We make ours as one giant dish, which means you’d need more time to brown the mashers.  If you have individual ramekins, then your taters will brown more.

    6.     Also, you can substitute fresh veggies for the frozen ones just keep in mind that it needs to be a carrot, pea, or green bean kind of mixture.  They should be precooked before going about half the time and then cooked in the mixture for another bit of time.

    7.     You can use any type of meat.  Turkey and chicken should be used for health freaks like myself.  But, beef can be used for super flavor profiles.

    8.     Most importantà use the same pan for the meat and veggies.  Using the juice of the meat to 

cook the veggies allows for less olive oil and some extra flavors.

We definitely found our pot of gold under the rainbow with this recipe.  Well, enjoy your day with a pint of your favorite beverage ;) or splurge on this delicious meal.  

Pizza Pizza

Well, starting off spring break with some grocery shopping and cooking like crazy.  I’m pretty sure I have about 4 or 5 new recipes that I plan on trying out just this week so be prepared.  I mean just look at my grocery list.  On the menu—quinoa pizza bites, another rendition of sesame chicken, and shepherd’s pie along with a 

few others. 

Be prepared for recipe OVERLOAD!

Tonight’s recipe was a delicious end to the day of warmth here in the valley.  It was a good rendition of a pizza but without the crust: quinoa pizza bites.  It’s a great idea for those of you that are either gluten free or trying to eat gluten free/healthier.  I even had my own little helper! 

I have two websites that provide the recipe.  One is “healthier” than the other only because it gives you specifics about calories, proteins, and carbs.  But this recipe allows for a lot of different changes to satisfy anyone’s particular taste.  The best part is that you can break up the amount of quinoa and add different food combinations to each one.

We decided to make normal pepperoni ones for padre and then a red pepper and spinach mix for Madre and I.  They each have their different flavor profiles.  Another combination that I plan on trying next is spinach and tomato or mushroom and Gruyere. 

Some tips to keep in mind for this recipe:

1.     You can make the quinoa before 

      hand and then reheat it  when ready for the pizza bites to save on time.

2.     These bites can be used as pizza 

      bites with sauce or  even  as a 

      edition of a quiche for breakfast depending on the flavor profiles.

3.     Use a non-stick pan as well as spraying the pan with pam to 

      ensure that you can get them 

      out in tact.

4.     Make sure to dice everything up well 

      so that tiny bites allow for each flavor and the food to be distributed evenly.

5.     The garlic is optional.  I forgot to add it to the first batch and they still tasted yummy.

6.     I suggest using Boboli pizza sauce because it’s my favorite with its sweet taste profile. 

Well, enjoy this yummy treat and check out the rest of the recipes that are coming up soon.  You can enjoy your own version of pizza with healthy, delicious bites! J

A Yummy Kind of Sloppy

Another lazy day full of sleeping in and taking long walks with the pup.  

Today compliments the Valentines Day agenda especially since all the valentines candy is ½ half…stalk up why you can.  Although, they have all of their Easter stuff up already…a little quick if you ask me.  The bunnies and eggs will be screaming their way to the shelves around you soon enough.

So, I got to use my mom’s food processor, which I didn’t realize would be so easy to chop minutely.  What have I been doing trying to do it myself all this time?!  I was watching chopped and sweet genius when I decided that I was hungry and should make something yummy. 

I went to my go to site: SkinnyTaste.com!  She offers healthier versions of yummy foods.  After having all my ingredients out I decided to get to work.  This recipe was super easy and delicious as always because I don’t think this site has let me down once. 

I decided on sloppy joe even though I don’t know what made me choose this type of food because I usually hate sloppy joe.  But I gave it a try.  Basically you cook your meat; you blend your veggies; you let it simmer with the tomato.

Here are some helpful hints and tricks that I used:

1.     I used turkey instead of beef because turkey is healthier meat; however the beef would make it juicier and more traditional.

2.     Use a food processor to get the veggies super tiny unless you want chucks of veggies.

3.     I used baby carrots and guess about how much would be one actual carrot.

4.     I used Portobello mushrooms because they are my absolute favor.  1 carton of mushrooms allows you to use half of them for this recipe and half of them for something else so have another use for them before they go bad.  I used them with the rest of the pepper and onion as a mixture to add to sandwiches.

5.     I used a yellow pepper but would suggest using an orange because they are my favorite because of their sweetness.  Again, you’ll have leftovers so keep that in mind.

Toast a bun and enjoy all the yummy ingredients at they come together. J This was easy, delicious, and a super quick dinner option.  I froze some of the meat because I am only one person and it filled about 3 larger containers.  It probably will serve you at least 6 times.  Enjoy a sloppy mess of goodness J