Pesto Zucchini Noodles

I adapted this recipe from the Whole 30 recipe book. I am obsessed with my new Spiralizer! We are making noodles out of all kinds of vegetables!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup raw pine nuts
1/4 cup walnuts
7-10 organic basil leaves
2 handfuls of organic spinach
3 cloves of garlic
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1-2 zucchini spiralized
grape tomatoes sliced (as many as you like)

Directions:

For the Pesto: Heat a dry skillet to med-high heat. Add walnuts and pine nuts and toast for 3-5 mins. Add to a food processor, pulse until ground. Add the garlic and pulse to combine. Add the basil and spinach and pulse until chopped. Add the lemon juice and pulse to combine. Keep the processor on as you drizzle in the olive oil. Finally add salt and pepper to taste, pulse a few more times. (This makes about a 1.5 cups)

Spiralize a large zucchini and put in a bowl. Add a few spoonfuls of the pesto to the "zoodles" and stir to combine, add more pesto to suit your tastes. Toss in grape tomatoes and serve.
Options would be to top this with Parmesan cheese, grilled chicken, steak or fish. Enjoy!

Mexican Spring Salad

I'm sure anyone who used to follow this blog is certain that I had fallen off the face of the recipe earth! I have been so busy with yoga and my kids that getting dinner on the table has been quite the challenge. I have created several new recipes however getting the pictures and writing down the details have been another story.

This salad tonight was too good not to share and since I took the picture with my iphone....well here goes...

Ingredients:
1/2 English Cucumber, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 jicama, peeled and diced
2 ears of corn, kernels removed
1 T fresh cilantro
2 T red onion, minced onion
3 T feta cheese
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and gently stir. Enjoy!

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

I wasn't planning to blog this, (which is why I only have 1 picture, but this was too good and simple not to share) I am always nervous about making a stir fry because I think the meat is usually tough. Today I went to Publix and ask the butcher for a piece of grass-fed "greenwise" organic beef sirloin. I brought the meat home and sliced it in half-lengthwise then cut the meat against the grain into very thin slices. This was key to very tender beef in the stir fry tonight! It has taken many times but I am sure this helps, when the meat slices are too large they are just tough and chewy which don't make for good eats.

Ingredients:
1 lb sirloin steak (preferably grass fed, hormone free), sliced thin
1 t cornstarch
3 T soy sauce (I use Tamari, gluten free)
1 T canola oil
1-2 cups fresh broccoli florets
1 cup carrots, sliced thin
1 small onion, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1-2 t honey (local if possible)

Sauce:
3 T Soy sauce (GF)
2 t cornstarch
2 t brown sugar
2 T water

Directions:
Whisk 3 T of soy sauce and 1 t of cornstarch in a large bowl, add sliced beef and gently toss to combine.  Whisk the ingredients for the sauce together and set aside. Heat a wok to high, add the canola oil once hot, add beef, discard marinade. Cook beef for 3-4 minutes then remove from heat and set aside. To the hot wok add the broccoli, carrots, onions, and garlic and stir fry for 3-4 minutes, adding the sauce in the last minute. Finally add the beef back to the wok stir to combine. Lightly drizzle honey over the top. Serve over brown rice.

Vegetable Chicken Salad

I have been very absent for a while now and I apologize. Between the yoga studio and kids and sports I am hardly cooking! Oh and the fact that we got the Big Green Egg and now my hubby is making all kinds of yummies for us! I will get back on it this winter for sure!

Anyhow this is totally a stolen recipe, from Trader Joes, I was in there a couple weeks ago and they were sampling this and it was way too good and easy not share!

Ingredients:
1/2 package or 2 cups of Trader Joe's Healthy 8 Veggie Mix
2 cups chicken breast, diced very small
1/3 cup mayo (I use the real thing...it's just so much better)
Siracha Hot Sauce, to taste

Directions:
Mix all together and serve! Wow that was hard right???
It is so good!!!

*If you don't have a Trader Joe's near you, you can cut up the veggies your self it includes, red cabbage, green cabbage, jicama, broccoli,green bell pepper, radish, carrots and celery.

 

WW Friends: This dish serves 6 and each serving has 4 points! It is so crunchy and delicious!

Greek Chickpea Salad

This is a simple summer salad that is super delicious and super easy. I love making it on a Monday and snacking on it all week!

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup natural black olives
1 cup tomatoes, diced
1/2 English cucumber, chopped
3-4 T fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 red onion, diced
1/4 cup feta cheese
1 t olive oil
1 T red wine vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste


Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a serving dish and refrigerate for 1 hour. So easy and so delicious!

Shrimp with Fresh Corn and Tomatoes

I have been a bad bad blogger lately. I have been so busy with kids, yoga, summer, swim team, house renovations... honestly the list goes on and on! The other big thing that has had me cooking less is I gave my husband a Big Green Egg for Father's Day this year and he has been making some great stuff which has really reduced my time in the kitchen. I must admit it has been quite nice. Don't get me wrong, I love to cook but it is really nice to share the job sometimes!

My summer veggies from my garden are great this year! I have so many grape tomatoes that I am going to be eating them for a while and I need lots of recipes to use them up. Today, as I was thinking about a recipe to use these tomatoes, I remembered that we used to eat at this restaurant at North Point Mall years ago and I think it was called Mick's but I'm not completely sure about that. It was on the bottom level near the parking deck as you enter the mall. They had a dish called Corn and Tomato Linguine that was out of this world! My mom and I used to make it all the time. Even though I don't eat pasta anymore I still think about this dish. It is garlicky and flavorful and oh so good! So I decided to put my own twist on the corn and tomato linguine without the pasta today and this is what I came up with...it was pretty good!

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 ears of corn, grilled then removed from cob
2 cups grape tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup Vidalia onion, diced
2 T shallots, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, sliced
2 T fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 T olive oil
2 T butter
1-2 t kosher salt, to taste
Paprika to taste
fresh cracked pepper
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese to taste

Directions:
Heat a nonstick skillet over high heat. Add 1 T olive oil and 1 T butter. Once they begin to bubble add your shrimp season with salt and pepper and a few shakes of paprika. Saute until the shrimp is cooked through. Remove shrimp and set on plate.

Add remaining butter and olive oil then add onion, shallots and garlic. Saute for 3-5 minutes or until the onion is translucent. Next turn the heat to high and add the chicken stock and bring to boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 4 minutes.

Next, add the corn, combine well then add the tomatoes, cook for 1-2 minutes then add the shrimp back to the dish. Finally, add the parsley stir to combine then remove from pan and serve. Taste for flavor, you may need to add more salt here. Then top with fresh grated Parmesan and serve hot.

First we grilled our corn on the Big Green Egg

Then I prepped all my veggies

And prepped our local shrimp.

Ready for the shrimp, parsley and parmesan.

My hubby is stealing a bite as I am taking pics!

Veggie Tacos

We can just call tonight Meatless Monday. I really wanted to make these veggie tacos and am so glad I did!
They were awesome, my kids loved them, my husband ate them and said he liked them but that he definitely missed the 'meat', shocking right? So if you make these for someone who might really miss the meat, the veggie mixture would be a great topping on a cilantro-lime marinated flank steak. The veggie mixture would also be great in a quesadilla, on top of a grilled chicken salad or just eat it on a chip, it's yum! And if you can chop all your veggies early in the day then you can make this whole meal in about 15 minutes top.

Ingredients:

2 red bell peppers, diced

2 zucchini, diced

1 red onion, diced

2 ears of corn, kernels removed

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lime, juiced

1 T fresh cilantro, chopped

2 T olive oil

1 t salt

fresh ground black pepper

1/4 cup crumbled feta

8-10 corn tortillas

Optional toppings: 

Avocado

Sour Cream

Salsa

Fresh Cilantro

Squeeze of lime

Directions:

Heat oil in a skillet, add the veggies at once, (the bell peppers, zucchini, onion, garlic and corn) saute for about 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, lime juice and cilantro. Stir to combine then add the black beans. Cook for about 5 minutes. Taste your veggie mix and adjust the seasoning as needed. Heat/warm the corn tortillas, add 1/3 cup of the veggie mixture sprinkle the top with feta cheese. 

Mmmm fresh corn! I'm getting so excited for summer veggies!

Saute the veggies then throw in the beans.

Warm the tortillas then fill em'

My little vegetarian was a happy happy camper with a mouth full of avocado!

Weight Watcher Friends: This recipe makes about 7 cups of veggie mix. Each cup of veggie mix has 2 points. My corn tortillas are 1 point each. I used about 1/3 cup of mix per taco so for 3 tacos it would be 5 points! But that's without any extra toppings, so just make your 3 tacos then add points for your toppings. Enjoy!

Purple Cabbage with Bacon

Well the one thing about day light savings that makes me happy is that I can blog more! I refuse to take pictures of food I make when it's dark outside. The photos just don't turn out well, so even if I make something great I don't want to share it unless I can capture its beauty. 

I have been very busy at the yoga studio and a couple weeks ago I had surgery so I was grateful to all my amazing friends and neighbors who brought me meals and took my kids when I needed rest! I feel blessed beyond belief to have such an awesome group of friends. 

This recipe is one of my mom's she made it for us once and my husband and I both loved it. It is super easy so I am not sure why I don't make it more often. It goes great with a steak or pork. Tonight we had it with a filet, green beans and potatoes. 

Ingredients:

1 head purple cabbage

3 slices bacon

1/2 cup chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Chop the head of cabbage into bite-size pieces. In a large skillet cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and allow it to cool and drain on a paper towel. Pour bacon grease into a bowl, reserve 2 Tablespoons bacon grease to put back into the pan, add the cabbage back to the pan. Add the chicken stock to the pan, cover and continue to cook for 5-7 minutes. We like our cabbage on the crunchy side so I only cook mine about 5 minutes. Crumble the cooked bacon and sprinkle on top then season with salt and pepper and serve warm. 

Really is such a beautiful food.

Mmmmm....bacon

Toss the cabbage in the bacon grease then add the stock

Cabbage with crumbled bacon

Weight Watcher Friends:

This recipe serves 7- people and has 2 points per serving. Each serving is 1 cup. Yum!

Zero-Point Vegetable Soup

I have been a Weight Watcher for over 10 years and have seen many recipes for 0-point Vegetable soup. I have made it so many times. I would always make it a little bit different but over the years I have perfected my recipe. One of the reasons I love it is because it is healthy, warm, hearty and filling without many points/calories. Before I was Lifetime I would make this on Sundays a couple of weeks during the month and snack on it when I was hungry. Now that I am Lifetime I just make it randomly when I am craving it. For those of you who aren't familiar with Weight Watchers just ignore this paragraph.

I have found that when I make too much of it I end up throwing it away, I know you can freeze it but I don't like it after it's been frozen. So for me this is the perfect portion. Also I do not like mushy vegetables which is why I give so many time lines and the order to the directions of this recipe. Once the vegetables get too soft I won't eat it.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup onion, diced
3/4 cup carrots, diced
1 small red potato, diced
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 & half cartons of Chicken Stock (48 oz)
1 14oz can diced tomatoes
1 ear fresh corn, kernels removed
1/2 cup peas (frozen)
1/2 cup baby Lima beans (frozen)
1 cup green beans (frozen)
1 zucchini, sliced
1 cup of cabbage, sliced thinly
2 t fresh lemon juice
1 t salt
fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 T fresh chopped parsley
1 t olive oil

Directions:
Heat a large pot over med-high heat, add the oil. Next add the onions, carrots and potatoes and cook for about 5 minutes then add the garlic allowing the vegetables to sweat and soften. Turn the heat to high and add the chicken stock, stirring and scraping the bits of vegetables off the bottom of the pot, cook on high for 10 minutes to allow the soup to simmer. Next add the tomatoes, corn, peas, Lima beans and green beans. Simmer for about 5 minutes then add salt, pepper, lemon juice and parsley. About 5 minutes prior to serving add the zucchini. At this point, taste and adjust salt, pepper as needed. To keep the cabbage crunchy I add the cabbage to the bowls before I ladle in the soup.

Diced veggies ready for the soup!

I like  crunchy cabbage so I finally found that this method keeps the cabbage from getting soggy.

Top the soup with more fresh parsley and a squeeze of fresh lemon for a fresh taste! My husband and kids like to melt mozzerella cheese over the top. 

This Week's Menu

Finally the original intent of this blog comes to fruition! When I first started this blog the point was to share my weekly menus with those who wanted some healthy recipe ideas to feed their family for the week. I am a total planner! I find that when I plan ahead for the week I am more successful in so many ways. I spend less money at the grocery store, because I know exactly what I need and what I'm going to make each night so I don't make multiple trips to the store during the week. I eat healthier because I plan healthy meals and I can plan my day and even lunches because I know what I'm going to make each night. I look at my calendar and plan accordingly, for example this week my son is in a basketball tournament on Monday and Thursday  my daughter also has dance on Monday and I teach a 4pm yoga class, there is no way I am going to be able to make a healthy dinner that night if I don't plan ahead! I had to make meals that I can make ahead of time or in the crock pot because I am not going to have much time for prepping.

I typically get the paper on Sunday mornings and while having breakfast and coffee with my family on I ask for everyone's input on what they want for dinner during the week I plan my menu and my big Sunday grocery shop. This also helps during meals times when my kids try to complain about what we are having I can remind them that they each made suggestions on Sunday so to zip their mouths up if they have something negative to say. Ha!

Now that I am working and have less time to plan and prepare meals I am feeling grateful  that I have so many recipes on this blog to pull from. This morning my daughter and I went through recipes on my blog and picked out what we wanted to eat this week.

Today I am heading to the store. I am going to buy all the ingredients we need for the week! Fingers crossed that I get it all. I am leaving my kids home with my hubby so I can focus when I am there!

Weekly Menu (Just click on the meal name and it will take you to the recipe link)

Sunday: Brunswick Stew

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, we are still depressed since the Falcons didn't make it so we aren't planning anything big for tonight, just a bowl of sweet southern comfort to ease our pain.

Monday: BBQ Pork in the Crock Pot

We will have these sliders with left over Brunswick stew and I will whip up some quick slaw!

Tuesday: Skillet Lasagna

We have swim lessons at 4:50pm on Tuesdays so I need something quick this busy weeknight! This is so easy, lasagna in 30 minutes...sign me up!! Sever with a quick salad for the perfect meal!

Wednesday: Sweet and Sour Pork

This is a total family favorite. I usually serve this with edamame in the shells my kids love those!

Thursday: Mediterranean Chicken 

This is one of my favorite dinners ever! Can't wait for Thursday night!

Enjoy and have a great week!
Cheers!

Brunswick Stew

Oh my my...I have been a bad bad blogger! One problem is not enough daylight to take pictures of food! Half the stuff I make I haven't been photographing because I refuse to use a flash! I have probably 10 recipes to upload but have been completely slammed with the holidays and one other very important thing in my life right now, opening a yoga studio with my mom!
We are opening a yoga studio down the road from where we live and we have been working non-stop! Check out our website at http://www.breatheyogaatlanta.com/ and if you like us on Facebook then you get a free class... https://www.facebook.com/BreatheYogaAtlanta We haven't officially opened yet but have done a couple donation classes and raised money for some great causes. We will open in January.

I have made lots of things and have a really yummy lemon chicken that I made the other night but tonight I am going to post a family favorite and a fool-proof way to make Brunswick stew. It is easy as pie and out of this world delicious! It's my mom's recipe and it is always amazing but for some reason it always intimidated me. Now that I made it I have no idea why it is really a dream it's so easy. I didn't take any pictures in the beginning and and just took one of the final product when I realized it was way to good not to share!

So here goes.

Ingredients:

2 large onions, chopped

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 lb lean ground beef, browned 

3 cans cream corn

1 cup corn (fresh or frozen)

1 28 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes

1 cup Lima beans

1/2 cup ketchup

1 cup chicken stock

1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce

2 T butter cut up

2 T cider vinegar

2 T Mustard

salt and pepper to taste

hot pepper sauce to taste

Directions:
Place onion in a large slow cooker, place chicken over onion.  Add all other ingredients, EXCEPT the browned ground beef. Cook covered at HIGH 6 hours.  Remove chicken and shred, return to stew.  If desired, cook and brown 1 pound ground beef, add to stew. It is even better the next day!

Weight Watcher Friends:
Each cup has 5 points. Recipe makes 12-13 cups.So hearty and delicious!!!!

Sausage and Polenta Triangles

My family is very traditional at Thanksgiving we all meet up at our family farm, my mom makes the turkey and dressing, my aunt makes a ham and her special cranberry jello (my favorite dish at Thanksgiving click here for the recipe) my cousin Dana, brings sweet potato souffle and macaroni and cheese my brother brings collards and mashed potatoes, and I always bring broccoli casserole. We are so lucky that we all live close to each other so no one really has to travel far to be together on holidays. I try really hard to instill gratefulness in my kids. In a world of give me, I need more, enough is never good enough, I think gratitude is one of the best values I could instill in my children, honestly if they don't get any others I pray they get gratitude. Each year at the beginning of November we make a tree and cut leaves, each day we all write something we are grateful for and paste it to the tree. My kids love doing it and this year when friends or family came over they would immediately give them each a leaf and ask to them to contribute to our thankful tree.

You probably can't read any of our thankful leaves so here's a close-up...

This is an important part of the season in our house and one I hope makes an impact on my kids. 

As far as this recipe, I found it in a Cooking Light magazine and as soon as I saw it I thought it would make a perfect addition to our traditional Thanksgiving! Of course I made a few changes, I just have such a hard time following directions, however it is a trait that I am actually grateful for as it helps with my creativity in the kitchen.

Ingredients:
1 roll of reduced fat pork sausage (I used Jimmy Deans)
1 small onion, diced small
1 stalk celery, diced small
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/4 cups 1% milk
1 cut polenta (corn grits)
2 T grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
2 t Olive oil, divided

Directions:
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook, as sausage begins to brown stir to help crumble into small bits. Once browned, add the onion, celery and garlic. Cook until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Next add chicken stock and milk and bring to a boil. Slowly add the polenta constantly stirring so no clumps form. Add Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Once thickened, spoon the polenta-sausage mixture into a large casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Cool to room temp then cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight. Once chilled, using a butter knife cut the polenta into 8 squares then cut each square diagonally to form a triangle. Heat a large non-stick skillet to high heat and add 1 teaspoon olive oil, place half the triangles in skillet and brown on each side about 3-4 minutes per side. Serve immediately.

I took this picture with cornmeal see the notes below, don't use cornmeal.

This is the sausage cooking with the celery, garlic and onion, love that steam!

Here is the 1st batch I made with cornmeal...

Here is the 2nd batch I made with polenta.

Sauteing the polenta batch, Yum!

It tastes like an Italian Thanksgiving. So delicious, I can't wait for my family to try these babies tomorrow!

*Notes I searched for polenta for in 6 regular grocery stores and the only kind I could find was:

Don't use this...instead use this...

The only place I could find this was at Natural Foods Warehouse!

I made it once with cornmeal and it was not as good, if you can't find polenta, just use grits! Really it's the same thing other than the color. 

Weight Watcher Friends: Each triangle has 2 points.

Source: Cooking Light Magazine Nov 2012