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Last night I stopped and picked up some burgers for the hubby to grill for dinner. Usually we make our own burgers but we had a long day full of yard work and sometimes pre-made is just the way to go.

I’m not all about beef burgers, so I whipped up a tasty little ‘dilla for myself! And let me tell ya, it was GOOD!

It all started with this corn and black bean salsa I made.

I made a big batch and took some over to my in-laws for a cookout we were having. My salsa is a bit different every time I make it, but for this batch I used two ears of sweet corn that I cooked on the grill, one can of no-salt added black beans, 2 small tomatoes, about 1/2 c red onion, several Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro, the juice of one lime and two jalapenos. Since I made it the night before, it had plenty of time to develop a good flavor…and it was nice and spicy!

When I made my actual dilla, I started with some red pepper avocado slices.

Then I added some salsa and a little bit of cheese.

We picked up a new grill pan at Marshall’s this weekend that was much bigger than the one we had and I thought it’d be fun to see if I could grill the quesadilla and give it a nice crunchy crust.

The result? Delicious! It got a little messy because I don’t put much cheese in my quesadillas so they don’t always stick together as well as they could. But nonetheless, the dilla was darn delicious!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

One of my absolute favorite things about summer is making kabobs on the grill. There’s something about cutting up all of the vegetables that I find very therapeutic. And I love threading them onto the skewers and picking out what pattern they’re going to go in.

Ok, so I may be a little weird….but that’s ok 🙂

Usually I just put my veggies on plain, drizzle them with olive oil and toss them on the grill. Last night I wanted to change things up a bit, so I decided to make a little marinade.

Of course we were so busy yesterday that I didn’t even think about marinating the veggies until it was already dinner time and the hubby was getting ready to light the grill. Even though I knew I only had about 1/2 an hour, I was still confident I could whip up a quick marinade and give them a good 20 minute soak.

I started by dicing my veggies. Last night’s mix included zucchini, yellow squash, red/yellow/green bell peppers, onion and asparagus. *Side note, this was my first time including asparagus on my kabobs and it was awesome. Cooks perfectly along with the rest of the veggies! After dicing the veggies, I put them in a large tupperware container and added 1/2 c balsamic vinegar, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic and lots of black pepper.

After putting the lid on and shaking things up, I realized that a ziploc bag would have been a much better choice…..so I transferred them to avoid a balsamic disaster! Every few minutes I tossed the bag around to help coat the veggies.

Just before the grill was ready, I dumped all the veggies back into the container and threaded them onto the skewers.

Then I gave them all a nice little sprinkle of McCormick’s Grill Seasoning for some added flavor.

Then I turned them over to the grill master!

While he was busy arranging his hamburgers and the veggies on the grill, I quickly sliced some potatoes, microwaved and seasoned them and popped them on my grill plate to accompany the veggies!

The veggies had great flavor even after just a quick marinade. If you’re good at planning ahead, give them an even longer soak for a deeper flavor!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Recently, my father-in-law found a new job after being out of work for a while. We went out to dinner to celebrate but I wanted to bring him some dessert. He’s a big brownie fan, so that’s where I started…but I knew I wanted to take it up a notch.

He’s also a big of Reese’s peanut butter cups so I decided to go with some sort of peanut butter brownies. After some googling, I found this recipe. I don’t make brownies from scratch all that often so I don’t really have a go to recipe.

I made a special trip to the store to track down some mini Reese’s pb cups. In addition, I decided I didn’t want to put peanuts in the brownies. I was planning to chop up some Snickers and use those instead. However, when I got to the store, Butterfingers were on sale and Snickers weren’t. Annnnnnnd my mind was made up.

I started by making the brownies.

Two things:
1. I crushed up about 8 fun size Butterfingers and mixed those in just before putting the batter in the pan.
2. Lining your pan with foil when making brownies is pretty much the best idea ever. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never tried it before.

After the brownies cooked, I put them in the freezer to cool. Then I got to work on the peanut butter frosting.

One thing:
This made A LOT of peanut butter frosting. I ended up only putting about half of it on. Then I threw the rest away. (Remember that…we’ll revisit it later).

Then I started on the chocolate frosting. I spread the chocolate frosting over the pb frosting, topped the brownies with chopped Reese’s and photographed away….

Now let me let you in on a little secret. I hate tasting things while I’m cooking/baking them. I never eat raw cookie dough. I don’t lick the extra frosting off the mixer beaters. Until recently, I never tasted my sauces while cooking. I just threw everything together and hoped for the best. I can’t really explain why I don’t like tasting things, other than to say that I think I’m so afraid they won’t taste good, that I want to prolong that discovery as long as possible. Weird. I know.

Anyways, as you may have guessed, I didn’t try these brownies, or either frosting, until they were completely assembled. The result? Brownies- great! PB frosting- AMAZING. Chocolate frosting- BARF. The chocolate frosting, if you could call it that, was essentially just butter and cocoa powder, with a little bit of powdered sugar. And let me just tell you…it tasted like straight butter. I gagged a little bit while eating it. Then I went outside and pouted for about an hour.

I was angry with myself for not tasting the frosting earlier. After I regrouped, I came up with a new plan. Remove the chocolate frosting. You’re probably thinking I’m a little bit crazy at this point…and I’d be inclined to agree with you. But I really wanted these brownies to work out. So I plucked all of the chopped Reese’s off the brownies and set them aside. Then I carefully scraped off as much of the chocolate frosting as I could without removing the peanut butter frosting.

Obviously I couldn’t get it all off….but I did my best. I removed enough that I knew I could just mix the rest into the pb frosting and that would overpower the butter taste. Don’t you think a little of that extra pb frosting that I THREW AWAY would have come in handy right about now? sigh….

Anyways, I wanted to add a little something extra to the top to take away from the fact that it was now kind of a weird light brown color from the mix of tan and brown frostings….so I crushed up a couple more Butterfingers and after putting the Reese’s pieces back on, I sprinkled the whole thing with Butterfingers and voila! Good as new.

 

My father-in-law texted me the following the next day:

“The brownies are unbelievable!!! Should call them death by peanut butter/chocolate brownies. Too good :)”

And the day after that, he texted me this:

“Your brownies are the best I have ever had ever!”

You get the idea.

Go make these now.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

 

This week we’re focusing on simple dinners. 1) Because they’ve become a necessity in my life and 2) Because they’re awesome.

In case you haven’t looked at the calendar lately, it’s already May! You know what that means? Cinco de Mayo is coming up! I thought I should whip up a Mexican-inspired recipe to get you guys in the mood.

Last week I threw some chicken breast in the crockpot with some broth and let them cook on low for 6 hours. Then I shredded them with two forks, froze half the chicken and stuck the other half in the fridge. (Side note: Katie calls these chicken boobs. Literally made me laugh out loud when I read her post the other day.)

When I got home from work today, I took some chicken out of the fridge and added some barbeque sauce. Then I pulled some black beans out of the freezer, defrosted them and mixed them with some corn and about 1 Tbsp of chopped cilantro.

Next, I soaked a spring roll wrapper in warm water until it was soft. Then it was time to build the roll! I started with the bbq chicken, added the corn and beans and topped it off with a little bit of Mexican cheese and some avocado slices. I would have added tomatoes too but I was fresh out! Then I carefully rolled everything up, tucking in the ends as I went.

Slice in half and enjoy! It’s not the prettiest thing to look at but it sure tasted good. I loved the flavor of the fresh cilantro with the bbq sauce.

I enjoyed mine with some green beans and an orange….not Mexican in the slightest 🙂

These could easily be made with regular tortillas….I’m just kinda obsessed with spring roll wrappers. 

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

This, my friends, is TBS.

The. Best. Salad.

EVER!

Actually, it’s so good that I’ve eaten it for dinner two nights in a row. That’s right. The exact same salad. And quite honestly, I’ll probably eat it again tonight. What can I say…I’m a creature of habit. In fact, if it weren’t for my hubby, I wouldn’t have a food blog…because I’d just eat the same four things over and over…and no one wants to see that. So for his sake (and yours!) I usually try to get a little more creative in the kitchen.

BUT since the hubby has been busy with work for the past few nights, I’ve allowed myself the indulgence of repetitive eating 🙂

So let’s build this salad, shall we?

Start with about 2 cups of baby spinach. Add 1/2 c quinoa. Then pile on the toppings. This should include, but is not limited to:
-strawberries
-red peppers
-apples
-red onions (forgot these the first night!)
-roasted sweet potato

Top with sesame ginger dressing and dig in!

Lather, rinse, repeat for night 2!

I enjoyed the other half of my red pepper and the other half of my apple on the side each night! Protein, veggies and fruit- oh my! There’s not a single thing about this salad that I don’t LOVE 🙂

So tell me, what’s your absolute favorite salad topping?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

This is what two hours in the kitchen on a Sunday morning can get you:

That would be 10 meat muffins, 6 turkey burgers, 1 pan of lasagna (baked in 3 individual pans) and 2 containers of spaghetti sauce.

Also known as “what the hubby will be eating on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings for the next several weeks.”

Spring quarter starts today, and since I’ll now be gone on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, I knew I needed to prepare some simple meals for the hubby…unless I was ok with him eating an entire frozen pizza two nights a week! That doesn’t exactly jive with my “Dietitian in training” status so I got to work.

I started with the meatloaf and the turkey burgers. Since they have pretty similar ingredients, it was easy to make them at the same time. I opted to cook the meatloaf in muffin form to make it easy to store in individual batches.

While those were cooling, I got to work on the meat sauce for the lasagna. As usual, I added a ton of vegetables and garlic. After they had been sauteing for a while,  I added two big cans of no-salt-added crushed tomatoes and a can of no-salt-added fire roasted diced tomatoes to the pan.

While the sauce simmered, I cooked the lasagna noodles and mixed together the frozen spinach and ricotta cheese. I had to trim each noodle by about 2 inches so that they would fit in the disposable pans I bought, but I knew it would be a lot easier to store the three separate pans than it would be to make room for an entire pan of lasagna in my freezer. I essentially put one “row” of my typical pan of lasagna in each container.

I covered each one with foil and into the oven they went for 30 minutes. Once everything was cooled, I got it ready for the freezer. I wanted to divide everything into typical “dinner portions” for the hubby so I paired the turkey burgers and split the meat muffins into 3, 3 and 4. This will make it easy for me to simply grab a bag out of the freezer the night before and put it in the fridge so that all the hubby has to do is heat it up. For the lasagna, I can take out on pan at a time and he can eat half for dinner and the other half for lunch.

I divided the remaining sauce into two tupperware containers so I can just pull one out and defrost it for an easy spaghetti dinner during the week!

Later in the afternoon, I did some more prep work. I cooked a big batch of quinoa to eat throughout the week and I roasted a couple cans of chickpeas (one of my favorite snacks!) so that I could pack them to munch on between classes.

Last week, I saw Heather’s post for Crunchy Green Split Peas and I was immediately intrigued. I’ve never cooked split peas myself and have no conscious memory of ever eating them…although I suspect my mom probably made them when I was younger…but they’re packed with protein and fiber so I decided to give them a try. Like lentils, you don’t have to soak them- just rinse them off, put them in a pot with some water and let them simmer for 20 minutes or so. Since I was already roasting the chickpeas, I decided to do the same to the peas. I patted them dry, sprayed them with olive oil and seasoned them, then stuck them in the oven at 400 degrees F, stirring them every 10 minutes or so until crunchy.

The result? They’re good! I saved half of them after cooking so I can try them non-roasted. I’ll have to get back to you on my opinion.As for the roasted kind? Perfect to munch on mixed with my chickpeas.

If you close your eyes and use your imagination, they taste just like candy buttons. Remember those?!

Ok, so not exactly….but the size and shape are dead on!

So there you have it! I’m ready to face this quarter head on 🙂 Now you tell me- have you ever had split peas? What’s your favorite way to eat them?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Ever since Kerstin posted these Indian Saag Naanburgers about a month ago, they’ve been lurking in the back of my mind. I had some ground turkey in the fridge that was ready to be used today, so I started brainstorming.

I thought about an Indian Turkey & Lentils dish that I made a few weeks ago and thought it might be fun to use 1/2 the package of turkey and then add some lentils to the burgers.

Then I remembered these Sweet Potato & Pecan Burgers that I also had bookmarked from Cooking Light. I pulled them up to refresh my memory and realized that they actually got pretty bad reviews, especially for a Cooking Light recipe! But still, I believed I could incorporate some sweet potatoes into my burgers. I mean, curried roasted sweet potatoes are one of my favorite things after all!

So off I went to the kitchen to attempt to combine those three recipes!

I started by cooking the lentils. While they were simmering, I put the turkey in a large bowl with some garlic. I microwaved a large sweet potato and scooped half of it into the bowl. I added some spices,  panko, onion and some Chobani. Finally, I threw in the lentils. Then I dug in, mixed everything together and formed some patties!

I stuck them in the freezer for about 45 minutes, pan seared them on both sides and popped them in the oven. See my handy dandy thermometer?!

I topped the burgers with some pepperjack cheese and a tomato slice.

The results?! Good!  After reading the reviews of the sweet potato burgers, I was worried that these would be soft and mushy. If you’re comparing them to straight meat burgers they are definitely softer, but considering the ingredients, they turned out better than I expected. The pan searing gave them a nice brown outside. I baked them because I was worried they would fall apart if I flipped them too often in the pan, but I think they would have been fine. Next time I’m going to try pan searing them the whole way….or maybe grilling them if I get brave!

I thought about making the saag topping, but got lazy. However, I told the hubby about it and he thought he would enjoy it so I’ll definitely add that next time! You could also add more spices to the burgers, perhaps some paprika or  even some bbq sauce?!

 

Best part? Leftovers for lunch!

What’s the most creative burger you’ve ever made?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

 

A few weeks ago, I came across a recipe for a Tex Mex bake that involved barley in the March issue of Rachel Ray’s Magazine. I’d been thinking about using barley as my pick of the week for a a couple weeks and this seemed like a good way to ease into it since the hubby adores Mexican.

I wasn’t totally digging Ray Ray’s version because it had snap peas in it, which I’m all about, but not in a dish like this…I also had 1/2 lb ground turkey that I needed to use up, so I made my own version.

Here’s what you do:

Start by cooking your turkey with some garlic, onion, mushroom and green pepper. Then add some black beans, tomato and corn. I seasoned the mixture with cumin and cayenne pepper.

While that’s cooking, cook your barley. I found quick-cooking pearl barley at my grocery store and decided it would be perfect. Just boil water, add and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Add your barley to the meat mixture and remove from heat. Then, melt 1 Tbsp butter in a pan and add 2 Tbsp flour. Whisk together for 1 minute, then add some warm milk. Bring to a simmer, then added some shredded pepperjack cheese and stir until melted. Then add the cheese mixture to the meat mixture. I used 1 1/2 c milk and about 1 1/2 c cheese, which is a reduced amount compared to what Rachel used. I didn’t even end up using all of that once I had the cheese mixture made. It’s up to you how cheesey you want to make it. I probably would have been fine with about 3/4 c milk and 1 c cheese.

Transfer the mixture to a baking dish, cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Uncover, top with crumbled tortilla chips and return to the oven for 10 more minutes.

 

I served mine with roasted balsamic asparagus for the hubby and sauteed balsamic kale for me!

Serve with extra chips, or over extra chips like taco salad:

In conclusion, the hubby would like you to commiserate with him because he has consumed almost his entire Costco-sized bottle of Cholula. Waa waa….

So tell me, are you a hot sauce fanatic?

Hope you guys enjoy this recipe. I thought it was delicious and I’m sure the hubby will be eating the leftovers in a taco for lunch tomorrow 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Normally I’m pretty good at managing my time. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say I’m great at it. I’m a  busy girl, and I do a pretty good job of getting everything done on time, and in an organized fashion.

I’m also slightly obsessive. Obsessive compulsive when it comes to things like checking three times in a row to make sure my alarm is set, or that I did in fact put my keys in my bag. Other times I get obsessive about ideas. Like the time I decided, despite the fact that I had just started 3 weeks of vacation, that my office need to be cleaned and organized at one o’clock in the morning. Or the time I decided I needed to scrapbook an entire year of  photos in 2 days. Or the time I found a wallet that I was in love with but was too cheap to pay for and I decided I needed to find one at half the price they were selling it in the stores. You get the idea…

So yesterday, when I decided that I HAD to make homemade nutrigrain bars, nothing was going to stop me. Did I have other things I should have been doing instead? Yes. Do I have a huge biochem test next week that I should be studying for? Absolutely. Am I supposed to be writing a dietary menu for a renal patient and doing a 9 page case study for my practicum? Yep. Did any of that stop me? Absolutely not.

It all started on the bus ride back to my car after class. I don’t usually eat Nutrigrain bars because they higher in sugar and they have a super long list of what I view as unnecessary ingredients. But occasionally I buy them for the hubby because he likes to have things to snack on. Yesterday I was a little out of sorts and running behind and I grabbed one of the bars on my way to class. As I sat there on the bus eating it, I started thinking about fig newtons. And how they were sort of similar. And how I loved them as a kid. And how I want to try this recipe for them. Sidetracked.  And how I loved them. See what I mean about being out of sorts? What it boils down to is that I decided that I was quite capable of making my own version of homemade nutrigrain bars and that’s what I spent my evening doing. (After I took a 3 hour nap because I am feeling pre-sick and am trying to fend it off…but let’s not talk about that).

After doing some googling and not finding any recipes that I deemed super healthy, I made up my own but these two gave me a starting point: Jenna’s Fig Newtons and Carrie’s Almost Nutrigrain Bars.

Here’s what I came up with:

Combine some greek yogurt and brown sugar. Add an egg and some vanilla. Stir in some flour and oats, baking powder,  baking soda and cinnamon.

Freeze the dough for a little bit and then press it out into nutrigrain sized rectangles (Yes I’m aware that that’s not very precise…deal with it!) Use a knife to cut off the scraggly edges.

For my fruit filling, I used the leftover blackberry jam I made back in December when I was making these blackberry oatmeal bars and had stored in the freezer until now.

You could also make your own by mixing some frozen berries with a little bit of sugar and letting it boil away 🙂 Or just use store bought.

Spread some fruit on the rectangles, fold the dough over the top and pinch the seams to seal.

Bake and enjoy! I literally closed my eyes when I opened the oven because I was afraid the blackberries would have leaked out everywhere, but they didn’t! This was as bad as it got!

I did learn, however, that if you’re going to put a little dough patch over a place where the dough split when folding, you should spend a little time making it blend in instead of just slapping it on there, or it will look like a tumor after baking:

The result? They’re not bad guys! Considering I didn’t use any butter or oil and very little sugar! They puffed up a bit more than i thought they would, but that’s ok. I thought I was putting too much filling in, or that the filling would be too watery but it stayed put! The shell is chewy. It’s been my experience that using greek yogurt in baking makes things chewy. And the shell doesn’t have as much flavor as if I had used some butter or a little more sugar, but i’m used to doing that with my baking so it tastes pretty good to me!

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Homemade Nutrigrain Bars

1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 c oats
1/2 c plain Chobani greek yogurt
1 egg
1/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1) Mix the yogurt and brown sugar on medium for 1 minute.
2) Add the egg and vanilla.
3) Stir in the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.
4) Shape dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for 30 min.
5) Divide the dough in half, put half back in the dough back in the freezer.
6) Roll or press the dough into a rough rectangle. Trim off the sides and cut into squares that are approximately 3 or 4 inches by 4 inches.
7) Spoon some fruit onto the square, fold dough in half and press seams to close.
8 ) Repeat with the rest of the dough.
9) Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

*Makes 8-9 bars

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So tell me, how would you tweak this recipe but still keep it healthy?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Let me start by saying that I don’t like black bean soup. In fact, until last year, I couldn’t even eat black beans themselves. Over the past year, I’ve gotten better at adding them to things and I even kinda like them in my salsa.

Let me also say that the hubby loves black bean soup. Especially from Panera. So when some family friends put in a request for “healthy black bean soup”, I decided I would give it a try.

I started by scouring the internet for recipes. And let me tell you, there are a lot out there. Just for kicks, I looked up the nutrition facts for Panera’s black bean soup. 1,590 mg of sodium per serving. That was all the motivation I needed.

Being that I’m unfamiliar with black bean soup, let me tell you what I do know about it:
-the broth is black
-there doesn’t appear to be anything in it but black beans

However, all of the recipes I looked at involved onions, celery and red pepper. So I started with that. Except I left out the celery, for the sake of the hubby. Me being the genius that I am, I didn’t exactly read through the directions of all the recipes I was looking at. I was more focused on the ingredients. So I decided since I didn’t recall seeing any of these ingredients in black bean soup before, it must mean they were chopped up very small.

SO, I spent an inordinate amount of time chopping up my onion, red pepper and garlic into veeeeeery time pieces.

After sauteing them for a while, I added the chicken broth, some cumin and some cayenne pepper and half a can of black beans:

It was about this time that I realized why I’d never seen anything besides black beans in black bean soup. BECAUSE YOU PUREE IT! DUH. Had I read the directions a bit earlier, I might have caught onto this fact. But not to worry- I stayed cool as a cucumber, grabbed my immersion blender and proceeded. Messily, I might add. There wasn’t a lot of stuff in the pot at this point and it was very splatter-y…but I managed.

Finally, I added the rest of the black beans. To cut back on the sodium, I choose low-sodium black beans. I opted to drain and rinse one can, and use the liquid in the second. You could use the liquid from both, or do what I did, or you could use one can with liquid and another cans worth of beans from your freezer. DECISIONS, DECISIONS, my friends.

To thicken the soup even more, I mixed some cornstarch and water, poured it in and let it simmer. I also added some lemon juice.

The result? Not bad, but per the hubby…it needs a little work.

To kick it up a notch, here are some suggestions:

-double the amount of cumin and cayenne pepper.
-add some sweet potatoes at the very beginning and puree them up with the first ingredients

Bottom line: If you’re used to Panera’s black bean soup, your system might be in for a little shock with this low-sodium version. But with a little doctoring and a extra spices, this version can taste just as good 🙂 And you’ll be better for it!

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Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:
olive oil
½ a medium onion, diced
1/4 red bell pepper, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cup low sodium broth
2 cans low-sodium black beans
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 ½ Tbsp cornstarch
1 ½ Tbsp water
juice of ½ a lemon

Directions:
-Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onions, garlic and red peppers and sauté until soft.
-Add broth and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
-Add half a can of beans (drained and rinsed) and spices. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
-Using an immersion blender (or a regular blender), puree until well blended.
-Add the rest of the beans, including the liquid from the second can.
-Mix the cornstarch and water together and add to the soup, along with the lemon juice.
-Simmer until thickened, 5-10 minutes longer.
-Garnish with non-fat Greek yogurt and cilantro if desired.

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So tell me, what’s your favorite way to make black bean soup healthy?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–