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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–

Happy New Year my friends! A few weeks ago, I asked for reader requests to kick off 2011! Well, it’s here now and I couldn’t think of a better way to kick it off then to go back to the basics.

When my lovely cousin asked me to do an article about pantry staples, I immediately started writing it in my head. I think it’s important for anyone, no matter what your living situation, to have most of these staples on hand. People often ask me how I have enough time to cook at home so often instead of going out. The answer is a well-stocked pantry. I usually have over half the ingredients a dish requires at home already and I try to use my grocery store trips to get fresh foods and replenish these staples when they run out.

Having a well-stocked pantry also allows you to whip up an easy meal in a hurry if you have no other ideas.  I was going to wait until after I go to the grocery store tomorrow, but then I thought wait! if this is about pantry staples…then I should have all this stuff on hand even though I haven’t cooked in my own kitchen in almost 2 weeks!

I vividly remember the first time I really stocked my pantry. I guess I must have done it somewhat during my senior year of college when I lived in an apartment…but I was living with 3 other girls and let’s be honest, I was in college and I didn’t really eat that well. A couple months after we graduated, the hubby and I moved into our first apartment. During the move, I was horribly sick with a high fever and was having an allergic reaction to the medicine the doctor gave me. The whole thing was quite miserable…HOWEVER, not even all of that yuck could detract from my excitement for going to the grocery store the first time. Armed with a list similar to the one I’m about to give you, we headed to Wal-Mart and loaded up. By the time we were done, our cart was practically overflowing and the check-out lady was looking at us as if we were slightly crazy. I quickly explained that we were building a pantry so she would quit judging us!

If the thought of building a pantry from scratch seems daunting, take comfort in the fact that many of you reading this are not going to be starting at the very beginning. You probably already have a lot of these things on hand and after reading the list, you can just fill in the gaps. If you are starting from the beginning, yes it is expensive, yes it takes a while, and yes- it’s almost impossible to find enough cupboard space to store everything….but it’s worth it! If you want to eat healthy, stocking your pantry with healthy foods and time-savers is a great way to get started.

So here we go! I’ve organized this list the way my kitchen is organized because it was the easiest way for me to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. I have a cupboard right by my stove, a little area of the counter and a drawer where I store a lot of my spices and condiments. It looks like this:

 

Then I have a walk-in pantry where I store the rest of the stuff.

And finally, I added a little list of some of my fridge and freezer staples.

Here’s the list! I debated for a while about whether to write little asides about each thing..I feel like some of you will only want the list, while others want to glean as much info as possible…so the list is big and bold, but my thoughts are also included 🙂 I didn’t want to bore you with pictures of every single thing, but I tried to give you the general idea…don’t judge me by my messy cupboards!

 

 

 

 

 

So there you go, my friends. Hope this helps get your New Year off to a great (and organized) start!!

I’ll leave you with this image that the hubby noticed in his beer while we were eating dinner today…do you see the bird on the branch?

So tell me…what’s on your pantry staple list that I forgot to mention?!

–Lindsay–

Hello My Friends!

As promised, here is the recipe for Grandma’s Jello!

This is probably the best jello you will ever make…so prepare yourselves. SO GOOD! And so easy. It has been a Thanksgiving staple in our house for as long as I can remember.

To begin, purchase strawberry jello. I chose sugar free but you can use regular. You need two of the big boxes. It’s that good. Just trust me.

Then gather your supplies. Here’s what you need:

 

Do yourself a favor and make sure the bowl is big enough…I cut it close as you can see.

While the jello is setting, move your cool whip and strawberries to the fridge to thaw. I used fat-free coolwhip but any kind will do. Usually I buy a container of pre-cut strawberries from the store, but this year I happened to have a GIANT bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer so I just thawed some out and cut them up. Your choice.

When the jello is set and the coolwhip is thawed,  mix up the jello and then scoop the cool whip into the jello (I usually use about 1/3 of the container). Insert the mixer and blend away:

 

Stir in the strawberries and consume:

 

Enjoy!

–Lindsay–