You can really make anything a salad....really

This is just to show that ANYTHING I mean ANYTHING can be made into a salad. I had Tennessee BBQ Saturday night and decided to make it a little healthier and make the leftovers into a salad. This salad consisted of...1/2 cup pulled pork BBQ, 1/3 cup baked beans, 1/3 cup mac and cheese. I didn't heat anything up, just put it all on top of some lettuce and added about 1/2 Tbs of balsamic dressing. Boy was it delish.

Super Healthy Stir Fry

Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry
-1 thin sliced chicken breast (110 calories)
-1 cup broccoli florets (31 calories)
-orange bell pepper sliced (25 calories)
-2 tbs soy sauce (20 calories)
-4 pineapple rings (88 calories)

1. Sear the chicken on the pan (at medium heat) 3 minutes on each side
2. Remove chicken from heat and slice
3. Place broccoli and bell pepper in the pan.
4. Pour 2 Tbs of water on top and cover the pan with a lid
5. Stay near by
6. Watch the veggies, when they are getting close to your preference, remove the lid, drain the water and add the chicken and soy sauce
7. Cook for 1-3 more minutes
8. Remove from heat and plate with pineapple

Total Calories: 274

Some-what Chai

One of my favorite things is a good chai tea latte. The other night I was craving one and since I refused to a. leave me apartment and b. spend money, I got creative. There was no latte aspect (sleep was a must) and I actually couldn't find any chai spice...plus I didn't have chai tea. Guess I can't really call this a chai tea latte...."milk & tea with cinnamon"? Yeah, sure, that's going to be trending soon, just you wait.

Milk & Tea with Cinnamon (aka the poor person's Chai Tea Latte)
-1 cup skim milk
-1 cup of tea (steeped with two tea bags and chilled in the fridge)
-ice
-1 tsp cinnamon sprinkled on top

Homemade Croutons

I don't each sandwiches a lot but when I see a fresh loaf of sour dough bread I can't resist. I realized that my loaf was going to start getting stale and I had a 1/2 loaf left! So...I decided to try out making some homemade croutons!

Ingredients
4 slices of sour dough bread chopped
2 Tbs EVOO
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Kosher Salt

Directions
Chop the bread
Place bread in a baking pan and pour EVOO and balsamic over bread
Sprinkle salt over bread
Use your hands to coat and mix bread (some are going to have more EVOO and some more balsamic--never fear, I found it's actually delicious...you have a mix of sweet and salty croutons!)

What did I use them with?

I made a summer salad last night and topped it with some croutons. I forgot to take a picture when it was all put together but here is a somewhat lame picture of the saran wrap on top before I took it to a friends for dinner!
-fresh greens, 1 cup sliced strawberries, 1/2 chopped walnuts, 1 cup croutons

Tonight I made a caesar salad and decided the AMAZING (if I do say so myself) croutons could be enough instead of topping it with some chicken.

Feeding Friends!

I finally had friends from college visit the past two weekends. There are so many amazing/delicious places to eat around here but I decided one night of each of their visits I would make dinner since it was one of my favorite things to do for my friends in college.

Visit one: Pesto Linguini with Salad and Garlic Bread

Garlic Bread: Cut three pieces of fresh sour dough bread, slather on some butter and sprinkle with garlic salt. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Salad: You can put anything you want in a salad. This one included: 3 cups mixed greens, 1/2 avocado chopped, tomato chopped, 1/4 cup craisins, olive oil and vinegar dressing

Pasta:
-Cook 1/2 box linguini pasta
-1/4 cup pesto
-2 Tbs parm cheese
-2 Tbs EVOO

Once you cook the pasta throw it back on the stove and mix remaining ingredients in continuously until the noodle are covered. Enjoy!

Visit two: Chicken sausage, rice and salad

A less inventive meal than my pesto creation but I did try something new and awesome with the sausage!

Rice: Uncle Ben's garden vegetable rice (1 cup each serving)

Salad: croutons, feta, tomato mixed with 2 cups fresh greens. Drizzled with 1 Tbs of balsamic dressing

Sausage: feta and spinach chicken sausage

I heated these on the skillet for about ten minutes on medium. I next added about 1 Tbs of olive oil and vinegar dressing. The dressing will start to bubble so make sure to keep the sausages moving so all sides are covered. Once the sausage has a nice crisp to the outside you can take them out and roll them in a paper towel to remove the grease. 

Margarita Pizza

Margarita Pizza
-1 whole wheat pizza dough (I got mine from Whole Foods)
-10 small balls of mozzarella cheese
-2 roma tomatoes slices
-4 pieces of fresh basil (I got mine from my garden!)
-1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese- it was left over so I threw it in
-1 tbs tomato sauce
-1 tbs pesto
**feel free to add more pesto or tomato sauce- I like my pizza more cheese than sauce so I go pretty light on the sauce




Directions
-heat the oven to 400 degrees
-Roll out the whole wheat crust. I don't have a rolling pin so I used a bottle of wine
-place crust on cookie sheet or pizza stone...if you have a pizza stone, I'm jealous
-spread out the tomato sauce and pesto evenly on the crust
-cover with shredded mozz cheese
-place tomatoes on in any fashion you like
-shmush the mozzarella balls and place in tomato free spaces
-bake at 400 for 20 minutes
-place the fresh basil on the pizza and cook for 10 more minutes
-Let cool, Eat!

(I mean, come on. That looks amazing)

Rabbit Food

Tonight when I made dinner I thought of all the ingredients, measured them out and when everything was ready, I threw it all together.  It turned out looking a little like rabbit food or some strange vegan meal you see in the movies.  So what did I do? I went with it. I was originally going to eat this couscous salad by itself but since it already looked so "earthy-crunchy" I chose to take it a step further. Lettuce wraps!

Since I'm on my new calorie kick they're included too!

-1/3 cup cooked white pearl couscous (the cooking directions include adding butter and salt when simmering but I just left out all of that): 166 cals
-1 inch cube of feta cheese crumbled: 35 cals
-1/4 craisins: 130 cals
-1 thin sliced chicken breast (cooked plain on a skillet with no spices): 250 cals
-1 Tbs olive oil and vinegar dressing: 75 cals
-5 garlic and cheese croutons from whole foods (the 365 kind): 35 cals
-about a handful of alfalfa sprouts: 5 cals cals
-as much lettuce as you want! (each leaf of lettuce is only one calorie)

I measured all the ingredients, cooked the chicken, sliced it and placed it in the fridge in a bowl with all the other ingredients minus the couscous and salad dressing.  I cooked the couscous and placed it in it's own bowl to cool in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Once everything was cooled down, I placed all the ingredients in a bowl and tossed it with the salad dressing.  The salad dressing gave it enough flavor that I didn't need any salt or other seasoning.  Plus the feta and craisins carry enough flavor of their own!  I spooned out servings into some pieces of lettuce, rolled 'em up and chowed down!

*The iphone camera has definitely got a mind of it's own- looks like I'll have to start using my fancy camera. Just look at the top photo- it does enough