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

Maryland Inspired

This past weekend I went to one of my favorite cities: Annapolis, MD. My family and I went to get some crabs! In Maryland, a crab feast includes crabs covered in Old Bay seasoning and served with vinegar and Old Bay for dipping. It is one of the greatest things you will ever eat. Stop reading right now and book a trip to Maryland, it's the best.

From my amazing meal of Old Bay, I needed some of that back here at school. What did I make?

-thin sliced chicken breast: 250 calories
-1 tbs Old Bay rubbed on chicken breast: ZERO cals
-1 cup Uncle Ben's brown rice: 110 calories
-steamed broccoli: 55 calories

Heat a skillet and cook the chicken (with rub on both sides) 3-4 minutes each side. Steam the broccoli for about 9-10 minutes. The chicken has enough flavor that you don't need to salt the broccoli or the rice!

Rice CAN Go in Salads

So I ran another half marathon and took a good two weeks off afterwards.  I continued to eat the same way I was eating when I was running 20 or so miles a week. Tons of calories+no run= rapid weight gain. I haven't changed sizes but it's just something you can notice. The hands have a little more to rest on on the hips these past few weeks. So what did I do? No need to diet or anything! I just decided it was time to get myself back into my 6 days a week workout routine and I also did something else... I decided to start counting my calories for the first time. I downloaded the "livestrong" app and got to work. It has calorie inputs for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks as well as exercise and water intake. I especially like the water intake because it reminds me to keep drinking- as a nursing student that's always on the radar- we don't need no hypovolemia!

For each meal, I search what I have eaten or manually put in the calories if I have the packaging. It keeps track of my intake for the day, letting me know how many more calories I could eat. When I exercise, I can put that in and it gives me back some calories to eat-BONUS- more food!

So what's with the title?

I had about 800 calories left for dinner (and dessert of course) this evening. So what did I have, you ask?...

THIS GLORIOUS SALAD!

2 cup red leaf lettuce: 8 calories
1 cup left over Uncle Ben's brown rice:110 calories [yes, rice can go in salads: it's delicious-try it]
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes: 14 calories
1 Tbs grated parm cheese: 22 calories
1 Tbs olive oil and vinegar salad dressing: 75 calories
1 applewood chicken and turkey sausage- feta and spinach flavor: 120 calories

Total Calories: 349

I've got 370 left for a kick ass dessert!

Somewhat Dip

So I decided I wanted to make a little something to go along with my blue corn chips. Since I'm not going to the store until next week, I had a few things to add in! Just get creative, you can make something awesome.

You Could Call it Dip
-1 package of single serve frozen corn, cooked
-2 pieces of sun-dried tomatoes chopped
-2 stalks celery chopped
-1 cup black beans drained and washed
-2 Tbs caesar dressing
-Mix- Enjoy!

Meat-free AND Gluten-free

Tonight I had a little "clean out the fridge" dinner since I'm heading out of town this weekend. Not much cooking involved but here's the menu! Bonus- it was both vegetarian and celiac-friendly!!!

Burger:
-Garden veggie burger
-sliced avocado
-cabot extra sharp cheddar

-mustard

Spinach:
-steamed quickly on the stove in about 1 Tbs butter, spinach cooks fast so make sure you watch it and are continuously stirring!























Sweet potato fries

Sliced mini pickles

Tuna Salad

Every time I make tuna salad it's different depending on what I have. I love to follow recipes but theres a few things I always get creative with. One of those is tuna salad. Ever since I had a babysitter add grapes into the tuna salad, I can't just have it plain.

This time I had a big salad topped with my very own tuna salad for dinner. I covered a plate with red-leaf lettuce, cut up a tomato and topped it with tuna salad. I ended up throwing some sun-dried tomatoes on top because they are just so salty and tart, I couldn't resist when I saw them.

Tuna Salad:
-1 can of tuna in water, drained
-2 tbs mayonnaise
-2 tbs caesar dressing
-3 mini pickles chopped
-1 stalk of celery chopped
 Mix and enjoy!

I had this light summary dinner with a cold magic hat #9 (my favorite beer)

Carbo Load

So I'm trying to be gluten free but when I get stressed, all I want is some pasta.  It's my favorite food in this entire world (ice cream doesn't count as food in my book). I love every single kind of pasta and it can be prepared in any way, I'll eat it.

The night before my most recent test I got creative and made some tomato based mac and cheese! I cooked some pasta, threw it back in the pot added about a cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/2 tomato sauce. I kept the stove on low so that the cheese fully melted from the heat of the pot and the warm pasta.  It turned into a delightfully gooey mess! I made a ton of pasta but instead of splitting it into portions, I threw it all in a massive bowl and ate til I was full. Stress eating? I'm good at it.

Taco Night

So I had this big night planned to invite some friends over for a taco night. With people unable to come and a few people showing up, I unfortunately was the only one who was hungry. Benefit? I got to eat as much as I wanted. For those of you who know me well, being told I can eat to my heart's content is the greatest thing.

What did taco night consist of?
-Heated corn tortillas
-bean dip
-taco cheese
-mexican rice
-olives
-avocado
-salsa
-chicken

This was one of my favorite things to do in college. It was such an easy dinner to make and invite some friends to share with!

Obviously I didn't have just three that night. The shells were a little hard to roll up but you can always eat them with a fork and knife! My friends may not have been hungry that night but I sure think I won even if I over did it on the calories