Two Simple Chevre Salads (a.k.a. You’re Gonna Love Goat Cheese!!!)

Brian and I love farmers markets, and have found a favorite in each city we’ve lived in. True, last Saturday, a one-armed man kicked our Frenchie, Baxter, out of our local market, calling him a, “health code violation,” but there’s just something about wandering around, letting what’s in season in the region dictate what you buy and cook for the week. Yes, I was once seriously scolded by a farmer for buying avocados at the (gasp) grocery store, but I enjoy talking with people who have a hand in growing the food I eat. The fact that the samples they’re pushing really are tastier than anything you can buy at the grocery store is the cherry on top.

About two years ago, Brian and I moved across the country for what we thought would be a 6-10 month stop on our way to the bay area, or one of our other top cities. With that in mind, we spent our first year here going out of our way to not put down roots, and another 6 months trying to move.

It’s a funny thing settling down in a city you never meant to live in. If it were up to Brian or me, we wouldn’t be here; a fact that’s made getting to know our, “new home,” awkward and tough. We went out of our way to not make friends, or join groups, or activities, hoping above all hopes we could move away to one of the cities on our, “it,” list. But — nothin for nothin — life, your surroundings, happiness, etc, is usually what you make of it, and people tend to find exactly what they’re lookin for. So instead of looking for all the reasons not to live here, Brian and I decided to embrace our, “new,” city, and put down some roots. Step one: last Saturday, we turned our trip to the farmer’s market into half a day of checking out the parts of our quaint downtown we’d not yet seen. We had a blast. The weather was perfect. The photos were unbelievable, but that afternoon I got food poisoning from the hip burger joint where we had lunch…Fortunately, there are dozens more restaurants downtown. With a few more outings, we’re bound to find a couple go to spots.

We ended our morning at the farmers market. My favorite finds of the day were 3 beautiful, perfectly ripe heirloom tomatoes. All 3 different colors — 1 yellow, 1 red, and 1 a combo of green, red, and purple — all 3 begging us to eat them as quickly as possible. Brian made bruschetta, and, believe it or not, both of the following recipes were inspired by Brian’s bruschetta and our heirloom tomatoes. I dare you not to love, love, love both of these 60 second salads!

 

My Take on Caprese

Ingredients

1 heirloom tomato

2 oz. goat cheese

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

4 leaves basil

salt and pepper to taste

Preperation

It’s simple: cut the heirloom tomato into 1/3 inch slices, and spread, evenly, across a plate. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic over the sliced tomatoes. Crumble the goat cheese over the tomatoes. Chiffonade the basil, and sprinkle over the goat cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.

Strawberry Chevre Salad

Ingredients

2 cups fresh strawberries

2 oz. goat cheese

1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

4 leaves basil

Preperation

Even simpler: slice the strawberries, and plate. Crumble the goat cheese over the top. Then drizzle balsamic over the strawberries. Chiffonade the basil, and sprinkle over the top. Enjoy.

The Everything Dip and Dressing

This dip is the quickest, most versatile, easiest dip I’ve come across. A few months ago, mid snack attack, I threw together a few ingredients, and the result was so creamy, savory, and delicious, I’ve made a batch a week since. It’s perfect with veggies, bread, chips, or anything else you may want to dip. if you’re looking for a healthy, delicious salad dressing, simply add water until you have a consistency you like, and it works on a variety of different salads. Best of all, 1/4 cup has 25 calories and zero fat! Long story short, it’s awesome! Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 Cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1/2 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Mix ingredients, and serve!

Crustless Spinach, Onion and Feta Quiche (original recipe posted on sparkpeople.com)

My sister, Bethany, sent me this recipe from sparkpeople.com. Click here for the original recipe.

Honestly, my tweaks were so minor, I am essentially re-posting sparkpeople.com’s quiche recipe. (As well as their photo.) I added tomatoes, used soy milk instead of non-fat, and replaced half of the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. (I KNOW we should only be eating whole wheat flour, but, to me, it just doesn’t taste as good. I’m sorry!)

There are 5 great things about this recipe: 1) if you slice it into 4 servings, it has less than 250 calories, 2) It’s as easy as mixing a few ingredients and throwing them in the oven. 3) you can use whatever veggies you want and love, essentially making a brand new quiche every time you bake it. 4) It tastes as good cold, the next day as it does right out of the oven. 5) It’s soooooo good! Thanks, Bethany!

Crustless Spinach, Onion and Feta Quiche

Technically crustless but the addition of flour makes for a delicious crusty bottom and sides to this quiche.

INGREDIENTS

1 medium onion, diced

6 oz (about 1 large handful) spinach

1 roma tomato, diced

2 lg eggs

1/2 cup eggbeaters

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

pinch cayanne pepper

1 1/3 cup soy milk

1/2 cup feta cheese

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400F.
Lightly grease a 10-inch pie pan
Coat a medium frying pan with a good amount of cooking spray. Add diced onion and cayenne pepper. Salt and pepper to taste, and cook over medium-high heat until translucent and tender (about 3 minutes.) Add in fresh spinach and cook until just wilted. Set aside to cool for a few minutes
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, then stir in spinach-onion mixture, as well as diced tomatoes.
Pour quiche base into prepared pan. Top with feta cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until center is set and the outside edge is golden brown.
Let set for 5 minutes, then slice and serve.

Sweet Potato Shepard’s Pie

For Labor Day weekend, Brian and I had two of our closest friends over for burgers, beer, and catching up. I made turkey burgers for the ladies, while Brian made a more sinful burger for the gents.

I was surprised a couple of days later — bent over, with my head in my fridge, staring at  leftover ground turkey — at how rarely I eat ground turkey. It’s delicious, nutritious, and inexpensive. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get on the ground turkey bandwagon, but I am officially on. This recipe was a result of having ground turkey, a handful of leftover veggies, and a couple sweet potatoes lying around. I hadn’t eaten Shepard’s Pie in years, so I adapted a recipe I found posted on simplyrecipes.com by Elise Bauer. Click here for the original.

Don’t be put off by the photos. Shepard’s Pie is one of those meals that doesn’t look like much, but I promise each bite is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 lbs ground turkey

1 onion chopped

1-2 cups vegetables – chopped carrots, corn, peas (your choice)

2 large yams

Nonstick no calorie butter spray

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4-1/2 cup soy milk at your discrepancy

Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

1/4 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

METHOD

Peel and quarter yams, boil in salted water until fork tender (about 20 minutes).

While the yams are cooking, coat large frying pan with large amount of butter spray.

Sauté onions in butter spray until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas at the end of the cooking of the onions. Add additional cooking spray each time a new vegetable is added.

Add ground turkey, and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add Worcestershire sauce. Add half a cup of water, and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes.

Mash yams in bowl with soy milk. (Truthfully, yams are velvety enough by themselves, that you don’t have to  add milk, but you absolutely can if you’d like.) Season with salt and  pepper to taste.

Place turkey mix in baking dish. Distribute mashed yams on top, and sprinkle with Panko. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely.

Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.

Yield: Serves four

Buffalo Chicken Wrap with Sweet Potato Chips

I love using leftovers to save time making fantastic lunches. Okay, that’s not quite true. The truth is, I purposely create leftovers to save time making the next days’ lunch. Anytime I bake or grill chicken for dinner, I make a couple extra tenderloins or an extra breast to eat in sandwiches, wraps, and salads over the following couple of days. I do the same with rice, and if I’m making a meal that tastes great cold, I make 2 or 3 extra servings. I just throw the meals, chicken, or rice in reusable containers, toss them in the fridge, and either grab and go an already prepared meal, or put together a quick wrap in the morning. It takes zero extra time to prepare, and I then have fresh  lunches instead of over processed lunch meat or fast food.

A couple weeks ago Brian’s sister turned  me on to using buffalo chicken wing sauce on everything I can think of — Umm, Yes Please! It’s awesome! You can dip pretzels in it, eat it on sandwiches and wraps, drizzle  it on rice — I am officially addicted. I made this Buffalo chicken wrap with a side of sweet potato chips for lunch on Tues, and it was so good, it’s becoming part of my rotation.

Side note: these sweet potato chips are one of my favorite snacks! I’ve tried a lot of different recipes, and cooking temperatures. This is the recipe that makes the crispiest, tastiest chip. Don’t be afraid of the dark edges on some of the chips. They’re not burnt, they just look that  way — I promise.

Ingredients:

2 ounces (a little bit smaller than the palm of your hand) baked or grilled chicken breast seasoned with salt and pepper

1/4 cup brown rice

1/4 cup carrot shavings

1/4 cup chopped romaine lettuce

1 tbsp nonfat Greek yogurt

1 tbsp buffalo wing sauce

1/2 large sweet potato sliced thinly

Sea salt and pepper to taste

zero calorie cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with tin foil, and coat with zero calorie cooking spray. Arrange sweet potatoes in a single layer, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and coat with zero calorie cooking spray. (Don’t worry if you don’t have sea salt, regular salt is delicious too.) Bake for 7 minutes, flip the chips, and bake for another 5-7 minutes or until the edges are golden to dark brown. Remove from oven and let  cool.

While the sweet potato chips are baking, you can assemble the buffalo chicken wrap. It’s simple — spread the Greek yogurt in the center of the tortilla, followed by the rice, and then then the chicken. Drizzle with buffalo wing sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. top with lettuce and carrots, and then roll it into a burrito. It’s that easy!

You’ll notice in the photo that my tortilla and rice are not whole wheat. I ran out. Being busy shouldn’t keep us from eating healthy, tasty food, but I look at it this way: If you eat healthy foods, and stay away from the processed stuff most of the time, don’t beat yourself up if you’re too busy to make it to the grocery story mid week, and don’t beat yourself up if you cheat once in a while.

Enjoy!

For Better or For Worse

I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with food. When Brian and I started dating years ago, we were working 12-15 hour days , and getting home between 10 and 11 at night. Back then, I refused to eat dinner with him for fear of gaining even one pound.

“Are you sure?” he’d prod, “You have to be starving.”

I always answered that I’d had a late lunch, which was usually true. Even so, a 3 o’clock lunch does not leave a girl satisfied at 10 at night — especially after working fifteen hours…

It was when Brian and I moved in together that my fear of food morphed  into a passionate love affair. Brian’s an amazing home cook. He makes simple vegetables taste indulgent. He takes care and time with each aspect of a dish. Cooking is his art and his outlet.

Of course Brian’s one of those ridiculous specimen’s that couldn’t gain five pounds if his life depended on it. The first time I saw the oil and butter responsible for making a simple vegetable so enticing, I was horrified, but the lure of my new lover was strong, and my fear of fat quickly disappeared. I, unfortunately, am not one of those ridiculous specimen’s that has trouble gaining weight. After two years of living together, I’d gained 40 pounds! The following year I lost 50 pounds, and it’s been a roller coaster ever since.

Part of what I find difficult about eating well is how much providing or presenting a great meal to those he loves means to Brian. I am in no way blaming Brian for any weight gain. Food is simply an important part of our relationship. A lot of our time is spent cooking together. Brian finds joy in teaching and sharing. There’s laughter and love when we cook. I needed to find a way to end my unhealthy affair with food without losing the joy in food itself, as well as what it provides in my relationship.

The answer came from Brian: cook together, and make two versions of everything! He still has both his outlet, and his time to provide through food by teaching me, and brainstorming with me on how to, “health up,” the meal without losing flavor or satisfaction. I hate diety foods. I want rich, flavorful meals. But I also want the waistline I had after losing 50 pounds, and I believe we’ve created some damn good dishes!

This blog is for everyone out there who has the same feelings regarding food and health. We may all have different back stories, and reasons, but the desire is the same — we want taste, we want satisfaction, and we want health.

I’ll share recipes that have been, “healthed up,” but don’t taste like it, always, of course, giving credit if the recipe is inspired by a chef, cookbook, or online site. I can’t wait! I hope people love them as much as I do, and find as much joy and comfort in them as I have.