Vegetable Salad with Hummus and Lemon Herb Chicken

I admit to be being a lazy cook and I usually forget to eat vegetables. Or even fruit. I don't juice or make green smoothies as much as I use to. Mainly because I am too lazy to have to clean out the juicer on the daily. You guys, I don't like doing dishes and I swear they just keep piling up and seems to never stop!

For awhile there, I was actually losing weight! I think ever since I did the sugar detox, my constant need for munchies subsided and my body was feeling good. Really good. That was a few weeks ago. I'm sure I've gained some back and now I'm trying harder to eat better, consume more vegetables and this was the perfect meal to start with.

Lazy cooks are all about simple and quick meals. Pre-packaged salad, cut up some veggies of your choice, hard boil some eggs (optional), store bought hummus and a quick marinated chicken. Easy peasy and it was very filling!



Vegetable Salad with Hummus and Lemon Herb Chicken

Salad:

1pkg salad mix of your choice
1/2 cucumber, peeled (unless it's organic) and sliced
2 roma tomatoes, deseeded and diced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, sliced
2 hard boiled eggs
4 baby carrots, sliced
4 TBsp hummus

Plate and set aside.

Chicken:

1 chicken breast, sliced in half
salt & pepper
2 TBsp evoo
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Zest of 1 lemon

Marinade chicken in a ziplock bag for about 1-2 hours. Cook on stove top til done.

Plate chicken onto salad and squeeze lemon juice all over.

Baked Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

Friends! I have started a new journey. I've been working out. I KNOOOOOW right? I recently joined Curves and I'm on week 2, but as you're reading this, I'm on week 3, but I'm actually on vacation in LA.

I haven't tried too many of the recipes, but these meatballs were really good! I added a bit of salt & pepper and used panko instead. In some of the meatballs, I stuffed some mozzarella pearls in the middle and this is a great dish with some pasta too.


Frankie really wanted some meatballs too



Baked Meatballs w/ Tomato Sauce & Mixed Vegetables - 2 serving(s)*
recipe from Curves Complete

2 slice(s) bread - whole wheat
1/2 onion(s) - medium
10 oz beef - ground (95% lean)
1/2 cup(s) egg substitute
1 cup(s) sauce - tomato (meatless)
2 cup(s) vegetables - mixed, fresh

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Crumble bread into bread crumbs. Dice onions. Gently combine ground beef, bread crumbs, egg substitute, and diced onions. Wet your hands and form into meatballs. Brown the meatballs on the stove, and finish cooking in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through and reach an internal temperature of 165°F.

Place a steamer insert in a saucepan and fill with water to just below the bottom of the steamer. Cover and bring water to a boil. Place mixed vegetables in steamer insert and cover. Steam for about 5 minutes or until tender.

Top meatballs with warmed tomato sauce and serve with steamed mixed vegetables.

Tip: 1/4 whole = 1/4 cup chopped onion
*Directions are only for one serving.

Chia Seed Pudding

When we got back from our vacation back in September, my husband decided to go on the Hunger for Change 3 day detox. Chia seeds is a gelatinous plant food that helps to draw out toxins from the liver and pass them into the colon for excretion. Chia seeds are also high in omega-3 and make you feel full and satiated! We love chia seeds in our smoothies and juices but have never tried chia seed pudding til the detox.



The verdict? It wasn't that bad. Extremely thick, so I would add more milk or a TBsp less of the seeds.

Chia Pudding
recipe from Hunger for Change 3 day detox

1 1⁄4 cups Coconut Milk
1 tablespoon raw honey
4 tablespoons chia seeds

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a large jar, combine all of the ingredients and shake well. Refrigerate until it thickens into a pudding-like consistency, about 30 minutes.

Vegetable Pasta Salad

Gorgeous week here in the Northwest and I'm definitely not complaining. With the days definitely being longer.... I can see light in the horizon around 4am and it doesn't get pitch black til almost 10pm here. With the warmer weather, I've been craving for simple dishes... lots of salads and light food, nothing heavy, no greasy foods. Plus with the longer days, when it's really 9pm it feels like 7pm so I'm getting hungry later which is really bad. Also, I'm going away in a couple weeks for a week so I don't need to stock up and made sure I ate what I have instead.

Pasta salad sounded delicious! Perfect for lunch and dinner or take it to cook outs. I made mine meatless, but you're more then welcome to improvise and add in whatever you and your family enjoy. I also tried out Barilla's veggie rotini that is made from spinach and zucchini so that also added extra veggies to my dish. Very simple recipe, healthy dish and what's awesome is that I used whatever I already had at home to avoid running to the market.



Vegetable Pasta Salad

1 box Barilla veggie rotini (or whatever pasta you have on hand)
1/2 red onion, diced
3 crowns of fresh broccoli, chopped into bite-size pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
a handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
8oz "Cherry Size" Fresh Mozzarella, cut in half
1 1/2 cup Wishbone Robusto Italian salad dressing
salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.

While pasta is cooking, cut up all your vegetables and cheese and place in large bowl.

Add 1 cup of dressing to your veggies and mix to coat.

Once your pasta is done cooking and cooled down, add pasta to bowl.

Add in another 1/2 cup of salad dressing.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Let it sit in the fridge for at least a hour before serving.

Tropical Green Smoothie

I feel like I've been in a funk lately and having a green smoothie makes me incredibly happy. My head feels clearer, my eyes are wide open and I am ready to get things done (or make blog posts). It's like a caffeine boost, but with fruits and veggies. It's 64F today here in Washington state and you know, that's like a miracle! While my family and friends back home in So Cal are enjoying summer weather, I have been hibernating with sweaters and the heater running every day for the last week or so.

I don't have a fancy blender so this took awhile to actually blend. Usually I use fresh banana, but mine are well past over due and I plan to save those to make banana bread, but I did have frozen banana saved (hence why it took extra long to blend). I pretty much used whatever I had on hand and got lucky with the ending results. I also have a system of putting ice cubes first then spinach (or soft veggie/fruit) then the frozen stuff. It seems to blend better this way... or at least for me.



Tropical Green Smoothie

1 handful of spinach
1/2 frozen banana
1 small handful of green grapes
1 small handful of frozen peaches
1/4 cup pineapple chunks
1/2 lemon, juiced
coconut water
a couple of ice cubes

Put ice cubes on the bottom, layer spinach, banana, grapes, peach, squeeze of lemon. Pour in about 1/4-1/2 a cup of coconut water. Blend and enjoy!

Roast Balsamic Brussels Sprouts with Cranberry over Barley

Now that is one long title! I am so excited today to share with you this recipe I adapted from Cookie + Kate. Also, did you know brussels sprouts has a 'S' after brussel? YEA ME NEITHER. I am too lazy to go back to adjust my photos though. Okay, back to the sprouts! I tried roasted brussels sprouts sometime last year and I was hooked instantly. I love to season mine with a little salt & pepper, squeeze of lemon and some chili pepper flakes. Another all time favorite is drizzling it with some balsamic vinegar... sprinkle of parmesan is also really good. How do you like your brussels sprouts?



I had pinned this recipe from Pinterest and with the sun out yesterday, I knew I had to grab the chance to make this so I can take some photos. The original recipe uses a different method and it calls for maple syrup and Gorgonzola cheese. I omitted both ingredients and just roasted the sprouts on a cookie sheet like I usually do.

The dish is light and healthy which is always a plus. You get that sweet candied tartness from the cranberries (I used dried cranberries) and then you have the fluffy barley. Honestly, I wish I made more! I like the way I made it... might be a little bland for others, but just season it a little more with salt and pepper. For leftovers, I added some leftover cut up rotisserie chicken.

Roast Balsamic Brussels Sprouts with Cranberry over Barley
recipe adapted from cookie + kate

1 pound Brussels sprouts, tips cut off, discolored leaves removed and sliced in half
1 tablespoon olive oil (I used EVOO)
Salt
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups cooked barley
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, or more to taste

Cook the barley according to package direction.
Preheat oven to 375F
Add cut Brussels sprouts and drizzle with EVOO and seasoned with a bit of salt. Roast 10 minutes.
Add dried cranberries and balsamic vinegar and roast for another 5 minutes.

Guest Post: Healthy Surprise Box Review

Hello everyone!

I am here as a guest blogger to share with you my experience of Healthy Surprise. Healthy Surprise is a monthly food subscription box that I found through Google. It had great reviews so I decided to give it a shot. The box contains organic, natural, soy free, gluten free, and vegan goodies that are delivered to you via a green looking cardboard box. I bought this box because I wanted to have some extra organic snacks lying around the house to munch on. I ordered the medium sized box which is $66 and promises 32-40 servings for 1-4 people. The box came with free shipping as well. The inside of the box is exciting and colorful.

Then, I proceeded to count all of the items inside the box. There are a total of 17 items in this box (big and small which includes:

Larger sized items:

1 Caveman Crunch- A granola and fruit snack packet
1 Barefruit Crunchy Cinnamon Apple Chips- All natural apple chips (they look delicious)
1 Sea Sprinkles Seaweed Snack Clusters
1 Ginger Snaps Super Cookies (darn zesty, crunchy, and tasty!)
1 Hail Merry Macaroons (These choco macaroons look tasty as well)
1 Gopal's Pumpkin Seed Sprouties Savory
1 bag of Home Free chocolate chip cookies (these were pretty standard)

Smaller sized items:

1 Healthy Warrior Chia seed fruit bar (quite interesting and fun to eat)
1 Sacred Chocolate Dairy Free Mylk chocolate heart
1 Scared Chocolate Dairy Free Twilight chocolate heart
1 Gopal's Raw Alchemy Enzyme Rich Brownie
1 Go Raw Spirulina Energy Bar
1 Hail Merry Grawnola orange cranberry raw nut & fruit blend (tastes healthy and yum)
1 That's It fruit bar (1 apple + 1 pear)

Tiny items:

3 small pieces of Righteously Raw chocolate (one was mint, one was dark, and one was spicy .35 oz each)



As tasty as Healthy Surprise is, I still feel like it's a bit expensive. I may feel this way because I wish I could have picked my snacks as well. Now, not to sound like a total grinch, but I wish there was more food in my box. However, if you don't live close to a Whole Foods or who are only looking for super natural items that taste great, this box is probably awesome for you. Also, if you love super high end organic chocolate, you'll probably love this box as well.



Here's the upside, the items in the box were really well selected and varied, and you could tell the company put a lot of thought into what was inside the box. Also, the snacks are really organic and vegan just like they promised. The packaging of the snacks is also desirable and eye catching. So far, what I've eaten has been absolutely delicious!! I'm not sure if I would pay $66 again for this box. I wish it were more along the lines of $50. Either way, the snacks inside tasted really good and I really loved eating them.

Well, that's all folks! I hope this review was helpful to you. :)

Getting My Green On

Health food trends. Goji berries, Kombucha, Juicing? Just like fashion, they recycle over the years and pop back into our lives hotter than ever! I remember my Mom juicing back when I was in middle school. Absolutely not cool, hip, popular. Goji berries? You mean, those red things at the bottom of my Chinese soup? And Kombucha? Which my brother and I personally like to call it 恐怖茶 "terror tea" because that's exactly what it was back in the day. A terror my mom was growing in our house and forcing us all to drink. Gotta love the health food trends... I wonder what's new for 2013?

Ok ok, so I really just wanted to whine about the Kombucha thing and give it a huge eye roll. And to think, Jenny and I could be gazillionaires right now if our Moms were still brewing terror tea!



Back to the main reason of this post... I have finally jumped on board with juicing and I don't know why I waited so long. Truth is, spinach juice doesn't exactly sound appetizing and sometimes eating raw spinach makes my throat itch. Plus some juicers are so expensive and what if my juicing thing end up to be a one time use like the waffle machine? Thankfully I have juiced a couple times now and I did end up buying 64 fl oz of Naked Juice Green Machine for those lazy days. I also tried a bottle of Evolution Fresh which I'm not sure if they sell it everywhere, but I found mine at my local Safeway. They also have a store in Bellevue which I really want to check out, but dang... 16oz handcrafted juice is $8! I'm a sucker and I actually would pay that to try it. Actually, looking at their site, I wish they carried MORE flavors at my Safeway. Do you think people really want to pay $4 for 15.2 fl oz freshly squeezed orange juice when you can walk over to the refrigerated juice section and pay $4 for almost a gallon of the same thing? If you think about it, it's cheaper to just buy the darn machine and make it yourself.

My favorite base is always spinach, carrot, lemon and green apple. So far I've tried kale, broccoli, celery, cucumber, pear. I want to try tomato, bitter melon, herbs, beets. What's your favorite combos? Definitely comment below and share your tips and recipes :)

Simple Tortellini Antipasto Salad

I never eat breakfast. Actually, I'm never awake early enough to enjoy breakfast. Sometimes I skip lunch which is a huge nono, I know. I came across this simple tortellini antipasto salad which is really delicious and semi-healthy. The recipe doesn't call for the pasta to be cooled, which I think is a must considering how all my cheese melted and it turned into a bit of a mess. I omitted the artichokes and olives, but I think next time I'm going to add some broccoli or more vegetables. Very simple lunch or dinner.

Simple Tortellini Antipasto Salad
Original recipe from BHG

1 9 ounce package refrigerated cheese tortellini
1/2 cup chopped bottled roasted red sweet peppers
1 ounce Genoa salami, cut into thin strips
1 ounce provolone cheese, cubed
1/4 cup bottled vinaigrette salad dressing

Cook tortellini according to package directions. Drain; place in large bowl. Stir in sweet peppers, salami, and cheese. Add dressing; toss to coat.

Warm Spinach Salad

I won't get into full detail, but this week I was diagnosed with Diabetes. It literally crushed me, but I've been pushing on, doing some research, gone to the bookstore to get some diabetic cookbooks and so far I've been pretty positive. That positivity can only last so long before I crash and burn.

Cooking dinner takes over my day. I can't just whip up a meal and eat it without worrying about how much carb, sodium and sugar. Last night I made a warm spinach salad with quinoa. It was really good, but I was still hungry afterwards. Thank you sugar-free fudgsicle. Quinoa is new to our diet and I know DH doesn't like it, but he's a trooper and still eats as much as he can.

Warm Spinach Salad

recipe from Eat what you Love by Marlene Koch

1/4 cup chicken broth

2 tsp minced garlic

1 TBsp olive oil

2 TBsp balsamic vinegar

Pinch of Salt

Pepper to taste

8 cups spinach (I used 3-4 handfuls)

2 TBsp grated Parmesan cheese

1) Add chicken broth and garlic to large saute pan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook for 10 minutes to soften and mellow garlic.

2) Whisk in the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Turn off heat and add spinach. Using tongs, quickly toss the spinach in warm dressing just until coated.

3) Top with grated parmesan cheese and serve.