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.

Simple Kale Salad with Feta and Cranberries

Hellooooo Summer! There I was complaining about the overcast and rain and bam! The sun came out and you know, anything over 70 is sizzling hot for us here in Washintgton state. One of the good things about summer is that it makes me not want to eat heavy foods, but at the same time it makes me feel lazier in the kitchen and I get hungrier more often.



When I was in Southern California, I had the best salad at true food kitchen and a side salad at the gypsy den. The contents itself is very easy to recreate, but its the dressing that I can't recreate. I actually stood in the salad dressing aisle for a good 5 minutes pondering which one to buy. I settled with a raspberry vinaigrette which isn't perfect, but I do plan to test out some homemade dressings this week. The one at true food kitchen, they had a champagne vinaigrette which was soooo good! Plus, I had this delicious kale salad from Trader Joe's and that inspired me to make this salad for last night's dinner.

Kale is extremely good for you. You know... that dark leafy green goodness. A sprinkle of feta, a bit of red onion and I of course had to add my cherry tomatoes. Some grilled chicken would be perfect too.



Simple Kale Salad with Feta and Cranberries

1 small bunch of kale, leaves torn
sprinkle of feta cheese
sprinkle of dried cranberries
1 TBsp red onion, or to taste
black pepper to taste
small handful of cherry tomatoes
2-3 TBsp vinaigrette of your choice

Mix and serve. Best when served cold.

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.

Fruit Salad with Vanilla Pudding

Happy Easter! The sun is shining and it's absolutely gorgeous out. Spring is here and I am loviiiing all the sun. Too bad my house sits in the shade, but I'll be thankful when the temp rises. I've seen this fruit salad all over Pinterest lately and I knew I had to give it a go. Again, you know me and my love for simple recipes. Plus this doesn't require any cooking or baking time. I didn't follow the recipe word for word, I did add in fresh strawberry and sprinkle of marshmallows. I also only used about a tablespoon or so of the vanilla instant pudding. I will have to try this again, except with more fresh fruits.

Fruit Salad with Vanilla Pudding
Original recipe from Real Mom Kitchen

1 TBsp vanilla instant pudding
1 lb. fresh strawberries, sliced
1 can fruit cocktail, with a bit of the syrup
sprinkle of marshmallows

Mix everything together. Refrigerate for a hour before serving.

Simple right? I also like to mix it up with some plain yogurt.

Lemon Pesto Shrimp Pasta Salad

Lemon Pepper Grilled Shrimp
Recipe from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
3 TBsp fresh lemon juice

Preheat grill pan over medium-high heat or prepare a grill. Toss the shrimp with the oil, add the salt, pepper and lemon zest. Grill until just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer the shrimp to a plate and drizzle with the lemon juice. Enjoy hot or at room temperature.
Pesto recipe from Elise.

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.