Easy Tomato and Onion Salad

 

Quick, fresh, healthy, Paleo, delish....and beautiful!

 

This easy tomato salad I threw together using yellow and red local grown tomatoes I picked up from a farm in Carroll County.

 

Basic how to:

 

1. Start with organic spring mix

2. Top with thickly cut tomato slices

3. Add fresh cut red onions

4. Add sea salt and fresh ground pepper

5. Drizzle lightly with balsamic vinegar

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Healthy Side: Roasted Broccoli

Roasted broccoli? It will surprise you!

I never heard of roasted broccoli (or ever thought to do it) until coming across this recipe. It's amazing how baking the broccoli totally changes the consistency of the vegetable. It's crispy and delicious.

The original recipe (found here) tops the broccoli with parm cheese and uses kosher salt. Since we are following paleo, I skipped the cheese and used sea salt and it was still great!!

Here's what you need:

• broccoli florets
• 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
• Juice from half a lemon, about 1 Tbsp.
• Sea salt
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• Freshly ground black pepper

 

1 Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a large bowl toss broccoli florets and fresh chopped garlic with olive oil and fresh lemon juice until lightly coated. Sprinkle salt over the broccoli and toss to coat.

2 Arrange the broccoli florets on foil sheet. Roast for 16-20 minutes, until cooked through and nicely browned.

Serve immediately. I refrigerated leftovers and still thought it tasted great the next day!



My new favorite side!

 

Healthy Sides: Fun with the white stuff!!

Let me start by saying....I used to hate cauliflower. It looks weird and never liked the taste, especially raw on veggie trays.

 

After beginning paleo, I decided to give this vegetable another try. I was amazed of how when cooked the taste, not just consistency, is changed dramatically. Below are two of my new favorite ways to cook cauliflower as a delish and healthy side or snack.

Cauliflower "Mock" Mash Potatoes

My mock mash: topped with baked chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper.

 

 On the paleo diet, potatoes are a big no-no (exception: sweet potatoes). So when I came across this cauliflower mash potato recipe, I was excited to try. I was blown away by how much they really tasted like mash potatoes. They are spot on and GUILT free, as they are low carb and high in nutrients. This is such a healthy alternative to those fatty mash potatoes.

1. Steam florettes until soft.
2. Put in food processor with fresh garlic. Process until mash potato consistency.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste. (If you are not on a paleo diet or following strictly, add butter or margarine for better flavor).

Cauliflower Buffalo Bites

My buffalo bites!

Okay so this recipe is not really paleo. This recipe I used Franks Red Hot Wing Sauce, which contains a gum and preservative, both not allowed on paleo. Honestly will it wreck your diet? Probably not. This is just a relatively healthy recipe, with the sauce and cauliflower being the only 2 ingredients, especially compared to fried buffalo wings from a carryout. Overall this particular sauce contains no sugar, fat, or carbs.

 

I found a recipe for cauliflower with hot sauce, boasting it as an alternative to buffalo chicken bites. I was hesitant when making this recipe for the first time, but gave it a try and was glad I did! Full of flavor and with a great consistency (I wasn't honestly expecting) these are a great as a snack or as a side. There are some homemade paleo "ranch dressings recipes" out there. I'm sure pared together it would be great!

1. Toss florettes in hot sauce.
2. Bake at 450 degrees on foil lined baking sheet for about 10 mins. Flip. Bake another 10 mins.

Be careful to not over cook, or they will be soggy.

Paleo: in my own words

 I decided to post today all about my experience with Paleo. I have had a lot of people ask me about it and by NO MEANS am I an expert. I'd like to share what I have learned from people, books, and research on the internet. I have included info and links to all of this information.

 

A few months ago my husband and I decided to begin eating Paleo. Good friends Cassie and Kris recommended Paleo and helped answer many of our questions. Both look better than ever and we couldn't help but want to at least try out this Paleo thing!

 

Well what is Paleo? It is not a diet, it is a lifestyle. Simply put it's an approach to consuming food that is GOOD FOR YOU. No calorie counting, no points! This diet is gluten-free as well. It's also called the cave man diet (this is explained below in an illustration).

 

My husband wanted to lose weight and he did. 20 pounds in the first month!

I wanted to feel good and after examining my own diet, I realized I was consuming food with ingredients I could not even pronounce! (for example: Diet Coke, Crystal Light, Lean cuisine....yup all CRAP!)

 

The first few days I had a pounding headache...it was the sugar withdrawal. Like a drug addict, my body was detoxing! After a week I felt good. Today I feel great, I have more energy, sleep better, and feel full :)

 

 

Basics: what TO eat and what NOT to eat

 

Shop the outside of the grocery store: Meats, fruits, and veggies. You only dip into the inside isles of the grocery store for nuts, raisins, cooking and baking ingredients (like arrowroot starch), and occasional spices. My fridge is stocked and my pantry once full of boxed items (cookies, crackers, cereal, bars) is pretty bare.

 

Simply put:

Eat:

 

Meat (grass fed if possible)

Poultry

Seafood

Veggies

Fruit

Nuts

Seeds

Eggs

Healthy Oils (coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil)

Avoid:

 

Grains (wheat, flour, pasta, bread, oats, rice)

Legumes (any beans, peanuts, peas, soybeans, soy anything)

Dairy (cheese, milk, yogurt)

Processed Foods (anything basically out of a box)

Starches (potatoes, corn)

Vegetable Oil

Anything with gluten

 

Drink:

 

Water!

Herbal Tea

Fresh squeezed fruit or veggie juice

Sparkling water

Coconut water

 

Here's are some cheat sheets:

 

 

 

MORE swaps:

 

Mash Potatoes...cauliflower mash

Pasta...spaghetti squash

Breakfast Potatoes...butternut squash

Sugar...coconut sugar

Granola bars....Larabars (read label, most okay and just contain dates, nuts, and fruit. For example these flavors: carrot cake, coconut, apple pie, cashew cookie) & That's It bars (just contain fruit!)

 

But WHY?!

 

Too much of the food we consume today is not food, it's chemicals! Eating food that is good for you, simply makes you feel good.

 

Here's a simple break down of the WHY.....

 

 

NO BOOZE! What?! 

If you are trying to loose weight, avoid alcohol.

 

1. If your body is trying to process food, it can't process all the booze too.

2. When you drink, you want to eat and you want to eat BAD food! Have you ever gotten drunk and said no to pizza and yes to raisins?! No I didn't think so.

 

For more on this go here

 

 

If you want to drink....it wont kill your "diet". Remember....NO BEER!!

 I go with the wine option. Patron is also your best tequila option.

 

 

for more explanations go here and here

 

Paleo Problems

It's not easy to give up your favorite foods. It's also not easy to not just be able to grab and go foods. There is a lot of prep work, planning, and shopping. It gets easier after time. It's also pricier. For example regular pickles (that are made with sugar and chemicals) are about $3 less than Grillos Pickles but guess what...they are DELISH!

 

  How to get started!

We began by purchasing these books, which are full of shopping lists, recipes, tips, meal planning, and more.

 

 

Everyday Paleo, by Sarah Fragoso

Website

 

This book is really good for understanding the yes and no of what you can have and great dinner ideas.

 

 

Make Ahead Paleo, by Tammy Credicott

Website

 

This book is the best! Easy recipes, good tasting, lots of desserts, crockpot meals, and freeze ideas!

I cant say enough good about this book!

 

I will post some of my favorite recipes I have found here on my blog too!

Hope this helps :)

 

 

 

 

 

Yummy Salad Recipe

I stumbled upon this gem of a salad and had to share!

It's healthy, easy, and great for lunch or as a side.

Ingredients

• 1 can (14 ounces) cannellini beans (or any white bean...see below) rinsed and drained
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, toss together beans, tomatoes, scallions, oil, and lemon juice; season with salt and pepper.
2. To store, refrigerate up to 1 day.

Cook's Note

This bean salad gets even better as it sits. You can make it up to a day ahead.


From Martha Stewart

My Note

White Beans come in various varieties with the 3 most popular being: Cannellini, Great Northern and Navy. For more on these check out go here.

Dinner in a dish

I came across a really simple one bake dish that I just had to share.

*Obviously pic taken pre-cooked. Arrange your ingredients as shown.

Ingredients:

• Boneless Chicken Breasts
• Fresh Green Beans
• Red Potatoes, cut into quarters.
• Fat Free Italian Dressing

How to:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray oven safe dish with fat free cooking spray, I used a 9 x 13 Pyrex.
3. Arrange chicken, washed green beans, and red potatoes as shown in pic above.
4. Cover all ingredients with dressing, I used about a half a bottle.
5. Cover dish with foil.
6. Bake for 1 hour.

So easy to make and easy to clean up! Healthy too :)

 

There is a recipe on Pinterest that is similar, but is less healthy. It used melted butter and canned beans. Fresh is always better and the butter isn't necessary with the dressing!

Dinner Specials

 

 

Week after week, it seems my husband and I make the same things for dinner. We eat a lot of salad, boneless chicken breast, and of course veggies. To try to break out of our food rut, I picked a week of dinner ideas (found from online blogs and Pinterest) and planned a menu. When looking for recipes, I looked for ones that were healthy or could be modified to be healthy. Additionally each item was something we have never made before.

 

I got all the necessary ingredients on one shopping trip, so I was not running out each day for different items. I sent my husband an email in the beginning of the week with each day's dinner idea and I link to the recipe. We take turns cooking dinner and this made it easy for both of us, since he could make dinner on the nights I was in class.

 

In the end we found some recipes we loved and a few that were complete misses. It was fun trying new recipes and we found we liked the simplicity of a planned dinner, especially during a busy Thanksgiving week! This is a great way to try all those "pins"! There are also websites that provide a week of dinner recipes, complete with shopping lists (HERE ).

 

Here is a snapshot of the menu, complete with pics and links!

For each I'll give a brief review.

MONDAY:

 

 

 

Tomato and Black Bean Salad

HERE

 

This was such a tasty side salad but took a combo of a few recipes to get it just right.

 

To start I skipped the parsley (I don't think it would have added that much flavor either way) and used a low fat balsamic vinaigrette and fat free feta.

 

The first recipe was lacking the wow factor we hope for. I decided to spice it up and added lemon juice (which Kraft recommended here HERE). I also added cucumbers (recommended here HERE ). Another recipe recommended sugar (HERE). To keep it healthy and add the flavor it was missing, I used a little bit of Truvia.

 

The addition of the cucumbers, sweetener and lemon juice made it just right! Left overs tasted great and were perfect for lunch the next day too!

 

 

 

Balsamic Vinegar Chicken

http://shellyheim.com/eating-clean-fitness-health/balsamic-vinegar-chicken/

 

This recipe is super easy and healthy. We did not modify the recipe in anyway, except we did scale it down in size since it was just two of us. It had good flavor, but it was just okay. Probably not something that we will make often.

 

 

TUESDAY:

 

 

Spinach Chicken Parm

HERE

 

This was by far our favorite and we have made it a few times since! The only issue is the recipe itself. If you read the recipe comments, many others recommend modifying the steps so we did as well.

 

We coated the chicken with egg and milk to make the breadcrumbs stick better and also added Italian seasoning. We sauteed the chicken and removed it from the pan, then sauteed the spinach and lastly the sauce- all separately. This helps keep the chicken's crisp and the spinach from being over cooked.

 

WEDNESDAY:

 

 

 

 

Bacon and Tomato Pasta Salad

HERE

 

This was terrible and definitely something I will not make again. I used shell whole wheat pasta and used a low fat precooked bacon (Hormel Brand). Overall the bacon flavor dominated the dish. This was a total miss.

 

THURSDAY: Thanksgiving :)

 

FRIDAY:

 

 

 

7 Layer Salad

HERE

 

I have had a version of this before at a cookout this summer. To make this as healthy as possible, I used low fat mayo, Truvia, fat free sour cream, and fat free cheese. We had to scale down each ingredient to make it for just two. The only mistake I made on this was using red onions instead of green (which I was out of). The red onions were way too strong and dominated over the other ingredients. We also used the same Hormel precooked low fat bacon. This saves time and calories.

 

We really liked this and it was filling as a meal. I'm glad I got to try this recipe out at home, so now I can take to a cookout in the future.

 

**I forgot to take a pic of our 7 Layer Salad, but it looked just like the one above :)

 

 

What are some of your best recipes? I'd love to try them out!!

 

Carb Load! *Delish Recipe*

As a Maryland girl and crabmeat lover, when stumbled upon this delish recipe online, I just had to share!

The recipe is originally from Alexandra Cooks, I made a few modifications:

Linguini with Roasted Red Peppers, Crabmeat & Basil
Serves 2

Ingredients:

• Roasted Red Peppers 3 whole, cut into slivers
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• Teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 lb. linguine (or less — I used about 6 oz of regular not whole wheat linguini)
• kosher salt
• 6 oz. crabmeat — Fresh not pasteurized jumbo lump
• big bunch fresh basil
• fresh cracked pepper

How to:

1. Roast red peppers. If you don't know how it's so easy- go here and learn.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a big pinch of kosher salt. (I add about a tablespoon). Place the oil, garlic and red pepper flakes in a small skillet and turn heat to high. When the oil and garlic begin to sizzle, turn off the heat. (If you have an electric burner, as I do, remove pan from the heat source if the garlic begins to brown.)

3. Cook pasta until al dente. Reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Drain pasta and place in a large bowl. Immediately toss with the garlic-red pepper flake oil. Add the sliced roasted red peppers, crab meat and fresh basil to the bowl. Toss together. Taste. Add some of the reserved pasta cooking liquid if necessary. Season with more salt and pepper if necessary.

My hubs was super impressed with this dish! I was in love- perfect for a night before a long run! Enjoy!

Fat Free Fudge Pops

I saw this recipe for fat free fudge pops on Pinterest and just had to try them! Only 3 ingredients and best of all....

FAT FREE!!

Ingredients:

• 1 box Chocolate Sugar Free Pudding Mix (Jello Brand)
• 1 1/2 cups of Fat Free Milk
• 2 cups Fat Free Whipped Topping, which is about 1/2 of a standard container (Cool Whip)

How to:

1. Mix pudding mix and milk together with whisk until well blended.
2. Add whipped topping and stir until combined.
3. Fill into Popsicle molds or into paper Dixie cups (3oz) using a plastic knife as a Popsicle stick.
4. Place in freezer for a few hours or until hard/frozen.

They tasted better than I thought! I was so happy with this easy and healthy recipe!