Warm yourself up.

If you're from the east coast like me you know that our weather is unforgiving, inconvenient, and often erratic. With this bipolar weather it's hard enough to plan for life let alone your next meal. I am one of those people that enjoys eating based on how I'm feeling. There are you people out there that only eat to stay alive. Enjoying food means nothing to you but to me there really isn't anything better than a hot tottie on a chilly day or a mellon salad on a hot day.

I think there's a misconception that hot or hearty tasting food are bad for you but if you do things right you can easily have a fulfilling and delicious meal. Here are a few of my new winter favorites- warm yourself up.

Sea scallops served over an arugula salad with sweet potato wedges. Serves 4-6 people.

2 lbs of large scallops
1 tablespoon of black sea salt
2 teaspoons of coarsely ground black pepper
Fresh parsley to taste (optional)
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive

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1. Pat scallops dry and season with black sea salt, black pepper.
2. Heat olive oil in large pan making sure to coat the entire bottom.
3. Place scallops into the hot pan and cook until the bottoms are a golden brown and flip until the reverse side  is the same- scallop should be done in about  10-15 minutes (depending on the size of your scallops)

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Arugula Salad
1lb of arugula
2 tablespoons of freshly grated asiago cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons of coarse kosher salt
1 English cucumber peeled and chopped into little cubes
1/2 of a pineapple cubed (canned pineapples aren't as good, I promise.)
1 cup of chopped mushrooms
1/2 red pepper into thin slices
1/4 cup of crushed pinenuts

1. Combine all ingredients with about 2-3 tablespoons of a very light extra virgin olive oil

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1 sweet potato

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees
2. Wash sweet potato place into the oven for about an hour until soft to the touch.
3. Remove from oven and let sit for about 10 minutes.
4. Slice sweet potato into wedges and serve with salad

Enjoy!

Quick - Healthy- Awesome Fish Dinner.

This recipe feeds 2-3 or one SUPER hungry person.

1 bag of Healthy Choice "Colorful Vegetable Blend" steamer. (follow directions 5-6 minutes in the microwave)

1/2 medium onion sliced thinly
2 medium pieces of red tilapia
1 egg white
1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
Pinch of red pepper flakes and cracked pepper to your taste

Preheat oven 375

Dip the pieces of tilapia in egg whites and then into breadcrumbs and peppers.
Place in glass baking dish with onion
Cook 15-25 minutes depending on thickness of tilapia

Serve with colorful vegetable blend.


It's simple. It's quick.

Just like this post.

What to do with those last little bits of prepped food from the week----- PIZZA!

Some of my fondest memories from childhood revolve around going to my friend's home for pizza night. My family never had one and I loved the fact that without fail every Friday night they knew who they were ordering from. Pizza is such a classic. Whether you're grabbing a New Yawwk slice or making it yourself its pretty hard to disappoint when it comes to this dinner option.

In my last few blog entries I've really attempted to hammer in the importance of prep work for the week. Having vegetables, fruits, and meats ready to grab and go to throw into a lunch or pre chopped onions to saute for a burger is always helpful! However, there comes a point where there's isn't a ton of any one food left and you're stuck with the choice to chuck it or figure something out. Have no fear! Pizza night is here. 

Chances are if you've spent some time preparing these fruits and vegetables earlier in the week you like them. Add a little sauce, a little cheese, and a crust AND boom! Dinner.

Scrappy Pizza advice:

• Trader Joe's has an excellent selection of different pizza crusts. Buy them 1-2 days before you plan on using them. Use cornmeal to roll them out. Try their different flavor doughs. Pre-bake the dough on 400 3-6 minutes depending on how awesome your oven is. 
• Avoid dough in a tube. Not good. 
• Homemade dough is tricky and takes a lot of effort. Unless you're willing to have crappy tasting crust or have an hour or two to really make an awesome crust find a premade dough that you enjoy!
• When prebaking your dough I suggest brushing your crust with a little olive oil and sea salt. Yummy.
• Remember traditional pizza can get a little boring. Think of creative sauces instead of tomato. Salsas, salad dressings, or all cheese pizzas can be fantastic. 
• You don't have to make one huge pizza. Using your left overs you can divid your dough into individual pizzas and everyone can make their own.

My Favorite Pizzas: 

Spicy Mexican Inspired Pizza

• Salsa of choice
• Red pepper flakes
• Green chili
• Pepper Jack cheese
• Peppers (red, yellow, red, and orange)
• Ground turkey 
• Red onion
• cilantro

1. Make dough-- prebake with red pepper flakes ( add what you like...I love spicy)
2. Add salsa and green chili evenly to prebaked pizza crust
3. Sprinkle cheese
4. Evenly distribute peppers
5. Bake in oven until cheese is melted and bubbly 
6. While pizza is baking cook ground turkey with chopped onion. You really don't need much, just enough to accompany the pizza slice. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve turkey mixture ontop of pizza, garnish with cilantro.

Veggie Heaven

• 3-6 Roma tomatoes diced
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• Blanched (maybe 1 minute) baby spinach 
• thinly sliced red onion
• 1/4 cup black olives sliced
• 1/4 feta cheese
• 3-6 slices of buffalo mozzarella 

1. Prebake crust olive oil, salt and pepper, and tomatoes spread evenly for 3-6 minutes
2. Add baby spinach, red onion, olives, and buffalo mozzarella evenly and back until mozzarella is melted
3. Allow to cool for 3-4 minutes and add feta cheese evenly over the pizza

There are a million combinations. If you're looking for low-fat or low-calorie ideas please feel free to leave comments. I can send along ideas for healthier or totally indulgent pizzas!

Lunch- A whole week.

I can't begin to calculate all the money I've spent on lunches in my life and I'm only 25 years old! Its easy to assume you're getting a deal with the "$5 dollar foot long" marketing campaigns out there but if you really factor in the extras that make a lunch how much are you really spending? If you're on a budget and want to avoid spending the extra money on your lunch try some of these tips:

• Plan ahead. Take 20 minutes a week to think about what you want to eat for your lunch, dinner, breakfast, and snacks. You don't have to get super specific but general ideas: Indian food, sandwiches, pancakes, and bananas. Not only will this help you create a shopping list but it will help you avoid purchasing stuff that will just sit in your pantry for months. 
• Know what you like and don't feel obligated to explain yourself. If you could eat a peanut butter and fluff sandwich everyday for the rest of your life do it!
• After shopping set aside time to do prep work. Prepping things for the week goes a long way. The ability to grab and pack is invaluable when you're crunched for time.
• Farmer's Markets are great places to get little things that would make a lunch special. Spreads, jams, delicious meats, and veggies.

A shopping list for some great lunches- 

• A great loaf of bread (or two, or three---buy for the appropriate amount of people obviously) multi grains, whole wheats, herbs, and cheese breads make for wonderful sandwiches. 
• Vegetables: cherry/grape tomatoes, celery, carrots, cucumber, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, or anything you like that can be prepared in advance. 
• Fruits: grapes, apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, and pears.

* Vegetables and fruits - buy what's in season, don't buy too much,  and prepare everything in advance. Chop things into a eatable sizes, wash the tomatoes, slices cucumbers and peppers... store everything in containers that are easily accessed. 

• Buy a variety of lunch meats in smaller quantities. Turkey, roast beef, salami, and chicken go a long way. 
• Dried fruits- apricots, prunes, cranberries, pineapple, or mango are delicious substitutes for cookies/brownies/prepackaged junk food.
• Nuts- pistachios, raw almonds, cashews, and peanuts in place for chips are way more satiating and good for you. 
• Cheese! Fresh mozzarella, pepper jack, and extra sharp cheddar work well on sandwiches or sandwich-less lunches.
• Bottled water.
• Olives, pickled onions, pickles. Whole Foods has a wonderful olive bar that will allow you to mix the different items that will give some variety to your meals. 
• Large bar of dark chocolate or bag of dark chocolate chips.
• Pretzels

Everything on the shopping list for the lunches will work for snacking between breakfast and lunch / lunch and dinner. I always try to think of foods that I can incorporate into meals throughout the week.

Monday 

3 slices of turkey breast rolled

Celery and yellow pepper sticks

5 cubes of pepper jack cheese

1/4 cup of pretzels 

Bottle of water

Tuesday

Roast beef sandwich (Toast bread, spicy mustard, salt and pepper to taste, tomato, cheddar, lettuce.) 

1 piece of dark chocolate or 10-12 dark chocolate chips 

Cucumbers and broccoli 

Few pieces of dried fruit

Bottle of water

Wednesday 

4-5 slices of chicken

Carrots and cherry tomatoes

Olives and pickles

Nuts

Cubes of fresh mozzarella 

Bottle of water

Thursday 

Salami sandwich (Thin slices of cheese bread, yellow mustard, cracked pepper, red onion, lettuce, and green pepper is a crunchy and filling sandwich.)

Banana 

Grapes 

Mixture of dried fruit and raw cashews 

Bottle of Water

Friday

Veggie wrap (tortilla (dressing of choice if you like a little wetness)- cucumbers, carrots, red onion, yellow peppers, roast red pepper, spinach, and tomatoes. Cracked pepper and cheese if you like.

Pear

Pretzels 

Bottled Water

The above menu isn't anything but a guide to learning to plan your lunches. As you get better at planning ahead you can start preparing different kinds of meals. Pastas, chicken breasts, or warm sandwiches. The objective is to get into the routine of planning ahead. What I've found with planning out meals like this is that you get better portions thus avoiding over eating. Whenever I am good about planning my meals ahead specifically (like the above) I lose weight. While that's not everyone's objective it certainly is a nice incentive. In regards to children and planning ahead- they'll eat REAL food. I just can't imagine eating a meal that was entirely prepackaged. 

hamburger hamburger hamburger--- maybe with chesse?

Hamburgers from restaurants and fast food joints never taste like the hamburgers you make at home. There are a number of factors that contribute to this unfortunate reality, most of them disgusting, but, as a person that grew up eating hamburgers way more than I ever wanted, I have come to find some really great hamburger tips.

1. Super thick patties aren't great. They aren't juicier. They aren't more flavorful. They're just bigger. Keep them thinner than 3/4 of an inch thickness.
2. Unless you're a grill master (which I'm not) implore different cooking methods. Foreman grill, Baking, Steaming, or even frying will be better. A grilled burger is the best...a badly grilled burger is the worst.
3. Don't add french onion soup powder, ranch powder, or any of those nasty recipes you find on the back of a bottle/box/packet into your meat! The meat should stand alone. Buy super lean and season to bring the flavor of the meat out, not mask it. Salt and pepper work just fine on hamburgers. Nothing more, nothing less. 
4. Buy your meat fresh, from behind the counter, if you can. Defrosted meat never quite tastes the same.

A great great great hamburger...

1lb of 93% lean ground beef (Laura's as a great prepackaged one)

salt and pepper for taste

• Make 4 patties about the size of the palm of your hand (again this is totally relative, you're making each patty about 1/4 of a pound)
• Salt and pepper them
• Pan sear them on HIGHEST heat to lock their shape in place if you're using ultra lean meat. Do not cook the burger through and through...go to the next step.

large pot with room for 4 burgers on the bottom and a lid

Flat Steamer

1 cup mushroom broth

1 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

• Add all ingredients into pot and bring to a boil
• Place flat steamer into the pot (this shouldn't be submerged into water)
• Add burgers and cover
• Cook 5-9 minutes depending on how done you'd like your burger
• Remove from steam, keep water going for cheese

Munster or cheddar cheese....or whatever cheese you'd like...if you want cheese

one tuna can washed in the dishwasher with all the labels peeled off

• Cube your cheese. 2-3 cubes is plenty for one burger
• Place into tuna can
• Place tuna can into the pot with the steam
• Monitor the cheese! It will become melty and delicious. Pour over the hamburger. 

Remember that there are a million ways to have a burger. Some of them are better than others but its important to have a lot of options. Keeping sliced tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and different condiments around is a great way to easily add to your burger. 

Enjoy!

Where are the sweet potatoes?

*Heads up everyone. I am going to try and start putting up nutritional information about the foods I'm writing about. If there is a link to the food check it out. Usually, I'm trying to pull an "eat this, not that"  but other times its just nice to know how many calories you're really consuming. 


Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Please forgive me, I know I have been a little relaxed about uploading posts and pictures but I promise I will be better in the coming weeks.

So, when anyone thinks of Thanksgiving they think turkey...and then they think of the sides...mashed potatoes, gravy, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, ...literally, the combinations are endless. Sweet potatoes mashes, soups, purees, and pies. There are so many sweet potato dishes its drives me insane. So, this year, when when it came to my contribution for Thanksgiving I opted for....

BUTTERNUT SQUASH. 


Butternut squash (or winter squash) is fantastic. I find it hearty, yet light, beautiful when served, and tasty when consumed. It's a great add into any tomato sauce, stir fry, or breakfast routine. It's perfect for adding a little diversity in your diet without adding too many calories.

Now, let's be real, this is a Thanksgiving Recipe. There's not a chance in hell that this will be making the healthier option menu...but...it is better than those sweet potatoes and mini marshmallows!

Two packages of butternut squash (or 2 large butternut squash peeled, seeded, and cubed)
1/4 stick of unsalted sweet cream butter melted
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup oatmeal oats (Irish oats or steel cut usually work best)
1 apple peeled and cubed
1/2 lemon juiced

This is super easy, super tasty, and so not something you need worry about messing up. So be confident, its going to taste amazing.

Add all ingredients into a large bowl.  (yup every single one)
Make sure that all of the butternut and apple pieces are covered in mixture

Throw into a 375 oven for 45-55 minutes...until the butternut squash pieces are tender. Serve pipping hot, room temp, or cold. Delicious.

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If you are looking for an even healthier option...

1 large butternut squash
1 packed tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 pine nuts
1/4 of lemon (about the size of a large wedge) juiced

Preheat oven to 450

Wash butternut squash and prick holes all over
Place on baking sheet into oven for about an hour and 15 minutes

Remove from the oven, let cool for about 20-30 minutes

Sliced in half. Not directly down the middle but from the top to the bottom.

Remove the guts! Get the seeds and little strands out butternut squash GUTS out of there!

Now remove the flesh of the butternut squash and put into a food processor with brown sugar, lemon juice, and pine nuts.

Zipzip...smooth.

Serve hot.

Stir Fry!

I think the idea of various different stir fries can come off as daunting. Whenever you see a recipe for one there are generally a lot of steps involved, a complicated sauce, or ingredients you don't like or are incredibly hard to find.

I have a few suggestions for stir fry:

• Eat stir fry at the end of the week. Assuming you've had veggies through out the week you can set aside prepped items into storage containers and keep them in the fridge. I like my stir fry to have a huge variety of flavors so having little bags of peppers, onions, squash, asparagus, and carrots are great ideas.
• If you're going to have a meat or seafood in the stir fry buy it fresh.  Thawing can be a pain. It also brings a lot of excess water into the meal and taints the flavor.
• Salt, pepper, or dry rub your meat/seafood prior to cooking. (10-15 mins) Do not marinate meat in sauce you plan on using for the veggies. Having too many of your ingredients in the same marinade gets boring.
• Consider your eaters! If someone does not like onion, do not add onion. The flavors in stir fries are more noticeable because you're not cooking them down all the way. You want some what of a crunch in the veggies. You want the actual flavor of the veggie to come out. Thus, if you have a picky eater that hates the taste of onions (or whatever veggie it may be) it's flavor is going to be in the meal. So watch out!

A coconut curry sauce-
-2 stalks of green onion chopped up
-2 1/2 tablespoons yellow curry
-1/2 small can coconut milk
-2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
-Coarse black pepper to taste
-Red pepper flakes to taste

*Combine all ingredients together. Boom sauce. Make it first, it's super easy.

Veggies- (Again use the ones you like...these just happen to be the ones I used.)
**Use equal parts of vegetables. Be conscious of how much everyone you're feeding will eat. You may need two onions, two peppers...etc.
-yellow and orange peppers into chunks a little smaller than a silver dollar
-bok choy
-snow peas
-carrots
-red onion into slivers
-asparagus each stalk quartered
-portobello sliced into long strips

In a large pan or wok (let's be real not everyone's going to have a wok or know what a wok is):

Put that pan on HIGH heat. Use olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Once the pan is hot slowly add your ingredients. I think we can all say that harder vegetables go in first. They take a little longer to cook up. Onions, peppers, carrots, asparagus. You do NOT want soggy vegetables in this meal.

Once everything is looking like it wants to be ALMOST done (4-5 mins in a hot hot hot pan)...Slowly add the sauce and the softer vegetables (snow peas, mushrooms). Do not add all the sauce. One it might be too much for the amount of veggies you're using and two you might need it for your meat/seafood.

**tip of the sauce- if it's looking too thick or you think the concentration of curry may be too much for you add chicken broth to your desired consistancy.

Turn off heat. Put into serving dish. Wipe pan out. Get pan hot again.

Now its time to add your meat/seafood

In an olive oiled hot hot hot pan throw in your dry rubbed indregients and cook through. (Simple)

-If you're using red meat- medium rare is great and will continue cooking once combined with the veggies.
-Seafood, shrimp, get it nice and pinked up. Add a little of the curry coconut sauce.

Once meat/seafood is done combine with the vegetables.  YUM.

Serve hot and right away.