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Delicious, Healthy Dinner in 10 Minutes

January 11, 2012 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 9 comments

I am pretty proud to stay that we have both been doing a really good job of working out 4-5 days a week, eating healthier, and cutting back on the old wine since 2012 started. I know it hasn’t been that long at all, but we feel great, and since we still allow plenty of indulgences (Hello, Old Fashioned’s, grilled cheese, and fries at Eastern Standard), we can keep it up. My health goal is basically not to be kicked down again this winter by the flu while my husband, who drives two hours a day and works for 12-14, is just to move more. However, if I end up a little faster and more toned, I will take it.

As you might have noticed, I have been blogging a little less (five days a week instead of six or seven) and not always about food. I have also felt that by not having to think of blog-worthy meals, I can focus on fast and healthy. If you have any topics that you are interested in reading about, let me know!

This dinner, which I also ended up eating for several lunches, is worth sharing because it was so delicious, quick, and satisfying.

We often order burrito bowls from our beloved South End spot, El Triunfo. They’re basically everything but the actual tortilla, which I rarely like, so they are perfect. In order to save some money, I decided to make our own burrito bowls, also known as salads. Winking smile

My burrito bowl was a pretty easy mix:

Chopped romaine (I so prefer eating salad that is chopped into small pieces)

1 1/2 cups of black beans that had been soaked and slow cooked with chili and garlic powders, canned are also fine

1/2 of a ripe avocado

Homemade salsa

Homemade lime crema – This is why I am blogging about the burrito bowls. It is my new favorite salad topper and veggie dip. I added the juice of a very juicy lime to a cup of Fage Greek yogurt, added a few teaspoons of olive oil to get a more dressing-like consistency, sprinkled in chili powder. . . and wanted to lick the bowl clean!

Bright, colorful, delicious, and full of vitamins, protein, and filling fats – the perfect meal for me.

Have you enjoyed any easy, healthy meals lately that really stood out?

Tags: avocado, burrito, Food, healthy, recipe, salad, salsa, Vegetarian

First Dinner of 2012

January 3, 2012 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 11 comments

Our first meal of 2012 was brunch at Papagayo. It was fabulous, and contrary to what I said about writing about food this year, I did take pictures, and I will be blogging about it. A make-your-own Bloody Mary bar is worth writing about.

Unfortunately, brunch, followed by shopping for new running shoes, followed by grocery shopping, was too much for my illness-worn body, and by the time dinner rolled around on January 1, I was back in bed. At 6:00.

Thank goodness for Sex and the City marathons to pass the time. Oh yeah, and Homeland and Midnight in Paris. Clearly, I had an active weekend. I pretty much did nothing for three days, but I don’t feel at all relaxed. Does that even make sense?

Anyway, I woke up Monday with my 10th day of a sore throat but feeling better. I was determined to make something delicious for dinner, even though my appetite was still missing.

I started by cleaning a whole chicken and popping it into a large tupperware container for brining. On my way home from Ireland, I watched a Jamie Oliver Christmas special on the plane, and I had been thinking about his jerk ham brine ever since. I used some elements of it as inspiration for my own brine.

I coated the chicken in salt and let it sit out in the open air while I mixed up its bath for the day.

Ingredients:

About 1 cup of Brugal white rum – I planned to use more, but I think it evaporated because most of the rum was gone.

A ton of spices – fresh black pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, chili powder, paprika, cinnamon, and more salt

I added the spice mixture and rum to the chicken, rubbing it on with the back of a spoon and filling the cavity with some of the mix. Then I poured in enough water to cover the chicken, added more salt, some cumin, mixed it all up, and then put the sealed container in the fridge for about six hours.

Before I was ready to get cooking, I set the oven to pre-heat to 375 and got started on some veggies. I found these beautiful sweet peppers at Market Basket, and they were the perfect thing for roasting, along with some yellow onions.

Once the chicken was out of the brine, I stuffed it with a few pats of butter and let it cook for about an hour and 20 minutes until crispy and golden. In the meantime, I mashed up a bunch of sweet potatoes with SO Delicious coconut milk. I highly recommend.

The chicken smelled amazing, and the peppers cooked down really nicely. Apologies for the mangled drumstick, I went to check it, and it fell off.

Yum. I served the chicken atop the sweet potatoes and alongside the peppers and onions, topped with a simple homemade gravy. It was such a satisfying, delicious, and somewhat healthy meal and a great way to kick off the New Year. Lots of leftovers mean lunch for both of us today!

What was the first thing you cooked in 2012?

Tags: brine, Brugal, chicken, dinner, Food, peppers, roast chicken, rum, spices

Ginger Orange Cranberry Sauce

December 16, 2011 in recipe by traveleatlove | 7 comments

Tis the season for holiday dinner recipes! When I saw cranberries on sale at my local Shaw’s this week, I immediately knew I needed to make a batch of my favorite cranberry sauce/puree, flavored with spicy ginger, tangy citrus, and sweet honey. This mix can be used as a whole berry sauce at a holiday dinner (Replace the canned stuff!) or it can be pureed and used as a topper for chicken or pork, added to yogurt or smoothies, used as part of a seasonal salad dressing, or even mixed into a festive cocktail. And of course, it can be eaten on its own.

Ingredients

4 cups cranberries

juice of 4 clementines plus as much pulp as you can squeeze out

ginger – as much as you like!

honey, to taste

2 cups water

Start by rinsing the cranberries and picking out any under ripe or rotten ones. Sadly, these berries were on sale which, at my Shaw’s, means going bad. I picked out quite a few icky berries.

Once that’s done, add the cranberries, water, citrus juice, and pulp to a pot and start simmering on low. I added the clementines in just for a minute until warm, squeezed them again to get more juice, then tossed them.

Add in the ginger and honey and stir thoroughly. Let simmer until the berries have cooked down and are nice and soft. Taste frequently so that you can adjust flavorings. I added a splash of store-bought orange juice toward the end in this batch.

I plan on making smoothies with much of my cranberry sauce, so I pureed it in order to get a nice consistency. I’m hoping to also use this to top a nice roast chicken before I leave for Christmas.