healthy recipes

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Trying to eat more veggies, but tired of the same old dishes? I was feeling this way over the weekend, so I dreamed up a recipe for a roasted vegetable salad with feta that ended up being out of this world.

roasted vegetables

I started with a giant sweet potato, a yellow onion, a peeled eggplant, a bunch of carrots, and some butternut squash chunks, cutting and peeling everything as needed. After tossing them in oil, I put the carrots, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash into a 420 degree oven to get started while I prepped the dressing.

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red pepper flakes, coriander, cumin

The dressing was really full of flavors and textures which made this veggie dish so enjoyable. I used about a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, a teaspoon of coriander seeds, crushed, and a half teaspoon of cumin. I absolutely love coriander, so I kept some of the seeds whole, roughly crushing them in a bowl with the back of a spoon.

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One of the other key ingredients in the dressing was a fig jam that was in my swag bag from the Boston Food Blogger launch party.

fig jam

To a little bowl, I added a teaspoon of the jam, the spices, and about a half cup of balsamic vinegar. Then I streamed in olive oil until the dressing tasted just right.

balsamic and fig jam

When the veggies were soft and browned, roasted to perfection, I scooped them into bowls and poured some of the dressing over them, tossing to coat all of the warm vegetables.

roasted vegetables

I cut up a bit of Athenos feta to sprinkle over the top.

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And sat down with a glass of wine and a really satisfying dinner. I planned on heating up some chicken sausage with these veggies, but I ended up pretty full from them.

roasted vegetables

Do you like roasted vegetables? What are your favorite veggies to roast?

Tags: butternut squash, carrots, eggplant, feta cheese, healthy, healthy food, healthy recipes, onion, roasted vegetables, salad, spices, sweet potato, vegan option, Vegetarian, vegetarian recipe, veggies

In keeping with the week’s simple and healthy theme, I decided to unearth some of the many dried beans I keep in the pantry for a comforting soup. Though Friday’s weather made it seem like spring was near, I couldn’t get warm this weekend and needed something hearty that could bubble away on the stove while I was working.

black beans

I soaked about two cups of dried black beans in plenty of water overnight, then drained and rinsed them before prepping the rest of the soup ingredients.

I smashed six cloves of garlic and minced them, then added the garlic to some olive oil, starting it on low heat.

garlic

To the garlic, I added my soup’s secret ingredient, Howard’s Hot Pepper Relish. I love the sweet and spicy flavors of this peppery relish, so I put in three heaping tablespoons.

Howard's Hot Pepper Relish

Howard's Hot Pepper Relish

Once I could smell the garlic starting to cook up, I added the softened beans, two cups of water, and half of a bag of frozen sweet corn.

organic sweet corn

I brought everything up to a boil, then brought the heat down to low, letting the soup simmer for over an hour, checking to see if water was needed. You will want to eyeball it and taste the beans to make sure they are cooked all the way through.

black bean soup

To make the soup an even more complete meal, I cooked up some al fresco spicy jalapeno sausage, sliced it into small pieces, and added it to the soup.

spicy chicken sausage

And finally, I added a dollop of Fage 2% Greek yogurt to the top of the soup. This would definitely be fine without the chicken sausage for a vegetarian soup, maybe even with some quinoa or brown rice added to bulk it up.  Delicioso!

I am in a serious weather funk. I can’t warm up, even when I am dancing to my Ke$ha Pandora station or lifting weights, and I feel tired all of the time. I just want to open the windows and to be able to sit in my house without my coat! Can it be spring yet?

Hot pepper relish is a condiment that I love to have around the house. What is your favorite condiment?

Tags: beans, black bean soup, black beans, chicken sausage, cooking, corn, dinner, easy recipes, fiber, garlic, healthy comfort food, healthy eating, healthy recipes, hot relish, Lunch, peppers, soup, vegetarian soup

Happy Sunday! I am quickly learning there are no weekends or vacation days when you work for yourself. Which isn’t really that different than working in the corporate world, you just get to do it on your own schedule and in your pajamas.

The theme for this week is simple, healthy foods. Friday night we did a massive grocery haul at Market Basket. It was awesome to have that big task checked off before the weekend even began.

I have had a craving for homemade pizza for awhile but have had no desire to mess with dough. I just don’t have it in me to have another pizza disaster.

So I went the very easy route, Boboli whole wheat pizza crust for our lunch pizza yesterday.

Boboli pizza crust

You know what? I really liked it. Like I said, I am just in the mood for simple food these days. I don’t care that it wasn’t a hand-tossed dough or made in a pizza oven or on a special stone.

Instead of a red sauce, I decided to use my winter pesto, also known as “poor girl pesto” as the base. Winter pesto because it utilizes spinach instead of basil, and “poor girl pesto” because it uses walnuts, which are cheaper than pine nuts, and there is no parmesan cheese. To tell the truth, I love it just as much as traditional pesto.

Start by adding a bunch of baby spinach leaves to the processer.

baby spinach

Top with a handful of walnuts, 4-6 cloves of garlic, a grind of sea salt, and enough oil to cover the top. Because my pizza was cheese-less, I added a little extra oil to my pesto to make sure it was not a dry sauce.

walnuts

Voila! I always make enough pesto so that I can eat a spoonful or two right out of the bowl. It’s garlicky goodness never fails.

spinach pesto

Next up, I chopped a head of broccoli into florets. We certainly got our greens in at lunch!

broccoli florets

I didn’t get a photo of the process, but I smothered the Boboli pizza crust in pesto and a little basil oil, topped it with broccoli, and popped it into the oven at 420 degrees for about 10 minutes.

While the pizza was baking, I quickly stir fried bits of chicken breast with some olive oil and garlic.

chicken and garlic

When the pizza came out of the oven, the chicken was perfectly cooked and ready to join the rest of the ingredients.

pesto broccoli chicken pizza

Yum!

pesto broccoli chicken pizza

This was an awesome lunch that didn’t take more than 20 minutes to make. In the middle of a busy weekend, it was nice to stop for a healthy meal with all sorts of flavors.

pesto broccoli chicken pizza

This would definitely be something you could easily wrap up in foil and bring into the office for a lunch you would look forward to.

I am going to dinner at Beacon Hill Bistro tonight for a friend’s birthday. Do you have any fun Sunday plans? Do you have tomorrow off?

Tags: Boboli pizza crust, chicken, cooking, cooking at home, dinner, easy pizza, garlic, greens, health, healthy recipe, healthy recipes, Lunch, pesto, pizza, spinach, spinach pesto

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