healthy

You are currently browsing articles tagged healthy.

Curried Peach Chicken Salad

July 20, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 10 comments

Chicken salad has become a staple in our weekend boating diet. Simple to pack and bring along to eat with bagels, wraps, crackers, or slices of baguette, it’s a filling meal that staves off hunger at sea. Our friend Jill is a magician in the kitchen and makes one of the best chicken salads, and we have been luck to have her bring it along lately.

Even after eating it several times in a row, I found myself craving chicken salad this week and decided to whip some up using seasonal ingredients I had in the house. What resulted was far different than what I planned on making, but is definitely a new favorite recipe in this house.

I started with a bunch of organic chicken tenders, tossing them in olive oil and curry powder before putting them on a hot grill pan.

Once all the chicken was cooked through, I chopped it finely and set it in the fridge for the afternoon while I got back to work. One of the many joys of working from home.

A few hours later, I chopped half of a small red onion, a few ribs of celery, and a jalapeno and tossed them with the chicken, along with a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise.

I sprinkled in a bit more curry powder, tossed everything together, then added a sweet ingredient, chopped fresh peaches. The juice mixed in with the rest of the ingredients and made for a nice sweet, soft contrast with the crunchy celery and spicy jalapeno. A bowl of summer was born!

I served the chicken salad in Tortilla Land tortillas which I had cooked and then let come to room temperature and filled with baby spinach. My camera battery died, so I didn’t get a shot.

I am excited to eat this chicken salad for lunch today!

How is your week going so far? Is it crazy that I am already very ready for the weekend? I am taking a half day Friday for a fun food tour, so I am trying my best to get as much work done as possible during the week. It’s a little overwhelming.

I hope you are all having a great day!

Tags: chicken, curry, dinner, healthy, peaches, recipe, salad

Thai Inspired Soup

June 25, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 8 comments

Have you had enough rain and cold weather this summer? Are you as obsessed with the capture of Whitey Bulger as I am?

I hope so.

As I mentioned a few times this week, I have been quite under the weather. It started with a fever and congestion and moved into a sore throat, headaches, and a cough. All along, all I could think about was the coconut soup from my favorite Thai restaurant, The King & I. It’s warm and spicy, flavorful, and has both a richness and a lightness that I can’t quite explain.

Unfortunately, The King & I doesn’t deliver to Dorchester. In fact, only a small handful of places do, and they are generally not-so-great pizza places, so I went without my soup until I felt a little better on Friday and got to the grocery store. In the car. With hefty canvas bags.

I went without a recipe, just keeping in mind the simple yet powerful flavors that stand out in this soup. I gathered a red chili pepper, cilantro, limes, lemongrass, and coconut milk.

The soup took about five minutes to make. While my husband peeled shrimp, I added a minced chili pepper to a few cups of coconut milk and brought it to a simmer. To that I added a few drops of lemon grass from the Gourmet Garden tube. I am loving Gourmet Garden products; they are really a great value and give you the flavor of fresh herbs but a little more staying power so money isn’t wasted.

Once the shrimp were ready, I tossed them (raw) into the bubbling soup and waited just a few minutes until they were cooked through. I turned the heat off, served up bowls of soup, squeezed the juice of half a lime in each, and topped with shredded cilantro.

Stir it up, and drink in the warmth and comfort. This soup was so soothing to my sore throat, and it contained just the flavors I wanted all week long. When you are craving something, you just have to have it!

I felt better almost instantly after eating the soup. Now let’s hope the sun makes an appearance sometime soon. . .

Have you recently recreated a restaurant dish you were craving?

Tags: Food, healthy, recipe, soup

Strawberry Salad with Grilled Scallops

June 7, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 13 comments

Strawberries, scallops, and peppery arugula all taste like summer to me. After a long winter, there is nothing I crave more than strawberries. Well, maybe heirloom tomatoes, but they don’t arrive until later in the summer, and I don’t want to rush things.

Strawberries, plump and red, if you are lucky, juicy enough that they are more than a little messy to eat, are perfect on their own. We all know that they make a happy union with shortcake and cream, and who doesn’t love a strawberry cupcake? I foresee myself making all of the above, but this past weekend, I wanted a strawberry and scallop salad.

Salads are the essence of summer, their simple preparation welcome after a day in the sun. I started this salad by cleaning and slicing strawberries on the beautiful Oxo cutting board I got at Eat, Write, Retreat.

I paused for a second to smell the sweetness of the raw scallops before putting them on a piping hot grill pan. I love how a fresh scallop smells as much as I love the taste. I did my best not to move them around in hopes of getting a golden brown, caramel color on each side.

While I left the scallops alone, I plated fresh arugula, strawberries, and crumbled goat cheese, finally adding the scallops when cooked through. They took no more than six minutes total.