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File this recipe under “make this weekend”. The name of the recipe is quite the mouthful isn’t it? The recipe itself is full of flavor, comfort, and nutrition. With the ridiculously cold weather we’ve been having lately, comfort is all I have been craving. Can’t I just eat grilled cheese every day?

In addition to coming up with something cozy and healthy for dinner on a chilly gray day, I also needed to utilize the delicious  tortillas sent to me earlier this summer by the great people at Tortilla Land. Tortilla Land makes fresh tortillas that are great in all sorts of recipes. I’ll admit, I may enjoy them the most heated up in a pan with a glob of Nutella in the middle, but these tortillas are definitely for more than just dessert.

cumin and paprika

I don’t know where the idea came from, but I dreamed it up when I wasn’t sleeping the other night. Insomnia usually leads to some sort of recipe for me!

It’s an easy one.

Start by chopping and boiling two large sweet potatoes. Toss those, along with a cup of crumbled goat cheese, a teaspoon of cumin, and a teaspoon of paprika into a blender and puree until smooth.

crumbled goat cheese

I absolutely love my Ninja blender. It’s not a Vitamix, but it makes purees very smooth in a very short time. You could really stop right here and eat the goat cheese and sweet potato puree. As you can see, I definitely dipped a spoon in just for quality control.

sweet potato puree

Once the sweet potato is done, add about two cups of soaked lentils to olive oil, garlic, and tomato paste, all to taste. I used a small can of tomato paste because I love the flavor and the lycopene it adds to recipes.

Tortilla Land

Heat a stack of Tortilla Land tortillas in a hot pan until puffy and lightly browned, and then layer ingredients: tortilla, sweet potato mixture, lentils, repeat. Top with enchilada sauce, bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees and serve with shredded sharp cheddar and salsa.

enchilada pie

As I said earlier, this recipe is pure comfort. The creaminess of the sweet potato really makes it so. I love making enchilada pies because the construction is so quick and easy. Fresh tortillas like the ones that Tortilla Land makes add something a little extra special.

Tags: dinner, easy dinner, enchiladas, Food, goat cheese, healthy, recipe, sweet potatoes, Vegetarian

Ahhhh island time. It’s definitely something this high-strung girl can get used to. . . after a day or so! Our trip to Sanibel Island was schedule-free with just the way felt to guide us. One day we spent hours and hours on the beach, forgetting it was dinner time until we wandered back to the condo after 7:00. We ate some great meals out in Sanibel and Captiva, and as always, I found one I wanted to bring home with me.

Our first day back was busy; my husband had a work crisis, and I had to wrap up a report for a client. To keep us just a little bit on island time, I recreated a dish we had at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille, putting a healthier twist on it to help us ease back into real life.

Doc Ford’s Yucatan shrimp appetizer combines steamed shrimp with butter, lime juice, cilantro, and chili peppers for a spicy, tangy treat that is good to the very last drop of sauce.

Yucatan Shrimp

I know that the Doc Ford’s version contained a LOT of butter (which is why it was better than my version), so when I went to make the dish, I used about 1/4 stick of butter and 1/4 cup of Chile olive oil from the Olives reopening event.

ingredients

To get started, I boiled about 20 medium shrimp, knowing we would have some leftover for my husband’s lunch the next day. While the shrimp were boiling, I chopped the chili peppers and cilantro and juiced the lime. I quickly melted the butter with the chilis. When the shrimp were done, I tossed them in, shells and all, and mixed in the cilantro and lime juice.

I prepared simple beds of arugula and grape and sungold tomatoes and topped the salads with the shrimp.

arugula and tomatoes

Yucatan shrimp

Dinner took less than 20 minutes to whip up; the peel and eat aspect of the shrimp really makes it speedy. If I was making this as a pasta dish or something else where I wanted the shrimp to be coated in the sauce, I would definitely peel them. The flavors were very similar to the shrimp we had at Doc Ford’s, and it made for a healthy, filling dinner and lunch.

Tags: Food, healthy, recipe, salad, shrimp

Happy Summer Solstice! My appetite is just about spot on for the hot weather expected today; I don’t feel like eating much more than salads, sandwiches, and snacks, and with temperatures. Earlier this week after a weekend of eating fun BBQ food, a cool shrimp salad with a little bit of crunch and a lot of chopped romaine made the perfect dinner.

Summer meals mean convenience, so this recipe starts with pre-cooked frozen shrimp, which I thawed out during the work day. I pulled the tails off, roughly chopped the shrimp, and set the main part of this recipe aside.

shrimp

Next up I got to work on the crunch and the flavor, cleaning and chopping my favorite little sweet peppers and using scissors to cut a big bunch of cilantro.

peppers and cilantro

I squeezed two limes into a bowl to get the dressing started.

limes

To pull everything together, I mixed the chopped shrimp, peppers, cilantro, lime juice, and a few dashes of habanero sauce with 1/2 cup of Fage Greek yogurt.

shrimp salad

We ate the shrimp salad in whole wheat wraps with chopped romaine. It was definitely a summery dinner, with the cool, creamy dressing that had a hint of lime and a hunt of spice.

shrimp salad wrap

With the windows all wide open and the sun setting late, this dinner was a nice, relaxing introduction to the season ahead. The next two seasons make up my favorite time of year in New England, and I can’t wait to be outside as much as possible.

Happy Summer!

Tags: cilantro, dinner, Fage, Food, healthy, recipe

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