Day 123 - Valentine's Day Salad

Spinach Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette, Orzo Pasta Salad, Oven Fried Shrimp.

Today, we're featuring a Valentine's lunch!  How in the world is a spinach salad related to Valentine's, you ask?  Because it's a pretty light lunch.  Let's be honest, almost everyone has a heavy evening meal on Valentine's.  You're either going out to eat, cooking something elaborate for the people you love, or emotionally eating because Hallmark and society tell you that your single status is sad. 

You are not sad, for the record.  You are wonderful just as you are, whether you are single, happily married, unhappily married, or somewhere between any of those.  That said, there's nothing wrong with indulging your awesomeness with a little extra chocolate tonight!

And, so, enters the healthy lunch.  I've got frozen pizza and wine on the menu at home tonight (heck yeah, I know I'm fancy!  That was sarcasm...), so for lunch today I've got a spinach salad with feta and Dijon vinaigrette, orzo salad, and oven fried shrimp.  No recipes today, nothing fancy, just a good cold lunch.

Happy Valentine's Day. Hug someone you love and have an extra treat for me!   Pin It Now!

Days 121 & 122 - Two Meals, One List - Italian Style!

Two delicious Italian and Mediterranean Style lunches!

 
I never planned on this being a thing, but I guess it is now!  Here's another two days of lunches from one main set of ingredients.  Common ingredients for these two days include:  salami, tallegio cheese, bean sprouts, mini bell peppers, and a baguette.  I already had the baguette, peppers, and cheese at home, so I brainstormed and picked up the salami and bean sprouts to round it out.  

The first lunch was a salami and tallegio sandwich on a baguette with sprouts, peppers on the side, rice crackers, and mixed berries.

The second lunch was a bed of sprouts with a wedge of tallegio, a few parmesan cubes, salami  slices, olive skewers, bell peppers, and baguette slices.

These were great to make ahead of time because they kept cold so well.  And all of the ingredients could be served at room temperature, so I could refrigerate it overnight and then just leave it on my desk for work.  If you're packing lunch for kids, this would be great for any adventurous eaters.  Pin It Now!

Day 120 - Crunchy Shrimp Pasta

Crunchy Shrimp Pasta

I packed leftovers from last night for lunch today.  I knew I'd be doing it in a hurry this morning, too, so I just snapped a picture of dinner last night.

So, for my readers who love whole foods and clean eating, this is not for you.  For my readers that don't mind using a little processed food for a quick and tasty meal, this is totally for you.

Remember the spaghetti from last night?  Well, I used up the rest of the sauce and pasta, and this time topped it with some shrimp tossed in Italian Parmesan Fresh Takes and baked.  It.  Was.  SO.  Good.  I may be making shrimp like this all the time now.  Couldn't have been easier, and it was so delicious!

I'm going to write the recipe assuming you're starting fresh and didn't have leftovers like I did.  I made enough for 3 servings last night, and the below recipe will make 4-6 servings.  Enjoy!

Crunchy Shrimp Pasta

1.5 lbs shrimp, peeled with the tail off
1 package Italian Parmesan Fresh Takes
1 egg
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup white wine
1 T minced garlic
1 T olive oil
1 pound angel hair pasta

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add garlic and onion, cooking until soft.  Add in tomatoes and wine, bringing to a simmer.  Pour in spaghetti sauce and bring to a simmer again.  Reduce to low heat and keep on back burner while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Put on water to boil for pasta.  In a separate bowl, whisk egg until well blended.  Dip shrimp in egg and place into opened bag of fresh takes.  When all shrimp is in the bag, seal and bag and shake until coated.  If your shrimp are large, you may need to do this in two batches.  Remove coated shrimp and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Sprinkle over any remaining cheese and bread crumbs as desired.  Bake at 425F for 10 minutes and remove promptly.  While shrimp is baking, you should have plenty of time to cook and drain pasta.  Toss pasta with sauce and keep warm.  Transfer to individual bowls and top with shrimp.  Serve hot.   

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Day 119 - Not-Really-Homemade Spaghetti

Spaghetti, roasted chicken, sugar snap peas.

I love homemade spaghetti sauce from scratch.  Love it.  I love all the chopping, the simmering all day, the rewarding slurping at the end of the night.  Buuuuut, some days you get home late from work, have bills to pay, emails to answer, clothes to launder, groceries to buy...and all you really want to do is catch up on TV.  That, my friends, is time for spaghetti sauce from a jar.

Jarred sauce is always on sale, there's always a coupon, and you can heat it up faster than pasta.  You can jazz it up, too...I usually add a can of diced tomatoes, a little minced garlic, and some chopped onion or mushrooms if I've got them.  And the good news is, if there are leftovers, I just pour them back in the jar and use them over the next couple of weeks.  Opened, a jar of sauce usually stays good for a week or two.

So, leftover pasta with jarred sauce starred at lunch today, with some leftover roasted chicken and sugar snap peas.  I added just a teaspoon or so of water to the peas so that they steamed when I microwaved this for lunch.  Very tasty! Pin It Now!

Day 118 - Comfort Food Winter Salad

Comfort Food Winter Salad

Remember my talking about those goodies I got from my friend K?  She also included some spicy honey mustard, which I used for this tasty salad!  While the shelf variety of hot honey mustard won't be as good as hers, this recipe would still make it pretty tasty!

I call this a "comfort food" salad because it has lots of high calorie items - bacon, cheese, chicken, nuts.  I also filed it under healthy recipes, because even though it's higher in fat, the greens are so good for you.  I know our culture around salad is that it should be an exclusively healthy food, but I think the benefits of the vegetables are worth amping up with some higher fat treats on occasion.  And since it was wintry and blustery this weekend, but I desperately needed some vegetables, that's what I did!  Leftovers for lunch today were great.  I only wish this salad had a little more color, but it tasted just fine as is!

Comfort Food Winter Salad

1 chicken breast
1/2 head lettuce, any type (I think I used romaine), chopped
1/2 head radicchio, chopped
3  strips bacon, cooked crisp and chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup dried cherries
2 oz crumbled goat chevre
1 T hot honey mustard
1 T red wine vinegar
2 t olive oil

Cook chicken breast any way you like and chop into bite sized pieces (I baked mine, drizzled with extra honey mustard, the night before with the rest of my dinner - this is a great thing for chicken leftovers!).

In a small bowl, whisk together mustard, vinegar, and oil - emulsify with an immersion blender if desired.  Set aside.  You may refrigerate and store this overnight if desired.

When ready to eat salad, combine lettuce, raddichio, cherries, cheese, bacon, walnuts, and chicken in a large bowl.  Drizzle with dressing and toss to coat.  Serve immediatley.

If packing for lunch, feel free to pack the salad on the side. Pin It Now!

Day 117 - Pot Roast Soup

Soup!

My grandmother, who grew up during the Depression, saved everything.  E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.  I mean, the woman saved old underwear elastic to use as rubber bands.  Really.  She could look at a bag of trash and find uses for almost anything.  I remember playing with my cousin's 10 year old (first edition, probably priceless) Star Wars toys that she had found behind the couch and saved, because they were perfectly good toys.

Now, I'm thrifty, but I'm not that thrifty.  I came of age in the 90's when consumerism was king, and so I feel no guilt at throwing out (or, more likely donating) things that I can no longer use.  One really smart thing that she did which I copy, though, is a container of vegetable soup starter in the freezer.  By that, I mean that she keep a plastic container in the freezer, and anytime she had leftover vegetables she just added them to the container and let them freeze.  When it starts to get full, then it was time to make vegetable soup!    

Now the wisdom of my mother kicks in.  My mom makes a great pot roast in the oven, and she discovered years ago that if she saved all of the drippings and used them to start a beef vegetable soup broth, it made the best soup ever.

So, I enter the cooking scene, and here's how I combine all that wisdom to make my own soup.  I keep a 2 quart container in my freezer.  Any time I have vegetables OR pot roast leftovers, I add them to the container.  I usually make pot roast in 1 pound quantities, so my drippings aren't a lot.  And I only add vegetables I'd like in soup - tomatoes, corn, peas, beans, carrots, onions, potatoes.  Then, when my container gets full, it's soup time!

I call mine pot roast soup because I usually buy a 1 pound pot roast and cut it up into little bite sized pieces to cook in the soup.  Pot roast is pretty cheap, and you can trim the fat quite easily.  It's also very similar to how I make pot roast in the crock pot.  I usually add a fresh onion and some tomatoes, maybe a potato.  This soup also goes back in the freezer very well.  I let it cook for most of the day and come home to delicious soup.

Which is what I did yesterday, and brought the leftovers today.  The picture is a little hazy because it was still steaming!

Pot Roast Soup

1 lb pot roast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup baby carrots, chopped
1 cup red wine
1 quart beef stock or wine
1 package Lipton Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix
2 quarts vegetable and pot roast leftovers (if this isn't your style, use 4 drained cans of any vegetables you like and 1 additional quart of beef broth or stock)


Place your dry ingredients in a 5-6 quart crock pot.  Pour over liquids.  Cover crock and cook on high for 6 hours, or low for 12 hours.  Serve hot and enjoy!

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Day 116 - Easy Greek Yogurt Parfait

Easy Greek Yogurt Parfait

This is one of the easiest lunches ever - easy to put together, easy to eat.  It's a simple yogurt parfait that I threw together.  A traditional parfait is usually layered in a tall glass.  Actually, a traditional parfait is a French dessert that looks very little like what we eat in America.  But I digress...anyway, this is not a prettily layered parfait.  It has three layers - granola, yogurt, berries.  I added a dusting of granola between the berries and yogurt to keep the strawberries from producing too much juice and drowning the yogurt, but this little beauty is pure function.

If you like, you could put the ingredients in a mason jar (which are soooo trendy right now) and break up the layers for a better look.  As long as your container has a good fitting top - mason jar, plastic bowl, or whatever - these keep well in the fridge for quick breakfasts and snacks.  Or, as in today, lunches!

Easy Parfait

3/4 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup plain, vanilla, or honey Greek yogurt, fat free
1/2 cup low fat granola
1 T honey, optional

In a 16 ounce container with a tight fitting lid, pour in granola, reserving about 1 T of granola for later.  Gently spread yogurt over granola, and top with honey if desired.  Sprinkle your reserved granola over the yogurt, and top with berries.  Secure lid and keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Pin It Now!