Hi there! Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was exactly what I wanted it to be: productive yet also relaxing. Since I'm flying to the East coast this upcoming weekend for the holidays (!!!), I wanted to get some Christmas shopping done and clean my house - check, check. Since it has been SO chilly in the Bay Area and I'm a baby in the cold weather, I didn't have any outdoor workouts besides long walks with Harley, but I did do at-home workouts both yesterday and today. I probably look like such a nut awesome jumping around my living room doing burpees and pushups while watching football... hey, whatever works up a sweat right?! A lot of good food made its way into my belly this weekend, including: A post-workout bowl of goodness: chopped apple & banana sprinkled with cinnamon, ... [Read More]
healthy dinner ideas
A Veggie Lover’s Delight: Salad Pizza
Making pizza at home is one thing I simply don't get sick of. While I most often make either a margherita pie or one topped with mozzarella, zucchini, spinach, and roasted peppers, I like coming up with new ways to keep pizza night interesting. With dough sitting in my fridge on Monday, visions of a brand new pizza recipe floated through my head: salad pizza. This meal is the best of both worlds: whole wheat pizza dough to please the carb lover + a healthy dose of mozzarella to make it cheesy, yet it's also a recipe packed with veggies and goodness to provide your body with lots of vitamins and nutrients. I thought of what ingredients I most often use in my salads and also had on hand at home, and I came up with lettuce, tomato, artichoke hearts, avocado, red onion, plus a touch of ... [Read More]
Perfecting Pasta Caprese
Last Christmas, my hubby gave me a book of classic Italian recipes as a stocking stuffer. In it there are some quintessential meat-free Italian recipes included. I started flipping through it yesterday after having dreams that he and I were on a vacation in Italy (I think that's a sign that we should really go there soon!), and a recipe for pasta caprese caught my eye. I've made caprese in many forms and fashions -- as the classic salad, a chopped heirloom salad, a panini, risotto dish, and yes, as a pasta meal. I love the simplicity of it: some good olive oil, tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil, salt, pepper, and sometimes balsamic vinegar. It never fails as a great combo, especially in warm weather. But this book had a tip noted in there that I've never done before: freezing the ... [Read More]
Plum Tomato & Goat Cheese Quiche
I love to experiment in the kitchen, but sometimes life gets just too hectic to spend a lot of time playing around creating meals. This was certainly the case the past couple of weeks with preparing to move, and now, getting all unpacked. When you're not sure where your plates are or have to go digging through boxes to find a knife to work with, meals tend to be pretty simple. That's why lately my dinners have included some quick, staple meals - including brown rice with veggie quesadillas, salad with pasta, and grilled cheese & homemade sweet potato fries. I can't wait to get all settled in so that I have the tools and energy to be more creative in the kitchen again. Just another day or two and I'll be there! Even when I don't have a big life happening going on like a move, some ... [Read More]
Election Night Fare: Spinach & Red Pepper Quiche
Happy Election Day! Like a lot of people in the U.S. this evening, I've been tuning in to my television watching the projections and stats for the presidential race. I was so distracted with election coverage, I forgot to photograph tonight's dinner until we had eaten half of it.... When I'm preoccupied with other things, like watching a game or in this case, an election, a quiche is a great meal to make. This is because there's little prep time, and once I pop it in the oven, I can just let it bake while paying little attention to it. Tonight's quiche centered around a bag of fresh spinach I had on hand. Spinach & Red Pepper Quiche 1 frozen pie crust1 red bell pepper (chopped)1 6- oz bag of fresh raw spinach1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella (provolone, fontina or ... [Read More]
Loaded Veggie Fajitas
If you'd read my blog before, you know that I love to cook. Though my hubby is a meat-eater and I'm a vegetarian, I'm lucky to be married to a guy who is not a picky eater. However, the dinners I make with my Marine around can be pretty different from the ones I put together when I'm on my own. You see, I can eat a nice salad or a simple dish of beans and brown rice for my evening meal and be content. For Adam, that's not so much the case. He needs to eat a heavier dinner (and at least twice as much as me!), and so sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge to continuously come up with good dinner ideas that'll work for both of us. I love my pasta and carbs, but I definitely shouldn't make that for us every night, and he's not at all into protein pancakes for dinner as I am. ;-) I have my ... [Read More]