Stir-fried Lunch

Ingredients:

1cup Quinoa

2 cups Chicken or Vegetable Broth

1 Onion

2 stalks celery

1 Bell Pepper

1 cup Mushrooms

1 bunch Baby Bokchoy

1 bunch Mustard Greens

1 handful Green Beans

Any other veggies you like

1 oz Ginger root

2 cloves Garlic

3 Tbsp Olive Oil

1/8 Cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce 

Seasonings (I.e. Chili powder, paprika)

Directions:

Chop all veggies into bite sized pieces. Chop ginger and garlic finely. 

In a small pot, bring 2 cups broth to a boil. Add Quinoa, bring to a low simmer, stir occasionally. 

In a large pan, heat olive oil on a medium flame. Add ginger, onions, and celery. When the onion and celery are translucent, add the rest of your vegetables. Cover with a lid and stir occasionally. Make sure nothing burns, the liquid from the vegetables should prevent this but stir to be sure. When the Bokchoy and mustard greens are limp, add the garlic, seasonings, and soy sauce. Continue cooking, stirring all ingredients together. 

Separate the ingredients into 5 containers, adding 1/2 cup cooked quinoa to each portion. Enjoy for 5 days of lunch! 

Side note: add chicken or another protein if you so choose. I prefer without meat for lunch but if I was serving this as a dinner I would add chicken or shrimp. 

Back in the health game

Recently I tried on a pair of pants that I bought in 2013 and although they [barely] fit over my hips and [reluctantly] buttoned, I was totally uncomfortable. These are some cute pants too so I definitely do not want to get rid of them or worse, buy new, bigger pants. So! Instead I decided then and there that I was going to change my recent eating habits and get back into the healthy eating game. 

Now for those of you who have not read my previous posts, this isn't a diet plan. It's a change-in-eating plan and a healthy cooking plan. I am the one in my small, two-person family who does the food shopping and the cooking so I therefore control what we eat. My longer commute does however make me lazier more often. When I get home at 7:30 on some nights, the last thing I want to do is slave over a stove for an hour just to eat a mean we will scarf down in 10 minutes (as we watch tv).

Yesterday we drove to the Route 10 Farmers market and stocked up on some healthy eats and I spent a few hours in the kitchen prepping my lunch for this week (see next post for recipe) and some snacks and a salad that I found in the Clean Slate cookbook which I bought back in December (yikes! Has it been that long?) Needless to say, I'm ready to eat better and share that journey with you, my faithful, patient readers. 

Breakfast for dinner

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini & Eggs

Ingredients

2 Zucchini

5 or 6 eggs

Al Fresco Chicken Breakfast Sausage (or another variety)

1/2 cup cooked Whole Wheat Couscous (optional) 

1 Whole Wheat Roll

Butter

Olive Oil 

Directions

Wash zucchini and slice in half longways. Using a melon balled or spoon, remove seeds from the center creating a gully in each half. Place on a cookie sheet and put it in an oven at 350 degrees until soft.

In the mean time, open the package of chicken sausage and slice each in half long ways, then chop into small pieces. Add olive oil to a frying pan and sauté the sausage until brown. 

I added couscous to mine because
I had some leftover from another meal.

Slice a whole wheat roll (or any other form of bread you prefer) and toast it in a toaster or using your broiler.

When the sausage is browned and the zucchini is soft (you can put a fork through easily) scoop the sausage into the zucchini. Turn your oven off but keep the zucchini in so it stays warm. Using the same frying pan, fry your eggs (or cook them however you prefer). 

Butter your bread, take the zucchini from the oven, plate it, then add your eggs on top. Enjoy!

Going Au Naturel

As many of you know, I have recently moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend. An exciting time indeed! We moved about 15 miles west from where we were both living and although our work commutes are now farther away, the peace, quiet and tranquility seem to be exactly what we were both looking for.

I realize that I have truly slacked off with the blog over the past 8 months, but I haven't been cooking nearly as much as I was in December and January. But now that I am the sole chef in our new apartment, I will be in a better position to blog new recipes.

With that being said, I must also share that we have gone natural with our food and organic whenever possible. Now I say 'as much as possible' because going organic is pretty pricey and sometimes I can't fathom paying an arm and a leg for some things. I am also still buying things that aren't 100% natural until I can find an appropriate replacement for them i.e. Honey Nut Cheerios. Yesterday I was in Shoprite and needed to buy butter (which according to all my research is the most acceptable cooking fat to use, in moderation of course). Organic butter ran $7+ for a pound. Holy Butter Batman! That is not something I was willing do pay for so I went with a natural alternative that still costed me about $3 but was much easier to swallow. Also I have discovered Stop & Shop's Nature's Promise brand. When possible I will still choose all natural AND organic but when that isn't feasible, all natural will suffice.

My recipes however will still be applicable for those of you who can not afford/ choose not to buy organic. I do encourage you to do so whenever possible. After much reading and research I have to say I am pretty convinced that organic is the best choice. For the haters out there that argue that hundreds of years ago people ate organic and only lived to child bearing age, need to also remember that the pesticides that are now used on our fruit and vegetables didn't exist and the antibiotics that now save people from dying at such a young age are being shot into animals living in deplorable conditions.

I'm Stuffed!

Quinoa Stuffed Zucchini

Ingredients:

3 Zucchinis

1/2 Cup Organic Quinoa

1 Cup Chicken Broth

1 Medium Tomato

1/2 Shallot

2 Chives

3 oz. Cheese (any type)

Olive Oil

Directions:

Wash all of your vegetables. Slice your zucchinis in half lengthwise, using a melon baller remove the seeds, and set them aside. Put the Chicken Broth and Quinoa in a small lidded pot and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook until all the broth is absorbed, about 20-25 minutes.  Chop the tomato, shallot, and chives. Sauté the vegetables in olive oil then add to the quinoa, mixing well. Shred cheese (I used Swiss). Spoon the mixture into the halved zucchini topping it with cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes. 

One tomato was plenty, but you can use more

2 chives, chopped finely

Shred your cheese finely

Remove the seeds

Sautee in olive oil

Fill your zucchini with the mixture

Topped with cheese

Starting Simply

Almond Butter

Ingredients:

16 oz whole, unsalted Almonds

1/4 c. oil

Directions:

In a food processor, add almonds. Process on low until it is a fine grind. Continue, sporadically stopping and scraping the sides of the bowl. Slowly add the oil (I used peanut oil because it was on hand and I don't mind the mixture). Continue to process until it is a smooth as you wish. Voile! 

Use whichever oil you want

Unsalted, ingredients on the
bag include only almonds

Bottled in a Mason Jar 

Here's to a great new year!

Hello readers!

First let me start by apologizing about my lack of posts lately. I know some of you are avid readers of my blog and I really have been slacking lately with my recipes! Work and grad school have been taking up a lot of my time and I resolve to blog more frequently in the new year!

Santa was good to me this year and you, readers, will benefit from it as well! I got a beautiful new toy (aka a food processor) and have already begun experimenting with it. I have also decided, along with my boyfriend and family, to give up all packaged goods starting January 1. (We've started weening off them a few weeks ago.) To be honest this change is not for weight loss but for a healthier lifestyle overall. There are so many added chemicals and unnecessary ingredients added to packaged food and it is my resolution to become more conscious of those things. Healthy eating can be delicious and I am determined to prove it to my family and myself!

My new toy!

I invested in Clean Slate: A Cookbook and Guide by the editors of Martha Stewart Living. I am by no means endorsed by them but I found the guide part informative and some of the recipes definitely look good.

Great info about nutritional
food.

I am also reading The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball which is a memoir of one woman's journey from city life to farm life and it is extremely eye opening! So readers, I am busy doing my research and it will hopefully inspire some great recipes for the new year. Keep an eye for my posts and subscribe so you never miss one! I promise great recipes but healthier, with no packaged ingredients and a lot more "wholesome".