August Meal: Ramen Noodle Chicken Salad

The night after the Journeymen dinner, we were invited to a friends End-of-Summer Cookout! Once again, to help out, I brought a salad. The best news is that, because of the chicken in it, it can easily serve as your entire meal. I grew up with my mom making this every summer, especially when we went to the beach. My friends and in-laws love it as much as I do so I've passed the recipe on to them and decided to let you in on the goodness too!

This meal takes a little bit more time to make (lots of things to chop) but there is no cooking involved so that saves on time. AND if you have a helper like I did it goes by fast!

Ingredients:

• 2 packages Top Ramen chicken flavored noodles, *Don't cook the noodles*
• 1 rotisserie chicken (If you only want white chicken, buy 2. If you don't care and can deal with the dark meat you can just buy 1.)
• 1/2 head shredded cabbage
• 3 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• 3 tablespoon toasted sliced almonds
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoon lemon juice
• 6 tablespoon oil
• 1 teaspoon accent
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup each red, green, yellow sweet peppers finely chopped
• 1/2 can chopped green onions, tops too
• 1 small can sliced water chestnuts drain (this is optional and I usually always leave it out, because once again, I can't ever find them in the grocery store and am usually in too much of a rush to stop and ask)

Instructions:

1. Remove soup packets from Ramen and set aside. (You will use these later so don't throw away.)
2. Crunch up dry noodles and place in large bowl.
3. Finely chop green onions and sweet (bell) peppers and rotisserie chicken.
4. Add cabbage, peppers, green onions, water chestnuts (if you choose), and rotisserie chicken.
5. Mix in another small bowl: sugar, lemon juice, oil, accent, salt and pepper, and the contents of the two small soup packets. Mix well.
6. Add sesame seeds and pour dressing over all the contents in the big bowl.
7. Mix thoroughly and cover with lid (wrap).
8. Set for 24-36 hours before serving for best results.
9. Scatter toasted almonds on top before serving.

I use the Ziploc bag to help break up the noodles before dumping into the bowl.

 
 

This is what the dressing looks like before adding the sesame seeds.

 After adding the sesame seeds.

 

This is what it looks like with everything except the chicken and dressing. You will want to mix it all well before serving. I don't have a picture of the final product but it looks good and tastes incredible!

Bon Appetit!

July Meal: Strawberry Summer Salad

Clay and I are involved with a group called Journeymen. The men all lead community groups in LR and once a month, they, along with all the wives, come together to eat and engage in fellowship for the night. Whoever hosts makes the main dish and everyone else brings side dishes and dessert. It makes for easy clean up and keeps us in the budget. The meals are always great but the conversation is even better with this crew!

In August (I'm almost to the actual month for these meals!) we met at the home of Brett and Randy Likens. I brought my favorite summer salad my grandma always makes me. For the size group we had, I almost doubled the recipe, while keeping the dressing recipe the same (it makes a LOT of dressing!). I knew we would have leftovers but we didn't. Everyone loved it which means this will definitely make the rotation of meals! It really is the perfect summer salad.

Ingredients:
Dressing

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Mix together and let sit overnight if possible.

Salad

• 1 head Roman lettuce (1 bag)
• Pint of strawberries sliced
• 1 cup Montery Jack cheese

Pecans

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves and be careful not to burn! Keep watching it and keep stirring. Let cool.

Layer lettuce, strawberries, pecans, cheese so that you don't have to mix so much and break the strawberries.
Leave the dressing to the side in a container so everyone can put as much or as little as they want!

(Mix everything together before serving)

June Meal: Mango Salsa Tacos with Cilantro Rice

June, July and August meals were all made in August. I feel a lot better when I tell you guys the truth.

Not even a week after we got back from the honeymoon we had a few couples over and prepared a big meal for them! They brought a few items to help us out. Teamwork. :)


Ingredients:

• Mango Passion Fruit Salsa (found at Kroger, pictured)--this goes on top of the tacos and rice and makes everything taste extremely good! If you want to add a slice of avocado you can too!
• 2 Limes
• Cilantro
• Can of black beans
• Basmati White Rice (we did NOT buy this kind and it clumped up-lesson learned)
• Soft Taco shells (Thanks Jessica and Rusty!)
• Meat: we went with grilled chicken and steak. Clay picked these up at Whole Foods where they pre-seasoned it.

Black Beans: pour can into a pot on the stove. After heating for several minutes squeeze one half of a lime into the pot. This gives it a little extra zest!

Rice: This is where I have no experience and need help! I tried to make cilantro lime rice but it didn't turn out at all. My goal was for it to taste like Local Lime's rice. Lofty goal I had there! I added juice from 1 lime and finely chopped cilantro. Next time I know to buy basmati rice instead of regular rice so it wont stick together. Any other advice is much appreciated!

We love fruit! Especially our berries. :)

Guacamole, salsa, cheese dip and chips from Cactus Jacks was delish! (Thanks Laura and Scott!)

May Meal: A Healthy Summer Dinner

 

Mays meal was actually cooked in May! Small victories make my day.

 

During mine and Clay's engagement, we met once every few weeks with another couple who mentored us. Every time we met they took us out to eat and treated us so Clay and I decided to repay them by cooking one of the weeks we met! It was so good and once again, super easy.

 

If you're like me, you always WANT to eat healthy, but it seems more expensive and not as tasteful a the fatty foods. This meal was extremely healthy and a lot cheaper than eating out, which I'm guilty for doing more than I should.

 

 

Asparagus (or any vegetable):

• Place a sheet of foil on a baking sheet.
• Pinch the ends off of the asparagus and lay on the baking sheet.
• Pour olive oil and salt and pepper over and cook for about 15-20 minutes on 400 degrees. We never know how long it takes we just eye ball it.  love my foods a little burnt but Clay prefers his not so we just look at it until we are satisfied.



 

Caprese Salad:

• Slice Tomatoes
• Slice a [bigger than my previous post] ball of Mozzarella
• Add basil leaves to each tomato
• Top with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette

 

Fruit:

• I tried blackberries for the first time this year and my world has been ROCKED. We love to mix berries in a bowl and serve them....blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. It's colorful and tastes amazing!

 

Chicken:

• Clay has the best trick for marinating his chicken. He soaks it over night in Italian dressing and get this...COKE! Open up a 24oz bottle of coke and one whole bottle of dressing and soak it in a bowl and leave in the fridge overnight. This works best with fresh chicken but if you have frozen chicken I'm sure it will work after you let the chicken thaw out.
• The next day, pull your chicken out of the bowl it was soaking in and cook on the grill or skillet! I am a huge Cavenders fan and thought that was the only spice to add to chicken but Clay's method has me hooked.

Thank you to everyone who got us our new dishes, flatware (although this picture shows what Clay had before we unwrapped our flatware), napkins and placemats. We have gotten so much use out of them and sincerely appreciate your help stocking our first home together!

April Meal: Tomato Mozzarella Pesto Salad



Aprils meal is more like a snack. Or side dish. But it is GOOD! And so easy.

 

Ingredients:

• Fresh Mozzarella balls (the image below shows the brand I get.)
• Pesto Sauce
• Grape Tomatoes

 

The Mozarella comes in little balls that I slice in half or in fourths. I slice the grape tomatoes in half and add a few spoonfuls of pesto depending on how much I want. Add a pinch of salt (and pepper if you want) and there you have it! The easiest side dish to a dinner. This salad goes great with grilled chicken--mine and Clay's favorite meat ever.

 

 

 

March Meal: Zucchini Spaghetti

March's Meal was made in...May (and published in August). I'm two months late because life. But really, finals, wedding, etc. etc. means I'm a few months late in making my meals. But I'm not letting being late stop me from my monthly goal!

This meal was sooooo easy. As you can probably tell, Clay and I love veggies. Zucchini is one of our faves.

There are 5 ingredients to this meal:

• Zucchini, 1 feeds one person
• Ground Beef, 90-95% lean (we actually used 85% lean because that's all I could find so we weren't as healthy as we could have been)
• Olive Oil, a tablespoon-ish or two or three
• Pasta Sauce (the amount depends on how much meat you have and your personal preference)
• Salt/Pepper

1.  Cut up the zucchini and put slices on baking sheet. Pour olive oil over slices and a pinch of salt/pepper. Bake for 20ish minutes at 375 degrees. I like mine to be a little burnt because it makes it crunchier so just check it every now and then until you are satisfied. I would probably flip the zucchini over once because sometimes the bottom can get more burnt than the top. [Handy tip: put foil over the baking sheet before you lay the slices on them. It will help the olive oil not seep into the sheet as much and will be a breeze to clean up!]
2. Heat the beef in a skillet over the stove until the meat turns brown. (I know. Duh. But some of the people reading this might not know and I can't be held responsible for their food borne illness.)
3. Once the meat has been cooked for about 30 minutes, drain all the grease into a container you can discard later. Remember you don't ever want to put grease down the disposal.
4. Add the pasta sauce to the ground beef and let simmer for a few minutes until ready to serve.
5. Place the zucchini slices on a plate and top with the meat/sauce! Enjoy!

February Meal: Breakfast on the Run: Omelet Muffins

For February's fabulous dish, I decided to look in my new Skinny Taste cookbook for an awesome recipe. This cookbook was suggested to me by a few friends and let me tell you--it is incredible! I say that and I've only made one meal from it. But it LOOKS incredible and I have several recipes marked to try out in the future.

The first recipe that caught my eye were the "Make-Ahead Western Omelet Muffins". This recipe was so easy, and took me way less time to make than the spaghetti squash. In fact it took me more time to clean the muffin pan than it did to mix all the ingredients together.

I left out the scallions for no particular reason except I have no idea what a scallion is and didn't want to put forth the effort to look for it in the grocery store. So the taste might be a little different if you use them. But it's still good without.

• olive oil cooking spray or oil mister
• 6 large eggs
• 6 large egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• freshly cracked black pepper
• 3 ounces sliced ham (about 4 slices), finely chopped
• 2 ounces reduced-fat Swiss cheese, chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped red or orange bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions (I left these out)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly spray a standard 12-cup nonstick or silicone muffin tin with oil.
3. In a medium bowl, beat the whole eggs and egg whites with a fork. (To make these light, swap half the egg yolks with the egg whites. That way, you still get the nutrients of the egg yolk but with half the fat.)
4. Season them with salt and a pinch of black pepper. 
5. Mix in the ham, Swiss cheese, bell pepper, and scallions.
6. Pour about 1/4 cup of egg mixture into each muffin cup and carefully place the pan in the oven.
7. Bake until the eggs set, 20-24 minutes. (I baked mine for 25-28 min and I would say to go with the directions because mine was more dry than I would have liked.)

Per Serving: (2 muffin-size omelets)
119 calories
6 g fat
2 g saturated fat
195 mg cholesterol
2 g carbohydrate
0.5 g fiber
14 g protein
1 g sugars
329 mg sodium

Add turkey bacon (and cheese on top if you're a cheese lover like me!) and you have yourselves a healthy meal for the most important meal of the day.

I baked these in the morning before class and ate them for dinner that night and for lunch the next day. Just keep them refrigerated and in a zip-top plastic bag and they are great to grab on the go before work or school!

Enjoy :)

January Meal: Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

 

Hey friends! For the new year, I have stolen an idea from my friend Cassie, to make one new meal a month. I liked this idea because if you're like me, you don't have much time to try new elaborate recipes, but I can totally accomplish one fancy recipe a month! When I eat, I like to order my food and get it within 5-10 minutes. The only problem with that is it limits you to eating out, which can be costly and more than likely not good for you.

Tuesday night I made "Skinny Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce." I had been wanting to try spaghetti squash so I went to Pinterest in search for a fun recipe. I found this one on the Skinny Mom blog and thought it looked great. I also liked that the prep and cook time were under an hour. Let it be known, it takes that long if you have awesome knives, a vegetable chopper, and cook your squash in the microwave. I opted for the oven because ovens cook food more evenly, which meant it was in there for 50 minutes not 15. And I also have the worlds worst knives. I actually found them in my basement one day so I'm not sure if the lady who lived here before me left them, or if they were an old roommates. But nevertheless they are all I have so I made it work. My whole cook/prep time turned into TWO. HOURS. Woof. Like I stated earlier, I can totally meet my goal of one meal a month, any more than that and I'm doomed. I'm pretty certain I could get it in under an hour on my next try. If you have a man to help cut the squash in half that will probably eliminate 20 minutes right there-those suckers are hard to cut. But I like to think it was the knives fault and not my lack of strength!

Despite the time it took me, I loved the way it turned out!! It was delicious! It made soooo much too. I fed myself, Clay and my roommate, Lexis. Tonight Lexis and I ate off of it again. And I could probably get 2 more meals out of what's still left. If you're only cooking for two people, I would suggest cutting the recipe in half.

You can find the recipe on the link up above (click on Skinny Mom) but here are the slight changes I would make from what it has on there. My changes are in red.

• 8 cups spaghetti squash, cooked (2 medium size squash will yield about 8 cups)
• 1 lb lean ground beef (90%-95% lean) <<< but really, get the more expensive meat
• 24 oz low-sugar spaghetti or marinara sauce (20-22 oz.)
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• ½ onion, diced
• 1 small zucchini, chopped finely
• 1 celery stalk, chopped finely
• 1 carrot, peeled + chopped
• ½ cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
• ½ cup low moisture, part-skim, shredded mozzarella cheese
Optional*: (I did not use the sweetener.)
• 2 tsp Stevia®

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. To cook squash in oven, cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and membrane. Place squash cut-side up on baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for 45-60 minutes.(I cooked for 50 minutes and it turned out great but next time I might leave it in the whole 60 minutes)
3. To microwave squash, cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and membrane. Place squash cut-side up in a microwave safe dish with 1-2 inches of water (just enough water to cover bottom of microwave safe dish). Microwave 9-10 minutes until soft. (I didn't microwave. I'm not sure it would have had the same soft texture if I chose this option.)
4. In a large, deep sauté pan, add extra virgin olive oil.
5. Add onions, celery, carrot, and mushrooms. Saute vegetables on medium heat for 3-4 minutes until they begin to soften.
6. Add lean ground beef to vegetables. (Next time, I'm going to cook my meat in a separate pan, drain the grease, then add all the meat to the pan with vegatables.)
7. Continue to cook vegetables and brown ground beef, breaking up the meat into smaller pieces. Continue to cook until meat is no longer pink in color.
8. When meat is cooked, add chopped zucchini and jar of spaghetti sauce. (I bought a 25 oz. jar and put the whole thing in. It called for 24 oz. I would put about 20-22oz of sauce instead.)
9. Stir to mix all ingredients together and simmer on low for 5-10 minutes.
10. Adjust sauce with salt and pepper and (optional) sweetener. (I didn't do the sweetner and it tasted just fine.)
11. When spaghetti squash is cooked, remove from the oven or microwave and let cool for 5 minutes. After it has cooled, begin to remove the flesh with a fork, which will come out looking like spaghetti strands. Serve with sauce OR transfer spaghetti squash to a casserole dish.
12. Cover the squash with meat sauce evenly.
13. Top with mozzarella and bake in oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes until cheese has melted. Serve hot.
14.  I will also add a small salad as a side dish.

That whole meal added up to be around $27.00. That's not bad when you get 8-10 servings out of it. That's less than $3.00 a meal! I didn't have any coupons to use so had I looked for those it would have been even less. I will say, you need to get the meat it calls for. It will be more expensive but that's what makes it so healthy. 80% ground beef is what you will find the most of in the grocery store and probably what you've bought in the past. Fun fact: it's equivalent to McDonald's ground beef. So go ahead and do yourself a favor and get the 90-95% lean meat. Adding a salad or any bread will obviously increase the price as well. You can find all the nutritional facts on the site above.

You will have leftover vegetables which I actually used the night before because I looked at the recipe and knew I'd have plenty. I chopped up a bell pepper (not on this list), the extra mushrooms, a new zucchini, extra carrots and the other half of the onion and cooked them in a skillet on the stove with olive oil and salt and pepper. I think it's important to reuse as much of your food as possible so you save money and don't let things go to waste. 

Here is a picture of what my spaghetti squash lasagna looked like...not exactly a Pinterest worthy photo but it tastes the same!

Here's the link to the 9 other healthy recipes you can make with spaghetti squash.

 Happy cooking!