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!