Chicken salad "sandwich"

This is actually a recipe that my mom told me about and I modified it a little. Actually, as I am writing this post, I'm eating it for dinner. It is just so delicious that I had to share it ASAP. Chicken salad sandwiches aren't exactly what you would first think of when you think "healthy dinner", however this recipe is different. With a short ingredient list and a quick preparation time, this chicken salad sandwich can be made a weekday dinner!

Chicken Salad Sandwich 

1 cup chopped rotisserie chicken

1 celery stalk, diced

1/2 cup diced red onion

1/4 of an apple, diced very small

2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise or regular mayo

1.5-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 leaves of purple cabbage

Mix all the ingredients except for the purple cabbage in a bowl until the mayo and Dijon covers everything. Put the chicken salad inside the cabbage leaves and serve!

Serve this with sweet potato fries and a salad for a complete dinner!

Enjoy!

Weekly meal planning

Meal planning is a great tool to keep your meals cheap and healthy. How many times have you bough groceries for one night and ended up throwing out the leftover food because you didn't have anything to cook with it? Meal planning gets your organized. For example, if you buy a rotisserie chicken to make tacos with, you can plan to make chicken pot pie the next day with the leftovers. Here are some tips that I found useful when planning a weeks worth of food:

Meal planning tips:

1. When using the vegetables that you bought throughout the week, save the scraps and put them into a vegetable soup.

2. Don't plan to make meals that will require a lot of ingredients that you normally don't use.

3. Buy your chicken in bulk. Whole foods bulk chicken allows you to buy the quality chicken breasts for up to $4 less a pound. Individually freeze the breasts in ziplock bags and you can eat chicken all week!

3. Write your list and shop on the weekend so that you will have time.

4. Cool with healthy, whole grains and buy them in the bull aisle. That way, you can buy as much as you need.

5. Write all your meals down! Write your meals down on the left hand side and your grocery list on the right. That way, you buy exactly what you need. Also, keep your list in the kitchen after you buy the groceries so that you can remember what you are going to make.

Here's an example of my meal planning. This is for this week:

It's all wrinkled from being in my purse while I shopped!

I hope this helps with your meal planning!

Warm soup for a cold day

Who doesn't love warm soup on a cold and chilly day? Now that summer is coming to a close and a slight chill in the air is approaching, it's a good idea to get some soup recipes ready. Lentil soup is hearty and nutritious. Lentils are a great source of protein as well as soluble fiber. Lentil soup is also extremely simple to put together and always a crowd pleaser. Pair this soup with brown rice and a salad and you have a yummy dinner to keep you warm on a cold night. Make extra and you can keep the soup going through lunch also!

Lentil Soup

Serves 2-3

3/4 cup green lentils

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth 

1 carrot, chopped

1 small sweet or yellow onion, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon dried thyme, or 4-5 fresh sprigs

2 teaspoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

Pour the olive oil into a pot and increase the heat to medium on the stove. Add the celery, onions and carrots. Stir to coat the vegetables with the olive oil. Add the garlic, thyme and about 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper (you can add more later if necessary). Sauté for 6 minutes. Add the lentils and chicken broth. Raise the heat so that the mixture reaches a boil, then reduce the heat to a summer and cover the pot. Let the soup cook for 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Serve over some brown rice with a side salad!

Note:this meal can be made in advance and in bulk. The leftovers can be frozen and thawed for later use! This recipe is healthy and convenient for those who don't always have time to cook.

Enjoy!

Grains Galore

Whole grains, eaten in their natural and unrefined form, are great additions to a healthy diet. Not only do they provide a wealth of health benefits (provided that you aren’t a gluten sensitive or a celiac disease individual), they also give your diet variety and bulk. The soluble and insoluble fibers in whole grains allow you to feel full and satisfied after eating a meal. Whole grains contain many beneficial nutrients and phytochemicals such  as B vitamins, Phytosterols (a cholesterol lowering, cancer preventing phytochemical), Flavonoids, Saponins (helps keep cancer cells from multiplying as well as other benefits), and Resveratrol (fungicide) (Cloutier and Adamson, 2004). 

When it comes to grains it is very important to consider quality rather than quantity. Eating refined grains provides zero of the listed benefits. Plus, refined grains are linked to higher visceral and abdominal fat (McKeown, Troy, Jacques, Hoffman, O’Donnell, and Fox, 2010). When choosing a grain, always choose the whole source. For example, eat: brown rice, not white; 100% whole wheat pasta; quinoa; amaranth; cous cous; bulgur; and cracked/sprouted wheat. 

Variety is also another important aspect. For example, if I were to tell you to eat more vegetables, you wouldn’t have broccoli for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No, you would eat salads and bell peppers and carrots. The same goes for grains. Just because wheat is more accessible, by no means should you load up on it. Experiment with new recipes that require different types of grains. You can always just do a google search like “recipes with amaranth” or “cooking with bulgur” to find some recipes. 

You can create many healthy and delicious meals with grains, just remember to use the whole source and always maintain variety. 

Taco Tuesdays

Tacos are a fun and easy way to fit more vegetables into your dinner. The great thing about tacos is that you can essentially put whatever you want in them. Just sauté or bake any vegetable (or fruit!) that is in season in a little olive oil, wrap it in a corn tortilla, drizzle some salsa and guacamole and you've got yourself a delicious and healthy meal! Veggie tacos take about twenty minutes total to prepare and are friendly on your wallet. This is a perfect, light and satisfying meal for any season.

Veggie Tacos

serves 2

1/2 diced red onion

1 diced bell pepper

1 chopped zucchini

1/4 cup frozen corn kernels

1/4 cup frozen peas

1/2 avocado

A handful of chopped cilantro

A good salsa

6 mini corn tortillas

2 tablespoons olive oil

Red chili flakes

1 clove chopped garlic

Salt and pepper

Turn the oven to 200 degrees. Wrap the tortillas in tin foil and place them inside the oven.

Add the olive oil to a pan set to medium heat. And the onions and sauté for 7 minutes or until tender. Add the garlic and chili flakes and cook for 1 minute. Add the zucchini, peas, corn and bell pepper sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Sauté for another 3-5 minutes, coating all the vegetables with the olive oil.

Take the tortillas out of the oven. Put three tortillas on each plate and spoon the vegetable mixture evenly into the tortillas. Cut the avocado and put one small slice on each taco. Top with cilantro and your favorite salsa and you have tacos for your Tuesday night dinner!

*you don't need to use this mixture of vegetables. Experiment with other veggies that you enjoy!

KEEN-wa (aka, quinoa)

Quinoa is a type of seed that is cooked, prepared and eaten similarly to rice or any other type of grain. It is also a complete protein which is impressive considering it's a plant product. Quinoa is extremely versatile and can be prepared in a variety of ways: savory side dishes, grain salads, sweet morning breakfasts, etc.

Quinoa, like pasta, is a vehicle to add any type of flavor that you want to it. One of my favorites is tabbouleh. This grain salad is great with chicken, grilled veggies and tzatziki. Tabbouleh is also very simple to make. Here's a basic tabbouleh recipe to get you started.

Tabbouleh 

1 cup cooked quinoa

2 teaspoons garlic

Juice from 1/2 lemon

3/4 cup chopped curly leaf parsley

1/4 cup chopped mint

Toss all the above ingredients together and serve!

*Here, I made a mini Greek style meat loaf with tzatziki and my tabbouleh.

Enjoying a Meal

How many meals a day do you eat by yourself? Including snacking? If you’re like the average American, then it’s probably close to all of your meals. When you do enjoy a meal in the company of friends, family or loved ones, the experience is generally more enjoyable than cramming food when you get the chance throughout your hectic day. The benefits of sitting down to a home cooked meal with company range from social to physiological. There was some point in our history when Americans decided to make eating a chore rather than an experience.

When we sit down for a meal and “break bread” with our friends and family, we engage in conversation, laugh, drink wine, and eat at a slow and pleasurable pace. This is one aspect of the popular Mediterranean Diet: social eating. Eating is supposed to be enjoyable, not a constant competition of counting calories and fat. I’m not saying that everyone should eat whatever they want and simply enjoy the experience. What I’m saying, is that we have to be reminded of the importance of sharing a meal.

When we share a meal, we engage in conversation which helps us build social skills from a young age. Recently, I saw a little boy at a dinner table playing with his Gameboy through out the entire meal. He was missing out on learning experiences such as what is acceptable to discuss at dinner, how to joke around or what his culture is. Another plus about eating in groups is slower eating. When we eat meals with others, we are chatting which gives us the opportunity to put down the fork between bites and let our metabolism do some work. This helps combat overeating because it takes a while after you are full for your stomach to let your brain know to stop eating.

Recently, I have been making an effort to eat more meals with my family at a table. During our dinners, my family debates over nutrition and politics, discuss our futures and reminisce our childhood. Overall, the experience has been more than enjoyable and I strongly recommend everyone try taking some time out of your day to share a meal with the ones you love. 

                                                                 *Preparing the table for a dinner with my parents*

Challenge: Try having a sit down dinner three times a week with the ones you love and attempt to eat and converse for an hour.

When Cheap Wine Has A Purpose

Cheap wine really should only ever be used for cooking (and for downing the entire bottle, but thats only if you're in college). My mom and I recently were at Whole Foods (our dojo) and saw a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon for $2.50. We decided to buy a bottle and use it for our cooking this week. This recipe that I'm about to share with you was a creation simply from foods that were already in my house (including our affordable wine). Recipes that involve wine always appear more expensive and time consuming than they really are, so they're really great for when you're entertaining people.
Here's my own little creation with cheap wine as the inspiration!

Chicken with Red Wine and Grapes
serves 4
2 large chicken breasts, butterflied* and pounded
1/2 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
4 small sprigs of grapes
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup hazelnut meal or regular whole wheat all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus a pinch
1/2 teaspoon pepper

*Butterflied is when the chicken breast is cut in half so that it makes two thinner pieces. You can ask the people that work in the meat department to butterfly and pound the chicken pieces out for you so that it's a little less work for you.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
Lay your chicken breasts down and salt and pepper both sides. Add the flour or hazelnut meal to a plate and press your chicken on both sides into the flour.
Get a large pan and heat it to medium high. Add about a tablespoon of butter into the pan and wait for it to melt. Tilt the pan so that you can get the butter to cover the entire pan.
Add your chicken into the pan. Cook each side for about 4-5 minutes or until both sides are light brown.
Once both sides of the chicken have browned, place the chicken on a cookie sheet and cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
Add the wine to a new pan and put it over medium high heat. Add the grapes to the wine (if all the grapes don't touch the wine, periodically flip them around). Once the wine starts to boil, turn the heat down to a simmer at medium. Cook until reduced by about 1/4 of the original amount (about 10 minutes). Add the thyme and stir around. Cook for another minute. Add the chicken broth and stir. Turn the heat down to low. Add the chicken to the sauce and cover both sides with sauce. Place the chicken on plates and pour the sauce over it. Add the grapes to each plate and serve!
Serve with a greek salad or some green beans.

The grapes taste like warm water balloons filled with wine and burst in your mouth when you eat them! Because the chicken is baked, it remains moist and tender. The wine sauce is slightly sweet and very impressive.
Definitely try out this recipe next time you have some cheap wine that you want to get rid of!

Utilizing Yogurt

Lately, I've been interested in using yogurt in more ways than simply paired with granola. Almost everyone has yogurt in their fridge and it's fun to use conventional items in a new and exciting way. Here are two completely different recipes that use yogurt as an ingredient: Yogurt Marinated Grilled Chicken and Blackberry Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt.

Blackberry Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt
Makes 1 serving
1 container of plain or honey flavored yogurt (I prefer goat yogurt for this recipe)
2 tablespoons mini dark chocolate chips
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup frozen blackberries

 Line a flour sifter or fine strainer with a paper towel. Put the strainer with the paper towel over a small bowl so that it can catch the liquid. Pour the yogurt into the lined strainer and let it sit in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

 This releases the excess water from the yogurt and is an essential step.
In a food processor, combine the honey and blackberries and blend until finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add the strained honey and blend for another 15 seconds. Pour the mixture into a small container and mix in the chocolate chips. Freeze for 30 minutes before serving. Do not freeze for longer than one hour.

I served this frozen yogurt to my friends as a dessert and they were in awe with how delicious and ice cream-like it turned out. This definitely is a recipe to be made for guests!

Yogurt Marinated Grilled Chicken
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness

Blend the following in a food processor:
2 cups plain, whole milk yogurt
1 cup cilantro
1/2 large onion
1/3 cup olive oil
6 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon garam masala
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 2 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

Put the chicken in a ziplock bag and pour the mixture into the bag with the chicken. Let this marinate in the fridge for 3 hours. After three hours, preheat a grill. Cook the chicken for five minutes on each side.
Serve with naan or rice.

What you make when you get creative

This past weekend I was at Comic-Con as well as my little niece and nephew's birthday parties, so obviously I didn't eat as well as I normally do. Because of that, I decided to make the most wholesome dinner I possibly could that still tastes delicious. Unfortunately, my family hasn't gone grocery shopping in a few days, so our fridge was a little limited. However, my friend Hattie once told me that she loved when she didn't have that much food in her fridge because it allowed her to get creative. So, I challenged myself to make something amazing with what I already had. I gathered items from the fridge, pantry, and freezer that normally would only appear to be parts of a main dish and made them into something wonderful. 

I called my mini masterpiece the Green Monster.

The Green Monster

serves 2

1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed

1/4 cup frozen corn, thawed

1 green bell pepper, diced

3 green onions, diced

1 head of broccoli, diced to bite sized pieces

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup quinoa

3 tablespoons pesto (see the post on july 21, 2013 for the recipe)

Add the 1 cup quinoa to a pot. Add enough water so about 1 inch of water is covering the top of the quinoa. Turn the stove to medium heat, cover the quinoa and cook for about 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, turn off the stove but keep the quinoa covered as you prepare the rest of the meal.

To a sautee pan, add the 2 teaspoons olive oil. Turn the heat on to medium and add all of the vegetables as well as the salt. Toss the vegetables around in the pan until all are coated with the olive oil. Cook for about 10 minutes, periodically stirring the vegetables. After 10 minutes, add the pesto and turn the heat off. Toss the vegetables in the pesto so that every vegetable is covered in pesto. 

Take the cooked quinoa and split it between two plates. Add the vegetables and you've got yourself a green monster!

Pair this with a salad or soup for a full and satisfying meal!

Great things happen when you get creative. You've just got to learn to work with what you've got.

Enjoy!

Something to make everything taste awesome: PESTO

Homemade pesto is one of the greatest things about summer. Basil is fresh and cheap at farmers markets allowing homemade pesto to be made in abundance. What's great about pesto is that you can make massive batches and freeze them for later use! I use pesto on pretty much everything: on grilled corn, the sauce for pizzas, mixed with sauteed vegetables, in aioli, brushed on portabellos, on tacos, on bruschetta... anything that needs a little flavor, pesto can be used. Pesto sold in grocery stores is more expensive, has more preservatives and isn't nearly as tasty as homemade pesto. Homemade pesto is also incredibly easy to make. With only four ingredients and a food processor, there's really no excuse for buying pre-made pesto.

Pesto
Blend the following in a food processor until smooth:
1 bunch basil, leaves only
1/3 cup grated parmesan
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup-3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Add more parmesan, garlic or olive oil to taste. Some people also like to put in pine nuts (about 1/4 cup), but I found that it isn't necessary. Freeze small batches of the pesto for individual convenience.
Enjoy!

When you only have 15 minutes to make dinner...

This is what you make. I made this tonight in an effort to use up whatever items were in my fridge/pantry and it actually tasted pretty great! Plus, it only takes about 15 minutes to put together and it's beach body approved!
Try this next time you feel like something light, refreshing and healthy. You can substitute out the pita if you are trying gluten free.

Summer Salad
serves 2
1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 cucumber chopped into big, bite sized chunks
1 package of spinach, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon coconut oil
4 cups of mixed greens lettuce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 of a small sweet onion, thinly sliced and chopped
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 full whole wheat pitas, quartered

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the quartered pita slices onto a cookie sheet and put them in the oven. Let them crisp in the oven for 4-6 minutes. You may have to flip them over half way through to toast both sides.

Put the coconut oil into a saute pan and turn the heat to medium. Add the bag of chopped spinach to the pan along with the salt and garlic powder. Saute for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat once cooked.

Combine the rest of the ingredients, except for the pita, into a bowl and toss together. Add the spinach to the mixture and toss to coat. Put 2 cups of mixed greens onto each plate. Pour the rest of the mixture on top of the greens. Add the toasted pitas to the side (optional).

This recipe is extremely quick and healthy and definitely worth trying out. Most of these ingredients are ones you would have laying around anyway. It's a perfect summer time dish with the light lemon flavor accompanying the crisp, crunchy greens!
ENJOY!

Choco-holic

When you think of chocolate, you generally think of fattening, unhealthy, just overall bad food... right? Well, it doesn't have to be that way. Cacao is rich in antioxidants that help fight a variety of diseases (McShea, 2008). Therefore, the darker and less processed your chocolate is, the more benefits you will reap! Raw chocolate can be expensive to buy but making it from scratch is easy and only requires a few ingredients. If you are a choco-holic, this recipe is a MUST. Not only will you receive the health benefits of raw, unprocessed cacao; you also won't have to feel guilty about eating something so delicious!

This recipe only takes about 10 minutes to prepare and another 10-20 minutes to set in the refrigerator. Make these ahead of time and bring them to the movies so that you won't be tempted to buy the less healthy options such as popcorn, nachos, or chocolate covered raisins.

*A note on cost: the cacao and cacao butter will be expensive to buy initially. However, if bought in bulk, the cost greatly reduces. Plus, a large amount will last you a very long time. Think of the alternative: would you rather spend $5 for homemade, delicious raw chocolate or $5 for a box of unhealthy, fattening candy at the movie theaters? The choice is yours!

Easy, Simple Raw Chocolate Recipe

Makes 1 large bar
1/2 cup of cacao butter
1/2 cup cacao nibs (NOT cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of salt
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
Coconut oil or spray

Method:
Set up a double boiler. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's where you get two small pots. Add water to one of them and put it over medium heat. Put the second pot on top of the first one that has water in it.

To the top part of the double boiler, add the cacao butter. This will melt the cacao butter in about 5 minutes.
While it is melting, blend the cacao nibs in a coffee grinder. It is very important to use cacao and not cocoa. Cocoa is different from cacao and you will get a much more bitter flavor if you use cocoa.
Add the salt and cinnamon to the blended cacao. Stir together.
Add the honey and vanilla to the cacao mixture. Stir together.
Once the cacao butter is melted, add it to the cacao mixture and stir. The mixture will have the consistency of brownie batter.
Once it is all mixed, taste the chocolate and add more salt, cinnamon, honey, or vanilla to taste.
Spray a little container with coconut oil or spread coconut oil into the container with your fingers. Pour the mixture into the oiled container.
Cover with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes, or until firm.
It may take longer to firm up if you added more honey but it will eventually harden.

This chocolate is delicious on its own, but you can add whatever you want to this recipe. Some additions that I've tried that work are: maca, coconut flakes, goji berries, dried fruit, almond/peanut butter, etc. You can make your own homemade raw peanut butter cups also: Just oil the inside of mini cupcake tins. Add the chocolate mixture to the bottom of the tin. Freeze/refrigerate until hard. Take it out and add a layer of almond butter or peanut butter and then cover the rest with the chocolate mixture. Refrigerate/freeze until hard and enjoy!





McShea, A., Ramiro-Puig, E., Munro, S. B., Casadesus, G., Castell, M. and Smith, M. A. (2008), Clinical benefit and preservation of flavonols in dark chocolate manufacturing. Nutrition Reviews, 66: 630–641. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2008.00114.x

Want an AMAZING way to start your day?

Anybody love milk shakes? Or chocolate? I would personally have a few a day if health would permit it, but downing a cup of milk, ice cream, and all the other added delicious sugary-ness doesn't put anybody's body in a happy place.
HOWEVER, we can fool our taste buds but still feel satisfied with this little smoothie. I have this almost every morning. I literally look forward to breakfast when I go to bed and wake up every day because this recipe is so good.

The Chocolate Monkey Smoothie
Ingredients:
1 cup of almond milk (preferably unsweetened vanilla flavored)
1 banana
1 tablespoon cacao nibs
2 dates
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Take the cacao and blend it in a coffee grinder until it is fine. De-seed and chop the dates. Add all of the ingredients into a blender. Blend for at least a minute or two to make sure the dates are completely emulsified. Pour and enjoy!

*To all my South Bay peeps: Check out Dave's Dates at the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market. He's only there every other week so make sure to find him! His date's are absolutely amazing and you won't find any like his. I sometimes snack on these dates when I have a sweet tooth and they totally satisfy it.

*Make sure to try this recipe out and let me know what you think!

ENJOY!!