Crunchy Chicken Salad & Watermelon, Feta & Basil Salad

I woke up Saturday morning to a chilly, foggy city. Alanna and I decided to escape to warmer climates – her parent’s house in Saratoga. We spent the day lounging on her back patio, going for a walk around her neighborhood, driving to the grocery store, sipping wine in the sunshine…ahh suburbia.

The weather called for summer salads. Super easy, and great served chilled.

Crunchy Chicken Salad

2 chicken breasts
2 stalks of celery, chopped
large handful of grapes, halved

¼ cup toasted pecans
¼ cup dried cranberries/dried cherries
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
dash of cayenne

2 teaspoons lemon juice
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Rub chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake chicken for 15-20 or until cooked through. When chicken has cooled, chop into 1” cubs and place in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir to combine. Chill until ready to eat and serve over bed of arugula or in a sandwich.

Watermelon, Feta & Basil Salad

½ watermelon, cubed
handful of basil, chopped
1-2 ounces of feta, crumbled
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt & pepper

Red pepper flakes

Combine watermelon, basil, feta and tomatoes in a large bowl. In a cup, whisk vinegar, lemon juice, oil, and spices together. Drizzle over salad.

Garlicky Kale Tzatziki Sauce with Tortilla Chips

Almost everyone loves tzatziki sauce. So next time you need to bring an appetizer to a party, pass on the ubiquitous hummus and whip up a batch of easy, delicious and SUPER healthy garlic kale tzatziki sauce. I brought this to book club last night with some homemade tortilla chips.

Garlicky Kale Tzatziki Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ bunch kale, thinly sliced
1 tub plain Greek yogurt (about 2 cups)

1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
½ cucumber, peeled and diced
juice of half a lemon

Salt, pepper and cayenne

Sauté garlic and kale in olive oil until wilted. Remove from pan and let cool. In a medium size bowl, combine yogurt with remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Add in cooled kale and chill until serving.

Tortilla chips

Corn tortillas

Canola oil cooking spray

Salt

Cayenne

Preheat oven to 400. Slice tortillas into strips and arrange on foil covered pan. Spray lightly with cooking spray and dust with salt and cayenne. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly brown. Check frequently as these will burn quickly!

Foggy Day Chili & Two Cookies

Lazy Sundays are best enjoyed when it’s foggy outside. Once I got my grocery shopping out of the way, I felt entitled to lay on the couch all day watching Mystery Diners, briefly migrating to my bed to take an hour and a half nap. Somewhere in there I managed to find time to make a pot of chili. Being too lazy to commit to and follow a recipe, naturally, I relied on my instincts to create this batch. Tasting as you go is all it takes.

Seeing as how I tasted as I went, blindly grabbing spices, chopping up vegetables and pouring in liquids, this is more of a chili ingredient suggestion list than a real recipe. Everyone has taste buds – you can be your own chili connoisseur! Alanna came over to sit at my kitchen table and chat over big bowls of foggy day chili, reminding me not to sweat Monday until it’s Monday…make your Sunday nights count. Cheers!

Foggy Day Chili Suggestion List

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bell pepper, diced
1 spinach and fontina chicken sausage, diced
handful broccoli and carrot slaw
1/2 bunch kale, roughly chopped
1 can corn, rinsed
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup white wine
2-3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 lemon, juiced
garlic powder
chili powder (2+ tablespoons)
cinnamon
cayenne
red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese
avocado slices
Greek yogurt

In a large pot, sauté garlic, onion and bell pepper for a few minutes to soften. Add in remaining ingredients in sequence, stirring as you go and allowing to cook down briefly before adding next ingredient. Finally – taste, taste, taste. Add ingredients to adjust flavor as desired. Simmer away for 15-20 minutes. Top with avocado, cheese, Greek yogurt, tortilla chips, cilantro etc.

I saw this recipe on a blog earlier today and was too curious not to try it: Single Serving Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. Just right.

Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Pasta with Asparagus and Chicken Sausage

Sometimes you just need to eat vegetables. And only vegetables. I’ve been trying to work within my constraints of cheap, healthy and relatively quick. I gave the cauliflower pizza phenomenon a try:

As well as Greek vegetable tacos comprised of sautéed broccoli slaw in balsamic topped with mint garlic yogurt sauce and avocado:

When cooking for others, it’s harder to get away with throwing a lot of vegetables on a plate and calling it dinner. Last night I made a couple girls a pumpkin blue cheese pasta dish for our catch-up dinner. It that was inspired by the type of recipe I used to cook with my old (soon to be new again) roommate who loves pumpkin as much as I do.

Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Pasta with Asparagus and Chicken Sausage

1 pound whole wheat penne (or other small pasta)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced and divided
1 bunch asparagus, chopped into 2” sections
2 chicken sausages, sliced (I used TJ’s spinach and fontina version)
½ can pumpkin puree
½ cup white wine
½ cup chicken stock
scoop Greek yogurt
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese (more or less to taste)
salt, pepper and red pepper flakes
parmesan cheese and/or parsley to finish

Boil penne per instructions until al dente. Sautee asparagus, 1 clove of garlic and chicken sausage in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until cooked through and set aside. In the same pan, heat remaining tablespoon of oil and stir in garlic. Add pumpkin, white wine and chicken stock and cook down for about 5 minutes. Stir in yogurt and blue cheese for another few minutes. Finish with spices and add sausage and asparagus, before adding in pasta. Top with parmesan.