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.

Portland for the Weekend

I had an impromptu trip to Portland this past weekend to visit my mama, John and little Stelly Bean.

 

It was a much needed chill-out. Lots of cooking, walking, coffee drinking and chatting over glasses of wine. And maybe a little shopping…including but not limited to an iPad mini <3 Gotta love the no-sales-tax thing. So far, my favorite perk of the iPad is the camera. It kicks my Cannon’s butt. Below are some of the meals we had over the weekends with links to the recipes:

Fig old fashioned with balsamic, orange and maple from The Kitchn.

The salad of the month from Food & Wine.

Shredded chicken tacos with black bean, corn, avocado and tomato salsa.

Slow-cooked pulled pork sandwiches with eastern North Carolina barbecue sauce and simple slaw and a side of Southern caviar.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

1 tablespoon butter
2.5 lbs. boneless pork shoulder
1 TBS Cajun seasoning
1 medium onion chopped
4 cloves garlic crushed
2 cups water (or 1 cup beef/chicken stock + 1 cup water)
2 cups chicken or beef broth
1 TBS liquid smoke

brioche buns
barbecue sauce
simple slaw (cabbage, plain yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper)

Cut the pork into large chunks, season and brown on all sides in the melted butter. Transfer to slow cooker. Add onion and garlic to pan, cook for a few minutes till tender. Stir the liquid into pan, scrape bottom. Pour everything into slow cooker and add liquid smoke. Cover and cook till tender, 9-10 hours on low. Remove from cooker--shred pork serve on brioche buns with slaw and whatever barbecue sauce you like best. *My fav is an eastern North Carolina vinegar based bbq sauce.

Heavenly banana cake, a China's Plate oldie.

Anecdote: I had an authentic Portlandia experience when ordering a cup of coffee on Saturday morning. While waiting in line at the corner coffee shop, two men were debating the best, most New Jersey-style (apparently the home of the original bagel) bagel shops in town, which led to the best/most creative donut shop debate shortly after. I ordered my medium cup of regular coffee, and was told the entire life story of not only the coffee beans, but the story of ownership of forest where the coffee bean trees grow and the dates of the 2-3 day long harvest when beans are picked at their prime – completely unsolicited. I responded with: wow. no room for cream, thanks.

Keep Portland weird xo

Healthy Weekend Lunch & Tilapia Meunière with Caper, Tomato & Olive Sauce

I love the idea of brunch as much as the next guy. But in practice, it really throws my day off. Bottomless mimosas and hollandaise do serious damage to my energy level and willpower.

Weekends are my healthiest days of the week – walking all over the city, shopping at the farmer’s market, taking time to prepare each meal and no time for boredom snacking. My adventure this Sunday was a walk up to Coit Tower. My inspiration for Sunday’s lunch was this roasted red pepper and eggplant sauce from Trader Joe’s. At 15 little calories a tablespoon, you can kinda go crazy.

White Bean, Red Pepper & Arugula Salad
Serves 2

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 ear fresh corn, cut off the cob
1 small tomato, chopped
1/2 cup pea shoots
1 handful of arugula
2-3 tablespoons red pepper and eggplant sauce
juice of 1/2 lemon
dash balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper and red pepper flakes
fresh parsley, chopped

Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl and season to taste. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Arguably, this is not really fish meunière at all. The recipe calls for white wine and all I had was cabernet sauvignon. Though very different tasting than the original, it was still delicious and briny.

The original recipe by Giada can be found here. I only substituted the white wine for red, and obviously used fish rather than chicken. The fish was served over multicolored quinoa with chopped bell pepper.

Tilapia Fish Tacos with Mango Avocado Salsa

This weekend is what people are calling “San Francisco’s Spring Break.” The weather was incredible. A group of us spent the entire day in Fort Mason park lounging on blankets, sipping white wine out of solo cups and nibbling on grapes and pretzel crisps. I forgot one little thing…sunblock. *Except for my face, thank God.

That’s a lot of exposed skin Ugh.

Alanna (brunette in the stripes) invited me to her client’s family/friends appreciation party at House of Shields for an open bar and Aztec dance performance. Keeping on theme, I made us fish tacos for dinner inspired from this recipe. The mango avocado salsa was a homerun, and would be great served with tortilla chips.

The Aztec dancers were very impressive, and apparently have free Aztec dance classes free to the public twice a week…

The trendy new workout?

Tilapia Fish Tacos with Mango Avocado Salsa

2 tilapia filets
1 + 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
dash oregano
salt and pepper
lemon or lime juice

1/2 avocado, diced
1 cup frozen mango, thawed and diced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
handful cilantro, diced
1 green onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper
4 corn tortillas
Greek yogurt (optional)

Pat filets dry and rub with olive oil. Toss together the spices on a plate and coat fish in spice rub. Heat pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat and add in fish. Sautee 3-4 minutes per side, or until cooked through. Break filets into chunks.

Mix salsa ingredients together in a medium size bowl, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Heat corn tortillas in pan until warm, and pile with fish, salsa and Greek yogurt (if desired).