Meatless Mondays: Chickpea Nicoise Salad

This salad is an original recipe but obviously inspired by nicoise salads with meat in it. The salad was delicious, I barely missed having meat. Highly recommend this when you're in the mood for a light dinner. This recipe makes about 1 serving, simply double for 2 recipes.

Ingredients:
2 cups of romaine lettuce, rinsed and chopped
1 cup of baby spinach
1/4 onion sliced
1/2 tomato diced
2 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
1 cup green beans, washed and trimmed
2 tbsp Mrs. Dash seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup of gorgonzola cheese or blue cheese

Maple Dijon Vinaigrette Dressing:
1 tbsp of dijon mustard
1 tbsp of white wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp herbs de provence
salt and pepper to taste

1. Add two eggs to rolling boiling water. Cook for 10 minutes. Set aside in cold water for a few minutes to let the egg shrink away from the shell for easy peeling.
2. In another medium-large pot, add about 6 cups of water and Mrs. Dash seasoning (I used garlic and herb) and a heaping pinch of salt to the water.
3. Bring the seasoned water to a boil and add the green beans. Boil for 10 minutes or until slightly softened.
4. Begin preparing the salad by laying down the romaine and spinach on a plate.
5. Add sliced onions, 1/2 cup of rinsed and drained chickpeas, 1/4 cup of gorgonzola cheese, diced tomato, sliced and peeled hard boiled eggs, and )using a serving spoon with drain holes) add the green beans on to the bed of lettuce.
6. Prepare the dressing by combining all dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisking together until emulsified. If the dressing seems too thick add more vinegar, if its clumpy whisk more or add more mustard.
7. Spoon 2 tbsp of dressing over the salad and enjoy!

Mexican Cole Slaw

This recipe was inspired by wanting to use a head of cabbage that was going to go bad if I didn't use it on taco night, so Mexican cole slaw came to mind! The recipe is slightly tweaked from the link pasted below. If you try any recipe on my blog, it maybe should be this one. The dressing has spicy sweet sour and salty flavors, which is my favorite type of food! It's a healthier version of traditional cole slaw and has a nice zing to it. You could add this to tacos, sandwiches, or a salad.

Original recipe link

Ingredients:
1 small head of green cabbage or 1/2 head of a large cabbage, shredded
2 green bell peppers, julienne
1 small yellow onion, sliced very thin
1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of lime juice
A few dashes of tabasco sauce or your favorite hot sauce
1 tbsp of maple syrup or honey
2 tbsp of olive oil
2 tsp of cumin
1 garlic clove, minced
Generous salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. After chopping and slicing the vegetables, place cabbage, cilantro, green pepper, and onion in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, add lime juice, maple syrup, olive oil, cumin, garlic, and salt and pepper. Whisk together and pour over cabbage, peppers, and onion.
3. Toss ingredients together until the vegetables are well coated with the dressing. Season with salt and pepper and toss again. Enjoy!

Clean Eating Tuna Salad

This recipe is inspired by a tuna salad recipe I saw in Oxygen magazine. Mayo is very high in points on WW so I do try to avoid using it and greek yogurt seemed like a good idea for a replacement as suggested in the magazine. This recipe makes 2-4 servings depending on how hungry you are.

Ingredients:
2 5 oz cans of tuna
1/2 red onion, diced
1/4 cup of chopped celery
1/2 cup of 0% fat greek yogurt
2 tbsp of dijon mustard
1 tbsp of fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbsp of sweet relish
1 squeeze of half a lemon or 1 tsp of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Spread on a sandwich or put over a salad with an additional spritz of lemon and enjoy!

Simple Kale Salad with Lemon Garlic Vinaigrette

This recipe is an original recipe but it was inspired by a friend who told me if you massaged kale with citrus juice it would soften it. I only can stomach kale cooked when chopped into very small pieces so I was hopeful I could learn to enjoy kale in abundance and raw. This salad did it for me. It's very simple so you are free to add whatever you like to it or eat it alone as a side. You could easily add some grilled chicken or fish with an assortment of fruit and other veggies.

This salad was so good I was even able to get my dog to eat kale!

Ingredients:
1 head of curly kale, washed and chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced, or 2 heaping tsp of garlic from a jar
1/4 cup of lemon juice
2 tsp of olive oil
1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning
3 heaping tbsp of parmesan or romano cheese, finely grated
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Wash and tear the kale leaves off of the stems and discard the stems.
2. Chop the leaves into bite size pieces. Place in a large bowl.
3. Add lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, Mrs. Dash, salt and pepper in a seperate bowl. Mix well with a fork or whisk until the ingredients are relatively combined.
4. Pour over the kale leaves and toss and massage the kale in the vinaigrette for 1 minute or so.
5. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to let the lemon juice tenderize the leaves.
6. When ready to eat, sprinkle parmesan over the kale and toss again. Enjoy!

Whole 30/Paleo Challenge Recipe: Balsamic brussel sprouts with bacon

This recipe is from the lovely Ina Garten from the food network. I did my recipe a little different than hers but mostly its a copy cat. This recipe was delicious, it was sweet, sour, and savory veggie goodness. I served it with bison meatloaf!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/balsamic-roasted-brussels-sprouts-recipe.html

Ingredients:
2 cups of brussel sprouts, halved
2-3 slices of bacon
1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar, reduced to 1/8 cup
2 tsp of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 400 F
2. Thinly slice core off the end of the brussel sprouts and then cut each in half.
3. Place on baking sheet.
4. Spray with olive oil to evenly coat the brussel sprouts then sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir on sheet. If you do not have an oil mister, drizzle 2 tsp of olive oil on the brussel sprouts
.
5. Chop up the raw bacon slices into small pieces and mix with the brussel sprouts on the sheet.
6. Set your oven timer to roast the brussel sprouts for 25 minutes.
7. While the brussel sprouts are initially roasting, bring the balsamic vinegar to a boil in a small pot. Let it simmer until it has reduced by about half. (10-15 minutes)
8. 10 minutes before your brussel sprouts are done add the balsamic reduction to your sprouts and stir. Place back into the oven to continue roasting.
9. Take out of the oven after the full 25 minutes and enjoy!

Cold Veggie Asian Noodle Salad

This recipe was inspired by the recipe below but I made some unique tweaks as well. I brought this to a work potluck and it went over very well. Many people enjoyed it, especially the vegetarians!

http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/cool-off-today-with-last-minute-sesame-noodles-and-a-free-7-eleven-slurpee/

Ingredients:
2 cups of brown rice noodles (I used Annie Chun's)
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 cup of cabbage, sliced
1 cup of edamame beans
1 cup of shredded carrots
1/2 cup of peas
2 tbsp of chopped cilantro
2 scallions, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce:
1 tbsp of sesame oil
2 tbsp of olive oil
3 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp of hoison sauce
2 tsp of lime juice
1 tsp of powdered ginger or fresh ginger
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp of red pepper flakes
1 tsp of brown sugar

Directions:
1. Bring two quarts of water to a boil. Add half the box of rice noodles or around 2.5 oz to the boiling water. Cook for only 2-4 minutes. Taste the noodles while cooking as they cook very fast.
2. Drain noodles and place into a bowl and refrigerate until cool. About 30 minutes.
3. In the meantime, add sliced cabbage, sliced red onion, diced green pepper, cooked and cooled edamame beans, shredded carrots, and cooked and cooled peas to a large bowl.
4. Once the noodles have cooled, add them to the bowl of veggies. Gently toss.
5. Begin making the sauce in a separate bowl.
6. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, hoison sauce, lime juice, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, and brown sugar to the bowl.
7. Whisk sauce together until the oil has been immersed with the other ingredients.
8. Pour sauce over noodles and veggies. Toss well to coat noodles and veggies.
9. Add salt and pepper to taste.
10. Sprinkle chopped cilantro and chopped scallions over noodles.
11. I recommend letting the noodles and veggies sit in the refrigerator overnight, but you can enjoy right then as well!

Healthy Homemade Salad Dressing: Mustard lime vinaigrette

When you've run out of salad dressing, this homemade dressing works great in a pinch! It only takes 2 minutes to to make and is only 1 pt per serving. The dressing was inspired by the recipe below.

http://australian.food.com/recipe/lime-mustard-vinaigrette-232084

Ingredients (single serving):

1 tsp of olive oil

1 tbsp of dijon mustard

1 tbsp of lime juice

1 tsp of dried chives

Sprinkle of salt 

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients together in a bowl and whisk until blended. (30 seconds)

2. Pour over salad and enjoy!

Crispy spicy kale chips

Made these a few times and I'm learning this is the only way I like curly kale. I enjoy dinosaur kale in soups but curly kale is too bitter for me, unless it is in chip form!

This recipe is tweaked a bit from this food network recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/crispy-kale-chips-recipe/index.html

Ingredients:
1 head of curly kale
1.5 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of red chili flakes
1 tsp chipotle spice
Sea salt to taste

Directions:
1. Wash and pat dry kale. Tear the leaves from the stem and discard the stems.
2. Chop kale leaves so they are in 1 to 1.5 inch pieces.
3. Toss the kale in 1.5 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tsp of red chili flakes, 1 tsp of chipotle spice, and sprinkling of sea salt.
4. Place kale evenly on a cooking sheet. I often cover mine with foil to help with clean up.
5. Put in the oven at 270 F for 15-20 minutes.
6. Shake the pan half way through cooking or use a spatula to mix the leaves up to brown all sides.

Quinoa and Lentil Salad

Found this recipe on food network and did not expect it to be this good. I made a few small tweaks but mostly followed the recipe this time.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/lentil-quinoa-salad-recipe/index.html

Ingredients:
1 cup of red quinoa (dry)
2/3 cup of brown lentils (dry)
1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of chopped green onion
1.5 Tbsp of country dijon mustard (really grainy kind)
3 Tbsp of raspberry red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp of lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Fill a sauce pan with 2 cups of water and add 1 cup of quinoa.
2. Bring quinoa to a boil and then cover and reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Check the quinoa at 15 minutes. It should be fluffy, moist, and have almost all of the water absorbed. If it is too watery, continue to cover and cook for 1-2 minutes.
4. While the quinoa is cooking, add about 2 cups of water and add 2/3 cup of lentils into a saucepan and bring to a boil and then keep at a low, steady boil for about 20 minutes.
5. Drain the lentils in a strainer.
6. Let both quinoa and lentils cool for about 20 minutes.
7. In a large serving bowl, add 1.5 tbsp of country dijon mustard, 3 tbsp raspberry red wine vinegar, and olive oil. Whisk together so that the ingredients are mixed well.
8. Add in 1 tbsp of lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk the mixture lightly again.
9. Add lentils, chopped cilanto, chopped green onions and quinoa into the bowl with the dressing and lightly mix.

I served with grilled veggies!

Easy black bean and corn salsa

I made this salsa to go along with fish tacos, but it ended up being so good on its own you could use it for vegetarian tacos or just by itself!

Ingredients:
1 can of black beans
1 can of whole corn kernels
1 small red pepper
1 jalapeno
1/2 cup of fresh, chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of lime juice
1/2 chopped red onion
1 large tomato
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of garlic powder
Salt to taste

Instructions:
1. Empty can of black beans and corn into a strainer
2. Rinse the beans and corn in the strainer for about 10 seconds or so, and let drain
3. Pour beans and corn into a large bowl
4. Dice small red pepper into small squares and add
5. Dice jalapeno into small squares, seed the jalapeno if you do not like salsa too spicy otherwise add the seeds in with it!
6. Add chopped cilantro, chopped red onion, diced tomato, cumin, garlic powder, and lime juice.
7. Mix ingredients and add salt to taste.