Chicken and quinoa salad with kale, butternut squash and fresh apples

Sometimes it can be really really hard to eat well when you're in graduate school.  There aren't enough hours in the day. Lately, I have been trying very hard to make large batches of something delicious and healthy on Sunday's that I can have for lunch or dinner all week.  This week I had a pantry full of random ingredients, so I decided to toss them into a warm, fall inspired salad.



Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 small butternut squash, chopped
half onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch kale, separated from stems and shredded (stems are used too)
2/3 cup dry quinoa, prepared with stock or water
2 honey crisp apples, chopped
2+ TBS Olive Oil
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 TBS whole grain mustard
1 TBS agave nectar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 375F. Rinse, dry, trim, and rub chicken breasts with olive oil.  Sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and 1 clove of chopped garlic. Bake for ~25 minutes. Once baked and cooled, shred chicken using 2 forks.

While chicken is baking, prepare 2/3 cup of dry quinoa as directed on the package.  You can use stock to make it more flavorful, but I just used water.

Also while the chicken is cooking, sauté the chopped onions, 1 clove of garlic, butternut squash, and chopped kale stems until squash is fork tender.  (I was impatient and actually stuck the sauté pan in the oven after 5 minutes of sautéing to roast for an additional 20 minutes).

Once the quinoa is done, add the shredded kale to the pot. This allows the steam to wilt the kale down. Add the chopped apple once the kale has wilted down.

Whisk together the apple cider vinegar, mustard, and agave.  Once all ingredients are cooked, toss them together with the dressing and enjoy.

Makes 4 servings 
nutrition per serving

Calories: 320

Carbs: 40

Fat: 10

Protein: 20

Fiber: 9

Roasted Golden Beet & Carrot Salad

This morning I awoke to a wonderful box of fresh, organic veggies on the front porch courtesy of our CSA. Inside, I found full, leafy bunches of carrots and golden beets.  When you see a carrot or beet with it's full top on, it seems incredibly wasteful to not utilize those beautiful greens, so I got on interest for ideas.  Unfortunately, most of the recipes I found involved too many ingredients I didn't have and too many steps I just didn't feel like doing, so I scanned the ingredient and preparation instructions and concocted my own recipe.  The result… not the quickest recipe but fresh, colorful and blissfully delicious and healthy!

Ingredients 

1 large bunch golden beets

1 bunch beet greens, washed thoroughly

1 large bunch carrots

1 cup of carrot greens, trimmed and washed thoroughly

1 clove garlic, minced

olive oil

red wine vinegar

salt

pepper

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne

parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375

Remove the beet greens and set aside.  Remove and discard the beet tops and scrub beets thoroughly to remove dirt. Repeat same process with carrots.  Halve the golden beets and place then flat side down in a baking dish.  Fill the dish with 1 inch of water and cover with tin foil.  Drizzle the carrots with olive oil and place them on top of the tin foil sealed beet dish and roast vegetables for ~50-60 minutes or until all vegetables are fork tender.

When there is about 15 minutes left on the vegetables, boil a large pot of water for the beet greens.  Take the trimmed carrot greens, roll them into a ball and slice/ mince them once through.  After the first chop, drizzle the greens with olive oil, put one half the minced garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper on the greens and continue to mince through until well coated and well chopped. 

Once the water boils, place whole beet green stalks into the water and boil until wilted  (~5 minutes).  Once wilted, pour greens into a colander and rinse with cold water.  Shake out the greens, blot dry with a cloth if needed, and place them in the bottom of a serving dish.  Drizzle the greens with olive oil and set aside.  

Remove the beets and carrots from the oven.  Peel the beets and slice the vegetables how you like (I did carrots on an angle and beets in thin strips). Toss the slice vegetables in red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, and the other half of the minced clove of garlic, and then pour the dressed vegetables on top of the beet greens.  

Top the vegetables with the minced carrot greens and shave fresh parmesan to top.  

NOM! 

GG

* I didn't take a picture because I didn't think it would be delicious or blog worthy, but I will definitely be making this again soon, so picture to come… 

Banana Yogurt Bread

Your basic banana bread with a healthy twist

Ingredients 
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1/8 cup golden toasted flax seeds
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup room temp butter (can use 1/4 if you want but Chris and Justin love the buttery taste)
1/8 cup plain greek yogurt (use 1/4 if you use 1/4 cup butter)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 room temp eggs
2 overripe bananas
1+ tsp vanilla

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F, and prepare your baking pan (9x 5 loaf or 9x13 baking pan as pictured above) with butter and a light dusting of flour.

In one bowl, wisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flax seed and set aside

In a separate bowl, beat butter and yogurt.  Blend in brown sugar.  Beat in vanilla and then eggs one at a time (eggs and butter don't have to be room temp but it helps keep the bread lighter). Fold in peeled/mashed bananas until just combined.

Add combined wet ingredients in batches into the bowl of dry ingredient.  Fold mixtures together until just combined; be careful not to over mix because that makes the bread bake up heavier.

Spread batter in prepared pan and bake 30-35 minutes for a 9x13 pan or 50-55 for a regular 9x5 loaf pan. Baking can be be variable, so check the bread 5 minutes early to make sure it is cooking evenly.  When a knife or toothpick can be inserted and removed cleanly, remove bread from the oven and set aside on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!
GG

Nutrition
(serving size= 1 slice; 16 slices per batch)
Calories:  168
Fat: 7 g
Carb: 24 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sugar: 12 g
Protein: 3 g

Warm Bacon & Brussel Sprout Salad

I like to play the game "can I make something delicious?" using only what is left in the fridge.  Sometimes it's a miss, but sometimes it's a hit, and I think this recipe was a game winner!

Ingredients 
20 brussel sprouts, trimmed and sliced
6 baby bella mushrooms (or any other mushroom variety) sliced
1 (15 oz.) can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 slices of thick bacon, fried and crumbled
2 tsp organic maple syrup (the real stuff)
salt
pepper

Directions 
Pan fry the strips of bacon.  Remove bacon, place on paper towels, and set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium. Using the bacon drippings (or drain and use olive oil), sauté sliced mushrooms until they begin to caramelize.  Add sliced brussels sprouts and continue to sauté until they begin to wilt, about 5 minutes. During the sauté process, add in black pepper to your liking.

Once brussel spouts and mushrooms are cooked, add in chickpeas and crumble or rough chop the bacon and add that to the mix.  Toss ingredients together in pan until heated through.

Transfer to a serving bowl.  Add maple syrup and a few pinches of salt to give it that salty sweet character and serve warm!

Enjoy :)
gg