Portobello Mushroom Goat Cheese Pizza

I love making portobello pizza during the week when I'm craving pizza but don't want anything too heavy. It's delicious and can be made easily in your toaster oven. I added bell peppers on top for extra nutrition and crunch.

Prep:

Take out the inside (remove gills) of your portobello mushroom 

Sprinkle with olive oil

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes to soften

Sautee yellow peppers in olive oil 

Make your pizza:
Spoon pizza sauce, goat cheese, and sautéed peppers on top of your portobello 

Cook for another 10 minutes at 350

Take your portobello pizza out and sprinkle basil on top 

Enjoy!

Sky

Soba and Kale

I'm all about the quick weekday meal and this soba & kale dish is just that. Kale is one of the healthiest green vegetables you can eat, so any recipe that involes huge bunches of it is a winner in my book!

Ingredients:
Soba noodles
4 bunches of kale
Garlic
Hoison sauce

Method:
Cook your soba noodles
Sautee the kale with 4 cloves of garlic and 4 tablespoons of hoison sauce
Mix together!

 

^^only 1 bunch of kale pictured, I used around 4 bunches in the recipe :)

Quinoa Salad: Almond, Blueberry, Lemon, and Arugula

Here's one of my favorite variations of quinoa salad. It's zesty, nutty, and fresh all at the same time. It's also another great recipe that will last you all week- pack it for lunch or eat it as a side dish at dinner!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted (10 minutes at 350 degrees, flip at the 5 minute mark)
Arugula
1/4 cup dried blueberries
2 cups cooked red quinoa (simmer 4 cups of water with 2 cups of quinoa until all the water is absorbed)

Dressing:
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice

Enjoy!

Sky

Teriakyi Salmon Burgers

Happy Monday! Today I'm featuring a new salmon burger recipe: teriyaki. As I mentioned in my last salmon burger recipe, goat cheese and cranberry salmon burger, Whole Foods has so many salmon burger flavors it has inspired me to make my own at home!

Ingredients
2 lbs of Salmon (12 medium burgers)
Whole wheat bread crumbs
2 Eggs
3 chive stalks
Teriyaki sauce
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil

Method:
Partially cook your salmon, mix with 2 eggs, and 1/3 cup breadcrumbs (this is the burger base, see my first salmon burger post here for more details)

Add 3 chive stalks, chopped

Add 3 garlic cloves, sliced

Add 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
*optional:  for a stronger flavor, let the mixture sit in the fridge for 30 minutes and marinate

Form the salmon burgers! This time around I cooked the salmon burger on a wood plank on the grill. This gives your burger an extra smoky grill flavor. Be sure to soak your wood plank for 2 hours before you place it on the grill- I made the mistake of soaking for less than that and the wood plank caught on fire! Thankfully, it did not hurt the burgers :)

 

Have a great day!

Sky

Asian Coleslaw

It's no secret I love asian food. I'm always testing out mixing soy sauce and rice vinegar with some sort of dish (as seen in my asian quinoa).  Here's my rendition on asian coleslaw; it's crunchy, sweet&spicy, and has a hint of heat. It's a quick side dish that will last you all week or feed all of your friends at at bbq!

Recipe:

 

1 cabbage, chopped (or Whole Foods sells pre-chopped cabbage)

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

4 tablespoons tamari soy sauce

4 tablespoons seasame seed oil

1 bunch of green onions, chopped

 

Empty your cabbage into a large bowl

Chop your green onions and mix in with the cabbage

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a separate bowl

Mix in the sauce with the cabbage&green onions

*it may initially look like the sauce isn't enough to cover all the cabbage, but it will, just keep mixing!

 



P.s. here's another cabbage recipe!



 

 

Have a great day!

Sky

Fresh Quinoa Salad

Happy Friday! Here's one of my favorite go-to quinoa salads. It's a simple and light, but oh so flavorful! It's especially great to make on a Friday with all your leftover quinoa from the week :).

Ingredients:
Cooked (cold) quinoa
Mixed greens
Parmesean
Balsamic
Olive oil
Pepper

Have a great weekend! More fun posts to come next week!

Sky

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

These spicy sweet potato fries are great addition to any weekday meal; they're so delicous and take hardly any prep time. Put them in the oven right when you get home and by the time you've changed out of your work clothes, they'll be done!

Method:
Preheat oven (or toaster oven) to 400 degress
Slice your sweet potato into fries
Drizzle olive oil, salt, and cayenne pepper
Bake 20 minutes (rotate fries at the 10 minute mark)

 

Have a great day!

Sky

Clam Pizza

To continue on the seafood theme, here is a recipe for the most delicious clam pizza! I love this clam pizza especially because it’s not cream based, so nothing is overpowering the seafood taste. The key to this recipe is the smoked mussels. They are a must!

Ingredients:
Pizza dough
Parsley
1 Shallot bulb
6 cloves garlic
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 lb clams
Smoked mussels
Parmesean cheese
Olive oil

Method
Form pizza and brush with olive oil
Bake the pizza (no toppings) in oven at 350 for 5-7 minutes (until the pizza crust starts to form)
Sautee garlic and shallots in a pan with olive oil
Add 1/2 cup white wine and 1/2 lb clams
Simmer for 3 minutes
Spoon mixture onto pizza crust
Add smoked mussels (and drizzle on the smoked mussel oil from the container)
Add parmesean cheese
Put the pizza back in the oven for 8 minutes (or until the cheese is melted)
Sprinkle chopped parsely on top

 

Thanks for following along!

Sky

Salmon Burger: Goat Cheese & Cranberry

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love salmon burgers. Usually, I buy salmon burgers from the seafood counter at Whole Foods. WF has a great selection of flavors: teriyaki, spinach&feta, lemon&thyme, and goat cheese&cranberry, among others. So I decided it was finally time to re-create my favorite salmon burgers for cheaper at home! Up first is my take on the goat cheese&cranberry.

Ingredients
1.5lbs of Salmon (this recipe makes 12 burgers)
Whole wheat bread crumbs
2 Eggs
Old Bay seasoning
4oz Goat Cheese
1/3 cup dried cranberries
Olive oil

Method:
Rinse your salmon and pat dry
Drizzle on olive oil and old bay spice
Bake in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes
(this partially cooks the salmon, we'll cook the salmon the rest of the way as burgers)
Let your salmon cool

Flake the salmon into a mixing bowl (make sure to take out bones)
Add 2 eggs, 1/3 cup bread crumbs, and mix
Add 1/3 cup roughly chopped dried cranberries and mix
Form small goat cheese balls
Fold goat cheese balls into the mixture
Form the salmon burgers! 

Cook
In a pan with olive oil or
On a wood plank on the grill
Remember: the salmon burger is partially cooked! It should only take 5 or so minutes to cook the rest of the way
Freeze the extra burgers for later! 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Sky

Garlic Tomatoes

The cherry blossoms are out and DC is in full spring mode! After a long winter, it was so nice to finally have a beautiful warm weekend. To kick off the week, here’s a light and easy recipe that pairs well with quinoa. (these are not my tomatoes from my garden box, apparently tomatoes take up to 60 days to grow!)

Ingredients:
2 cups Cherry tomatoes
4 cloves Garlic
1 cup Basil
*these are rough measurements; the recipe tastes just as good with more or less of each ingredient!

Method:
Chop the garlic and sautee in olive oil
Add cherry tomatoes, salt, and pepper, and sautee for 3 minutes, rotating the tomatoes
Add small amount of water and put top on pan to simmer for 8 minutes
Add basil and simmer for 2 minutes

Done!

Enjoy!

Sky

Maple Almond Butter toast

Happy Friday! I recently discovered an amazing product: Maple Almond Butter. It's the most declicious nut butter I've ever tasted.

I love to toast a whole wheat english muffin (or Whole Foods' pecan and rasin bread), add maple almond butter, and sprinkle chia seeds on top. It's almost like french toast with maple syrup. Except more nutritious!

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!

Sky

Cooked Cabbage

Happy Tuesday! Today I'm bringing to you a simple, delicious recipe that will keep you eating cabbage all spring and summer long.  It's filling and light- just the kind of recipe I like as the warm weather starts to hit. Plus, cabbage many nutritional benefits (vitamin C, potassium).

Prep your Cabbage:
Take the outer leaves off your cabbage and discard
Rinse your cabbage
Cut into 4 quarters
Cut out the hard inner center

Cook your Cabbage:
Place your cabbage in a large pot
Fill the pot with skim milk so that the skim milk covers the cabbage halfway
Add salt, pepper, and olive oil
Simmer for 20 minutes (or until tender)

This cabbage recipe is great hot or cold, as a side dish or as a snack!

^^ See that on the left side of the cabbage? Cut that hard part out!

^^Yum! I like to load on the pepper :)

Have a great day!

Sky

Quinoa and Kale Mac&Cheese

You know when you have those days when you simply cannot be bothered to make any sort of meal at the end of the day? No mixing, no chopping, and definitely nothing that takes longer than 20 minutes! Maybe you reach for the mac&cheese box that's sitting in your cupboard? Stop right there! Here's a healthy take on the classic mac&cheese that's just as simple to make and much more nutrious!

Method:
Cook your quinoa- (with all these quinoa recipes on hand, it's worth your while to make a huge batch of quinoa on Sunday and just heat up dinner portions in the microwave during the week. That way, this recipe would take about 5 minutes!)

Cook your kale- sautee your kale in a large pan with olive oil (or red pepper flake olive oil) and parmesean cheese

Mix together! It's delicious :)

 

 

^^Happy Spring! Thanks for following along!

Sky

Fresh Quinoa Salad

In the warmer months, I love making huge fresh quinoa salads. This quinoa salad is a great salad to make on Sunday that will last you all week and take of the pressure of weekday cooking. It's also a great entertaining salad- bring it to a picnic, or a bbq and your friends will love you for brining a hearty salad option!

Ingredients:
Cooked quinoa
Red onion, sliced
Cherry tomatos, sliced
Feta cheese
Arugula
Red pepper flakes

Dressing:
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
(Or try drizzling your hot pepper flake olive oil on top! With salt and pepper)

 

Enjoy!

Sky

Chipotle inspired Quinoa

Here's one more awesome quinoa recipe! Then I'll cool off the quinoa. For a little :) This one was inspired by Chipotle. I love Chipotle bowls and wanted to create a healthier, lower calorie version. This I swear tastes just as good as the real thing!

 

What you need:

Qunioa (1 cup qunioa to 2 cups water, simmer in a pot until all the water is absorbed)

Red kidney beans (drain beans from a can and rinse with water. They can also be sauteed with olive oil and red and green peppers)

Guacomole

Parmesean cheese

 

Preparation:

Cook quinoa (20 minutes)

Cook kidney beans (and sauteed vegetables)

Prepare your bowl- add quinoa base, top with beans/vegetables, add parmesean cheese (it will melt on top!)

Dallop of guacomole

 

One of my favorite things about Chipotle is the Chipotle Tabasco sauce. I haven't been able to find it at any grocery stores yet, so I definitely need to buy a bottle (or two) straight from the Tabasco source!

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!

Sky

Asian Quinoa-Kale

I hope you're not sick of quinoa just yet! I love cooking with quinoa because it tastes just a little nutty so it definitely isn't bland, but it also really takes on whatever flavors you mix in with it. This is another great weekday meal that is very easy and fast to make. It's also great cold as a leftover for lunch!

Quinoa
Quinoa is made 2 cups of water to 1 cup of quinoa
Mix together in a pot and simmer until all the water is absorbed
Quinoa takes about 20 minutes

Kale
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks of chives (green onions), chopped
Sautee the chives and garlic in olive oil for 1 minute
Add in 1/2 a bag of frozen kale (another great thing about this recipe, other vegetables can easily be substituted in here!)

Once the frozen kale has cooked add:
2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
4 tablespoons of tamari soy sauce
4 tablespoons of red pepper flakes (I like things spicy! If you don't, add less than this)

Add the Kale mixture into the pot with your quinoa and you're done!

Enjoy! Thanks for following along! 

Sky

Baked Tomato Special

Wow what a hiatus! I moved to DC from Boston in September 2013. At the time I was so overwhelmed by my move, my new job, and my new city that I just did not have the time to continue my blog. Finally though, after a year and a half (almost 2 years, wow!) of living in this wonderful city, I'm ready to begin again. I have had so many food and travel adventures since my move and I can't wait to share with all of you!

First up- a recipe I've been loving lately. I call this my baked tomato special. This is the perfect recipe to make after a long day of work- it doesn't require many ingredients, it's fast, it's easy to prepare, and it's an inexpensive meal.

Quinoa
This will be the base of the recipe. I buy quinoa in bulk from the Whole Foods grain bins. It's actually much cheaper than buying quinoa from a pre-packaged bag.
-Quinoa is made 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water
-Pour ingredients into a pot and simmer until all the water is absorbed
-This usually takes 20 minutes
-When finished turn off heat and drizzle in olive oil and parmesan cheese (I use 1/4 cup of cheese)

Tomato
While the quinoa is cooking start working on your tomato, it will also need 20 minutes
-Preheat your oven (or toaster oven) to 400 degrees
-Cut your tomato in half
-With your tomato halves face up, sprinkle whole wheat bread crumbs, olive oil, salt and pepper
-Set your timer for 20 minutes

Seriously it's that easy! It's a grilled cheese with tomato soup rendition that tastes heavenly.

I use a toaster oven...

Look at that golden crust!

Once you break into that tomato it falls apart into a cheese quinoa center... yum! (excuse my computer I was hungry and blogging)

Enjoy! Thanks for following along! 

Sky

Spanish Chicken

Step 1: Marinate the Chicken (2 pounds)
-Ground pepper
-1 tsp Adobo spice
-1 package powdered chicken bouillon
-1 T dried cilantro
-4 large garlic cloves
-1/2 cup cider vinegar
-Save marinade, will need it later!

Step 2: Soffrito
-Chopped Onion
-1T olive oil
-1 can Hunts petit diced tomatoes
-1 large red pepper, 1 large green pepper
-1 jalapeño
-1 T Recatio
-1 can Roman beans (do not rinse! just pour off top water)
-Some green olives and capers

Sear the chicken until brown on both sides and remove from the pan.
Add oil, peppers, and onion.
Add the Soffrito ingredients plus the chicken marinade. 
Finally, add the chicken and cook the rest of the way.

 Great served with brown rice!