salad

Summery Grilled Chicken, Avocado, Goat Cheese and Cherry Salad

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 1 Comment

Now that I’m no longer pregnant and I’m nursing, I’m trying to make a conscious effort to eat healthy again. What does this mean for me? It doesn’t mean cutting out sweets (sorry LM, but I have a sweet tooth!), but instead, it’s about balance. Which means finding ways to get my veggies in.

When I was pregnant, I was turned off by salads and a lot of veggies for some reason. But now that I’m not, I am happy to eat them again! There are only 2 things getting in my way:

  1. I’m turned off by boring food – if I’m going to have a salad, I want it to be FUN!
  2. I don’t have much free time lately. My hands are full literally most of the day (see: nursing a newborn) and then at night when I’m juggling 2 kids, one of whom is a needy and hungry toddler, I don’t feel like spending too much time preparing a meal.

That’s where this salad comes in. It’s anything BUT boring – look at it! It’s colorful! Doesn’t it just shout, “summer”?

AND it can be prepped in advance. I was able to prep all the ingredients throughout the day and then it only took 2 minutes to pull it together at dinner time. Plus, Half of the ingredients were things that I could put on FW’s plate, too, so we all could enjoy a similar dinner, which doesn’t happen often!

See FW’s food vs ours

I can barely call this a recipe because it’s just throwing a few foods together, but in case this inspires you – here it is.

Summery Grilled Chicken, Avocado, Goat Cheese and Cherry Salad

For us, this served 2

Here’s what you need:

  • 1/2 cup chopped grilled chicken – I got lucky and B had grilled the night before so we had leftover grilled chicken
  • 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
  • 1/2 avocado, chopped
  • 4-6 cherries, pitted and sliced in half – I used Skylar Rae cherries* because of their sweetness, firm texture and beautiful color
  • 3 cups lettuce
  • 1/2 cup other veggies of your choosing – I did roasted sweet potatoes and sliced carrots
  • 1/2 cup other protein of your choosing – I did chickpeas, hard-boiled egg and ham
  • Your favorite dressing – mine is an easy balsamic dressing with mustard (similar recipe, here)

Here’s what you do:

  1. Prepare your ingredients. Measure out your chicken, goat cheese, avocado and cherries. The Skylar Rae cherries are perfect for this salad because of their sweetness and nice crisp texture.
  2. Place on top of lettuce.
  3. Gather other ingredients of your choice – I also added roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, chickpeas, hard-boiled egg and ham. Some other toppings that would be good include tomato, sunflower seeds, mushrooms, edamame, etc. Also, this could easily be a vegetarian salad – simply swap out the chicken and ham for other proteins, such as lentils.
  4. Top with salad dressing.

See how easy that was? Enjoy!

*Disclaimer: Stemilt sent me some complimentary Skylar Rae cherries, and I loved them. I mostly just ate them, but also put them into this salad. All views are my own.

WIAW: Back From Maternity Leave

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

Last week I went back to work after taking off 3 months of maternity leave. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do and I was so surprised that it was. I was an emotional wreck. After spending 3 months with FW, I could barely think about leaving him all day. I may go into those emotions more in a future post, but for now, it’s  What I Ate Wednesday! And here are my eats from my first day back at work, last Thursday.

But first, here’s a pic of FW all dressed up for his first day of daycare. It’s from my Instagram account (@koskim).

Anyway, breakfast was B’s specialty! He made me egg whites, spinach and tomatoes and I packed it up and brought it into work. It was nice to be back eating at my desk and an old staple.

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Lunch was a whole bunch of roasted veggies I had prepped a few days earlier and some grilled chicken, all on top of some spinach. Plus some avocado. It was so good and hit the spot. 20160929_132638

Snacks during the day included an apple from our apple picking adventure, a PB&J muffin AND some nuts. You can see some pistachios AND these delicious pumpkin spice almonds that my coworker shard with me. I love pumpkin spice flavored things!!20160929_144747 20160929_152453

Dinner was right from the freezer. I knew I’d be too tired (emotionally and physically) and drained after my first day back to think about dinner so I had taken out some Skinnytaste Late Summer Enchilada Pie from the freezer and paired it with some more spinach and roasted zucchini. This dish is my FAVE and it freezes well! SO happy to have some freezer meals these coming weeks as I get back into the groove of work and figure out how to balance little sleep, running and a newborn. Yikes.

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That was it! I almost had some ice cream and leftover french toast for dessert, but I honestly was too tired to move off the couch and open the freezer. I passed out around 8:30 p.m. – a record for me!

Some questions for you:

  • Working moms – any tips for getting healthy meals for dinner ready?
  • Do you like pumpkin spice flavored things? What’s your favorite?

WIAW: All By Myselffffff

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

Okay the title is a little bit of a misnomer. But here are some eats for last Thursday, when I ate all of my meals – that’s right – by myself. Okay, not REALLY by myself – this guy joined me .. but I was the only adult at each meal I ate for the first time in a while. So here is what I ended up eating for today’s  What I Ate Wednesday!

For breakfast, B and I got smoothies at Restore. I know- I said I ate alone. But I did – I ate it while BF’ing FW. We also got coffees –  my iced coffee from Phoenix was delicious – but it took me about 3 days to drink it …

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Snacks during the morning mostly included grapes. A whole lotta grapes. Only a few are pictured here.20160811_121756

I had lunch while FW was napping and made myself some egg whites and cheese with leftovers from dinner – sweet potato, zucchini and pepper hash. It was delicious – and again, eaten alone.20160811_132538

I had plans to meet up with a coworker, his wife and their new baby for an afternoon drink and opted for white wine. Yes, it was social (with other people) – but no food (minus a potato chip or two that was on the table) was really consumed.20160811_170112

B had after work plans – an event and then the Indians game – so I was on my own for dinner. I stopped off at the Heinen’s salad bar and picked up this.  There are some more tortellini, quinoa and other goodies under that lettuce.20160811_181627

I heated up some soup my mom had made and brought when she visited to go with my salad – chicken and pasta.

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And a peach that I had gotten at the farmer’s market that morning made for a complete dinner.20160811_201643

That was it! A pretty good day of eats by myself. Disclaimer-  some days when I eat alone all I manage to eat are spoonfuls of peanut butter, ice cream and handfuls of cereal because I’m holding FW with the other hand all day.

Some questions for you:

  • Do you eat differently when you eat alone vs with friends/family?
  • Do you eat soup in the summer or when it’s hot out? Or only in the winter?

WIAW #29: Just an ordinary day

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 11 Comments

Happy What I Ate Wednesday party people!

First, let me warn you that this day is just an ordinary day. A pretty boring, eat breakfast and lunch at my desk and dinner at home day. That being said, it was still pretty yummy, so here we go.

Side note – did anyone else have this song in their head now? #sorryimnotsorry

Anyway, I digress. For breakfast, B made me my usual. Egg whites with hot peppers plus veggies. Yum yum yum. Tired of seeing this same meal? Oh, those are farm fresh local tomatoes. So. Good.

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For lunch, I basically had last night’s dinner leftovers on top of lettuce, plus goat cheese. So it became a salad! Salad with olives, salmon, tomato, roasted cauliflower, sweet potato, broccoli and green beans. Plus a few nuts. Colorful, huh?

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For snacks, I had some delicious fruit. Grapes and this apple, which was also local.  I can’t believe it’s practically apple picking season!

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Oh, and of course a pickle! I made pickles this past weekend (they’re so easy!) and couldn’t resist having a few before dinner.

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B made me dinner, too. Yup, breakfast and dinner today .. and we had a shrimp stir fry. We had a few veggies that needed to be eaten (bok chou, broccoli, eggplant) and combined with soy sauce, hoisin, sriracha and fish sauce, it was delicious!

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And for dessert? Some homemade granola. Yum!

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Some questions for you:

  1. I need a new breakfast. Any ideas? What’s your go-to?
  2. Have you ever pickled?
  3. What’s your favorite/least favorite kind of apple? I love so many kinds it’s hard to pick a favorite. Least favorite – red delicious!

 

WIAW #16: B Cooks For Me …

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

Surprise- not only is it National Running Day, but it’s also time to talk about another one of my favorite subjects – food! That’s right, it’s  What I Ate Wednesday! These were my eats from YESTERDAY, because that is when I remembered to take photos. I really need to start taking photos on a different day of the week.

Basically as I’m typing this, I realize how lucky I am. B makes me soooo much of my food. It’s not that I don’t enjoy cooking or don’t know how to cook – it’s frankly because some days I’m just too crazed to think about cooking/eating/etc. and B takes care of me. So not to be overly gushy, but I can’t help write this post without acknowledging that. Anyway, breakfast included egg whites with hot peppers, spinach and frozen veggies. B made me the breakfast at home and I brought it into the office – and plated it – so I could eat this delicious meal at my desk.

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I also had a blueberry snack mid-morning.

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This week is our office’s Wellness Week so for lunch we had a salad bar potluck! Each person in our office contributed some ingredient for a salad and we made our own salads at lunch. BEST IDEA EVER. Check out my delicious salad- there’s feta cheese, blueberries, spinach, mixed greens, craisins, hard boiled egg, tomatoes, a few bites of chicken, chickpeas, carrots, cucumbers, and beans. No dressing – I’m weird like that. And served with an apple!

BEST SALAD.

BEST SALAD.

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Snacks the day included baby carrots, a nectarine and perrier, a handful of cashews and wintergreen mints.

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Dinner was great, as usual. I fully intended on making dinner but some client work popped up unexpectedly so after I started to chop up veggies, B took over. He made some pork from the West Side Market, cauliflower and broccoli.

pork cauliflower broccoli

Yum! I was going to end the day with an Arctic Zero sundae, but I simply was too tired to do so.Yup, too tired for dessert … it doesn’t happen often, but it happens!

Some questions for you:

  • Do you have someone in your life that makes you meals when you’re short on time?
  • What are your favorite salad toppings?

Meatless Monday: Summery Kale, Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 3 Comments

I realllly wanted to call this salad The Best Summer Quinoa Salad Ever, but that was too ambiguous. Or even Quinoa, Kale, Black Bean, Avocado, Tomato, Onion, Hot Pepper, Corn Salad with a Lemon Vinaigrette but that just seemed like too long of a name and you would probably would have stopped reading then. So just go with it.

Anyway, I love a good summery salad. Something with a good light vinaigrette, add in corn and avocado and I’m sold. So when I realized we had pretty much all of my favorite ingredients for a salad thanks to our Fresh Fork CSA and some farmer’s market finds, I knew I had to just put it all together and make the best summer salad ever. Add in some quinoa and a can of black beans and it was perfect for a vegetarian main meal. Oh yeah – even B ate it as a main dish without meat. That’s how I know it’s a success.

Don’t be fooled by the name, I may just be making this salad this fall and winter too. Because we all need some summer meals all year round, don’t we?

kale, quinoa, black bean and avocado salad

Kale, Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

Here’s what you need:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/3 olive oil (divided)
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
  • 1/2 large onion, finely chopped
  • 2 hungarian hot peppers or jalapenos, diced
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 2 cup water
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 3 c. thinly chopped raw kale leaves
  • 1 c corn (approximately one giant cob)
  • 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 medium tomato, diced
  • 1 avocado, chopped into cubes

Here’s what you do:

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add garlic, onion and hot pepper, and saute for about 3-4 minutes. I also added a few slices of kale, but feel free to use all the kale in step #4 and keep it raw.
  2. Add quinoa and two cups water.  Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.
  3. While quinoa is cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients for the salad. First prepare the dressing. Mix 1/4 c lemon juice (about one whole lemon) with 1/3 cup olive oil and cumin.
  4. Finely chop the kale (remove the large thick middle stems from the leaves and then roll up kale into rods before finely chopping) and add to the salad dressing. Coat kale thoroughly in dressing. Add in corn and black beans.
  5. By now the quinoa should be nearly done cooking. After letting cool for a minute, add cooked quinoa, onion and pepper to kale, corn and tomato. Mix well.  Gently add in chopped tomato. Just before serving, add in avocado.
  6. Enjoy! Mine made 3-4 vegetarian main dishes.

kale, quinoa, black bean and avocado salad