Spinach Citrus Salad

This Spinach Citrus Salad is a dish that I like to prepare when I'm eating a protein that is fairly heavy in comparison, and when I want something to really clean my palate after the dish.  Whereas most people like to eat salad prior to their main dish, this is a salad I like to finish of with because of how light it is, and also because of how sweet and fresh it tastes.  

Ingredients:

3 c. Baby spinach
1 Grapefruit, segmented
1 Orange, segmented
Zest of one orange
Zest of one lemon
2 tbsp. Pecans
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp. Olive oil
2 tbsp. Balsamic vinegar

In a large bowl combine the spinach, grapefruit, orange, and the zest of half of the lemon, and half of the orange, and top with pecans.  When you segment the fruit, use the remainder of the juices for the dressing.  In a separate small bowl with these fruit juices, zest the remainder of the lemon and orange, and the balsamic vinegar.  Whisk together all the ingredients, and slowly add the olive oil while whisking the mixture so you emulsify the liquids.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Toss the dressing with the salad immediately before serving.

Bad-Ass Bison Burgers

I love a good burger, but I very rarely CRAVE a burger to the point of breaking.  My husband however, can dream about a good burger for an entire month, waiting until he feels he "deserves" his burger and then sits down at a restaurant, napkin in hand, with fingers ready for french fry dipping. 

The idea of trying the bison burger came primarily out of the fact that I was finishing up a round of P90X, and I wanted to go to Kimball's Farm to get ice cream, and I had been planning this for about a month.  Three days prior to this, my husband turned to me and said, I know you want to get ice cream, but I really want a Gibbet burger.  Well, too bad for him. I wasn't coming into work on my day off, when I was supposed to be eating ice cream, so that he could have a burger.  And so, to the ground bison I went to satiate his burger craving.  

Ingredients:

16 oz. Ground bison meat
2 Bakery whole wheat ciabatta rolls, toasted
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
1/2 Yellow onion
3/4 c. Chopped mushroom
Cheese of your choice
1 Roma tomato
1/2 c. Romaine lettuce

I'm sure, by know, you're all aware that I grill my meat as often as  possible, so of course this is the cooking approach that I took with the bison burger itself.  The only ingredients I add to the meat is the salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and I then form the meat into two patties (yeah, I like an 8 oz. burger, no matter how unnecessary that may be).  Prior to throwing the bison on the grill, I caramelized the onion and mushroom by sauteing them in a non-stick pan over medium heat, so it would be ready to place on the burger as soon as the burger is done.  

While the bison is cooking on the grill, spray the buns with a little bit of olive oil, and throw them on the grill to toast.  Because bison is an extremely lean meat, the recommended temperature for the meat is between medium rare or medium.  If you prefer your meat more done than this, I would warn you that bison tends to get dry and tasteless once you go too far into medium well.  Both myself and my husband have grilled meat in restaurants, so as far as temperature goes, we can tell how far along the meat is just by touch and look, but use a meat thermometer if you need to.  

Once the meat hits medium rare, I top the burger with the mushroom and onion, and then place the cheese on top to melt (in this case I used a goat chevre, although on my husbands, I used a Swiss cheese).  I then placed some chopped Romaine lettuce and sliced Roma tomato to the bun, and then took a giant bite into one of the best burgers I've probably every had.  My husband actually looked at me after his first two bites and said, "I could never eat a ground beef burger again, and totally be OK with it!"     

The reality is, that bison meat is far more expensive than ground beef (about $8 for a pound of bison), but you are paying for the health benefits of bison, and when you see the comparison of fats and nutrients to several other meats, it's obvious why bison can be the better choice.  

National Bison Association

Easy Breakfast Options: Your Grains, Egg Whites, Soy Sausage and Grapes

As nice as it is to make all sorts of fancy, flavorful breakfasts, the reality is that we all need some breakfast options that don't require a trip to the grocery store, and a list of instructions.  This is one of my go to breakfasts, and I feel like it incorporates all the food groups that you need to get yourself going in the morning.  

Ingredients:

1 slice of 7 Sprouted Grains Bread
2 Egg whites, scrambled
Fat-free cheese of your choice
1 small patty of Gimme Lean Ground Soy Sausage
Fruit of your choice

This breakfast is so great because the concept can be put together in so many different ways.  Sometimes I use the 7 Sprouted Grains Bread, sometimes I use an Organic English Muffin.  Sometimes I use two egg whites, sometimes I use one whole egg with yolk.  Sometimes I use Fat-free Mozzarella, sometimes I use Fat-free Cheddar, and sometimes I use grapes, and sometimes I eat half a grapefruit.  But, all the time I make sure that I'm incorporated some grains, some soy, some fruit and some egg.  

Breakfast doesn't always have to be fancy, but it can always be simple and tasty!

Pumpkin Custard

Who doesn't love Pumpkin Pie?!?  I know that my husband loves it, but the traditional pumpkin pie has a carb-loaded crust, and boat loads of sugar.  This was a great recipe that I also came across on Oxygen Magazine's online recipe finder, and it was so simple, I almost didn't know what to expect.

                  Pumpkin Custard

Ingredients:

2 c. Canned pumpkin
3 Egg whites
12 oz. Evaporated, non-fat milk
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
2/3 c. Stevia

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, whisk all of the ingredients together in a large bowl, and pour into a greased 9 in. pie pan.  Bake for 15 minutes, and then turn the oven down to 350 degrees and continue baking for 40 to 50 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

This was an amazing dish to come across, mainly because I am a huge sugar fan, so finding something else that is a dessert, was so exciting.  It's much lighter than your traditional pumpkin pie, but it satisfies all the cravings that you have when you're thinking about eating a pie.  On top of all of this, the total bonus was that it was another recipe that incorporated the Superfood Pumpkin!!!  

Baked Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal

In reading Superfoods Rx, I had been trying to figure out exactly where I was going to fit pumpkin into my regular diet.  I am well aware that pumpkin pie is definitely not a superfood, and clearly could not be used in my diet (or so I thought until I moved onto the Pumpkin Custard I made shortly after), and so I wanted to figure out where I could fit it into my breakfast.  This was a great recipe to find from one of my favorite online sources, Oxygen Magazine, and their Baked Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. Old-fashioned oats
1 c. Water
1/4 c. pumpkin puree
2 tbsp Nonfat cottage cheese
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
Dash of Sea Salt
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1/8 tsp. Allspice

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, combine all the ingredients in an oven-proof bowl, mix thoroughly, and bake for 30 minutes.

The original recipe on the website is for one serving of oatmeal, and for my household it made no sense to make one serving of a food that contained this many ingredients, so I decided to quadruple the recipe so that I had four servings to last us a couple of days.  Whenever you change a recipe like this when baking, it obviously changes the texture and cook time.  So, instead of cooking the dish for 30 minutes, I cooked it for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, until the oatmeal was bubbling and set.  

Both my husband and I loved this recipe, and it was so great to reheat with a little bit of milk in the morning. The one things that I would have done differently would be to cook it in a rectangular baking pan so that the cooking time decreased, and the middle set a little more than it did in the loaf pan.  

Turkey Burrito with Avocado Salsa

This is, hands down, my husbands favorite dish that I make.  Yesterday we were on our way to the grocery store, and he was talking about how the fridge had nothing in it.  I replied that it just felt that way because it wasn't jammed full of tupperware.  He replied that there was so much stuff we needed that was missing .  I laughed and asked what was missing.  He then replied, "Well, I know it's missing turkey burritos!" 

And that it was.  The funny thing is, the turkey burrito was born much out of happenstance, where I had all the ingredients, and husband wanted to feel like he was eating "real food."  It pretty much evolved from a turkey scramble (ground turkey mixed with a bunch of different vegetables and rice) to what is now a staple in our household: The Epic Turkey Burrito

Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Wraps
1 lb. Ground Turkey
1 Onion, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Cajun seasoning and red pepper flakes to taste
I can Black Beans, rinsed
1 c. Quinoa, cooked
1 Roma Tomato, diced
1/2 Avocado, diced
1/4 c. Corn
1 tbsp. Lemon juice
1 Jalapeno, diced
Non-fat cheddar cheese
Non-fat Greek yogurt
1/2 c. Romaine lettuce

I saute the onions first to make sure that they are nice and carmalized.  I then add the ground turkey and cook through, seasoning with salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning and red pepper flakes to taste.  In the meantime I prepare my quinoa to package directions.  When the turkey is cooked through, I add the black beans, and quinoa to the pan and heat until everything is warmed through.

Ahead of time I prepare the Avocado salsa by taking the Roma tomato, avocado, corn, lemon juice, and jalapeno and mixing in a small bowl.  I also add salt and pepper to this to taste. 

To prepare the burrito, I warm the tortilla or wrap in the microwave for 15 seconds, and start to top first with Fat-free Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, lettuce, Non-fat Cheddar cheese, the avocado salsa, and then the turkey mixture.  After this, you just do your best to fit it all in the wrap, and keep a paper towel close by to sop up the mess that result from eating.  

I also love this dish because it makes left overs for at least a day or two, and if you run out of wraps, or just don't feel like adding the extra carbs to the dish, you can always do what husband and I do, which is turn it into, what we like to call, Turkey Burrito Bowl.  

  

Super-Easy Walnut Crusted Salmon

Ahh, salmon, we meet again.  In looking to always change up my salmon prep for dinner, I came across a couple of recipes that used a walnut crust, and an almond flour crust.  I had traditionally cooked salmon either by itself, or brushed with this awesome agave nectar with a little salt and pepper, but I was looking forward to trying something with a little more crunch, and a little more warmth.  This was super easy, and took almost no time.  

Ingredient List:

1/2 lb. salmon filet

1/8 c. of chopped walnuts

Dash of cinnamon

Most people expect that in order to put a crust on a protein you need to do an egg wash, or something wet in order to get the nuts or flour to stick.  Salmon, luckily, tends to be on the moist side, so there was really no need to dip the filet in any eggs.  All you need to do is chop the walnuts however fine you like the texture, dip the salmon in the nuts and press down to make them stick, sprinkle some cinnamon on top, primarily to add some warmth to the dish, and place in a non-stick sprayed pan, pre-heated to medium.  Sear on each side until the salmon is cooked to your liking.

I often prepare a green side dish with my salmon, but choose whatever you like to pair with your fish.  I'm lucky enough to have some really great pans to steam my greens really easily, so I tend to throw them on with a little seasoning and just leave them until my steam pan screams at me and tells me their done. Pick something relatively easy so you feel like you're getting a fancy dish, but you're really not doing a whole lot of work with either your protein, or your side dish!