Super Healthy Archives | Page 2 of 14 | finding time for cooking

Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Butternut Squash with Dijon Vinaigrette

December 17, 2017

I am obsessed with this side dish. It is one of the few things I went back for seconds on at Thanksgiving, and has become one of my go-to side dish recipes—particularly when I need to feed a big group.

The hands-on time is minimal, just prepping and chopping the veggies. After that, you briefly toss in olive oil, season, and pop it in the oven. The vinaigrette takes all of two minutes to put together, so this is a perfect dish to make when you need to focus on other things in the kitchen.

One of the best things about this dish is that you can easily make it ahead, and it warms up and travels well. The flavors feel indulgent, but it’s still really healthy…which was one of the things we needed this Thanksgiving. I looked at our family’s Thanksgiving dish list and realized there were no green vegetables (no, green bean casserole doesn’t count!). So I whipped this bad boy up, and it got rave reviews.

You can also easily increase or decrease the amounts to feed only a few people or a horde. Basically, this is the perfect side dish and you need it in your life right this minute.READ THE POST

How To Cut Up a Butternut Squash (& Roast It)

November 5, 2017

It’s fall, so you know what that means…

No, I’m not talking about festive Starbucks cups and new fall TV shows. It means that hundreds of butternut squash recipes are flooding Pinterest. You’re probably getting seduced by them as we speak. And then you remember that getting a butternut squash from whole into bite-sized pieces is THE WORST.

Until you know how to do it well. So that’s where I come in. I’ve found and refined a way to dismember butternut squash that doesn’t take long, doesn’t kill your hands, and will get you perfect little cubes every time. Sure, you can sometimes buy it pre-cut (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but you can’t always find it that way plus it gets kind of slimy fairly fast. Better to have a good back-up.

So let’s dive in, shall we? There are two main pieces of equipment that you need, and one of them is an actual decent Y-peeler. I’m in love with my OXO peeler, got it a few years back and now no longer accidentally take off layers of skin when I’m peeling veggies. It gives you so much more leverage and stability than a regular vertical-bladed peeler.

Begin peeling long, deep strips out of the squash. You’ll need to overlap your stripes, because it will likely take two tries to get it deep enough. Butternut squash peel is not messing around.READ THE POST

Sweet Potato Chickpea Buddha Bowl

September 17, 2017

So…I’ve been chastising myself lately for my diet. Between crazy work schedules, travel, and being on crutches, I’ve just been a bit too reliant on Uber Eats and definitely lacking in fruits and veggies. It’s kind of amazing I don’t have scurvy.

Then this morning as I was working I decided to finally get around to watching “What The Health?” on Netflix, which talks through a lot of the things wrong with our diets and how that’s impacting our health, and the medical establishments and lobby groups that are set on keeping it that way.

Its basic conclusion is that we’re meant to eat plant-based diets, and that anything else is unhealthy. It’s definitely an interesting watch, and while I don’t completely agree that meat is the devil—I grew up on a family-run cow farm, after all, and I also believe that God designed us to eat some meat—I 100% agree that we’ve totally screwed up our food chain in so many ways and that a heavier plant diet is a good thing, and overall it guilted me REAL HARD into really putting on my adult pants today.

So I did some digging on plant-based diets and found some recipes that I want to try to rotate into my everyday routine. This was the first one I came across that made me go “Hmm!” The flavor combos are awesome, it’s easy to make, I’m a sucker for a good tahini sauce, and I’m hoping it’ll make an awesome lunch for a couple days this week as well. For a non-pasta vegetarian meal, I’m totally on board with this one!

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Pakistani Kima

April 17, 2017

Full disclosure: I have no idea if this recipe is truly Pakistani, nor do I know what “kima” is.

But I *do* know that it’s delicious, filling, healthy, and easy. That’s a dinner grand slam in my books.

My sister has been making this for her family for quite a while, and she made it for us while I was visiting my parents a couple years ago. I fell in love with the incredible aroma and flavors of the spice combination. It’s truly what makes this dish special.

But it has a lot more going for it. It’s chock-full of veggies, across the color spectrum (something that I’m usually desperately needing). It’s also super satiating, with a one-two-three punch of the fat in the butter (don’t skimp on this), the lean ground beef, and the fiber-full vegetables.

It clocks in at around 320 calories per serving (if you make 6 servings out of the batch), which is great if you’re trying to keep your calories down but not feel hungry all the time.

And best of all, this recipe is super easy to make, a one-pot standby. It only takes about a half-hour total, and only requires you to do some vegetable chopping and throw everything into a pot. I made two desserts while putting this together a couple weeks ago, because I didn’t have to spare any brainpower for it. So I’m kind of in love.READ THE POST

Turkish Red Lentil Soup (Corba)

March 19, 2017

I’m on the record as stating that soup is not a meal, in and of itself, with very few exceptions.

This is one of them. (My mom’s baked potato soup is basically the only other.)

I also don’t like lentils usually. That is, until I went to Istanbul last year and we ate in a Kurdish family’s house and were served corba as an appetizer. Corba is a hearty red lentil soup, super flavorful and comforting. When I returned to the States, I started pinning recipes right away so I could try it myself. I learned that red lentils are very different than the dark ones I’d had before, and didn’t have as many texture issues for me.

I’ve made this recipe a few times, trying to get the texture and flavors just right. For some weird reason I have issues with it separating a bit (so becoming a little watery), but since I like it better with crushed up crackers in it anyway, I decided to just let that go. One time I even tore up half a bagel into the soup, and the texture was awesome!

One of the great things about this soup is that it comes together really quickly—like half an hour from start to finish. So you can get home from work, get it simmering, and go about your business until it’s time to blend everything up and serve. Efficiency FTW!
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Best Healthy Recipes of 2016

January 2, 2017

I guess it’s that time again. After all the holiday gluttony (and general comfort food craving this time of year), everyone is making resolutions and getting back to the gym and meal planning.

Honestly, I’m not. I know myself well, and I have to have small, sustainable life choices vs. a diet or life change. I try to eat healthy (except when I’m traveling) and work out every day (even when I’m traveling), and overall that works for me. I let 15-20 pounds sneak up on me in late 2014, so I started tracking everything I eat and do in MyFitnessPal and finding healthy recipes I actually *liked*. And by spring of 2015 I was back to normal and have been able to maintain.

So the good news is that I have a bunch of healthy recipes to re-visit from the last couple years, all now listed in one place for 2017 healthy living ease!

Don’t forget to look at all these great healthy recipes I posted at the beginning of 2015. There are a ton of yummy make-ahead breakfast options, easy healthy dinners that also make satisfying lunches to pack for work, and (duh) healthy desserts. Because I don’t believe eating healthy should be sad or boring or a chore.

Main Dishes:

“Crack” Beef & Cabbage Stir Fry

Sweet and savory and crunchy and super satisfying. But mostly cabbage, which is both cheap and super healthy (yay colon health!). This is crazy fast and makes good lunch leftovers as well.READ THE POST

Lemon Shallot Chicken

November 27, 2016

I literally don’t know what to call this chicken.

Sure, it has lemon juice. And chopped shallots. And garlic. And paprika. And brown sugar. And chopped rosemary.

It’s…complex.

And ugly. Sorry, this dish won’t photograph well no matter how hard I try. But it is really easy, unique, flavorful, and makes great leftovers. So despite its ugly appearance, that’s a win in my book.READ THE POST

“Crack” Beef & Cabbage Stir Fry

November 13, 2016

This was my first “back on the healthy train” recipe since coming back from quite a bit of travel over the past few months—including a week and a half inhaling pastries on the French Riviera. So I didn’t need normal healthy, I needed SUPER healthy. A sort of food detox, if you will.

What I didn’t expect was for this to be SUPER yummy as well.

And cheap and easy. Fast, cheap, healthy, easy, and yummy is like a unicorn of a recipe. I mean, it’s no mac and cheese, but it’ll do.

This is going into my regular rotation of uber healthy meals. It’s got a ton of fiber from all the veggies, is surprisingly satiating, and still has just enough protein from the beef. You could definitely use a whole pound of beef instead of a half-pound (or substitute turkey, chicken, pork, whatever), but I didn’t feel cheated by the amount of meat, and it lets you stretch your meat further. This was lunch leftovers all week for me, and I didn’t get sick of it, which is a miracle in and of itself.READ THE POST

Tex Mex Breakfast Casserole

November 6, 2016

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I am a super lazy breakfast casserole maker. Which is why I basically refuse to try new recipes, because they all have, like, a billion ingredients (which makes them expensive) and require way too much prep work. So it’s pretty unusual for me to take on this recipe on a Thursday night for Friday morning department breakfast.

But boy, am I glad I did.

$Easy Tex Mex Breakfast Bake$

While this requires a tad more prep than my usual recipe (mostly cooking up the potatoes), it was super yummy and totally worth it. The prep probably only took 30 minutes total, and I was also getting a coffee cake in the oven as well so I could have cut that down a bit with some focus. The spice mix is awesome, and the tortillas add a great texture along with the black beans. This is definitely going into my regular breakfast rotation.

$tex-mex-breakfast-casserole-potatoes-onions-peppers-cooking-closeup$

It’s also worth nothing that this is really doggone healthy as well. Full of protein and fiber, and weighing in at around 100 calories per serving (assuming a 15-serving pan…probably more like 130 calories per serving if you have hungry people). It was super filling and stuck with me all morning. I had a second helping for a late lunch, in fact.

$Tex Mex Egg Casserole$

I made a few changes to the original recipe, including omitting the bacon out of laziness—also, turkey bacon doesn’t quite have the same effect. I considered adding ground beef instead, but I was both lazy and cheap. And honestly it doesn’t need it. I also left out the cilantro (meh) and added cheese because…duh. There’s a lot of flexibility in this recipe, so if there’s something you’re dying to add or substitute, go for it. I’m not the boss of you.READ THE POST

Clean Eating Banana Muffins (gluten-free)

October 30, 2016

*womp womp* After the last couple months of travel gluttony, it’s time to get back on track, and these muffins at least have the consolation of being delicious as well as super healthy.

In the interest of full transparency, to be truly clean eating you’ll need to omit the chocolate chips from the recipe and use one of the other mix-ins instead (nuts, dried fruit, etc.). But unless you’re completely following a clean eating diet, the mini chocolate chips do really add something to the muffins so I’d recommend leaving them in. Because, duh.

I made these on a Sunday night on a whim, and brought them to work the next day. They were scarfed by my co-workers within a few hours, and got rave reviews. They’re moist, flavorful, and—best part—insanely fast and easy to make.

They’re the kind of healthy breakfast that gives you the fiber and protein you need, but still makes you feel like you’re getting a bit of a treat to start the day. That’s a win in my book. Add a couple strong espressos and you’re all set. Bring it on, Monday.READ THE POST

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