A Week's Worth Of Awesome

Well, the working week anyway. Now that I am jobless I have decided there is absolutely NO REASON for us to be picking around the kitchen desperate to find something for dinner. I can spend my days cleaning, writing & researching, doing errands AND make sure we have a healthy kick ass meal on the table! Don't get me wrong sometimes your body NEEDS to have sandwiches with chips and a pickle for dinner and when it's 99 degrees with 100% humidity my butt will not be standing over a stove! But this week I made some amazing dishes, packed with goodness and with minimal stove usage! Please note that I never follow recipes, I pour and shake until I think it's enough so if you ever want to try one of these recipes take it with a grain of salt, literally and adjust to taste! We traveled from Greece to Italy and back again to have some cozy, yummy and summer friendly meals! Monday Chicken Souvlaki, Dill Cucumber Yogurt Sauce & Mint, Lemon & Pea Cous Cous

I wanted a healthy delicious dinner that would also be refreshing! The Greek know how to do it right, and in fact the Mediterranean diet is huge right now. Because of the power packed antioxidant rich foods like Oregano and Olive oil, this isn't just good tasting its good FOR you! And it allowed me to use FIVE different fresh herbs from our garden! This is a super easy, super fast meal that is great for a hot summer night. Chicken breast Pita bread Plain Greek Yogurt Cucumber Red onion Kalamata Olives Feta Cheese Tomato Cous Cous Peas Lemon Dill, Oregano, Mint, Thyme, Lemon Balm, Pepper Olive Oil, Lemon Juice, Red Wine Vinegar First mix Olive oil, Lemon juice, red wine Vinegar with Crushed pepper, thyme and oregano and set aside. Cut tomato and red onion into thin wedges and halve olives. Add in crumbled feta and pour half of the above mixture over it and set aside. Wash chicken breast and soak in remaining mixture of oil and vinegar. Bake at 375 until done, set aside to cool. Peel and chop cucumber and add to yogurt along with fresh chopped dill, put in refrigerator to chill. Make cous cous according to package, add half a bag of frozen peas, lemon zest and chopped up mint and lemon balm. Warm the pita bread and then fill with yogurt mixture, chicken and veggies and serve cous cous on the side. Tuesday Chilled Cantaloupe Soup With Prosciutto, Tomato Mozzarella Sammies This is hands down one of my most favorite things to make and eat! And its so fast you can whip it up in less than ten minutes. AND NO OVEN OR STOVE! It was crazy hot today and I actually worked, so I was out of the house from 5:30am-7:30pm. I needed something crazy fast with minimal effort. This is based on Italian cuisine and the key here is to use FRESH ingredients. Make sure your melon is ripe and cold, and make sure your basil and tomato are at peak freshness! I promise this will change your life. You're Welcome. Ripe cantaloupe Mint, Salt Baguette or bread of choice Prosciutto Mozzarella Tomato Basil Olive Oil, Pepper Cut melon in half, scoop out the slimy seeds and take off rind. In a blender add all of the melon meat, fresh mint leaves and a few cranks of sea salt, puree until smooth and put in fridge. Cut Baguette in half and cut into sandwich size portions. Drizzle a little olive oil on bread and crank some pepper on them. Slice mozzarella and tomato and layer on bread. Add a slice of prosciutto and fresh basil. Dunk Sammies into Cantaloupe soup, eat and thank me later. Wednesday Campanelle with Lentils, Sausage and Arugula Miss Martha Stewart made with recipe without sausage and with Orecchiette pasta (the ones that look like little bowls) But I thought Campanelle are more fun and we had a ton of left over sausage in the freezer from a BBQ so I decided to add a lil' goodness to this. It's such a healthy meal, what's a little sausage? If you've never played with lentils, now is your chance they need to be your best friend. They are filling and delicious and packed with fiber and nutrients from B vitamins to Proteins. At only 230 calories for a whole cup have at them!! And a fun twist is adding Arugula to a pasta dish. Most of the time you see this peppery devil in a salad but when cooked up it is a peppery, lovely filler to any dish! It cooks down allot so be generous! It's also considered a "super food" and an aphrodisiac so you can feel good about what you're eating and maybe feel good later.... Capanelle Pasta White onion Olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper, garlic Tomato Arugula Lentils Italian Sausage Parmesan Cheese Water or chicken stock

Cook Pasta until al dente and Lentils until tender In a pan add oil and cook chopped onions with a pinch of salt until brown. Add 1/4 cup of water or chicken stock and stir to loosen brown bits from the pan. Stir in chopped tomatoes and spices to onion mixture and remove from heat. Cook sausage and either slice or crumble, drain and set aside. In deep pan add lentils, onion/tomato mixture, pasta, sausage, chopped arugula and 1/2 cup of water or chicken stock, mix and serve with grated Parmesan cheese on top!

Thursday Taco Lasagna

I love anything with Mexican flavors! A little cumin and cilantro and I'm a happy gal! I love making burritos and enchiladas but this is also a fun twist. I used the no boil noodles to eliminate that step which is great because the wet noodles are harder to work with! I like my food spicy so I add tons of red pepper and hot sauce. And my new favorite discovery (well not so new) is using Greek plain yogurt instead of sour cream. I would bathe in sour cream if I could but it's so fatty. The low fat versions don't taste very good so I have replaced ALL my needs for sour cream with Greek Yogurt! It's more creamy and has ZERO FAT! Don't know how those Greeks do it but I applaud them! Another way I cut fat but add protein is by Using Morning star meal crumblers. Some people might find this scary but I'm telling you they are amazing! They have a great consistency and they take on whatever flavor you want! I also use them in chili and half the time Pete has no idea! This is also a meal I put in the "end of the world" category because if you don't have fresh ingredients you can almost always find 90% of them in your cupboard! You can also skip the Ricotta part and use any other type of noodles to make a cheesy taco noodle bake! No boil Lasagna noodles Morning Star Meal Starter Crumbles Tomato Onion Corn Black beans Cilantro, Cumin, Red Pepper, Paprika, Garlic Low fat Cheddar Cheese Olives Jalapenos Can of Tomato soup Salsa, hot sauce Low Fat Ricotta cheese one egg Greek Yogurt Brown "meat" and add onions and spices. Mix in tomatoes, beans, corn, olives, jalapenos and stir. Mix in tomato soup, salsa and a handful of cheese into mixture and set aside. Mix fresh cilantro and as much hot sauce as you want into ricotta cheese and add one beaten egg. Set aside. In lasagna pan add a heaping ladle full of meat/tomato mixture and spread evenly. Layer lasagna noodles on top, no need to overlap, they will expand. Spread Ricotta mixture over noodles and more meat sauce on top and repeat! Cover top with a healthy layer of cheese! Cook Covered at 375 for about 40 minutes and take cover off the last 5 to brown cheese. Serve with a heaping dollop of Greek yogurt

Friday California B.L.T. Salads

This is pretty self explanatory but OH SO GOOD! I could eat BLTs for every meal, and in fact there have been days in my life where I did! The bacon makes it breakfasty! But to cut out all the bread and add a little more substance I love turning them into salads! You can add whatever you want to this salad but I like keeping it simple to really let the BLT flavor shine. I'm using turkey bacon to make it a little heart healthy but that's getting thrown out the window because I am also frying up the left over Prosciutto from Tuesday to make it crispy and crumbling it on top! I can't waste that goodness and it will be perfect on the salad! And if you've never had a "California" BLT (Avocado, Lime, Black Pepper) you are in for a summery treat!

Arugula, lettuce, or spinach Tomatoes Turkey Bacon Sliced avocado Lime Juice Mayo Black Pepper Put a large heap full of washed greens into bowl. Cook bacon until crisp and them crumble into large pieces. Slice tomatoes and avocado. Toss everything together with a spoon full of mayo, just enough to lightly coat. I find it easiest to cover the bowl and shake the crap out of it to evenly cover everything. Sprinkle salad with lime juice and fresh cracked pepper

It has been a week of good eating!! But not the kind that makes you want to kill yourself! We have covered all food groups and gotten tons of lean proteins and nutrients! Hopefully you guys will try some of these recipes or have them inspire you to try something new! I'd love to hear about it if you do!! There are no real mistakes in the kitchen, it's all about experimenting! And again, not the kind that makes you want to kill yourself, like playing Beirut with white wine! Never. Again.

Bon Apetit!