12

Aug

Souper Quick Lunch

Once upon a time, in a very sleepy town, a girl named Laurel was home for her lunch break and really needed to eat. She pulled out a can of chicken soup, threw some veggies in a saucepan, and -*POOF*- out came a creamy, healthy soup. 
WAM!
BAM!
BETTER THAN JUST A CAN!

Sure, it could have been more complex. But why mess with a good thing? I ended up only being able to eat half of the soup (and that’s a BIG green bowl!), so the rest made a tasty dinner later on. The veggies were cooked, a tiny bit crunchy and lessened the cream I was actually consuming. Try it, you’ll like it!

~Laurel~

16 years ago Short URL 1 Comment

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06

Aug

More spinach & a Stir fry

Hellooo! I felt like a homemade quesadilla for lunch the other day, so I went at it. You know how I’ve been on a spinach kick lately, and it was natural to throw in Popeye’s favorite tasty treat. I didn’t want any meat in it (I just don’t crave it anymore…weird), but we had some tasty muenster that went perfectly. It’s healthy and cheesy and super tasty…why not? Oh, and it’s such a QUICK LUNCH, you can eat at home or pack and take on the go!
Cheesy Spinach Quesas

1 cup of hot cooked spinach, drained and patted dry (w/paper towels)
2 slices muenster (lacey or reg. swiss work, too)
garlic salt
2 T flax seed (optional, but gives a little crunch)
2 tortillas, any size
1 T margarine

Heat a pan and “butter” one side of each tortilla with margarine. Put both, margarine-side down in pan to toast. Add spinach, cheese, and garlic salt (not too much) to one tortilla, topping it all with the other tortilla. Let grill for a few minutes, then flip. Once cheese is gooey and a bit crispy on the edges, it is ready. Tastiness…….

We also made a stirfry. After a recent trip to WholeFoods in Austin (one of my favorite stores on the planet…and the closest one is 1 1/2 hrs away!! Gasp! Where do we live, Timbuktu???), we picked up this tasty-looking Thai Peanut Ginger sauce. The bottle screamed STIR FRY!! (silently) So Matt & I decided that was what we needed to do. I’ve never been able to make the perfect peanut sauce to go with spring rolls, et cetera, but this was pretty darn close.

The thing I love about stir fry’s is that they’re never perfect, always messy, and don’t need a lot of organization. (That is me in a nutshell, so it’s a perfect meal!!) Here’s how it went:

1) I basically gathered as many veggies together as possible:

Baby carrots
Green beans (snap beans, as my g/ma called them)
Green bell pepper
Red bell pepper
Tomato (seeded)
Mini new potatoes (so tiny!)
Brocolli
Mushrooms

2) Matt wanted some meat, so we added some lean pork

3) We coated the veggies and pork in the peanut ginger sauce (I used the sauce we bought, adding more peanut butter, spicy spices, and some lime juice to top it off.).

4) Wow, it was so tasty, healthy, and made good leftovers! The key was to put the lid on the wok/saute pan to keep the moisture in the veggies AND to not overcook the veggies. I’m very bad about overcooking veggies, until they turn limp. But keeping a little crunch in them made them tastier and full of life! Try this at homes…it’s too easy!

5)We added brown & purple jasmine rice to the dish…whole grains and pretty rice. (It’s hiding in this picture.) Any rice will work, but you know I’ll recommend a grain rice or pasta, not sugary white varieties.


~Laurel~

16 years ago Short URL

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21

Jun

A Perfect Breakfast


It’s 1:23 in the p.m., and I just had the most amazing breakfast. Yes, I’ve been up for many hours (okay, several because I worked late last night)–reading for class, working out, cleaning up a bowl I broke–which was also full of boiling hot oatmeal–and reading some more.

So my most perfect breakfast did not involve a single drop of syrup, not a mile-high stack of Breakfast Klub pancakes and no applewood smoked bacon…a shocker to all of my family and friends! I had homemade oatmeal sprinkled with slightly sweet raspberry granola, topped with perfectly ripe raspberries for the finish. It was simple, healthy and filling. It’s nice to know that someone like me, with a HUGE sweetooth, can enjoy this not-so-sugary treat.

MOVING ON>>>


Dinner 2 nights ago…big salad, lots of veggies…
when you regularly buy produce (& intentionally
spend more than 2 minutes in the produce section
at the grocery store, not just in and out with bananas
and a couple of baking potatoes!), you tend to
incorporate it into whatever you’re doing.
Now I didn’t PLAN to make a salad that night…I just
asked Matt to pick up some lettuce when he got the pork
tenderloin and -voila!- I had all of the other “salad stuff”
in our fridge…cucumber, radishes, carrots, tomatoes,
black olives, feta cheese, a homemade balsamic
vinagrette. I was fixing a healthy salad/meal and using
stuff I already had (being thrifty, always good). Try it!


Matt’s delicioso pork tenderloin, some mashed
potatoes with kick, and the salad was my
main course. Soo tasty!!

THE NIGHT BEFORE>>>

I had to be at work at 5p, so I made this sauce
beforehand. Matt always makes our pasta sauces,
but it was my turn this time. Of course, since I’m
more of a veggie lover than a carnivore (and my
stomach reminds me through pain when that
triple cheeseburger is in sight), tons of veggies
were chopped in…

Green bell peppers, onions, zucchini, carrots,
edamame…(everything but the kitchen sink and
–once again–using whatever produce I have
lying around in the crisper).

Then came the simmering sauces with ground turkey,
canned and fresh tomatoes and LOTS of spices.

Simmering for almost 2 hours…

and, by that point, I was impatient and just topped
the sauce on a piece of whole wheat toast. Who knew that I wouldn’t even miss the pasta? So that’s all for now. Once I get pics back, I’ll post my parents’ 30th Anniversary Dinner. It was so much fun! Adios!

~Laurel~

16 years ago Short URL

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