September 28, 2016

Fallish Salad

laura.smoak@gmail.com Chicken, Prep Ahead, Salads 1 Comment

Well hello there beautiful, glorious Fall. I’ve been waiting about nine months for you to come back around. Today we’re transitioning from summer with a Fallish salad. We’re taking the base salad we’ve eaten basically every day all summer and adding a little coziness to it because what is this life if everything in Fall isn’t cozy?

Let’s break this Fallish salad down, shall we…

Really this isn’t so much of a strict recipe, but more of a guide for building your Fallish salad. The beauty of salads is that you can load as much of a particular topping as you prefer. (I know some of you like exact amounts, so the recipe below has the portions we generally go with.) We start with grilled chicken breast because every salad we’re calling a meal needs a protein. Grill with just a little salt and pepper, and you’re good to go. Next we have the roasted sweet potatoes. They add just a hint of savory sweetness, and (oh, hello!) bright orange yummmm to your salad. Then we have the brown rice and quinoa. Guys, just trust me here, grains on salad = good. These three things are the only “requirements” for this Fallish salad, but I added cherry tomatoes (from our garden, thankyouverymuch) and sliced avocado for good measure. Top with a little balsamic vinaigrette (hint: the Good Seasons spice pack made with balsamic vinegar and olive oil is muah muah muah), and you’re done.

I love this salad because you can prepare the chicken and sweet potatoes the day of or several days ahead because – ta da – this Fallish salad is good hot or cold. Also, the whole “brown rice and quinoa” situation sounds fancy, but it’s really just these awesome, organic, ready-to-go-in-90-seconds pouches that you can buy at your local Costco. We go through so many boxes of these a year because who has time to make their own quinoa and brown rice with garlic? As. If. (Feel free to use whatever grains you have on hand, though. I just prefer the convenience of the magic pouches.)

Fall: the season where Laura gets back on her prep all the things train. Don’t get me wrong. There’s a solid place in my heart for summer, but getting back into this groove just makes me feel like myself again. Sure, I’m myself all summer, but just a lazier, unprepared version, and that is just so unsettling for this type-A planner.

As detailed above, this Fallish salad uses two of my current favorite prepped foods – grilled chicken breast and roasted sweet potatoes. You may remember how I like to roast cauliflower and butternut squash on Sunday’s. We took a break from that over the summer, but now I’m into the same thing, and sweet potatoes have joined the mix. Sweet potatoes just scream Fall to me. And have you ever tried them on a salad? So good.

My latest food prep obsession, however, is chicken breasts. This is probably a duh thing for most of you, but I hope I’m not the last one to figure this out. Over the summer we got into the habit of grilling 3-4 chicken breasts on Sunday evenings, and using them throughout the week for at least two dinners and two lunches. During the season where my cooking interest involved going into my garden, plucking a few tomatoes and cucumbers off the plant and putting them on a bed of lettuce, having grilled chicken at the ready was a life saver. My goal was to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible, and having extra chicken ready for the week was key. So why not continue that into Fall? I certainly can’t think of a good reason not to. Now, instead of using all of the chicken for salads, we make other hot things with the chicken that is already prepared – think burrito bowls, quesadillas, chicken salad, chicken sandwiches, etc. The skies really limit on this one.

So there you have it. Grilled chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, brown rice and quinoa on a bed of lettuce. I hope you’re as excited as I am about all of the delicious Fallishness coming your way from Miss Foodie Two Shoes!

Ingredients:

Boneless/skinless chicken breast (about 1/4-1/3 lb per person)
Sweet potatoes (about 1-1.5 for every two salads)
Grains (I use this pouch of brown rice and quinoa)
Salad greens (Spring Mix, spinach or arugula work best)
Optional: avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, any other salad topping you like
Dressing of choice

Directions:

Grill the chicken breast(s) with a little salt and pepper until the juices run clear.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the sweet potatoes into cubes, spray with olive oil spray (or mix with ½-1 tbsp olive oil if you don’t have spray), and season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning (Rosemary also works here by itself). Roast in the oven for one hour, stirring half way through.
Prepare the grains you are using according to package directions.
Prepare any other toppings you wish to use.
Assembly: add the chicken, sweet potatoes, grains and any other toppings to a bed of salad greens. Top with dressing of choice and enjoy!

September 21, 2016

5-Ingredient Almond Pesto

laura.smoak@gmail.com Freezer Friendly, Sauce 0 Comments

Friends, I’m out of words this week. Getting into the groove of this new school year has been more exhausting than usual, and my brain is finally putting up the stops for a week.

Luckily this week’s recipe really doesn’t need much discussion. You love pesto. I love pesto. The refrigerated pesto at the store is far superior to the jar on the shelf, but it can be $$. Even homemade can be $$ because do you even know how expensive a little jar of pine nuts is? Enter our homeboy, almond.

We make this pesto with basil straight from our garden, but you can buy the basil fresh from the store. If you’re buying the basil I would possibly half or quarter the recipe because my goal here is not for you to spend $15 on herbs alone. We just happen to have a bunch of (ahem, 12) basil plants, so we have plenty of basil throughout the summer and early fall to make this recipe 4-5 times, as well as just have basil when we need it randomly.

I can’t actually believe I’m about to type this because I have a black thumb when it comes to gardening, but do you know how easy it is to grow basil? SO easy. We generally buy 1-2 plants at the beginning of summer, then get more plants from that. You seasoned gardeners probably know this, but basil is a plant that you can put a stalk in water and it will grow new roots. Plant the new rooted stalk, give it a little love, then wham bam you’ve got a new basil plant. We just do that over and over until we have enough or just run out of space (always the second).

A few notes before diving right into the recipe:

As written, this is very basily. Andy and I prefer it this way, but just add a little less if too much herbiness overwhelms you.
Don’t get super caught up in measurements here. Pesto is pretty forgiving, so just tweak it until you come up with the proportions that are right for you.
Olive oil goes a long way towards the thickness or sauciness of the pesto. If you want a thicker pesto, use less. We like to use a full cup because we generally use it with pasta, and the extra olive oil helps the sauce stick to the noodles.
This makes a lot of pesto, so I generally use half and freeze half for later.

Ingredients:

4 c basil leaves
¾ c almonds
½-3/4 c grated parmesan
1 tsp salt
¾-1 c olive oil

Directions:

Place basil leaves, almonds, parmesan and salt into a food processor.
Pulse a few times to get things going.
Turn the food processor on and slowly add the olive oil through the food chute. Start with ¾ cup, and check for the consistency you want. If you want it “saucier,” add the remaining ¼ cup.
Enjoy!

September 14, 2016

Tomato Coconut Lime Soup

laura.smoak@gmail.com Freezer Friendly, One Pot Dishes, Quick and Easy Mains, Soups and Stews 2 Comments

Happy Fall, y’all! It’s official. We made it past Labor Day, so it is perfectly acceptable to take on the Fall mentality: pumpkin spice everything, football, football snacks (<–one of my earliest posts, yet still one of the top viewed recipes – make it, you won’t be sorry), mums, Fall décor and soup…oh soup, how I’ve missed you. This tomato coconut lime soup is our perfect transition into Fall with its bright flavors and feel good vibes. The fact that it’s soup nods to the cooler weather coming, but it’s also light enough that you don’t feel like you’re jumping into the deep end of heavy, cold-weather, stick to your ribs kind of foods.

(Sorry for the crummy picture – I will figure out how to float avocado on top of soup and update ASAP once I get it right.)

Let me start by saying I am generally – like 99% of the time – NOT a coconut girl. Sure I like caramel delights, but otherwise flaky coconut is just not something I enjoy. However, over the years of becoming a spicy curry lover (4lyfe) I have found that I really do like the flavor of coconut milk in soup/brothy dishes. If you’re worried about this being overly coconutty, don’t – even Andy agrees it’s not overpowering in this soup. What we have here is just a hint of coconut sweetness to balance out the zesty lime zing and acidic tomatoyness of the soup.

My inspiration for this soup came from my office. I’ve mentioned before how we have an awesome cafeteria, and tomato coconut soup is usually on the menu at least once a week. I got to thinking that it’s basically just a fancied up tomato soup, and couldn’t be hard to copycat. Lucky for us – dear reader friends – I was right, and now we can all enjoy this fancy tomato coconut lime soup anytime we want.

Pic of luscious coconut milk pour in 3, 2…

In my true fashion, let me list out why I love making this soup…

It comes together in less than 10 minutes (hiiiiii, 5 ingredients!!).
It makes enough for a dinner and a couple lunches.
It freezes well.
It’s easily doubled or tripled for plenty of freezer meals.
You can customize it to your liking with a variety of (highly recommended) toppings.

Seriously, drop what you’re doing right now and go make this soup. Serve with crusty cheese bread for dipping and dinner is on the table in 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

23.2 oz can condensed tomato soup
(2) 14-15 oz cans diced tomatoes*
32 oz chicken broth (or vegetable broth to make this vegan)
1 can coconut milk
3 tbsp lime juice
Optional toppings: avocado, shredded cheddar, tortilla chips, sour cream, cilantro

Directions:

In a large pot combine condensed soup, diced tomatoes (with liquid) and chicken broth over medium heat. Make sure to stir well so that the condensed soup really incorporates with the tomatoes and broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Once at a simmer add the lime juice and coconut milk**.
Serve immediately and enjoy!

Notes: we prefer ours with fresh avocado and a little cheese, so while optional I would highly recommend this.

* If you want more tomato chunks, just add another can or two, but drain the juices.

** If you want a smoother soup, use an immersion blender to get the consistency you want.