Travel, Wine, and Dine » salad

Delicious, Healthy Dinner in 10 Minutes

traveleatlove — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:32:16 +0000

I am pretty proud to stay that we have both been doing a really good job of working out 4-5 days a week, eating healthier, and cutting back on the old wine since 2012 started. I know it hasn’t been that long at all, but we feel great, and since we still allow plenty of indulgences (Hello, Old Fashioned’s, grilled cheese, and fries at Eastern Standard), we can keep it up. My health goal is basically not to be kicked down again this winter by the flu while my husband, who drives two hours a day and works for 12-14, is just to move more. However, if I end up a little faster and more toned, I will take it.

As you might have noticed, I have been blogging a little less (five days a week instead of six or seven) and not always about food. I have also felt that by not having to think of blog-worthy meals, I can focus on fast and healthy. If you have any topics that you are interested in reading about, let me know!

This dinner, which I also ended up eating for several lunches, is worth sharing because it was so delicious, quick, and satisfying.

We often order burrito bowls from our beloved South End spot, El Triunfo. They’re basically everything but the actual tortilla, which I rarely like, so they are perfect. In order to save some money, I decided to make our own burrito bowls, also known as salads.

My burrito bowl was a pretty easy mix:

Chopped romaine (I so prefer eating salad that is chopped into small pieces)

1 1/2 cups of black beans that had been soaked and slow cooked with chili and garlic powders, canned are also fine

1/2 of a ripe avocado

Homemade salsa

Homemade lime crema – This is why I am blogging about the burrito bowls. It is my new favorite salad topper and veggie dip. I added the juice of a very juicy lime to a cup of Fage Greek yogurt, added a few teaspoons of olive oil to get a more dressing-like consistency, sprinkled in chili powder. . . and wanted to lick the bowl clean!

Bright, colorful, delicious, and full of vitamins, protein, and filling fats – the perfect meal for me.

Have you enjoyed any easy, healthy meals lately that really stood out?

Technorati Tags: avocado, burrito, Food, healthy, recipe, salad, salsa, Vegetarian

Clean Up Time

traveleatlove — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:20:42 +0000

The holiday season probably isn’t the best time to start cleaning up one’s diet, but I am certainly in need of it. It’s not just because we just spent 10 days traveling and celebrating, the past year of craziness has truly caught up with me. Travel, blogger events, the desire to always cook and bake new things, a bunch of illnesses, my nana’s death, topped with truly poor eating habits during my work day have made me pack on the pounds and feel pretty tired. Where cheese and crackers were once snacks or treats, and bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches were for weekends (Who am I kidding, I NEVER used to eat bacon!), they have replaced the veggie-filled meals of my past. Instead of eating normal meals, I have been going much of the day without eating, then chowing down on snack foods like chips, then end up too full to eat dinner, then eat more snacks later in the evening. It’s not a good scene, not at all.

On the plane back from Ireland and our first night home, I spent a ton of time planning meals to get back on track. I’m not cutting treats out (just got eight bottles of wine to sample!), I am just adding in more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and fish into my diet.

I had a major craving for grilled zucchini when we were doing a huge Market Basket haul on Sunday, and a dish Cara made for Elina’s party a few months ago had been on my mind ever since. The zucchini roll-ups, filled with goat cheese, raisins, and pine nuts, were one of my favorite dishes of the night, and for Sunday lunch, I decided to turn the flavors into a warm salad.

I started with two large zucchinis, cutting them into thick strips and coating them with olive oil. A hot grill pan did the trick; I just cooked until they were softened, with nice grill marks on both sides.

While the zucchini cooked, I rinsed some salted almonds (an accidental purchase) and roughly chopped them, breaking each almond into about three pieces.

I mixed the almonds with some golden raisins, and topped my cooked zucchini with the mix.

The finishing touch? A handful of crumbled goat cheese that nicely softened with the heat of the zucchini. All of the flavors in this dish worked together perfectly, and it was delicious, satisfying, and filled that salad void without leaving me cold! One of my problems in the colder weather is finding interesting ways to eat veggies in the winter, and I think using the grill pan will definitely come in handy this year.

I have a ton more Ireland posts to come, but there will also be lots of home-cooking so that I can be sure to fit in the nutrition I need. After all, I start Boston Marathon training this week!

Technorati Tags: Food, goat cheese, recipe, salad, Vegetarian, zucchini

Tale of Two Seasons

traveleatlove — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:40:47 +0000

I’m trying to embrace Fall, I really am. I made pumpkin brownies, had a bonfire at a friend’s house the other night, and have made the pretty big switch from cool, crisp white wines to our seriously never ending collection of Cabernet Sauvignon. We went a little Cab crazy over the past few years, and now it’s everywhere! I’m loving the brightly colored mums I see around town, and I really like the creepy feeling that happens around Halloween. I am a big fan of ghost stories, scary movies, and other chilling things.

But I am already over the very dark mornings, being freezing during the work day (I literally wanted to put my feet in the oven after baking the brownies the other day.), and being hungry all the time. And when it comes to food, I never got my fill of tomatoes, fresh salads, cucumbers, and grilled vegetables. With the desire to start eating more healthily (again!), I visited The Fresh Market this Sunday after we dropped the boat off nearby for winter storage (sniffle). I love The Fresh Market and take any chance I can get to visit.

I have been enjoying quinoa lately where I have not in the past. The difference? I really dislike any dry foods like rice and grains, but if I add some sort of nice sauce, I can eat them just fine. With this easy, healthy lunch recipe, I crossed over two seasons and came up with a beautiful result.

A few cups of mini patty pan squashes, cut in half.

Three cups quinoa, juice of one juicy lemon, and 1/4 cup of fruity olive oil

Lots and lots of fresh cilantro

1/2 chopped white onion

A pint of grape tomatoes

Quickly cook the squash until tender while quinoa is cooking according to package directions. Once done, toss all ingredients together. I topped mine with kalamata olives and goat cheese and enjoyed every healthy bite. Yum.

This solved our lunch dilemma for a few days at least, and it was a valiant effort at bringing some fall flavors into our repertoire. Since discovering ways to make myself like quinoa and the like, I am really looking forward to incorporating more of these healthy things into my life.

Do you have any ingredients that you used to dislike that you have changed your mind on?

Technorati Tags: Food, Lunch, recipe, salad, vegan, Vegetarian

Pear, Beet, and Arugula Salad with Zinfandel Reduction

traveleatlove — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:00:06 +0000

Fall seems to officially be here, and we have definitely started to make a shift in our eating habits. Gone are the heirloom tomatoes (I had some AWFUL ones earlier in the week!). Brussels sprouts are back with a vengeance, and I have been loving pears, apples, and butternut squash. Fall can be the best time of year to make salads, mixing it up from those tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn and adding a little sweetness from pears, apples, and beets, and that’s just what I did the other night.

I started with three blushing pears and three large, earthy beets.

While I got the beets cooking in a pot of boiling water, I cracked open a bottle of wine for the dressing, a Zinfandel from our visit to Amista. The dressing for the salad? A simple Zinfandel reduction, made by bringing the Zinfandel up to a boil, then reducing it and keeping an eye on it so that it doesn’t reduce too much. You want it slightly syrupy, but not completely stuck to the pan. The smell of simmering wine is pretty darn delicious!

The salad base was a wasabi arugula which promised to have a kick. Sadly, it did not. However, I did try a new product I received to review, Clearly Fresh BreatheWay bags, and they made a HUGE difference in how my greens kept throughout the week. I tend to buy a ton of greens like kale, spinach, lettuce, and arugula, and since I can’t eat them all immediately, they often get black and rotten very quickly. I transferred each group of greens into its own Clearly Fresh bag, pushed out the air, and sealed them up. A few days later, the leaves were dry and perfect. I am pretty excited about these bags and being able to preserve expensive produce a little bit longer.

Once the Zinfandel was reduced and the beets were peeled and cooled, I just tossed everything together and topped with crumbled honey goat cheese.

I love how a simple, easy-to-make salad can make a meal feel special. Even with just a few ingredients, this delicious combination was kind of spectacular. The fact that it was a healthy addition to our main course, an AMAZING chicken tortilla soup, made it even better.

I guess I can say that I am starting to get into the whole change of seasons thing. The food, and of course three new pairs of boots (Have you tried ShoeDazzle yet?! The shoes I got definitely aren’t the best quality ever, but they are so inexpensive, making it a fun place to shop for trends or short-term use/seasonal shoes and boots. ) make it a little more appealing!

How do you keep your diet healthy and full of veggies and fruits once the summer starts to wane?

Technorati Tags: Amista Vineyards, arugula, beets, fall, pears, salad, Vegetarian, wine