Try This at Home Tuesday: Farmers Market Salad

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great long weekend (at least for those that live in Canada and the US!). After a long absence from any "Try This at Home Tuesday" posts, I'm back with a salad idea. I've been on a salad kick since the beginning of the year as it's a great way to get lots of veggies into your diet and if you change up the toppings and/or dressing, it keeps things interesting. That said, I've been eating the same salad for the last several weeks and don't see it changing anytime soon! I do modify it slightly as the vegetables I use can vary depending on what is available at the farmer's market/my garden.

I thought I'd share it today in case anyone is looking for some lunch-time inspiration. I think it's pretty easy and not very time consuming which is ideal for these busy summer/fall weekends!

First up, you chop up whatever vegetables sound good to you. This week I went with 2 green peppers, 1 onion, a small bunch of organic rainbow carrots (I recommend buying organic so you don't have to peel them!), and a large zucchini. I know that is a lot of vegetables, but I like a high topping-to-greens ratio for my salad - otherwise it's not filling enough for me. After chopping everything up, I tossed it with some olive oil, put it on some foil-lined baking sheets, and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and dried oregano (which came from my herb garden!).

The veggies before going in the oven.

Then you roast them at 425F for 20-25 minutes. I usually have a couple of pans going so I switch the racks the pans are on after about 10-12 minutes, otherwise one cooks way faster than the other. The cooking time will vary depending on the size and the type of vegetable.

The finished product!

Roasted vegetables are so good as the roasting process brings out so much flavor and they can get a bit caramelized in the oven, especially the onions.

Next up, it's time to make the dressing. You could buy it from the grocery store, but check out the list of ingredients in Kraft's Balsamic Vinaigrette:

Ingredients:

Water, Balsamic Vinegar (Wine Vinegar, Grape Juice, Water), Soybean Oil, Sugar, Canola Oil, Salt, Contains Less than 2% of Dried Garlic, Dijon Mustard (Distilled Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Water, Salt, White Wine, Tartaric Acid, Citric Acid, Spice), Spice, Xanthan Gum, Dried Parsley, Oleoresin Paprika, Potassium Sorbate and Calcium Disodium EDTA (to Protect Flavor).

You really only need 5 ingredients to make a great vinaigrette, and those 5 ingredients are things that are probably in most people's kitchen. 

Salt, pepper, olive oil, dijon mustard, and your vinegar of choice

I combine 1 T. olive oil, 1 T. vinegar (lately I've been using a white balsamic), 1/2 t. dijon mustard, and a couple of grinds of salt and pepper. Easy peasy and so delicious! You could probably cut these ingredients in half depending on how big your salad is.

For the salad assembly, I've been using grilled chicken or shredded rotisserie chicken for the protein, a 50/50 mix of spring greens and baby spinach, the roasted vegetables, cherries tomatoes, and chopped cucumbers (which come from my garden!). When packing this salad for lunch, it works best to put the toppings at the bottom and the greens on top.

Do you bring your lunch to work? If so, what is your favorite lunch to bring?

Try This at Home Tuesday: Shredded Brussel Sprout Salad

Greetings and happy Tuesday!  Here we are in the final week of January which means I have one last salad recipe to share with you. It's been fun to focus on salads for this past month. I've learned a couple of things along the way but the biggest lesson I learned was that I should never buy salad dressings again because they are cheap and easy to make and taste WAY better than the processed ones I used to buy.

For my final week of salads-for-lunch, I made a  Shredded Brussel Sprout Salad. I had made this as a side dish for Thanksgiving but it's hearty enough to stand on it's own as an entree salad. I did make some modifications, though, such as substituting roasted butternut squash for the pear and toasting the almonds. I also added some chicken for protein and celery for extra crunch.

The balsamic maple dressing for this salad is sooooo good and very easy to make.  I doubled it so I'd have enough for 4-5 salads:

2 T. balsamic vinegar
2 T. EVOO
1 T. pure maple syrup
1 t. dijon mustard
salt & pepper to taste

Shredded brussel sprouts are such a great substitution for greens as they area  bit more hearty and will be more filling than lettuce, I think. 

It's been fun to focus on salads for the last month. That said, I'm looking forward to switching back to warm and savory dishes, especially since I crave warm things during this time of year. But this challenge showed me that salads can be filling and enjoyable on their own. 

What are you planning to eat for lunches this week?

Try This at Home Tuesday: Petite Crust-less Quiches

Greetings and happy Tuesday!  I'm shifting the focus of this week's post from salads to breakfast, mostly because the salad I prepped this week was a Greek salad, which is such a basic, easy salad. I picked it as it isn't labor-intensive, which is good since my hands are still stiff/tender from my RA flare so I'm trying to not overuse them.  I did make a good, refreshing dressing that I wanted to share, though, as I know some of you have been enjoying the salad dressing recipes.  So here are the ingredients for the Greek vinaigrette I made.  I doubled it so that it would yield a little over 1 cup of dressing. Similar to other dressing recipes I've made, I only had to buy 1 ingredient (lemon) so it was low cost:

- 1/4 c. EVOO
- 2 T. red wine vingear
- 1/2 of a lemon, juiced (recipe calls for 1 lemon but I found it to be a bit too lemony)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 t. dried oregano leaves
- 3 pinches of salt
- 10-15 grinds of black pepper

This week I wanted to share the new breakfast that I've been eating this month. For the last 3+ years, I have been eating GF oatmeal with a banana for breakfast nearly every day of the week. What can I say - I am truly a creature of habit! However, lately I was feeling a need for a change but it needed to be something that is as quick and easy as oatmeal. Then I saw this recipe for Petite Crust-less Quiche on Skinny Taste's most popular recipes of 2015 post.  I tried them for the first week of January and they were excellent so this is my new go-to breakfast at least for the time being.

What I like about this recipe is:
- they refrigerate/freeze well and taste great when re-heated.
- they are versatile. The recipe calls for onions and green peppers, but you could substitute whatever vegetable you would prefer or have on hand. Some things I'll be trying in the future will be broccoli and asparagus.
- they are very filling. It helps that they are packed with protein (18 g). I eat them with a little salsa on top and have been able to push back how early I have my mid-morning snack of yogurt and granola, so these are definitely more filling than the oatmeal + banana I was eating.

If you make these, one tip I have is to buy liquid egg whites instead of separating eggs yourself. The recipe calls for 4 egg whites and I think it's hard to find a use for 4 egg yolks (at least for me). So it's much less wasteful if you just buy liquid egg whites, which can be found near the egg beaters in the grocery store. According to my carton, 3/4 c. of eggs whites = 4 large egg whites.

Do you have a breakfast regimen or do you change up what you eat each day/week? For me, I value something that is fast, easy and healthy versus full of variety. But I'm all about making it easy to eat healthy.

Try This at Home Tuesday: Chopped Asian Salad

Happy Tuesday!  I'm back with salad idea #2 of the month. Last week's salad will be tough to beat but the Asian Chopped Salad I made to bring for lunches this week will give it a run for its money.

The star of this week's salad is the combination of toppings which have different textures and flavors and a whole lot of crunch. Toppings include:

- shredded rotisserie chicken
- edamame
- sliced radishes
- snow peas
- green onions
- celery
- cilantro
- red and green peppers

The base of the salad is a mixture of shredded carrots and red and green cabbage. I tried to buy pre-shredded cabbage but the bagged stuff looked so unappetizing so I opted to chop my own, which obviously added to the time spent chopping and slicing and dicing but I think it was worth the effort as I'll enjoy the salads way more.

Soooo much chopping!

For the dressing, I made this asian citrus dressing that I found on Iowa Girl Eats. Here are the ingredients:

- 2 1/2 T. rice wine vinegar
- 2 T. orange juice
- 1 T. lime juice
- 1 T. tamari (or soy sauce if you can have gluten)
- 2 t. honey
- 1 t. freshly grated ginger
- 1/2 t. sesame oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced

I had all but one ingredient on hand (lime juice) so it was easy/inexpensive to throw this dressing together. I ended up doubling the recipe as I'll need enough for 5 salads and the recipe only yields about 2 servings.

One big salad ready to go for the week!

This week I was curious about the cost per portion so I kept my receipt and added up all the ingredients. I definitely have more than 5 servings worth of cabbage, so I will need to figure out another use for that, but if I assume I will get 5 meals out of all the ingredients I bought, it totals to $29.39 or $5.88/salad, which is pretty inexpensive for a healthy, filling salad made with fresh ingredients. And chances are I will probably get 6+ servings out of it since I have so many toppings and cabbage.

This was a pretty labor-intensive salad as it requires a lot of chopping but luckily that's something I enjoy and find soothing, and it gave me an opportunity to get caught up on some podcasts in my queue. Plus I'd rather put in a couple of solid hours in the kitchen on the weekend versus doing meal prep during the week.

How do you handle meal prep? Do you tend to consolidate your meal prep into a block of time over the week or do you do meal prep every evening?

Try This at Home Tuesday: Roasted Vegetable Salad

Happy Tuesday!  I'm kicking off a new post series today called "Try This at Home Tuesday" which will have a healthy living focus, at least for the month of January. I once heard the quote, "ounces are lost in the gym, pounds are lost in the kitchen" and I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. I'm carrying around a little extra holiday/post-marathon (I tend to gain a bit after a race) weight so in January I will be focusing on cleaning up my eating. But sometimes healthy eating feels daunting because it requires a lot of research and effort in the kitchen so I think it's helpful when other share what they are doing. So hopefully those of you who are looking for ideas will be inspired to make something I share.

My focus in January will be salads to try at home. The salad I made for the first week of January is a copycat of a salad I have had a couple of times at a local salad place. It costs about $11 at this salad place so I was motivated to make it on my own. It is a winner because it has lots of different flavors and textures which is what I need in order to enjoy a salad as an entry.

The main feature of the salad is roasted vegetables. For mine, I roasted butternut squash, brussel sprouts, and beets. I roasted them at 400F. The squash and brussel sprouts were done in about 30 minutes, the beets took closer to 50-60 minutes.

Mmm, roasted beets are delicious and so easy to make!

The other star of the salad is the dressing, which is an apple cider vinaigrette.

The recipe yielded more than this but I had already portioned out some before taking this picture.

Every time I make a salad dressing, I ask myself why I ever buy salad dressings, which are loaded with preservatives. I had everything on hand that this recipe called for:

- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 T. Dijon mustard
- 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
- 2 T. lemon juice
- 1-2 T. honey, as needed for sweetness (I used 1 T.)
- 1/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

The green base of my salad is a 50/50 mix of spinach and a spring greens mix, and other toppings include shredded rotisserie chicken, cooked wild rice, craisins, sunflower seeds, chopped celery, and blue cheese. I realize that is a lot of ingredients but I need a high ratio of toppings to greens to make a salad filling.
 

My salad for lunch, all portioned out. I find it works best to put the toppings at the bottom and the greens on top, and I keep the craisins, sunflower seeds, blue cheese and dressing separate and mix before eating.

In total, I would say that I spent about an hour of active time prepping this salad. The food I prepped will yield at least 5 servings so the time spent is well worth it in my opinion. You could cut back the active time by buying a butternut squash that was already cut up. Lastly, while I did not calculate the cost, I know that it is well below the $11/serving that I would have paid at the local salad place, so it's also economical!

Do you pack your lunch for work?  If so, what do you tend to bring?