Dinners Archives - Page 7 of 36 -

Weekend Favorites

Post author:Melanie
Post published:November 4, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Family / Gluten-Free / Home Life / Sweet Treats / Workouts
Post comments:13 Comments

So it’s for real Monday already? This weekend flew by! Mine was incredibly relaxing which I couldn’t have been more excited about. I was thinking, instead of doing a full recap of my weekend, how about I just breakdown some of my favorite moments from the weekend? Yea, I like that idea.

1. Watching an insane amount of New Girl with Dana while cozy in my sweatpants and snacking on some homemade caramel corn. What made it even better was that Dana made it!

2. Meeting up with Katie for lunch at Panera! The excitement of getting together with Katie would have been enough but then you add Panera on top of that?! Man alive I was excited. And believe it or not, I actually branched out and instead of the usual French onion soup, I actually got broccoli cheese soup. It totally hit the spot! I was so happy to be with Katie for a while. Such a treat.

3. Making some delicious food. For breakfast one day I made a two-ingredient pancake topped with peanut butter and real organic maple syrup. Not the prettiest photo I realize, but so tasty!

I also whipped up a batch of gluten-free pasta salad. I can’t remember if I used quinoa noodles or brown rice noodles (I had gotten them from the bulk bin at the co-op) but I do know it was one of the two. In the mix: peas, olives, celery, onions, chicken, mustard, mayo, salt and pepper, and a splash of lemon juice. This stuff was crazy good!

4. Watching Home Alone while walking on the treadmill in my warm home. Doesn’t that just sound cozy?!

5. Sleeping in and waking up with no alarm clock. And sleeping a lot. And getting an extra hour of sleep.

6. Dinner with my family on Sunday night. I should really say feast and not dinner. My mom and dad went all out with steaks, potatoes, broccoli, salad, and fresh fruit! So good! I think my body was really screaming for some iron from the red meat because it tasted really good to me last night. Our bodies know best after all. It was so nice hanging out with family as always!

As you can see it was an incredibly relaxing weekend. Ahhhhh….

How was your weekend? What were your favorite moments of the weekend?

What I’ve Been Eating Lately: Random and Tasty

Post author:Melanie
Post published:October 30, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Fav Products / Gluten-Free / Lunch
Post comments:14 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve caught you all up on what I have been eating lately. I will warn you that my eats have been completely random. I have been veering away from the cold salads more often in place of something warm like soup or quesadillas.

Thank you to Jen at Peas and Crayons for hosting the What I Ate Wednesdays!

Here it goes!

Gluten-free pasta with mom’s spaghetti sauce. NUM!

Cheese quesadillas with salsa.

Organic tomato soup with extra cracked black pepper.

Homemade veggie dip made from cottage cheese, ranch seasoning, and Italian seasoning packets–the Ninja Ultima was perfect for this job!

Veggie plate with veggie dip.

Grass-fed beef burger with Monterey jack cheese.

Acorn squash with turkey bacon.

Oatmeal for National Oatmeal Day!

More quesadillas, this time with black beans and avocados too!

Loads of berries (recycled photo)!!

Baked strawberry oatmeal bars.

I told you…completely random, but TASTY!

What have you been eating lately?!

Acorn Squash with Turkey Bacon + Weekend Happenings

Post author:Melanie
Post published:October 28, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Events / Friends / Gluten-Free
Post comments:15 Comments

What a weekend! This was a crazy fun weekend and I am exhausted but it was worth it!

Let’s begin with Friday…

I really haven’t been into the salads lately. I’m thinking it’s because it’s cold outside and I’m craving more warm foods. However I made myself a nice little salad on Friday for lunch and I actually enjoyed it! In the mix: dark greens, tomato, peas, avocado, olives, sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, and drizzle of olive oil infused with Italian spices.

Friday afternoon we celebrated Ted and Annie’s wedding!

It was so great to see the beautiful couple enjoy their special day and it was a lot of fun to see so many of my high school friends!

On Saturday, I was a lazy bum for the majority of the day. Dana made us a hearty, protein-packed lunch of eggs with chicken-apple-gouda sausage and onions. Seriously delicious and satisfying.

I watched New Girl and eventually whipped up a batch of this awesome and super easy bean dip for a Halloween party we would be attending in the evening.

http://www.thecountrycook.net/2011/01/warm-bean-dip-and-party-food-highlights.html

In the evening we headed out to our friends Adam and Stacy’s house for the annual Halloween party. Every year they impress me more and more with their Halloween decorations. You can only see half of my costume but I was a Food Safety Inspector (you can’t see my badge or meat thermometer and I don’t have my clipboard with me) and Dana was an Italian chef. Unfortunately his restaurant broke too many codes so I had to shut’er down. 🙂

Thanks Adam and Stace for an amazing party once again!

On Sunday, Dana and I had a bunch of errands we had to run in the morning. I spent the rest of my day prepping for my big TV debut (more to come on this) and I also squeezed in a 3-mile walk around the neighborhood. The weather was absolutely perfect and the scenery was beautiful.

For dinner I baked up one acorn squash and served it with organic butter and Applegate Turkey bacon, salt, and pepper.

I wasn’t in the mood for anything sweet but I think maple syrup would have been really good on this too!

So there you have it. My weekend was a blast and went WAY too fast as it always does.

How was your weekend?
What’s your favorite squash?
How do you use it?

Wicked and What I’ve Been Eating Lately

Post author:Melanie
Post published:October 21, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Family / Lunch / Moose
Post comments:13 Comments

Well, hello there! How are you doing my friends? I am just fine over here. I had an incredibly relaxing weekend full of family and friends.

Oh, I suppose I haven’t filled you in on my Thursday evening yet either.

On Thursday, I went to the Orpheum in Minneapolis to see Wicked!! It was Dana and me, mom and dad, and Kevin. Please excuse the blurry photo–it was raining and people were pouring out behind me so I had to take a walking photo.

This was my first time going to see Wicked and holy cow….I get what all of the hype is about! It was funny, the story was great, the music was phenomenal, and the acting was wonderful. It was amazing! So now I can say to you, if you haven’t seen Wicked yet you MUST go see it at some point! You won’t regret it!

Moving on to some food photos. I have a whole slew of random photos of food I have been eating over the last week or so. When I say random, I mean random.

PB and J on regular whole wheat bread (I just had to have it although I’m still trying to mostly stay clear of gluten), carrots, and a pickle.

Homemade veggie soup. I decided not to share this recipe with you all because the soup is just ok to me. I’m really hoping I get creative in the kitchen this week so I have something nummy to share with you all. I have been slacking!

I’ve really been into the cottage cheese lately. I found that I really like Organic Valley’s 4% cottage cheese. I love it on salads, with veggies, by itself, and with crackers.

One weeknight I made a big batch of stir-fry veggies over quinoa.

The next day I used the leftover veggies in a southwestern stye dish with veggies, black beans, avocado, cheddar cheese, and salsa. I really enjoyed this one!

On Friday night after work, Dana built us a fire in our fireplace. It was a chilly night and it felt so nice and cozy to sit in front of the fire and take care of bills, Halloween costumes, etc. FYI Moose is not a fan of the fires, especially when the logs fall and make crashing noises. He is so ready to bolt in this photo below.

Neither of us really felt like cooking on Friday night, so we cheated and picked up a ready-made meatloaf from Costco. All we had to do was reheat it in the oven. It was good, but not as good as homemade. It was nice to not cook though!

I’m missing a bunch of food photos. On Sunday our friends had us over for French onion soup (my fav) and chopped salads and they were both SO good. We finished lunch off with homemade apple bars. I felt so spoiled!

Throughout the weekend I think I watched at least 10 episodes of New Girl Season One on Netflix. I can’t believe it took me so long to get into this show. Thanks Luke! 🙂 I also slept a lot and got some walks in on the treadmill (it was a pretty rainy weekend here).

It was perfectly relaxing. I actually feel well-rested after this weekend which feels nice.

How was your weekend? What was your favorite thing you did?

Project Freezer Clean Out

Post author:Melanie
Post published:September 23, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Events / Family / Friends / Home Life
Post comments:22 Comments

Did this weekend even exist? It went by so fast!

I had a fabulous weekend really, packed with family, beautiful walks, great food, and home projects. Here’s a quick little recap of what was happening around mi casa this weekend.

Friday

I was feeling exhausted after work but brought myself to walk for 35 minutes. Dinner was simple but tasted SO good! It was sautéed broccoli, zucchini, onions, and green beans with diced chicken, apple, and gouda sausage! The dish was very flavorful thanks to the ~~snausage~~ sausage.

Saturday

I met my cousin Betsy out at Target Field in Minneapolis for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Our local news anchor Diana Pierce kicked off the event. Senator Amy Klobuchar also spoke, and I saw local sports reporter Eric Perkins on the walk and said “hi”! To any locals, you might know some of these folks. 🙂

The weather was beautiful and the walk was so much fun. We were led through the streets of downtown Minneapolis and into Loring Park (which is where I was last weekend!)

Bets and I made a pit stop at Caribou on the way back of course. Because of this, we didn’t win the race. 😉

There are so many people affected by Alzheimer’s, my grandma being one of them. It is a horrible disease that needs to end! They are researching like crazy to find the cure, and I pray they do. I can’t wait to do the walk again next year to support the research and end Alzheimer’s.

This weekend I solidified my obsession for these Blue Diamond Salt n’ Vinegar Almonds that I got from the Summit last weekend. I’ve looked in CVS and Target so far and I haven’t been able to find this flavor anywhere yet. I should have grabbed ten bags at the Summit. Seriously these things are awesome! They are tangy and salty. MMM…mmmm!

I dragged the Fall decorations up on Saturday. Our house is looking mighty festive!

In the evening we had a bunch of family over for dinner at our house. I finally got to wear my ZeeBee Threads t-shirt dress! I paired it with a zebra print scarf, grey leggings, and actually had to wear a long black cardigan too because it was CHILLY! This dress is so incredibly comfortable. I was so happy to be comfy yet still be wearing a cute outfit at the same time. Ya’ll know I’m all about comfort.

I was overly excited for dinner because we were getting pizza. I should really look back on the blog to determine the last time I actually ate real, not gluten-free, not cauliflower pizza crust… just real original legit pizza. My system has been cooling down quite a bit and I wanted to try this one treat to see how I held up.

The results: I think I felt fine—I didn’t feel any different really! Not that I will make this a common meal but it’s good to know I can handle it every once and a while. It tasted just as good as I remembered too!

Sunday

I am beginning a project freezer clean out and dug this up from the freezer: gluten-free lemon blueberry bread. I topped it with some almond butter and called it breakfast.

After breakfast we ran our errands and got a few groceries but not too many because we are going on VACATION at the end of the week! I am realizing I haven’t said much about this yet. More to come on the vaca 411.

This week I plan to eat food from the freezer primarily. We have loads of frozen veggies, frozen meats, leftover soups, chili, etc. It will feel good to begin cleaning out the freezer! PROJECT FREEZER (and fridge) CLEAN OUT!

For dinner I made a batch of yellow quinoa and topped it with sautéed broccoli, zucchini, onions, chicken, and fresh tomatoes, olives, and hummus. A Mediterranean-inspired dish! My fav.

It tasted as good as it looked!

We tackled a few projects around the house, relaxed a bit, watched some of the Emmy’s, and called it an early night on Sunday. It was another fabulous weekend for the books!

How was YOUR weekend? What did you do?

Are you in need of a project freezer clean out?

WIAW: What I Have Been Eating Lately

Post author:Melanie
Post published:September 18, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Fav Products / Gluten-Free / Lunch / Sweet Treats
Post comments:16 Comments

Today I’m joining in on the fun with a round of Peas and Crayon’s, “What I Ate Wednesday,” but instead of what I ate Wednesday, I am renaming mine to what I have been eating lately.

Loads of fresh and sweet berries thanks to Driscoll’s berries!!

Spinach salads with strawberries, black beans, avocado, chicken, sunflower seeds, and honey mustard dressing.

Fruit and Nut “Cereal”–blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, sliced almonds, cashew pieces, dried currants, cacao nibs, and almond milk! And I just decided that is what’s for breakfast today! Num!

Leftover Four Bean Quinoa Chili from the freezer!

Two over-easy eggs with sautéed onions, fresh garden tomatoes, avocado, and salsa!

Blue Diamond Artisan Nut Thins. These things are crazy good! The box is empty.

Dates for a little bit of a sweet treat.

And last but not least, homemade almond butter!

I’d say I’ve been eating pretty darn well!

What have YOU been eating lately?

Photo Leftovers

Post author:Melanie
Post published:September 12, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Misc. / Moose
Post comments:10 Comments

The 2013 Healthy Living Summit is just one day away. Wanna know more about HLS? You can read up on my recaps from last year in Boston.

Destination Boston HLS12
Shake Out the Nerves HLS Day 1
Cheers to New Friends HLS Day 2
Decisions, Decisions HLS Day 3

I am so excited to be reunited with my girls and to meet so many new blends!

**************

So you’ve seen it before from me, and yet again I have some super delicious food photos and some other random other photos that are piling up and needing to be shared with you all.

It’s an easy one for all of us with virtually no thinking involved—leftover day. Sit back and enjoy.

Strawberry Chicken Poppyseed Salad from Panera. I finally got it even though summer is coming to an end. I was actually nervous when I went there because I was afraid I had missed my opportunity. I LOVE this salad.

Dinner made my mamacita: tilapia, roasted veggies, and smoky quinoa. Means always taste better when someone else makes them for you.

Some new pb spread called Tru-Nut that was sent to me to try on gluten-free brown rice toast. I’m still deciding how I feel about it.

A delightfully veggie-packed salad: mixed greens, broccoli, tomatoes, peas, turkey, cheese, sunflower seeds, and honey mustard.

My favorite salmon with almond, capers, and sesame oil with grilled veggies.

A care package from Wild Harvest—thank you and see you guys soon!

My new friends I met in New York on the cover of the Variety section this week!

And Moose.

Happy Thursday!

Do you have any leftover goodies hanging out on your phones or camera?!

What are your thoughts on leftover food? Yay or nay?

Thai Chicken Salad with AMAZING Peanut Sauce

Post author:Melanie
Post published:September 5, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Friends / Gluten-Free
Post comments:16 Comments

On Tuesday night my gal pal Kalkal came over and amazing things happened…

Yes, you read it right. Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Sauce. Amazing peanut sauce. And to be perfectly honest, it was a super easy meal to make, so even better right?

1. We baked up two chicken breasts.

2. Made the peanut sauce.

3. Chopped the veggies.

4. Plated the salad.

Once it’s all plated together you get this beautiful masterpiece. We have mixed greens, carrots, red bell peppers, onions, cilantro, basil, baked chicken, and PEANUT SAUCE!

Every bite was an OMG bite. That’s how good it was! What really made the dish was the basil and the peanut sauce.

The freshness from the crisp vegetables paired with the slightly salty chicken, fragrant herbs, tangy lime juice, and sweet and slightly spicy peanut sauce…it’s perfection. Seriously this salad is incredible. Please make it soon!

A success in the kitchen with Kalley once again. It probably helped we were wearing matching Boundary Water shirts. 😉

Quick flashback anyone?!

Homecoming Sophomore year of high school. We were just babies. 🙂 I’m so happy we’re still friends after all this time! Love you!

Thai Chicken Salad with AMAZING Peanut Sauce

Print

Ingredients

Chicken:
2 small chicken breasts
sprinkle of garlic powder
squeeze of lime juice
sprinkle of coconut aminos or soy sauce
Peanut Sauce:
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. coconut aminos or soy sauce
1½ Tbsp. lime juice
3 Tbsp. natural creamy peanut butter
3 Tbsp. warm water
1 dot of hot siracha sauce
salt and pepper
Salad:
Mixed dark green lettuce
carrots, cut into slivers
red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch strips
onion, diced
cilantro
basil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a baking pan with aluminum foil and a light spray of olive oil.
Use fork to puncture chicken breasts. Then sprinkle on coconut aminos, lime juice, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bake for 35 minutes and then broil for 5 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare peanut sauce by combining sauce ingredients into a food processor or mini food processor. Process until smooth. Set aside.
Prepare salad by plating chopped lettuce, topping with carrots, red pepper, onions, cilantro, and basil.
Once the chicken is done cooking, cut into bite-sized pieces and place on top of salad.
Drizzle with peanut sauce and a squeeze of fresh lime juice and ENJOY!

Have a fabulous Thursday my friends! I have some excitement headed my way over the next couple of days. Can’t wait to fill you in!

My Beautifully Relaxing Weekend

Post author:Melanie
Post published:September 2, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Family / Lunch / Sweet Treats
Post comments:9 Comments

Although Labor Day weekend isn’t technically over for me yet, I am still going to give you a quick little recap of my wonderfully relaxing weekend so far.

It has involved lots of great food…

Puppies and babies…

Lots of time with family and friends…

Shopping…(no I didn’t buy this dress but after seeing this photo, I kinda wish I would have. It’s cute!)

Walks and some light jogging!

I actually went for a light and slow jog yesterday for about two miles. I cannot even begin to explain how good it felt. I am still needing to take it slow in the name of healing, but my jog was only slightly faster than walking pace so I am still taking it easy. I know better than to push myself at this point in the game.

Now that the weather has cooled off a bit and we are in the 70’s versus the 90’s, it makes outdoor running a lot more enjoyable. I may even get out for a jog this morning again!

I plan to finish off the long weekend with some more shopping. I have a super amazing event coming up so I am shopping for an outfit. More to come on that soon!

Also, I may work on a little bit of food prep. I have big plans for dinner with my lovely lady friend Kalley tomorrow. Get excited!

How was your weekend?! Any good eats I should know about?

Four Bean Quinoa Chili & GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Post author:Melanie
Post published:August 30, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Giveaway / Gluten-Free / Recipes
Post comments:30 Comments

Well, hello there! Happy Friday!

Who wants some of this?

I have LOTS of leftovers around here! This always winds up happening to me…I have the intention of making a small pot of chili, or soup, or anything really, and it turns into a humongo amount. Lucky for me soup freezes well and I have an extra freezer in the garage.

I know some of you out there probably think I’m totally crazy for making chili on a 95+ degree day, but it’s not like I slaved over it in kitchen. I let the crock pot do the majority of the work for me.

Here’s how I did it…

I chopped up the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and lightly sautéed them in a small amount of olive oil on the stove top for 5-7 minutes (more detailed instructions below). I then transferred the veggies to the crock pot along with all other remaining ingredients except the beans. I used canned beans and I didn’t want them to get too soggy and/or mushy by adding them too early.

I actually let this whole concoction sit together overnight only because I knew I wouldn’t have time to throw this together in the morning, but you could most definitely do this all the morning of.

Since I did let this mingle overnight, it allowed for my quinoa to soak for a long time before cooking, which can aid in digestion. Again, this is a step you can skip if you would like.

The next day I gave it all a stir and turned the crock pot on low at 12:00 pm (this is still without the beans and chiles). This mingled in the crock pot for four hours.

Then I added the beans and the chiles (you could add the chiles to the ingredients that were already in the crock pot, I just kind of forgot/got too lazy to open up the can I guess!

Three hours later when we arrived home, I did some final taste testing, added some additional seasoning, and gave it one last stir.

I chopped some cilantro and fresh avocado to top off the chili.

I got’er all served up!

And I devoured.

You can add any other toppings you like—cheese, sour cream, Greek yogurt, green onions, etc!

So pretty, right? Call me crazy but I can eat chili any time of the year no matter how hot it is. Now, if I didn’t have air conditioning, we would be talking a whole different ball game.

Four Bean Quinoa Chili

Print

Serves: 12

Ingredients

1 large onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup quinoa (uncooked)
3 cup chicken broth**
2½ Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp cumin
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ tsp smoky paprika
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle of garlic powder
**you could substitute vegetable stock and make this recipe 100% vegan
sprinkle of onion powder
1-15 oz can black beans
1-15 oz can chili beans
1-15 oz can red kidney beans
1-15 oz can white kidney beans
1-4 oz can of diced green chiles
cilantro (optional topping)
avocado (optional topping)

Instructions

Lightly saute onions, garlic, carrots, and celery on the stove top for 5-7 minutes.
In a large crockpot, add the sautéed vegetables, quinoa, broth, and all spices. Stir, cover, and turn crockpot on low. Let this go for 4 hours.
After 4 hours add in the beans and chiles and stir. Recover and let cook for another 2-3 hours.
Give it one last stir and taste test to make sure seasonings are spot on. Add additional seasonings if desired.
Serve in pretty bowls and top with cilantro and avocado!
Enjoy!

What do you think? Am I crazy for making hot chili on a super hot summer day? Do you ever eat soup in the summer?

*********************

Now, to those of you hanging around to find out if you are the winner of the Dara Torres meet and greet, spin class, and free ear buds, your wait ends here.

The two winners are:

1. Katie @ Daily Cup of Kate

2. Stacy Elling

Congrats you two! I will get an email out to both of you with the details of the event!! Thank you all of you who entered!

HApppppppppyyyy Friday!!