Food Lovin' Friday- Rainbow Pasta Salad

What's your favorite summer food?  Barbecue chicken?  Corn on the Cob?  I love pretty much every single thing about summer, especially the food selection.  My all-time favorite summer food that I could eat every day at every meal is a fresh pasta salad.  I have been working on mine for a few summers now, and the other night I think I did it.  I made the PERFECT pasta salad.  And now you can too! 

Here's what you'll need:

Cooked pasta (I chose Rainbow Rotini)

Broccoli Crowns

Tomatoes

Red Onion

Fresh Mozzarella

A bell pepper (I had an orange one on hand, but any color will get the job done)

Whatever other veggies you'd like to use (I had some corn, so I threw that in)

Italian Dressing (I actually used Parmesan Italian)

Chop it all up:



I love taking blurry pictures.  But get past that,
and admire the colors. Your salad is
going to look DIVINE.





Fact:  I am trying to stay away from dairy.
Fact:  I LOVE fresh mozzarella.

Add the cheese last.

In fact, I love it so much that I needed to take two pictures.



Throw it all in a big bowl, mix it all together and top it off with the dressing.  Do yourself two favors here. One- don't drown those gorgeous fresh vegetables, and two- don't use fat-free or reduced fat dressing.  It has a lot of chemicals that are just weird.

Almost done...

TA-DA!  How good does that look?!?!

Have you ever eaten something and immediately started looking forward to the next meal so you could eat it again?  Um, yeah.  That's the effect this pasta salad has on me. I kind of couldn't stop thinking about it.

I served it with some Italian Sausage (another summer favorite).  Mine was spicy turkey. 
The grill wasn't loaded up with new propane yet, so I had to make do with the ol' stove top.  It worked out.

So this picture totally reminded me of how I don't want to look in my bathing suit this summer.  And then I was reminded that I needed to hit the gym. 

This is what happened:

Friday- nothing.  I ate 12 pounds of pasta salad and my clothes began to resemble sausage casing.

Saturday- 2 miles on the treadmill and free weights.  A majorly needed sweat session. 

Sunday- Nothing.  Wow, I'm lazy.  Well, in my defense, the hubs was golfing so I couldn't go to the gym. The boys and I took a walk that probably burned about 12 calories. 

Monday- Power Body night!!  Awesome!! 

I'm really looking forward to a great week, and I hope you are too.  I've got some good posts planned, too, so make sure you check back in with me.  And hey- I'd really love it if you left a comment once in a while. Cuz at this point, I have pretty much no idea if anyone even reads this thing...

Have a healthy day,

J



Food Lovin' Friday- Chop Salad For The Win

(Yes, I know, it's a couple of days late.  But it's here, and it's better than ever.)

 There's a little restaurant down the street from where I work, and I've recently become slightly obsessed.  How I only visited the place for the first time a couple of weeks ago is beyond me.  I'm so happy that it's now a part of my life.  It's a wonderful little salad haven.  You stand in line and can order LITERALLY any kind of salad imaginable.  There are about 5 kinds of lettuce to choose from and a million different toppings.  And then comes the most beautiful part- they dump all of your fresh healthiness out on to the counter, put the dressing right on top,  and use a giant rounded knife thing with two handles to chop it all up togther.  The result is A-MAZING. 

Go here for lunch.  You won't be sad.

So me, being the cheap financially intelligent person I am, have since become addicted to making my own versions of these delectable delights at home.  Of course, they are never *quite* the same (why is that?), but they are still good, fresh, and healthy.  Here is my version of the chop salad:


Step 1:  Chop up as many vegetables as you'd like, as small as you possibly can.  Make sure you start with lettuce.  I cut it in to thin strips, then cut those in half or thirds.  Basically, I just go crazy with the knife for a while... imagining I'm hosting my own show on the Food Network, obviously. 

Step 2:  Load it all in to a big bowl.  Add some smaller, non-chopable things on top for some added nutrients.  Think: black beans, chick peas, corn, etc. Oh wait, corn has no nutritional value.  That's ok, you can still add it in if you'd like.  It acts as a very nice splash of color.  And you want your salad to double as a fashion statement, right?

Step 3:  Add some of your favorite dressing, and WAKE up those tastebuds!  And there you have it... a gorgeous chop salad.  Bon Appetit! 

Have a healthy day,

J

PS- Hey salad lovers: leave me a comment and tell me what you put in your salads.  Not only am I  always looking for new combo ideas, but it is Farmer's Market season, and I would love some inspiration! 

Food Lovin' Friday: The Best Lentils EVER

And now... for my second installment of Food Lovin' Friday... I present to you a recipe for the Best Lentils EVER!!!  Get excited, friends.  This is  a good one.  And I made it up by myself.  I'm so culinary.   (Is "culinary" an appropriate adjective in this context?  I don't really think so, but it's happening.)

Step 1: Chop up some celery, onions, and carrots. Try to get all Food Network Star with it, but don't chop off your fingers. That would put a damper on things.



I love this knife. My mom got it for me for Christmas, and it literally cuts ANYTHING. Thanks, Mom.

Step 2: Add the vegetables to a pot with a little olive oil and garlic.  Saute it all for a few minutes, then add the lentils. (Make sure you wash them first). 



Your kitchen is going to smell so good at this point...

Step 3:  Add some chicken broth, and increase the temperature. As the broth heats up, the lentils will soak most of it up. ( If you want this to be more of a soup, you can add either a second can of broth, or some water flavored with chicken boullion.) 

If you're thinking about getting me a Christmas present, I could really use an electric can opener.  This one is kinda awful.

Step 4:  Let the flavors all get to know one another for a while.  Stir them all together once in a while.  You can add some salt and pepper at this point. You'll know their done when the lentils are nice and soft.  They are ready to eat at this point, nice and hot.  I like to sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Trust me, these are as good as they look.

Yes, this dish is hearty enough to eat as a stand alone meal. Easy, healthy, and SO good!  Even my 4-year-old loves them.  And he eats practically nothing.  That, in my book, is a WIN! 

Have a healthy day,

J

Oh, PS- if you like it then you better put a Pin on it... (please and thank you)



Food Lovin' Friday- Vegetarian Stir Fry

Hi! Happy Weekend!  Two things:  1)This week really flew by, didn't it?  (Not that I'm sad about that.  I hope the next 8 go by equally as quickly) and 2) I kinda suck at blogging.  I mean, I love it and all, but I get so sidetracked during the course of any given day and by the time I'm about to get in the shower and crawl into pjs I realize that, "yikes! I totally forgot to post today!" So for that I am sorry.  I'll try to do better.

So anywho (I really hate that fake word.  I hereby promise to never use it again), let's kick the weekend off with another fantastic recipe.  I really love that a bunch of people both here and on Pinterest seemed to like my Farmer's Market Pasta, so I will start sharing some other random creations more regularly.   In fact, I think I'll start doing it on Fridays.  Yes.  From here on out, tune in on Fridays for a healthy dinner you can easily recreate for yourself or your family.  Happy Birthday to  Food Lovin' Fridays!!! 

This week, I made a pretty amazing stir-fry.  And here it is in 5 pictures or less.  It's SOOOO easy.  I mean, seriously easy.  Make it this weekend for yourself.  And then share this post with everyone you know so they can enjoy some healthy deliciousness as well. 

Oooohhh... stir-fried non-chicken and vegetables. 
Lookin' good!

If you're not in love with soy "chick'n", you can use
steak or chicken. I for one, LOVED this though.

Here's the steak version for the Hubs. This
picture isn't blurry.  It's just hot and steamy.

This is the sauce I used. Aww, you don't have
a Wegmans near you?  I'm sorry.  You can
use another kind. I'm sure it'll still be good.

For those of you who enjoy a list of ingredients instead of a group of random pictures, this is what went in to my stir-fry:

Chopped up mixed vegetables (I used a package of frozen stir-fry veggies: broccoli, water chestnuts, baby corn and carrots)

some sort of protein (lean steak, tofu, chicken...)

Stir-Fry sauce

White Rice or Lo-Mein noodles

It's super easy:  Just heat a little bit of oil in a large skillet and heat everything up.  Make sure you stir it frequently.  Add the sauce and reduce the heat.  Serve over rice or noodles immediately. 

Question: What do you like to put in your stir-fry?

Have a healthy day,

J