Clean Eating #146: Super Easy Roasted Asparagus w/Sesame Seeds

Super Easy Roasted Asparagus w/Sesame Seeds

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

handful of sesame seeds

Directions:

Coat the asparagus with oil

Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sesame seeds

Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes 

See?  Super easy!  That's all you get today because my hubby is on his way home from work and we have no kids this week!

Enjoy your day!

Clean Eating #146: Salad w/Toasted Spiced Almonds

Salad with Toasted Spiced Almonds

I used to buy those 'flavored' almonds at the store for our salads... but of course those are full of MSG, which we are trying to avoid.  So I grabbed my slivered almonds and thought I'd give it a go.  As you can see, I left them in a bit too long.  It seemed like nothing was happening, then I got distracted for a second and boom, brown almonds.

Oh well, we all loved them anyway.  I LOVE having crunchy things in my salad.

Easy as pie.  Wait, pie isn't even easy.

• Take about a cup of slivered almonds and spread them out on a baking sheet.
• Spray lightly with Olive oil (if you don't like spray oil, you might be able to get the same effect by tossing them in a bag with some oil)
• Sprinkle with seasonings (I used chili powder and garlic pepper)

This was SO easy and so yummy.  My hubby didn't even notice that they were in the salad until he started eating and he asked, "YUM!  Where did you get the almonds?  That is a fantastic flavor combination!)

WINNER!:)

Clean Eating #145: Super Easy Pasta Salad w/Tomatoes & Shaved Parmesan Cheese

 Pasta Salad w/Tomatoes & Shaved Parmesan Cheese

I did it, I finally made some cold pasta salad that I actually enjoyed.

Actually, it was kind of funny because I LOVE pasta.  A LOT.  But I like it HOT, the cold version has always turned me off.  Even this time, I'd take a bite or two and think, "nahhh... no thanks."

10 minutes later I'd be sitting down doing something and think, "Man.  I want another bite of that."  I'd take a bite or two and again decide that I didn't care for it.

By the end of the day, I'd eaten all the leftovers... which amounted to at least two servings:)

I guess I'm getting to that point of being able to get past the fact that pasta "isn't supposed to be cold"

Ingredients:

1 box whole wheat linguine

3 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (to coat, you may want more/less)

McCormick's "Perfect Pasta" seasoning blend to taste

1-2 tomatoes, diced

3/4 cup of cooked lentils

Salt to taste

Directions:

Prepare the pasta to your taste.

Drain and add EVOO, Sesonings, lentils and diced tomatoes.

Top with shaved Parmesan Cheese

Cool in refrigerator for at least one hour.

Serve as a side dish or entree (or just keep picking at it in the fridge all day, but I warn you, you may eat too much that way!:)

Now I want to really experiment with different flavors, beans and veggies in my pasta salads... I'm on a roll!  What are your favorite pasta salad ingredients?

Clean Eating #134: Sweet Onion Balsamic Salad Dressing

Sweet Onion Balsamic Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 medium Vidalia Onion, diced

1/2 tsp Parsley, finely chopped

1/2 tsp Coarsely ground black pepper

a few drops of liquid Stevia to taste

Put all ingredients in a blender (I used my mini IsaBlender with great results) and blend until all ingredients are blended.

Pour over salad.

Keep tightly sealed in the refrigerator.

We eat a LOT of salads during this time of year, so this goes pretty fast.  I've kept it up to a week, but by then its gone.  You may need to leave it at room temperature long enough for the oil to settles a bit and then shake well and serve.

Verdict:  We were out of "store bought" dressing and some of the kids were hesitant to try my dressing (I dont' know why, they always gobble up my hubby's dressing!  They probably thought I put black beans in it:) but once they did, they loved it as much as I did... even the kids who don't care much for onions loved it.  In my opinion, it could use even more onions... I think I may be becoming addicted to onions...

Clean Eating #140: Super Quick & Easy Egg White Veggie Scramble

Super Quick & Easy Egg White Veggie Scramble

Ingredients:

8 Egg Whites

1/2 bunch of Green Onions, chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped thawed and drained spinach

4 small, sweet tomatoes

Direction:

Sautee the vegetables until most of the liquid is gone

Add the Egg Whites

Cover & cook on med to med-low about 10 minutes.

Remove lid and cook, turning as needed (and if you have a nice pan, it will probably even turn out looking pretty, unlike mine) and cook until done.

See?  I told you mine wasn't pretty.  I used a bad BAD pan, apparently.

HOWEVER, it tasted WONDERFUL. 

I had meant to make two servings so my hubby could have some when he came home... but I think I ate all but two bites:)  I love all the flavor!!

Clean Eating #138 & 139: Green Onion Soup

Green Onion Soup

or 

Spinach & Green Onion Soup

Truth time.  Even thought I recently discovered a love for French Onion soup, I didn't think this recipe would please me at ALL.  It seemed too... bland.  Too... green.  I love green.  I love green onions, but I like variety and this seemed like it would just be too... single minded.

I DID end up messing with my original recipe, but even without the additions, I ate a bowl and enjoyed it.  I just needed a bit more flavor.  Yeah, it had plenty of green onion flavor, but I guess I needed more variety of flavor.

Since my pantries are pretty much bare, I had to go with what I could find, namely frozen spinach and extra caramelized onions.  I then pureed them to give a little bit of thickening to the soup without adding any wheat.  I'm cutting out wheat for the next three weeks for a cleanse I'm doing.  I should probably go wheat free, if not gluten free altogether, just knowing how much better I do without it, but I'm just not sure I'm up for that quite yet.

I figure giving up refined foods, additives, artificial sweeteners, and now most meats... I'm doing what I can:)

Anyway, on to the recipe(s):

Green Onion Soup:
2 bunched of green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp Oil (EVOO or coconut oil)
1 small-medium Vidala onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
3 cups vegetable broth/other broth
1 cup water
salt & pepper to taste

Caramelized the Vidalia onions on medium heat with a tablespoon of oil for about 15 minutes
Add pressed garlic & chopped green onions for another 10 minutes
Add broth and water and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot.

Spinach & Green Onion Soup:

2 bunched of green onions, chopped

1 Tbsp Oil (EVOO or coconut oil)

3 medium Vidala onion, finely diced

1 cup of chopped frozen spinach

3 cloves of garlic, pressed

3 cups vegetable broth/other broth

1 1/4 cup water

salt & pepper to taste

Caramelized the Vidalia onions on medium heat with a tablespoon of oil for about 20-25 minutes

*Separate out approximately 2/3rds of the caramelized onions and set aside

Add pressed garlic & chopped green onions for another 10 minutes

Add broth and 1 cup of water and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Take the separated caramelized onions, spinach & 1/4 cup of water and puree thoroughly in the blender

Add puree to your soup and simmer on medium low for another 20 minutes until thickened.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Verdict:  I Liked the first version.  I LIKED it.  It would have been really good as a small SIDE to another, really rich dish, but since I was eating it by itself, it needed more.  If you have a more simple palate and prefer less flavor explosion, this will be your speed.

*The added spinach puree?  Loved it.  I probably should have done without the puree and just added the onions and spinach chopped, but I was curious:)  Plus, I don't much care for really 'broth' liquid soups.  I prefer more substance.  I don't know why.  Something I should probably get over.

Anyway, take your pick!  Those are the recipes for today.  Or right now, anyway.  What is your favorite onion based recipe?

I think the French Onion Soup Tartines are still my favorite!

Clean Eating #130: Potato Garlic Bake

Potato Garlic Bake

Okay, so I know that potatoes aren't the cleanest food to base a dish on, but again, we're broke and potatoes were on sale.  I threw together whatever I could find for a nice side dish to the tuna patties I made.

Ingredients

7 potatoes, chopped

3 heads of garlic

8-10 pearl/stew onions

2-3 fresh kale leaves, freshly chopped

4 oz baby portabello mushrooms, chopped/sliced

1 bunch of green onions, diced

Directions:

Chop the Onions in half & peel

Add to potatoes and lightly drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cut the tops off of the garlic and brush with EVOO

Add some "Extra Spicy" Mrs. Dash

 Add chopped green onions to your pan

Bake at 400 for about 30-40 minutes until potatoes and garlic are cooked through.

This makes an EXCELLENT side dish to have with a nice salad.

Verdict:  As you can imagine, with as much as my husband loves onions and garlic, this dish was a major hit as well.  Really yummy, really filling and CHEAP.  The operative word around here lately... unfortunately.

Clean Eating #129: Onion Stuffed Green Bell Peppers & Other Varieties

Onion Stuffed Green Bell Peppers

Green bell peppers were on sale at our local grocery store for 2 for $1.00.  The guys in the family love green peppers, so I bought a few, thinking I could surely find something to stuff them with.  They were HUGE, too.

Onion Stuffed Pepper 

Ingredients:

Large Green Bell Peppers

Onions

Garlic

Skim Ricotta Cheese (Seasoned with Italian Seasoning, parsley & finely chopped Kale)

Mozerella Cheese

Directions:

Take your onions of choice and either halve them or quarter them.

Stuff the pepper until almost full.

Stuff in some garlic cloves as well

Fill cracks with seasoned Ricotta Cheese

Top with Mozzerella

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, until onions are cooked through

I also made another pepper the same way, but added some marinara sauce in it as well.

I then proceeded to drop it on the floor.  I was careful to make sure it hit several things on the way down.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS:

Resulting in THIS:

Although someone still ate it... it was really REALLY annoying, because it was SOOOO pretty before:(

 Then, my onions didn't cook all the way through before the pepper was nearly burned...

So I recommend cooking the onions for a bit in an oven safe dish first...

Like I had to do AFTER I had already baked it in the pepper.

All in all, this was not my best night.  The peppers were still tasty and got eaten by very appreciative guys, but still.  I hate it when I mess up something and I also hate cleaning, so having to stop in the middle of three activities to clean up a mess that I made out of carelessness did not put me in a chipper mood:(

There!  Happy now???  Its finally DONE!

The next day went much better:)

Clean Eating #128: Crockpot Potato Onion Stew & More Wisdom Teeth Humor

Potato Onion Stew

  We're down to the nitty gritty.  Again.  Very little food in the house and $30.00 to name and a week to payday.  Yikes.  With gas being what it is... yeah, that doesn't say much!

I had a bunch of onions because apparently both my husband and I bought extra thinking we were almost out.  I also had a few potatoes.  Knowing how much my family loves onions, I decided to thaw some of my marinara sauce and make some good old fashioned stew like my mom used to make.

Of course I left out the beef, and had a LOT of onions and various other things in mine:)

Ingredients:
6 small to medium onions, cut into 4ths
4 potatoes, cut into 4ths
 1 1/2 cup diced bell peppers (I had some various types in freezer bags already diced)
4 pearl onions (because I had them leftover from something)
1-2 cups frozen corn
1-2 cups frozen/fresh spinach
1 1/2 cup cooked lentils
1 1/2  cup cooked white beans
3 heads of Roasted Garlic
1 quart of Hearty Vegetable Marinara

Directions
Throw everything into a pot, add some extra vegetable stock if you want more liquid, but I like my stew super thick.

This recipe is kind of like Barney Stinson's "how to run a marathon" comment... Put it on the stove, in the oven or in the crockpot.  Turn it on.  That's it.  I just let mine cook on medium/medium low all day long... delicious stew for dinner!

Non Clean Eating: Wisdom Teeth Removal Comfort Food: Cheesey Potatoes

Okay, sorry I've been out of the loop AGAIN.  I have about 7 recipes, photos and everything ready to blog about, but I forgot to make time to actually BLOG about them, which means I have no posts.

However, yesterday my boys got their wisdom teeth out and I had to make comfort food for them.  

PLEASE watch their HILARIOUS on the way home video:)

Milk shakes and protein shakes are all well and good, but they wanted some "real" food.  Since we're at the end of a paycheck period, I had no extra $$ for getting special things, so I had to make do with what we had on hand.  Thankfully I still had several types of veggies prepped and frozen from earlier this month, so I went with loaded twice baked potatoes.

Ingredients:  (told you it wasn't "clean", but there is still no MSG, HFC or artificial stuff, so we're still good:)

10 pounds of potatoes, washed, but not peeled

2-3 medium onions, diced

3-4 heads of garlic, diced (or you can roast it if you prefer)

1 bunch of green onions, chopped

1 pkg of firm tofu

1 pkg cream cheese

1 16 oz container of light sour cream

2 cups of shredded cheese

2-4 leaves of fresh kale, finely chopped

1 cup fresh spinach leaves, finely chopped

1-2 cups of milk as needed for desired consistency

Assorted diced veggies from your freezer:)

*I used a little bit of green bell pepper, cabbage, celery, red & orange bell pepper)

Sautee all of the vegetables (except the potatoes:)

Boil the potatoes until tender

Mix your sauteed vegetables in a bowl with the cheeses and your choice of seasonings.

I used 1 Tbsp of celery salt, 2 Tbsp of pepper and 2Tbsp of garlic salt

When the potatoes are done, drain and mix in with the cheese/veggie mixture.

Add milk as needed until you reach the desired consistency.

Bake at 400 for about 20-30 minutes.

 Viola!

After baking, you can add some butter and extra garlic salt if you REALLY want to be bad:)

The boys gobbled it up... as did the rest of us.  YUM.  Great, SOFT, filling comfort food.

Clean Eating #123: PIZZA WEEK! Spinach, Zucchini & Red Bell Pepper Pizza w/Feta

Spinach, Zucchini & Red Bell Pepper Pizza

Onto tthe next pizza we had and I apparently forgot to post about.  I have the best intentions sometimes, but I'm obviously not the best at paying attention to things.  Anyway, here is one of the other pizzas we made.  DELICIOUS.

On somewhat precooked crust (I cook it half way first to avoid soggy crust issues)

marinara/pizza sauce

thinly sliced zucchini

baby spinach

thinly sliced red bell peppers

feta cheese

shredded mozzarella

I think this may been my favorite pizza thus far.  It was REALLY full of flavor!!

Want more pizza ideas?

Kale & Sundried Tomato Pizza

Taco Pizza

Crust Ideas

Tomato Mushroom & Caramelized Onions

Personal Pizzas

Clean Eating #125: French Onion Soup Tartines

French Onion Soup Tartines

So the other day I picked up a copy of Vegetarian Times magazine and just flipping through it, I found several recipes that looked just awesome.  I bought the copy that had the feature on onions, since as you may remember from this video, my husband REALLY loves onions.  

One thing he likes even better than onions is crusty bread, so I knew this would be a huge hit.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp EVOO

*You can really use any variety of onions, I used what I had on hand)

5 small stew onions

4 small yellow onions

3 large red onions

4 Tbsp dry white wine

3 cups vegetable broth

1/2 tsp Agave Nectar/honey

1 tsp Thyme

3 sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped

6 large slices of all natural Como Loaf (this wasn't clean, you can use any crusty whole grain loaf to make it clean, but the bread my hubby picked up on his way home was to fulfill his craving:)

Shaved or Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

1. Slice your onions somewhat thickly

2. Heat a skillet with oil and sautee the onions (you can try and keep some of them in their original form, but its really a big old pain in the butt for me, so I didn't bother because I would rather just have them cooked on my plate than thrown against the wall in frustration.  And no, I didn't actually throw any... but I thought about it.)

3. When your husband FINALLY gets home with the dry white wine, and you discover that even the cheapest white wine still has a cork and you have no corkscrew and everyone is STARVING so you tell them to eat some salad while they're waiting only to discover that you're also out of salad dressing... SO after your diligent and creative husband gets the cork out, or rather IN the bottle of wine so you can use it, he mixed up some wickedly awesome salad dressing just in time for everything to be finished and ready to eat anyway... oh yeah, add the 2 Tbsp of wine (Wait.  I waited for an HOUR to add TWO TABLESPOONS OF WINE??  That's it.  I'm doubling the wine.) to your cooked onions and heat until it is mostly evaporated.

Why?  Why would you name your wine this? 

4. At that point, dump in the vegetable broth and anything else you might have forgotten to add and heat it on medium for about 20 minutes, or until you can't stand it any longer.

5. Stick your sliced bread under the broiler for a few minutes until it looks pretty, like this.

Top it with the BEYOND divine French Onion soup you've just made

Top that with some Parmesan Cheese and a touch of salt

Serve with slightly burnt oven fries that SOMEBODY forgot about whilst waiting a year and a day for the white wine to get home and a salad with homemade salad dressing that your very awesome husband made for you on the spur of the moment.  

Speaking of which, IF he remembers what he put in it, I'll post a recipe for that as well because it was really yummy.  I always forget how much I LOVE salads until he makes me dressing.

Speaking of that, when we first met, our first 'date' when we met at age 19 was when he invited me over to his house and made dinner for me.  He made everything from scratch and it was the best meal ever.  Maybe that's why I love his homemade salad dressing so much... the great memories.  Dancing to Billy Joel in the living room... nice home cooked meal by the man who still looks at me with "that" look even after 17 years together... yeah, pretty awesome.

So spill it, what's your "fond memory" food?

I may have to make the chicken dish he used to make for our anniversary next month, if I can find some farm raised chicken to use... and that recipe calls for white wine, too.