Tag Archives: low calorie meals

White Bean and Kale Soup

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Kale and White Bean Soup

Kale and White Bean Soup

 

I feel like I haven’t shared enough vegetarian recipes with you guys, at least not as a full meal. My daughter is just beginning to appreciate veggies the way my husband and I do…thank God, I was beginning to worry she would be one of those kids who would refuse everything green. But somehow, and by the grace of god she has taken to eating veggies. While I was making this she kept reaching up to steal pieces of carrots! It made my heart leap with every bite she took! She loves this soup, and I love that she loves it, because it’s nothing but veggies!

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Prep time: 10-15 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Total time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 bushel of organic kale, sliced thinly

1 cup of shallots, chopped

1 cup of carrots, cubed

1 cup of celery, cubed

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

3/4 cup of white wine Sauvignon Blanc

4 cups of vegetable stock

1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon of thyme

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons of olive oil

15 oz can of Organic white beans, drained and rinsed

Directions: Heat the oil on medium heat, add garlic, shallots, celery, and carrots, cook until tender,

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add in thyme and kale, sauté for 5 minutes.

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Add in the wine, vegetable stock and beans, bring to a boil and cook until greens are tender about 15 minutes. Add in lemon juice,  adjust the seasoning with sea salt and black pepper, serve and enjoy!

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Charbroiled Sardines with parsley and thyme

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Charbroiled Sardines with Parsley and Thyme

Charbroiled Sardines with Parsley and Thyme

 

It’s not often here that I can walk up to my local Whole Foods Market fish counter and get fresh sardines. So when the opportunity to do so  occurred, I jumped at it.  I am a huge fan of small sustainable fish, like sardines, and smelt.  I’ll even go out on a limb and say that I like smelt fish more than sardines, but smelt fish are even harder to come by than fresh sardines.  If you’ve never made fresh sardines before, then you have been missing out! They’re so easy to make, and so delicious!

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Prep Time: 7 minutes

Cook Time: 7-10 minutes

1 pound of fresh Sardines split down the middle

1/2 cup of parsley

1/4 cup thyme

1 clove of garlic

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Sea salt and Black pepper to taste

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 400F.  Line a bake sheet with parchment or foil. Pulse all the ingredients with the exception of the sardines in a small blender or processor. You can skip the processor and opt to chop all the herbs finely and then mix with the oil and lemon. Place the sardines on the lined bake sheet, add the herb mixture to the inside of each sardine. Season with sea salt and black pepper then place in the oven and cook for 7-10 minutes, or until sardines are cooked through and have charred on top a bit. Remove from the oven, serve and enjoy!

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Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pesto

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Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pesto

Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pes

I make roast chicken a lot for my family. Mainly because it’s easy, and I know everyone will enjoy it. However, because I make it so often, I am always trying to come up with ways to make it differently, ways in which I can add flavor, this pesto does exactly that. It adds a ton of flavor, but requires minimal extra work. You throw all the ingredients in the blender or a food processor, push a button and it’s done! Leftover, pesto, if you have any, can be spread on bread as the condiment to leftover chicken salad sandwiches…talk about yum! If you don’t want to roast an entire chicken, you can scale this down and use just 2 chicken breasts, it doesn’t matter. I find that buying a whole organic chicken is often less expensive than buying just 2 organic chicken breasts. So I always prefer to save money and buy the whole chicken. I reinvent the leftover chicken into tacos, salad, soup or tostadas.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Total time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:
1 whole Organic Nongmo Air-chilled Chicken
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 Tablespoons of Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Ingredients for Cilantro Pesto:
2 cups of cilantro
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of toasted hazelnuts
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 425F. Season the chicken generously with sea salt and black pepper, then rub it with the garlic and oil. Line a baking dish with foil, place the chicken on it and place it in the oven and cook for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Meanwhile, place all the ingredients for the pesto in a blender or processor, and blend until smooth. Serve the pesto however you’d like, I smear it on the chicken, with an additional spoonful or two, so that I can dip as I go. It’s so delicious!!!! If you haven’t read my blog on How to roast Chicken, Steps to making the perfect roast chicken now would be a great time. My recipe for Roast Chicken with Lemon and Garlic works the pesto as well.

Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pesto

Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pesto

Za’atar Spiced Chicken

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Za'atar Spiced Chicken

Za’atar Spiced Chicken

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile now, then you know that I’m enamored with Mediterranean spices, and food. One of my favorite things to have when I go out for dinner at a middle eastern restaurant is a naan bread with za’atar spices on it. What’s not to like? Piping hot crispy bread with a tangy spice, and hot olive oil…yum! I’m drooling at just the thought, it’s just so yummy. If you’re not familiar with za’atar you’ve been missing out. It’s simply a mixture of thyme, sesame seeds, marjoram, cumin, and sumac. With the exception of the sumac, you probably have all the ingredients to make it in your cabinet right now. You can’t make this without the sumac though, it’s tart and tangy flavor would be missed. The herbaceous smell of this spice is reason enough to use it. It pairs well with many meats, not just chicken, but on chicken it is amazing. I will share my recipe for my own homemade za’atar spice in a future blog, but for this, a store bought version will do. I got a packaged za’atar spice blend at Whole Foods in the spice aisle. While it’s not as good as my homemade version, it’s very close.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of za’atar spice
Juice of half a large lemon
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic grated
5-6 (1lb) boneless skinless chicken thighs
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 425F. Mix the za’atar, lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil together in a medium bowl. Season the chicken with sea salt and black pepper, then toss in the bowl with the marinade and mix well. Line a baking sheet with foil, then add the chicken, and place in the oven, for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Remove from the oven, serve and enjoy!

Grilled Greek Chicken Salad

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Grilled Greek Chicken Salad

Grilled Greek Chicken Salad

One my favorite salads, besides Caesar salad is Greek salad. I could eat one every day, and when I was pregnant I did. While most pregnant women crave chocolate or some other weird concoction of things, I craved the crisp freshness of salad. I loved romaine lettuce with an almost unhealthy passion. It’s crunchy and crisp texture was comforting to me, paired with the tanginess of my favorite Feta cheese, I was in heaven. I often made Greek salad for dinner when I was pregnant, because it was soothing to my unending nausea. I would eat it without chicken, because meat just wasn’t my friend when I was pregnant. However, my husband needed something more substantial so I would grill chicken for him, and add it to the salad, which made it a satisfying meal for us both. Now that I don’t have a meat aversion, this Greek salad with grilled chicken is one of my favorite meals. It’s light, but filling, and oh so satisfying.

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Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
4 cups of organic romaine lettuce, chopped and washed
1/2 cup of organic cherrie tomatoes
1/2 cup of Feta cheese, crumbled or cubed
1/2 cup of kalmata olives
1/2 cup of organic Persian cucumbers cubed
1/4 cup of sliced bell pepper
4 organic boneless skinless chicken thighs, or 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Marinade for chicken
1 teaspoon of thyme
1/3 cup of lemon juice
1 tablespoons of olive oil
1 medium clove of garlic grated
2 Tablespoons of organic full fat Greek yogurt
Sea salt to taste

Ingredients for Salad dressing:
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic minced
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Mix the ingredients for the chicken marinade in a small bowl, then pour it over both sides of the chicken. Meanwhile preheat your grill pan, over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, it should be nice and hot–smoking before your chicken goes on, so that you get nice grill marks. Place your chicken on the grill and cook without turning on one side for 5 minutes, then flip it on the other side for an additional 7-10 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan and let it rest while you assemble the ingredients for the salad.

Place all of the ingredients for the salad dressing in a mason jar, seal it and give it a good shake. If you don’t have a mason jar, just put the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together.

Place all the ingredients for the salad, save for the resting grilled chicken, in a bowl and toss well. Assemble the salad on plates and top with the chicken, I slice the chicken just before adding it to the salad. Drizzle a few tablespoons the salad dressing over each plate and enjoy!

Wine Braised Kale

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Wine Braised Kale

Braised Kale

Thank goodness that the Holidays are over. I feel like I’ve been on a fast moving train for the last 2 months! I don’t know about you, but I love being home and settled into my routine. The Holidays always take me out of routine.  It’s nice to get out of routine, but it’s heaven to get back into routine also. While I’ve been away from you, I’ve been indulging in comfort foods, like stews in wine sauces! I love adding wine to sauces and stews. A wine sauce always makes me want to lick the plate clean! This recipe for Kale is so extremely yummy that if you’re not a Kale lover, you may just become a kale lover overnight! Kale gets a bad rap, I think it’s because most people don’t know how to cook it. People always pull me aside in the grocery store and ask me how I cook it. They whisper the question as if my responding answer will contain the secrets of the earth! Maybe for them it does. If you are not eating kale because you haven’t a clue how to make it, I hope that this recipe changes that!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10-12 minutes

Ingredients:

1 bunch of Lancinto Kale washed and chopped finely

1/4 cup of shallots or brown onion finely chopped

1/4 cup or more of a good white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)

1 large clove of garlic sliced thinly

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil

Directions:

Heat olive oil add garlic and shallots and  cook until you can smell the garlic, (20 seconds), add in kale, and sauté until wilted. Add in white wine, sea salt, and pepper, bring to a simmer and lower the heat. Cook covered for 5-7 minutes. It’s done when Kale is tender.