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Lemon Chicken Orzo Salad

28 March, 2013 Leave a Comment

You guys, I have no words today. I think it’s some combination of the hours spent working on papers for school and my allergies which have me in a complete fog. The past few days I’ve felt like I had a terrible cold coming on. I was bummed out because I don’t have time to get sick. Then I checked trusty weather.com one day and saw that tree pollen is surprisingly very high right now. Who would have thought with all of the snow we keep getting and freezing temps that tree pollen would be high?…

Anyhow, I started taking my Allegra yesterday and that seems to be helping, but it usually takes a few days for it to fully kick in.

Fact – I’ve never had allergies this bad before moving to Iowa. Last year I didn’t even know what was going on, my eyes were so swollen they were practically swollen shut. Yikes!

Anyhow, back to food.

I made this salad as a light dinner the other night. We had a rotisserie chicken in the fridge that I wanted to use so I combined it with sundried tomatoes, orzo, and lemon for a tasty dish. I love the brightness of the lemon and the zippiness of the sundried tomatoes.

I also love that this meal was on the table in less than 30 minutes. I served it hot, but it was just as good cold, leftover the next day.

I definitely can see making this again and again this spring and summer.

Lemon Chicken Orzo Salad

by Annie S

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Keywords: saute entree salad side

Ingredients

1 c uncooked orzo
1 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
3 T sundried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 zucchini, chopped
10 kalamata olives, roughly chopped
1 c cooked, shredded chicken breast
1/3 c lemon juice
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 t sea salt
1/2 c spinach, chiffonaded
2 T shredded parmesan cheese
2 T fresh parsley

Instructions

Boil water, cook orzo according to package directions

Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat

Add olive oil and garlic, cook 1-2 minutes until garlic is fragrant

Add shallots, sundried tomatoes, zucchini, and olives, cook 5 minutes until zucchini is soft

Stir in shredded chicken

Drain orzo and add to saute pan

Add in lemon juice and dijon mustard, cook 1-2 minutes, stirring until everything is combined

Add spinach and parmesan, cook 30 seconds until spinach is bright green

Remove from heat, garnish with parsley and serve

Filed Under: dinner, lunch, quick, salad, side dish

Cooking Light and a few wise words

20 March, 2013 2 Comments

Last night I sat down to post about my Cooking Light adventures only to find that my blog was down due to an emergency hosting outage. I thought about typing the post on my phone… Then I decided I didn’t want my thumbs to bleed.

So instead I gave myself a manicure, watched Dancing With The Stars and played fetch with Charlie.

PS – isn’t he just a stunner in his new bandana?

All that as an explanation as to why I’m currently typing about dinner last night with my morning cup of coffee in my hand…

This week I’m going to be cooking through a bunch of the recipes from the newest Cooking Light magazine. The whole premise is to be able to get a healthy meal on the table in under 40 minutes. As someone who has been known to rely on frozen pizzas in a pinch [guilty] I was excited for some new fast recipe ideas.

Last night I made grilled chicken with quick green salsa

herbed cornbread muffins

and grapefruit walnut feta salad.

The whole meal took 40 minutes! They were right.

The verdict – it was good!

The tomatillo salsa on the chicken was amazing. If I made it again I would probably pound my chicken thin, and grill it outside on the real grill. I would have liked more salsa with each bite of chicken. I would definitely make it again though.

The salad is wonderful. I didn’t have butter lettuce so I used spinach and it was super tasty. The supremed grapefruit with feta combo was really light and refreshing.

I feel like I can’t fairly rate the cornbread muffins because I didn’t follow the recipe very carefully. I used whole wheat flour instead of regular. I didn’t have buttermilk so I used greek yogurt with milk. And I didn’t have green onions to mix in. The muffins were just okay. They were a little dry and the whole wheat flour overwhelmed the cornmeal flavor [my fault]. I will try to make them again soon, actually following the recipe before I really rate them.

If you don’t get Cooking Light magazine, all of their recipes are available for anyone online.

And here’s a few wise words for your Wednesday. I want to print this and frame it as a reminder in my house. So pretty!

Filed Under: chicken, daily sprinkle, dinner, grilled, man friendly, puppy, quick, salad

Fresh and Tasty Black Bean Quinoa Salad

22 August, 2012 Leave a Comment

School days, school days… Yesterday was my first day of classes for 20th grade for me (if you count kindergarden). That means that I’ve been going to school for 4/5 of my life! Yikes!!!! Fortunately for me, my program and grad school is awesome and I love it. I can’t believe how great school can be if you are studying what you’re interested in. Seriously people! Do what you love. It makes all of the hard work worth it.

So, truth time. When I was little (until high school pretty much) I would get so nervous the night before the first day of school and make myself physically sick. Like throw up sick. I don’t know what I was so nervous about. My first day of school outfit wouldn’t be cool enough? Nobody would like me? I would get lost? Who the heck knows. I still get kind of worked up that big night before, but lucky for me, I haven’t puked in quite some time now.

Alright, enough of that.

Another big part of school starting back up is packing lunches. Now I’m all for taking leftovers if I have them, but some times that just isn’t the case. My solution is making a big batch of grain salad in the beginning of the week and then packing it up for lunches to come. This salad is free of mayo and dairy too, so I don’t have to worry if my lunch box can’t make it into a fridge. You can eat it cold or at room temp. It’s delicious all the same.

The recipe itself is fairly basic and you could easily swap out veggies for what you happen to have in the fridge. But the dressing is delicious! The smoked paprika gives such a good flavor. And mixed with the salty feta. Mmmmm!!!

Happy first day of school to me:)

Question of the day -

— Are you happy that it’s back to school time already?

— How did you handle the first day of school growing up?

— What’s your favorite easy to pack lunch?

Fresh and Tasty Black Bean Quinoa Salad

by Annie S

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Keywords: saute entree salad side whole grain vegetarian

Ingredients (6 servings)

2 cups cooked quinoa
1 large tomato, chopped
1 large yellow pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
corn kernels from 1 cob of corn
1 t + 2 T olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
1 T lemon juice
1/2 t sea salt
1/2 T honey
1 t smoked paprika (optional, but recommended)
2 + 2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T fresh cilantro, minced
2 T crumbled feta

Instructions

Cook quinoa according to package directions (I cooked 1 c dry quinoa in 2 c water to yield 2 c cooked)

Remove from heat and place in fridge

Mix tomato, peppers, cucumbers, and black beans in a large bowl

Heat 1 t olive oil in a skillet over medium heat

Saute 2 cloves minced garlic in oil 30 sec-1 min

Add corn, cook 2-3 minutes until just cooked through

Remove from heat and stir into veggies

Stir in cooled quinoa

Put 2 t olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, honey, salt, 2 cloves minced garlic, and smoked paprika in a small bowl

Whisk with a fork until combined

Pour over salad

Toss carefully, or put a lid on and shake well

Sprinkle with feta and cilantro

Enjoy!

Filed Under: dinner, leftovers, lunch, quick, salad, vegetarian

Salmon Salad and Avocado Toast

5 July, 2012 1 Comment

Happy 5th of July. I hope you all had a great day yesterday full of family, food, and fireworks. And that you are more lucky than me and have today off too! We got the day off of school yesterday but had to be back today and tomorrow. Gosh I wish that the 4th fell on a Monday or Friday (yes I realize we have no control over this )

We spent the day off sleeping in, going for a very hot run, cooking a little bit, playing lawn games, and grilling out with my wonderful friends. The festivities had to get cut short a little bit because we all have class this morning, but it was still a blast!!!!

I found out/confirmed the fact that I’m terrible at ladder ball, but decent at bags. And bocce ball seemed like too much work in the 100 degree blazing sun.

While we were getting ready for friends to come over I threw together a quick salad with some of the leftovers I had from last weekend. I had absolutely no desire to turn on my oven. I wanted something quick and cool. This meal fit the bill.

I flaked up some leftover cooked salmon on top of my salad, and dressed it with a homemade yogurt dressing that had a little zing to it.

I also had half of an avocado that needed to be eaten stat, so I mashed it up with some lemon juice, s+p, and spread it on top of some french bread toast. Yummmmmm!!!

It was a perfect, cool, creamy meal full of healthy fats and protein. I really try to make sure that I eat a decent meal before going to a cookout so I am full and don’t feel the need to graze and stuff my face so much. If I go starving hungry I tend to 1. get angry because I’m so hungry and then 2. pile my plate wayyyyyy too high. This salad prevented that from happening today. And it was delicious too.

Salmon Salad with Avocado Toast

by Annie S

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Keywords: entree salad appetizer

Ingredients

For the salad

Arugala
Cherry tomatoes
Crumbled feta cheese
Green onions
Red bell pepper
Flaked cooked salmon
Fresh corn cut off the cob

For the dressing

1 c fat free plain greek yogurt
1 T dijon mustard
2 t lemon juice
1/2 t seasoned salt
1/2 t dried dill

For the avocado toast

1/2 avocado
1/2 t sea salt
pinch black pepper
1 t lemon juice

Instructions

For the salad

Mix all salad dressing ingredients together in a small bowl

Pour on top of salad

Enjoy!

For the avocado toast

Mash avocado, salt, pepper, and lemon juice in a bowl

Spread on top of french bread toast

Filed Under: leftovers, lunch, quick, salad

Lemon Chicken Orzo Salad

Cooking Light and a few wise words

Fresh and Tasty Black Bean Quinoa Salad

Salmon Salad and Avocado Toast

Annie Lately

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