Farm Salad

From: Zinburger Restaurant

*Our family ate out the other night at Zinburger.  We ordered this salad and loved it.  My daughter found the recipe online.  It takes work chopping up the ingredients, but it is worth it!

Ingredients:
Spring mix (finely chopped, portioned 1ounce each) 1 each (I bought the spring mix in a bag at Trader joe's and used half of the bag)
Cooked Red quinoa 1/3 cup
Garbanzo beans (rinsed and drained) 1/3 cup (I added double this amount)
red radish (diced small) 1/4 cup
carrots (peeled and diced small) 1/4 cup
cucumber (peeled, seeded, and diced small) 1/4 cup
tomatoes (seeded, diced small) 1/4 cup
green cabbage (diced small) 2-3 ounces (I bought the grated cabbage in a bag at Trader Joe's.  I just used half the bag)
Avocado (diced small) 1/2 avocado (I used the whole thing)
chives (minced) 1 tsp (Since I had to buy a container of fresh chives, I used about triple this amount)
champagne vinaigrette 2 ounces
kosher salt 2 pinch
ground black pepper 2 pinch

Dressing:

Champagne Vinegar 32 oz
Granulated Sugar 11 oz
Blended Oil 64 oz
Honey 7 oz
Dijon 7 oz
Kosher Salt 2.5 oz
Fresh Ground Pepper .5 tsp

Blend ingredients together.

Toss all the ingredients together for the salad and then toss with the dressing.  If you aren't eating all the salad that night, only toss what you are eating.  The salad stays good for the next day if you leave off the dressing

Quinoa Wilted Spinach Salad

By: Taste of Home

*This is a great salad!  I served it as a side dish and everyone loved it.  My daughter is taking the left overs to school tomorrow so that is always a good sign that it is a hit!  I did make some changes....I do that a lot! :)

Ingredients:
-2 cups water
-1 cup quinoa
-1 package (6ounces) fresh baby spinach, torn (I used about 18 ounces since I love spinach.  I chopped
  it into small pieces)
-1/2 cup dried cranberries

Dressing Ingredients:
-3 tbsp olive oil
-2 tbsp orange juice
-1 tbsp maple syrup
-1 tbsp red wine vinegar
-1 garlic clove minced
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/8 tsp pepper
-1 green onion finely chopped (we love green onions so I used the entire bunch)
-1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted (I used 1 cup and I bought unsalted dry toasted pecan pieces at Trader
  Joe's so that saved me time)

Directions:

-In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil.  Add quinoa.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 12-15 min until water is absorbed.  Remove from the heat; fluff with a fork.

-In a large bowl, combine the warm quinoa, spinach and cranberries.  Stir until the spinach wilts.  For dressing, in a small bowl, whisk the oil, orange juice, vinegar, maple syrup, garlic, salt and pepper.  Stir in onion.  Pour over quinoa mixture; toss to coat.  Sprinkle with pecans.

Israeli Couscous with pine nuts and parsley

**This is a DELICIOUS side dish!  I thought it sounded weird since it had a cinnamon stick in it, but it was great!  The whole family loved it.  It made enough to serve a hungry family of 5!  I used the pearl couscous (you can buy it for less at Trader Joe's).

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp butter, divided (I didn't use butter since I don't eat butter...I substituted olive oil instead)
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup shallots, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups Israeli couscous
1/2 large cinnamon stick
1 fresh or dried bay leaf (I used dry)
1 3/4 cups chicken broth (I used vegetable broth since I don't eat meat)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup parsley, minced
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup raisins, optional (I used golden raisins from Trader Joe's.  I loved the raisins in it!)
black pepper, to taste

Melt 1 tbsp butter in a large saucepan (I used no butter/oil. I dry toasted them) over medium-low heat.  Add pine nuts and stir until golden brown.  Transfer to a small bowl.

Melt remaining 2 tbsp butter (I used 1 tsp olive oil) in the same pan over medium heat.  Add shallots and sauté until golden.  Add couscous, cinnamon and bay leaf, and stir often until couscous browns slightly.  Add broth and salt and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until liquid
is absorbed and couscous is tender.  Remove from heat and stir in parsley, pine nuts and lemon zest.  Add the raisins and season with black pepper.

Grilled Veggie Shish Kabobs

From: Food.com

This is an easy and delicious marinade for veggies!  My whole family loved it!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup light soy sauce
3/4 cup olive oil (I used less since I try to avoid oils)
1/8 cup worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp dry mustard
2 tsp salt
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp ground pepper
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup pineapple juice

Veggies:
12 cherry tomatoes
12 slices Japanese eggplants
12 mushrooms
12 small onions
2 yellow peppers, cut in 1" squares
12 slices yellow squash
12 slices zucchini
12 fresh pineapple chunks

Directions:
1. Marinade:  Blend all ingredients together in blender for 1/2 minute
2. Pour marinade in ziploc bag with all ingredients and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or overnight)
3. Arrange veggies on skewers, grill on medium high heat turning a brushing with marinade until done

**This made at 5 skewers but only 1 was left by the time I took the picture!  

Lentil & Sweet Potato Stew

From: Clean Eating Magazine  By; Emily Christopher

**This was a hit with the WHOLE family!  I love when I make a dish everyone likes.  I did add two ingredients to it that weren't on the recipe (those are in blue at the bottom of the recipe).  This feeds at least 8.  It will make for good left overs!

Ingredients:

-2 tsp olive oil

-1 yellow onion, diced

-1 celery stalk, diced

-1 carrot, peeled and finely diced

-2 cloves garlic, minced

-pinch of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

-2 cups dry green lentils, picked over

-1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed

-1 bay leaf

-4 cups low sodium vegetable broth

-2 plum tomatos, seeded and diced

-1/4 cup chopped fresh italian parsley

Ingredients I added:

-fresh organic spinach

-acini de pepe pasta (cooked according to package)

Instructions:

In a large pot, heat oil on medium.  Add onion, celery, carrot and garlic and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3-4 minutes.  Add salt, pepper, lentils, potato, bay leaf, broth and 2 cups of water; stir to combine.  I added an extra cup of vegetable broth to thin it down a bit.  Bring to a simmer and cook until lentils and potatoes are tender, 15-20 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in tomatoes and parsley.  Remove bay leaf.  When I served this I placed a handful of fresh spinach in the bottom of a bowl.  Then I added a 1/2 cup of pasta.  Then, I put the stew ingredients on top.  I stirred it all together and added a bit more salt to taste.  The spinach and pasta really added a lot to the recipe.  

Garlic Roasted Chickpeas

From:  Clean Eating Magazine Jan/Feb 2013

*As a mom of 3 teenage kids, I'm always looking for healthy snacks.  All 3 of my kids loved this!  I was so excited...I will make this easy recipe again.  The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese, but I deleted it since I don't eat dairy and am trying to limit my kids dairy intake.  

Ingredients:
2- 15 1/2 oz cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans).  I buy organic.  Drain and rinse well.
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic (I did 2 because we love garlic)
1/2 tsp sea salt (I will use 3/4 tsp next time...I think they needed a touch more salt)
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions:
-Spread chickpeas on several layers of paper towel and let dry for 30 min

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a medium bowl, combine oil, garlic, salt and pepper.  Add chickpeas    and toss to coat.  (If you are using cheese, add the cheese into the bowl as well)

-Spread on a baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes until golden and crispy.

*This is a great snack for a road trip, seeing a movie, after a workout, or any other time when you need a healthy snack!

Breaded eggplant

This was my first attempt at eggplant.  I loved it and so did my husband and kids!  I will definitely make it again.  I followed the directions but ended up turning the oven up higher and cooking longer to get it nice and crispy.  It tasted liked it has been cooked it oil but it was much healthier being baked. j

Ingredients:
2 large eggplants
1 10 ounce bag organic bread crumbs (I couldn't find these so I used italian bread crumbs)
2 cups Bob's Red mill Organic whole Wheat Pastry Flour
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 cups organic soy milk (I used plain almond milk since I didn't have soy milk)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (I cooked mine on 475 because I couldn't get it crispy at 400).  Put parchment paper over a pizza stone or cookie sheet (they recommend a pizza stone).  You can peel the eggplant before you cut it if you prefer.  (I washed mine with vegetable wash and left the skin on-it tasted great).  Cut it into 1/2 inch rounds.

Get 3 wide shallow bowls.  In one bowl whisk the milk and dijon mustard.  In the second bowl, put the flour and in the 3rd bowl, put the bread crumbs.

First, flour the eggplant.  Then, dip it in the milk mixture coating both sides.  Lastly, put in the bread crumbs and coat both sides.  Place on the parchment paper and spray generously with olive oil.  Turn each slice over and spray other side.

It says to bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  I baked 10 minutes then flipped each piece over and baked another 8-10 min depending on when they got lightly brown.  You want them crispy..not mushy.

**I cooked whole grain pasta and put 2-3 slices of eggplant on top of the noodles and topped with my homemade marinara sauce (recipe on blog)

**This recipe made a ton!  Next time I will only make half this amount because I didn't like the leftovers.  They did not reheat well.