Sweet and sour beet salad

So I decided to kick off a detox-ish diet for the week to help counteract the eating/drinking debauchery from spending the weekend in Anchorage. This salad will definitely help move things along if you know what I mean. The picture isn't amazing but you get the idea.

2 Large beets, cubed

2 large navel oranges cubed

1/2 white or yellow onion thin sliced

1 cup rough chop cilantro

white or apple cider vinegar

honey

cumin

salt

pepper

Place cubed beets in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, cumin. Roast in a 400 degree oven 15-20 min. While beets are cooking, Put your onions in a mixing bowl and cover with vinegar (about 1/2-2/3 cup). Drizzle about 2 T honey and throw in cilantro and mix together. Add cubed oranges. Once beets have cooled add to the mixture. Refirgerate for at least an hour. Taste the salad and add seasoning to taste. Enjoy!

MY FAVORITE SALAD EVER

After I first made this salad, I seriously ate it for a week straight! It is so delicious and refreshing and healthy.

You will need:

1/2 avocado

1/2 green pear (if you're not a fan of pears you could sub green grapes)

1/2 fennel bulb

1/3 english cucumber

1/4 orange bell pepper

lemon

orange

olive oil

sea salt

pepper

chevre (goat cheese)

A handfull of raw shrimp (peeled and deveined)

Reduced Fat Italian dressing

Put your raw shrimp in a container and cover with the Italian dressing and place in the fridge. Marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.

For your salad, slice your fennel, pear and cucumber fairly thin and cube your avocado and bell pepper into about 1/4 inch pieces. A medium ripe avocado works best for this recipe, you don't want one that's too mushy. Squeeze in the juice of 1/3 of a lemon and 1/3 of and orange and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Toss and place in the fridge while you cook shrimp.

Drain excess dressing off shrimp and pan saute over medium heat. They cook fast so watch them to turn pink and get em on the plate. Serve your salad right next to the shrimp and drop some chunks of chevre on top and I dare you not to lick the plate and wish you had made a plate 5 times this side with the salad piled to the ceiling! Seriously I will eat this until I am on the floor groaning, wishing I had never invented it!

Beet and carrot Puree with Carmelized scallops and haricot vert

Soooo since I eliminated starchy carbs I've been having uber-cravings for mashed potatoes. So I faked it with beets and carrots instead! Not too shabby.

For this you will need:

1 raw beet

handful of baby carrots

greek yogurt

I Can't Believe It's not Butter Spray

garlic

salt

pepper

blanched handful of haricot vert (or green beans)

3-4 large scallops

fresh thyme

olive oil

balsamic glaze (you can buy it in a bottle or reduce it yourself)

Rinse and dry the scallops, season with salt, pepper and thyme and set aside.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and drop in cubed beets and sliced baby carrots. You want the chunks to be about the same size. Boil until fork tender (about 10-15 min). Strain and set in a food processor.

Meanwhile heat a saute pan to medium high heat, add olive oil and drop in your scallops and green beans.

While scallops and beans are cooking, add a tablespoon of greek yogurt, a teaspoon of I Can't Believe it's not butter, fresh garlic and some pepper. Process till pureed.

Flip scallops over and stir beans. When it's all done, plate and drizzle with balsamic glaze. Voila, carbo craving supressed!

I love lamb! It is absolutely delicious and you'd better be in a primal mood to eat lamb chops; you really have to gnaw on the bone if you want to get every morself of delicious baby lamb meat, grrr.

I've been cooking for myself lately, as my husband is on some odd weight lifting diet that requires him to eat nothing but oatmeal, cottage cheese, black beans and steak, blech. Anyway, this recipe, and most others I post, will feed one.

You will need:2 lamb chops (or 3, how hungry are you?)

1 fresh beet

handfull of haricot vert (or fresh green beans)

Lemon juice

olive oil

White balsamic vinegar

feta (I use fat free, it's pretty delicious)

cumin

hungarian paprika

garlic powder

salt pepper

Start out with a tablespoon of cumin, salt and paprika, about a half tablespoon of garlic powder and pepper. Rub about half of the mixture all over your lamb chops and set aside. Take the other half and mix with a squeeze of lemon, a splash of vinegar and some olive oil and set aside.

Peel your beet and cube into 1/2 inch pieces. Drop in salted boiling water and boil until fork tender (8 min or so). When the beets are almost done, drop in your beans for a minute or two. Strain the beets and beans and toss in a bowl with reserved dressing, and put it in the fridge.

Grill your lamb chops. When lamb is done, pull your salad out of the fridge and plate with your chops. Sprinkle with crumbled feta and enjoy!

Carribean Chicken Salad

Part of my inspiration for this salad is Briannas poppyseed dressing! It is so delicious on fruit, but loaded with fat, like 18 grams a serving. If you're not watching fat, feel free to use that instead of making your own dressing but my version of the dressing is fat free!

For this recipe you will need:

Salad:

Arugula

Papaya (or you could use mango)

Banana

Red onion

Chicken

Dressing:

Vanilla greek yogurt

Pineapple juice

Agave nectar (or honey)

Poppyseeds

For the salad, season Chicken breast and a couple slices of red onion with salt and pepper and grill. I use the George Foreman cause it's fast.

While the chicken is cooking, place arugula, cubed papaya and banana slices on a plate. For the dressing, put yogurt (about 8 oz container), couple tablespoons of pineapple juice, and a squirt of agave in a blender and blend. Taste and add more of whatever you want. Pour into a container (I save glass jars for dressing containers because they seal well) and add some poppyseeds.

Slice the chicken breast and onion and add to the salad, top it off with dressing.

Welcome!

So I don't facy myself a kitchen wonder, but my friends do! I love to cook and even more, I love to eat. Friends and family are always asking for my recipes so I'm going to put them all in one spot. I'm usually on some kind of health kick so most of the recipes will be lo fat, lo carb or lo cal; that doesn't mean I don't like to splurge sometimes. Admittedly, my recipes are quite vague. I believe everyone has their own specific tastes, and recipes are more of a guideline (unless you're baking). I like to look at other recipes and get inspiration, but everything I put on this blog will by 100% my creation, and I hope you can take some of them and make them into your own creations. Cooking is therapuetic and healthy and fun. Nothin' like a night of cooking, eating and drinking wine with some girlfriends. If you have questions, ask, if you have suggestions, give em!