Tag Archives: spinach

Ham and Leek “Empanadas”

18 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Easy, Main Dish, Sandwiches, Weeknight Meals

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Ham and Leek Empanadas

Empanadas fall into one of the best categories in the universe : Carbs stuffed with deliciousness. Usually cheese, meat, and whatever else your hungry little heart desires.

A few years ago when I visited Annica in Argentina, we ate a lot of Empanadas. Some were filled with steak, peppers, and cheese…others with cheese and green olives, ham and pineapple, beef and raisins…there were a lot of great combos.  Continue reading →

Spicy Black Bean & Quinoa Salad with Mole Vinaigrette

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Easy, Healthy, Meatless Monday, Salad, Side Dish, Vegetarian, Weeknight Meals

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Black Bean Quinoa Salad

 

We threw this together on a whim last night for dinner. It came together super easy and quick. It’s super healthy and flavorful. It’s totally portable and I’m probably going to bring it to work for lunch everyday. What more could you ask for, really?!?

To top it off, this salad is VEGAN!!! I was a tad skeptical of the “mole” vinaigrette, I don’t usually go for the mole dishes because I like to eat my chocolate AFTER dinner, thank you very much. But overall, the cocoa undertones are subtle and the chipotle gives it a nice spicy kick. This is not your everyday salad, although you may find yourself wishing you could eat it on a daily basis…

Recipe
Spicy Black Bean & Quinoa Salad with Mole Vinaigrette
adapted from Cooking Light
makes about 6 servings

Ingredients

For the Dressing:

  • 1 teaspoon grated orange rind
  • 3/4 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

For the Salad:

  • 1 cup quinoa (uncooked)
  • 1/2 cup slivered almonds
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 2-4 chopped mini peppers (or chopped bell peppers, fresno peppers, etc)
  • 1/4 cup pickled jalapenos, drained
  • 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 4 cups baby spinach leaves

Directions

  1. Cook the quinoa: Rinse the quinoa well. Combine 1 cup quinoa and 1 cup water in a small pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes until you can fluff quinoa with a fork. Let cool.
  2. Make the dressing: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl except for the olive oil; gradually add oil, stirring well with a whisk.
  3. Combine cooled quinoa and all salad ingredients except for the spinach in a large bowl. Add vinaigrette; toss to coat. Add spinach; toss to combine.

Black Bean and Cilantro Pesto Wrap

17 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by in Bloggerific, Easy, Healthy, Main Dish, Salad, Vegetarian, Weeknight Meals

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Compare my photo to the one at Thug Kitchen, and you will laugh.

Compare my photo to the one at Thug Kitchen, and you will laugh.

I recently found out about Thug Kitchen and couldn’t be more thrilled with a vegan recipe blog that simultaneously enriches my life with its wonderful teachings on not being an idiot about what you eat.

I highly recommend you go over there and check things out. If I swore as much on this blog as I do in real life, it would probably be close to what’s over at TK.

Thug Kitchen was recently nominated for Saveur’s Food Blog Awards as Best New Blog. Head over there and check things out, lots of blogs way better than this one are nominated!

Recipe
Black Bean and Cilantro Pesto Wrap
adapted from Thug Kitchen (Sorry TK, I’m not Vegan but sometimes I try to eat really healthy)

Ingredients

  • 1 large bunch of cilantro, chopped, about 2 cups
  • 2/3 cup slivered almonds
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon lemon zest 
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • ¼ cup vegetable broth or water (I used chicken broth, oops)!

For the Wrap:

  • whole wheat tortillas
  • Veggies (spinach, tomato, cucumber, carrots, lettuce, corn, avocado, etc)
  • Cream cheese

Put all the ingredients for the pesto in a food processor and blend until desired smoothness/chunkiness. You can dice everything if you don’t have a blender or food processor.

This recipe makes about 1 cup of pesto. You can mix the pesto with about 1 or 2 15 oz cans of black beans. Mix the beans together with the pesto and wrap it up with whatever vegetables you like: I took a whole wheat tortilla and added a little cream cheese (sorry vegans), spinach, tomatoes, carrots, and avocado. Other tasty options include cucumbers, red onion, lettuce, corn, salsa, black olives, lime juice.

The black bean pesto makes for an excellent next day lunch: I just mixed the leftover pesto with tomatoes, bell peppers, and then added fresh sliced avocado on top before diving in. Yum!

pistachio chicken with couscous and greens

15 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by in Chicken, Easy, Healthy, Main Dish, Uncategorized

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Jordan’s sister gave me this recipe. Super easy, and the greek yogurt makes the chicken nice and moist.

recipe

pistachio chicken with couscous and greens
ingredients
  • 1/2 cup pistachios (i used salted ones), finely chopped/crushed
  • 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or 8-10 small chicken tenders
  • 1/4 cup fat free Greek yogurt
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 cup couscous
  • 1 (6 oz) bag of fresh spinach
  • 2 cloves garlic
1. Heat oven to 350F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. In a shallow bowl or pie plate, combine the pistachios, panko and 1 tbsp oil
2. season the chicken with salt and pepper. Brush the chicken with the yogurt and coat with the pistachio mixture, pressing gently to help it adhere. place the chicken on the prepared baking sheet and bake until golden brown and cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium heat. add the onion and 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. stir in the cumin and cook for 1 minute. transfer the onion to a medium bowl. add the couscous and toss to combine, add 1 cup tap water, cover and let sit for 20 minutes.
4. heat the remaining tbsp oil in the skillet over medium heat. add the spinach and garlic. A little salt and pepper won’t hurt either. Cook until tender, about 3 -5 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork and fold in the spinach. Serve with the chicken.

Hot Honey Mustard Spinach Salad with Bacon

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Easy, LuLu's Classics, Main Dish, Salad, Weeknight Meals

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This is probably one of the least healthy salads ever. But it’s definitely one of the best tasting salads out there. Probably because there is bacon, and lots of it. My mom has wowed guest after guest with this salad, and for a good reason.

Recipe

Hot Honey Mustard Spinach Salad with Bacon

serves 4 – 6

Ingredients

For the dressing:

  • 5 slices of bacon (or more, depending on your love for bacon)
  • 3 Tbl rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
  • 3 Tbl vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 Tbl prepared mustard (whatever you like, honey mustard, sweet hot, pub mustard, they are all good)
  • 1 1/2 Tbl honey
For the Salad:
  • about 6 cups raw spinach
  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds
  • about 2 cups raw mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes (optional)

Cut bacon into bite size pieces before cooking.  Cook bacon until crispy. Remove cooked bacon from pan, set on a plate w/ paper towel to absorb the grease. Add the raw mushrooms to the bacon grease and cook on medium until mushrooms are tender. Remove mushrooms from pan. Add vinegar, another dash of vegetable oil (ONLY if the mushrooms absorbed all of the bacon grease). Add the mustard and honey.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat stirring constantly with a wire whisk.  Remove from heat. It won’t seem like a lot of dressing, but it’s gonna coat the salad beautifully.

Place mixed greens, parmesan, almonds, and tomatoes in a large bowl. Add the cooked bacon and mushrooms. Pour warm dressing over greens and toss gently to coat. Serve immediately.