Chicken & Bell Pepper Saute with Lemony Kale Quinoa

I can't really express how much I love cooking, especially when it comes to doing so for my family. There's just something about making a delicious, healthy dinner for my loved ones that makes me really happy.

More often than not, my husband will go out for eat for lunch during the work week; while there's nothing wrong with that (when I worked full-time, I needed that hour out of the office just to maintain my sanity, not even gonna lie about that), it's even more motivation for me to ensure that he has a home-cooked meal for dinner.

Tonight I'm giving you not one but two recipes, and I'm doing that because these two go SO darn well together. You certainly don't have to serve them that way, but I know you'll be happy if you do. We actually had this meal for dinner tonight, and I'm proud to tell you that, much like the Italian Turkey Orzo Soup I posted the other day, Zoey gobbled hers right up! She was a particularly big fan of the quinoa. That girl surprises me every day! 

These recipes both came from Cooking Light, though I've done a bit more "adapting" than normal just to suit our tastes. I hope you enjoy!

Chicken & Bell Pepper Saute

Adapted from Cooking Light, August 2014

 

1 tbs olive oil

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 cup sliced orange bell pepper

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 cup low sodium chicken stock

1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

 

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil and swirl to coat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to skillet. Cook until done, about 7 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and add bell pepper, oregano and garlic. Saute for 2 minutes. Add chicken and stock and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add olives. Stir. Transfer to serving bowl or onto plates and sprinkle with feta cheese.

 

 

Lemony Kale Quinoa

Adapted from Cooking Light, August 2014

 

1 cup of quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 1/4 cups water

2 tsp butter

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 cup stemmed, chopped kale

2 tsp lemon juice

 

Add quinoa, water, butter and salt to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender. Combine quinoa, kale, and lemon juice in a medium bowl and toss to coat.

 

Until next time...

 

Cheers!

 



Roasted Grape and Feta Salad

As promised in yesterday's post, today I'm giving you the recipe for a super flavorful salad that I really think you'll love. I've served it as a side for soup (as you saw yesterday and as is shown in the picture) but I've also paired it with sandwiches and alongside grilled meats with great success. As always, it's easy, and it's a healthy option as well. I love that the "dressing" is light and simple, and, thanks to the balsamic mixture that's used in roasting the grapes, the flavor is extraordinary.

If you don't like walnuts or have allergies to them, you may omit them from the recipe - the first time I made this salad, I realized last minute that I'd forgotten to pick them up at the grocery store and so I left them out (and it was still amazing!).

Roasted Grape and Feta Salad

Adapted from Cooking Light, December 2014

 

1 cup seedless red grapes

1/2 tbs olive oil

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

3 ounces baby spring mix greens

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. combine grapes, 2 tsp olive oil and vinegar and place on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake for 10 minutes; remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Toss grapes, walnuts, lemon juice, remaining olive oil, salt, pepper and greens in a salad bowl until well-mixed and sprinkle with feta cheese.

 

 







Until next time...

 

Cheers!

Italian Turkey and Orzo Soup

You may have looked at the title of today's blog and thought - really? Soup? Alright, I KNOW it's been ridiculously, uncomfortably hot lately (especially for those of us who are 28 weeks pregnant...not naming names or anything), but honestly I LOVE a good homemade soup - no matter what time of year it is. Maybe I'm weird. After all, I did get the recipe from the December 2014 edition of Cooking Light, so...there you go. Either way, I'm giving you the recipe today, and you can make it now or wait until there's a bit of a chill in the air to whip up a batch. Whatever works for you.

As many of you know, I have a toddler at home; if you know anything about toddlers, you might know that they can be a tad picky at times when it comes to food. Their "taste tolerance" level, if you will, can vary greatly over time (by the way, I'm not necessarily talking week to week or even day to day here - meal to meal anyone? Yep, it happens). That being said, I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when my daughter practically devoured the small portion of this soup that my husband shared with her the other night. I'd actually heated up leftover spaghetti and meatballs for her that night and didn't even bother serving her any of the soup because I figured there was just no way she'd go for it. Of course, I was wrong - she "asked" to try some of her dad's as he was eating it, and it was clear how much she liked it once she did.

At that point, I considered it a fluke...I thought that the only reason why she liked it was because her daddy was eating it. I just knew that if I tried to give it to her again, she'd reject it without so much as a "no-thank-you" bite.

Wrong, again. She LOVED it. It was the first thing she tasted on her plate, and the ONLY thing she completely finished (although she did do well with her peas, which made me quite happy). I couldn't believe it. You better believe I was doing a happy dance, a victory dance if you will. Hey - when you're a parent, it's the little things that count.

So here you go - a healthy, homemade, EASY soup recipe that I can officially say receives Zoey's stamp of approval. Now that's saying something.

By the way, the side salad shown below is a roasted grape and feta salad. It's AMAZING, and I'll be sharing the recipe with you later this week - so stay tuned.

Italian Turkey and Orzo Soup

Adapted from Cooking Light, December 2014

1 tbs olive oil

1 lb ground turkey (93% lean)

1 tbs chopped fresh oregano

4 ounces sliced mushrooms (I used a blend of cremini and shitake)

5 garlic cloves, chopped

3 cups chicken stock (I use Simple Truth Organic Low Sodium Chicken Broth)

2 cups water

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained (I use the no salt added version)

3/4 cup uncooked orzo pasta

2 cups fresh baby spinach

1/2 tsp lemon juice

 

Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add oil and swirl to coat. Add turkey and cook for 6 minutes or until browned. Add oregano, mushrooms and garlic and saute for 5 minutes. Add stock, water, salt, red pepper and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and add orzo. Cook for 7 minutes. Add spinach and lemon juice and cook for 2 minutes. Serve.

 

Until next time...

 

Cheers!