Day 5 & 6

Day 5 & 6 - Black Bean and Avocado Salad


This was a delicious salad that I have seen floating around Pinterest for a while and have been wanting to make. Since the salad was rather large, I decided to combine day 5 and 6 since I ate it on both days! It includes a variety of vegetables and black beans - which are my absolute favorite - and avocados and cilantro! I modified the dressing a bit to make it less tangy and more sweet. There is no recipe per se (that I recorded), so here is what I came up with:

Salad:
- 2 green onions sliced
- 1 tomato sliced
- 1/2 cup of frozen corn
- 1 pepper (any colour - though I prefer orange or red!)
- 1/4 cup cilantro (from the garden!!)
- 1 can of black beans
- 1 avocado sliced near the end

Dressing:
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt & Pepper
- 3 TBSP Lemon juice (or more, if needed)
- Cumin
- 1tbsp Brown sugar

Blend this together in a blender or mini food processor, mix in with the veggies and voila! You have a simple and tasty salad!

All the vegetables (you can pretty much add whatever you have in the fridge!)

A lovely ripe avocado added at the very end!

Mixed up dressing

The end product! A great compliment to grilled chicken or grilled fish!

Day 4 - Homemade Chicken Caesar Salad

One of my sisters' and my favorite meals growing up was mom's homemade Chicken Caesar Salad. Her dressing recipe was a MAJOR hit with us and throughout the summer we would probably eat it at least once a week.

The first time I made it for Mark he was hooked so we have enjoyed it frequently ever since! One of the secret ingredients is a coddled egg and since I am pregnant we have had to omit that. I have played around with the recipe and this what I have come up with:

1 garlic clove
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp lemon juice (or juice from a whole lemon)
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper

Blend it all together then chill in the freezer

Romaine lettuce
2 chicken breasts sauted in garlic, salt & pepper (anything you like, really!)

Home made croutons:
2 heels of the bread loaf leftover in your freezer
Olive oil
Italian Seasoning
Garlic Powder

Mix it all altogether then toast in the oven

Mix everything together then serve the chicken over top of the salad! YUM!

Here are my pictures for today:

Sauted chicken

Toasted croutons

Large bowl of lettuce with extra parmesan

Mixing the dressing

Voila! (Make sure you have some gum for later!)

Day Three - Tex Mex Chicken Salad

Dinner in a Crock Pot!

One of the best inventions ever has got to be the Crock Pot or slow cooker. I have fond memories of growing up eating crock pot meals. Since my sisters and I danced every night of the week and often at different studios, our mom was left driving all over the city. So we often ate on the run. She would prepare a meal in the crock pot the night before and then plug it in at work, driving people crazy with the delicious smells. She would then pack up the car, crock pot and all, and we would eat either in the car or at one of the dance studios.

With my own rather hectic life this year I have come to rely heavily on the crock pot for a few ready made meals during the week. I stumbled across this AMAZING recipe on the Kraft website and modified it to make it a bit healthier (they recommend serving it on rice but we seldom eat rice in our house).

Tex-Mex Chicken Salad
3-4 skinless chicken breasts
1 red/yellow/orange pepper sliced in strips
1/2 onion sliced
1-1/2 cups of salsa
2 tbsp Chili Powder (or 1/4 pack of taco mix)

Put all of these in the crock pot to simmer for 8-10 hours on low, like so

This is how it should look at the end

Finally, on a bed of lettuce, place a good amount of the Tex Mex chicken, top with grated cheddar cheese, green onions and sliced tomato (avocado is great too but ours are STILL not ripe!!!). Then complete with a dollop of salsa and some Peppercorn Ranch dressing. I also love to add some taco chips as a special treat (but can be omitted for a healthier option!). ENJOY!

Day 2 - Broccoli Salad

So my menu today was actually supposed to consist of this delicious sounding Black Bean and Avocado Salad (with corn, cilantro & lime!). However, our avocados are not ready yet so we had to settle for another concoction of veggies from the fridge: Broccoli.

Mark actually loves Broccoli Salad because his mom used to make it a lot when he was growing up. I like it but am not really a huge fan of Miracle Whip or Mayo. However, all in all, it was a good, sweet salad. 

 So we added some purple onion (a little too much actually!). 1/4 cup would have been perfect to a large bowl of broccoli (about 3 cups).

We added some raisins, almonds and sunflower seeds to the broccoli/onion mix.

Then we mixed about 1/2 cup of Miracle Whip and about 3 tbsps of white vinegar together (you are supposed to add sugar but we omitted that!) and mixed this all together.

 Mark used this in his salad. I personally cannot stand the thought of pork, let alone "fake" pork but to each their own! He just sprinkled some of this on the top of his salad.















Finally, we mixed it all together and here is the final product:

Yummy Broccoli Salad!

I am off to search for some new inventive salads for later this week! If you have any suggestions, please send them my way! :)

And We're Off! (Day 1)

And so it starts!

My husband and I have both been complaining about our recent weight gain - I have gained pretty much 25 pounds as I am almost 30 weeks pregnant. Okay, so that kind of weight gain is allowed and even encouraged. This is the most I have weighed in my life!!! It has been extremely hard to cook healthy meals when I have been so busy and so tired. Not only that, my cravings for salty food like FRENCH FRIES have totally gotten the better of me!! Not good. Hubby has gained sympathy weight (isn't that so kind of him to embrace my own weight gain and jump on the weight gain band wagon??) alongside me - although certainly not as much as I have! I think he looks handsome all the time!

So anyways, after giving this much consideration, we have decided to create a little challenge for ourselves:

THE 30 DAY SALAD CHALLENGE!!!

In this challenge, we must eat at least one substantial, meal sized salad per day for 30 days. It does not have to be a green salad either. It can be a warm salad, pasta salad (whole grain pasta of course!), or anything that constitutes a "salad" and is considered healthy, with as many locally grown produce as possible. This is all in an effort to eat healthier food, and in Mark's case, maybe lose a pound or two. In mine, maybe I'll get through this pregnancy without gaining over 35 pounds (fingers crossed!!!!) by eating better (farewell french fries!!!).

This challenge will actually be pretty easy for us as being a teacher, I am off for summer holidays beginning tomorrow and can cook healthy meals! (YIPPEE!) Not only that, I LOVE to visit the many farmer's markets and purchase locally grown food. We also planted our own garden this year which has lettuce, spinach, beans, peas, carrots, zucchini, onions, potatoes, herbs and lots of tomatoes! I cannot wait for everything to be ready for picking!!! Here is a picture of our lovely little herb garden:

I will definitely post a picture of our garden once everything is well established! I can't wait to eat veggies from our garden!

THE 30 DAY SALAD CHALLENGE begins TODAY! Tonight I plan to make a green salad with grilled chicken, roasted walnuts and strawberries and mint with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I will be sure to post pictures and all the recipes not only to help me keep busy (2 months off is a VERY long time!!!) but also to document all of the healthy eating we intend to be doing! (Hopefully this also helps us save some money by NOT eating out so much!)

Wish us luck on this wonderful green (and many other colours) adventure!

DAY 1 - Green Salad with Grilled Chicken, Toasted Walnuts, Strawberries & Mint
I love toasted walnuts or almonds and berries in my salads! I buy the Sobeys cooking nuts and then toast them myself (I actually burnt them a bit tonight! Oops!) The green leaf lettuce was topped with sliced strawberries, toasted walnuts and small pieces of mint. The mint gave it a nice, fresh flavor!

Then I grilled some chicken after letting it marinade in some fig balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

I used this delicious dressing today - Renee's Fieldberry Poppy Seed Vinaigrette - not as healthy as homemade stuff but needed to be used up and was great with the strawberries and walnuts!

VOILA! The finished product:
















All in all, a great start to Challenge Day # 1!!