All posts tagged: healthy meals

Fiesta for Your Mouth: Smokey Chipotle Tomato Sauce

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I would just like to announce that I’ve stumbled across a culinary gem: chipotle tomato sauce. It is mind-blowing delicious, and it serious has changed my vegetarian food game. Because the flavors are such a delicious, smokey mix of savory, slightly sweet and spicy, this effortless sauce elevates even the most humble of spaghetti squash or gluten free pastas, and takes a could be blah dish and adds all the panache you could ever want. I can’t take credit for this recipe, because I learned it from a chef here in DC during one of my cooking classes. I feel like I should send her a thank you note or something, because I love.this.sauce. Here’s why: Effortless Inexpensive to make Makes everything taste better Free of the fructose corn syrup, sugar, and gross preservatives found in your tomato sauce on the shelf This recipe is sugar free, preservative free, and you have complete control over the ingredients. This is why I LOVE making everything from scratch. Honestly, homemade tomato sauce is so effortless to make, …

Eggs Over Probiotic Rainbow Hash

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One of the things I absolutely loved about dining out in Europe was the brilliant use of vegetables in dishes. Cooking with whole foods isn’t a novelty concept or a trend in the UK, it’s just the way food is prepared. I absolutely loved how easy it was to find healthy options. I became addicted to a delicious probiotic rainbow veggie mix while I was living there for the month of September. The vegetables were brined in a delicious, slightly sweet vinaigrette with sea salt, and I ate it by the gallons. Interestingly enough, while we’re usually vaguely aware that we don’t incorporate enough vegetables into our diet, we usually forget that we’re severely deficient on eating enough colors. Studies prove we fail to get enough red, purples, and yellow veggies. Brightly colored veggies contain phytochemicals, which are substances occur naturally only in plants and provide amazing health benefits. According to information from the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH), phytochemicals act as antioxidants. They protect and regenerate essential nutrients, and/or work on a cellular level to …

Healthy Gluten Free Ramen Noodles with Aromatic Veggie Stock

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Hello, from London my darlings! Despite being just a teeny tiny bit jet lagged, we’ve been bashing around the city with great abandonment. No food is left uneaten, no wine not drunk, and no site unseen. London is one of my favorite cities to visit, and each time I come here, it feels like home. I am so thankful to be able to experience this wonderful city with my amazing husband. We’ll be here throughout the month of September, in part for pleasure and also because I’m doing a 100 hour Ashtanga traning course with Kino MacGregor and her husband Tim Feildman. OMG GIVE ME ALL THE ASANAS! In the meantime: soup! Let it not be said I don’t love me a good soup recipe. They’re fast, easy to throw together, and have endless possibilities. Best of all, when soups are homemade, they have the opportunity to be incredibly nutritious.  Because I don’t live life like a typical 9-5 American, I’d rather take a Japanese bento box to work than buy food. Asian inspired recipes …

Chili-Lime Shrimp Tacos + Mango Salsa

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I’m starting to panic, because mango season is coming to a close. Therefore, I am virtually living on mangoes so I can cherish each and every last second with one of my favorite foods. If someone asked me if I wanted to eat ice cream or a mango, I would say, “Um, duh! A mango!” and then I’d probably eat both, because I have a bit of a problem with gluttony. Since I’m on basically an Atkins diet, only the meat is replaced with mangoes, it goes without saying that I’ve been finding all kinds of ways to sneak them into my weekly menu. One way you can never go wrong is in a freakishly delicious salsa. I do eat vegetarian/vegan oh, say 97% of the time, but this week Tex-Mex Tuesday did feature some goddamn deliciously seasoned chili-lime shrimp for my husband and guests; I piled greens and salsa on mine and chowed down! The spice rub on the shrimp played so well with the sweet mango, that it was basically an Olympic dream …

Japanese Ramen Noodle Soup

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Despite my southern upbringing (with a dash of east coast flare), true comfort food to me isn’t the traditional heavy American fare most of us have come to know and love. Maybe it’s the result of my world-wide travels and love of all cultures and people, but nothing beats Asian cuisine for me when it comes to terms of comfort. Give me a big bowl of noodle soup, a book, and a rainy day, and I shall give you the definition of bliss. And if you throw some baby animals in the mix to cuddle, I’ll probably die of happiness. One of my personal loves in learning about other cultures and people. It’s what motivated me to be a globe trotter, and I count my travels as my richest investment. Both my husband and I have a particular respect for Asian culture, which is incredibly diverse and varied from across the Asian continent. It’s as much an unfortunate mistake to lump all the cultures together as it is to group all Asian cuisine in the same …

Veggies on Mexican Lime Rice + Handmade Tortillas with Cilantro-Jalapeño Sauce

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GOD BLESS TEXAS…. I’m a Texas girl, y’all, and you know we do tacos, tortillas and football on the reg. In my home city Dallas, Tex-Mex is practically a revered as a sacred art. I myself have devoted endless hours to “studying” said art by way of eating non-stop Mexican cuisine and drinking many a margarita. I just wanted to make sure I left no stone unturned in my quest to find the perfect burrito. I’m very devoted to my research, obviously!  I have yet to experience a mambo taxi (a frozen marg that maybe should be illegal) I didn’t want to add to my list of Possible Last Supper Options. I really do keep this list, because you just never know. The Boy Scouts only think they came up with that motto. Not so fast, Eagle Scout! I was born touting that as my personal mantra! But I digress. Anyway, D.C. offers many great food experiences, but sometimes a girl likes to get back to her roots and go a little wild, Wild West on dinner. And so I did. …

Meatless Meatballs + Veggies Medley

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All hail vegetables, we just can’t get enough! Recently, I took a beef meatball recipe by Gordon Ramsay and converted it to zucchini meatballs that turned out to be so freakishly delicious, my husband requested them several nights in a row. Here’s the important thing about that little fact: My husband might not have a Texas accent, but he’s a Texan through and through, and he’s been born and breed to be all things Texas. That means “Beef: it’s what’s for dinner” was probably a motto he was raised to revere. He’s the nicest food snob you’ll ever meet. Neither of us think meat substitutes ever really taste like good substitutes or are a decent replacement. And then came zucchini meatballs… It was like a light from heaven shone down on my plate. And now that we have that little recipe preface out of the way, I can tell you about these Super Yum Zucchini Meatballs. The texture and taste actually is not only an awesome replacement for meatballs, but I personally thought it was even …

Smoked Salmon + Goat Cheese Veggie Omelet

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Ok, it’s not vegetarian. But it’s pretty damn delicious. You might already know that I follow a vegetarian/vegan diet 90% of the time, and occasionally I will eat fish, eggs, or goat cheese when I know they’ve been obtained through humane methods and are organic. An obvious modification to this omelet is just take out the salmon and it’s equally delicious. It’s been a really long time since I ate any meat, and when my husband and I popped into the market before starting a lovely Sunday Funday together, I saw smoked salmon waiting for me: must.have.now. That was my instinctive reaction, and want my stomach wants, it’s gonna get on any given Sunday. We ritualistically do a large brunch with friends every Sunday, but I had a laaaaaate late night out with a group of friends the night before and just wanted a low-key day of lounging about with my favorite human in the entire goddamn world (um, my husband, in case you are not good at guessing games). I threw together a quick …

Vegetarian Stir Fry & Rice Noodles

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Sometimes the internet gods are against us. I put together this post last night and gave myself a little pat on the back for being ahead on my to do list, only to wake up this morning and find my post had been mysteriously eaten by the internet. There was no trace of it, not even in my drafts. Is nothing sacred anymore!!!!! Ahhhhh! First world problems, man. They’ll get you every time. I’m pretty sure my fat large boned and dainty cat deleted it by trying to sleep on my lap top. Thanks for that, Mademoiselle Kitty. Not to be defeated, I rallied on and decided to re-write this recipe. In another life, I must have lived somewhere in Asia. I love the culture, the religions, the people, and especially the food. Fortunately, so many of the dishes are easy to make and incredibly healthy. I can also experiment with tons of vegetarian and vegan options. Um, #WINNING! Yay for me and all other plant eaters out there! Sometimes, it can be fun to play …