Trying to Be Healthy/Oriental Chicken & Cabbage Salad

I don't think I'm an unhealthy person. In fact, I'm not. I've always been fairly healthy. But I married a man who is always wanting to "try to be healthier" so I guess that's been on my mind lately. We even bought some pedometers a little while ago to see how much walking we did in  a day. Did you know that to be considered "active" you should be taking 10,000 steps a day? I only met this goal once in the few weeks we were tracking ourselves, and I was tired at the end of that day! Guess I'd better "step it up" huh? :)

Yes, it's clipped to my pajamas. At the end of  this day I only had 7587 steps...and that was pretty good for me!

Going healthy seems to be an emerging theme in the food world. On the Food Network now they always have the one person on the Next Food Network Star or similar competitions who is the "healthy food promoter" contestant. I don't think any of these people have won yet, but someday soon they probably will. Which is good! It certainly wouldn't hurt America to eat healthier and feel healthier.

Summer seems to be the easiest time for healthy living for me. Fresh produce helps out a lot. Good weather and excuses to exercise (going on hikes, picnics, parks, walks, bike rides, swimming, etc) present themselves more often than in the winter. Last night my husband persuaded me to go on a walk. He brought along his frisbee (one of his favorite things) and we passed it back and forth a bit. And it was just a little thing, and we only walked a mile, and we only walked, which isn't very fancy or hard core, but it made me feel the tiniest bit healthier. 

I looked back over my recipes about a month ago to judge how healthy my recipes have been. I'm going to try to do better to put up delicious AND healthy recipes in the future. 

I guess I'll start out kind of cliche and go with a salad. This salad has sugar in it, but other than that it's pretty healthy. Good enough for MY blog at least! I recently made this salad for the closing social my group of school counseling program friends had. It's easy and impressive. When my mom first started making it, everyone would ask her for the recipe and it became a tradition for her to bring it to all the family and church gatherings. I think it's time to bring it back!

I didn't remember to take a picture of my salad, but this is basically how it looks. Good, huh?

Oriental Chicken & Cabbage Salad

2 cups diced or shredded chicken 

4 cups shredded cabbage

1 package Raman Noodles (or 2 if you're feeling crunchy :) )

4 green onions

Optional: 1/2 cup slivered almonds or water chestnuts

Chop everything up and add to a bowl. If you're taking this dish to an event, don't add the dressing until just before you get there. You don't want the Ramon Noodles to get soggy or the cabbage to get wilted from the dressing.

Dressing:

2 T. sesame seeds

1/4 cup vinegar

1/4 cup salad oil

2 T. sugar

1/2 t. salt

Season packet from noodles

Whisk or shake or stir it all together and pour on the salad just before serving. The dressing is my favorite part!

See, it's easy!

Husband's Reaction: He doesn't remember, but I made a simpler version of this salad for him while we were dating. He didn't like it then. I think it was just cabbage, dressing, and noodles, so that's understandable. But when I made it a few weeks ago he told me it was really good. He especially liked the chicken, which is no surprise. . . my husband thinks adding chicken to most dishes is the best thing to do!

Brushetta Appetizer

I've been sick all week with strep throat, and I'm bored out of my mind. So, I started looking through the many, many pictures of food I have not yet put up on this blog, and these are the ones that happened to catch my eye. 

I actually made these on Sunday for my husband, but these pictures are probably from the summertime, when we had fresh tomatoes in our garden. 

I don't even know where this recipe comes from. (I mean, orignially, Italy probably? but I don't know exactly how it got to me). My mom made them for us a few times when I lived at home, and I think she told me how. No matter how these tasty little bites came to be in my recipe repertoire, my husband and I LOVE them, and I wanted to share.

First thing you need to do is get some kind of little bread slices to put your toppings on. We have always been able to find day old bread that is already sliced up at our neighborhood Smiths store. You could also buy a baguette or other similar-shaped bread, or make your own if you're feeling tricky! The most important things are to use appetizer-sized pieces and bread that isn't too soft; you want it a little crunchy.

Next, dice up some tomatoes, shred some mozzarella cheese, and find your Italian Seasoning or dried Basil in the spice cupboard (either or both will do).

Brush your bread with a little olive oil and lay them on a metal baking sheet, layer the tomato dices and then cheese on top, and sprinkle with Italian Seasoning or Basil. Broil in the oven for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown.

Voila! Now you're ready to impress all your friends with your Italian appetizers.

Husband's Reaction: He tasted something like this at a wedding reception we went to once, and I thought, "Hey, I can make that!" So I did. And now he will love me forever! He seriously could probably eat these every day, but I like to keep them special and only make them once in a while.

Zupas Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup

Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup

I found this on Pinterest, and the recipe came from this blog:
http://crowleyparty.blogspot.com/2011/06/wisconsin-cauliflower-soup-zupas.html

Zupa's Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup (with variations by me)

2 tablespoons margarine or butter (1/4 stick)

1 medium onion, chopped (yep, I didn't have any of this, so I left it out and added some onion salt...totally not the same, but it ended up ok)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 spoon salt (I think this means "teaspoon")

2 cups milk

1 can (13 3/4 to 14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth (I used bouillon cubes, two of them, dissolved in 2 cups of boiling water) 

1 head (2 1/2 pounds) cauliflower, cut into 1-inch pieces (I used a bag of frozen cauliflower)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (haha I used yellow mustard, but almost left it out completely)

1 cup Sharp Cheddar cheese

1 cup Pepper Jack cheese (none at our house, so I used mozzarella and then added pepper to the soup until it tasted good to me)

In 4-quart saucepan, melt margarine or butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour and salt; cook 2minutes, stirring frequently. Gradually stir in milk, chicken broth, and 1 1/2 cups water; add cauliflower and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes. In blender (with center part of blender cover removed to allow steam to escape), blend cauliflower mixture at low speed in small batches until very smooth. Return cauliflower mixture to saucepan; heat over medium heat until hot, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in mustard and 1 1/2 cups cheese until melted and smooth. Garnish soup with remaining cheese to serve. 

This was really so easy. I followed the recipe almost exactly (except with my substitutions), and it turned out great! My husband always orders this soup at Zupas, so I made it for him. He said the real kind is a little thicker (maybe I added more water with the bouillon than I should have), and more yellow. But he said the taste was almost exact! 

We ate it with rolls, because that's my favorite way to have any kind of soup.

Husband's Reaction: He was very appreciative that I made soup on a cold, snowy day. When I asked if this was a recipe I should repeat again, he said yes. When I told him it wouldn't hurt my feelings if he said no, he still said yes. I thought it turned out great! I'm making this the next time I have to bring soup to a social gathering.

Roasted Halloween Pumpkin Seeds

*from a recipe at Food.com

Ingredients:

• 
  1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds
• 2 teaspoons melted butter (olive oil or vegetable oil work well) or 2teaspoons melted oil (olive oil or vegetable oil work well)
• salt (This is all I used)
• garlic powder (optional)
• cayenne pepper (optional)
• seasoning salt (optional)
• cajun seasoning (optional)

Directions:

1. 1
   Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. 2
   While it's OK to leave some strings and pulp on your seeds (it adds flavor) clean off any major chunks.
3. 3
   Toss pumpkin seeds in a bowl with the melted butter or oil and seasonings of your choice.
4. 4
   Spread pumpkin seeds in a single layer on baking sheet.
5. 5
   Bake for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.
   
   
   YUM!!!!!
   
   Also, check out those pumpkins that these seeds came from. Can you guess which one I carved and which one was Danny's?

Pasta with Fresh Spinach

Pasta with Fresh Spinach

*recipe adapted from the recipe "Elbows with Fresh Spinach"

Ingredients:

8 ounces pasta
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
10 ounces spinach (fresh or frozen)*
4 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes (or a few regular tomatoes cut up)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

*I could not figure out how much 10 oz of spinach would be. I looked it up online, and it said about 6 cups of fresh spinach leaves would be about 10 oz. But I really don't know. I used 3 cups of fresh spinach picked from our garden, and I think that was about the right amount. Normally, you'd probably just use frozen anyway. But! If you ever need to get rid of fresh spinach that you don't know what to do with, this recipe is great!

Directions:

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, sauté garlic in olive oil for 3 minutes.
3. If using fresh spinach, coarsely chop. If using frozen spinach, thaw and drain. Place spinach in sauté pan and cook until wilted, about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Toss spinach with tomatoes and hot pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Nutrition information per serving (1/6 of recipe): 193 calories; 8 g protein; 10 g digestible carbohydrates; 7 g fat; 1 g saturated fat; 3 mg cholesterol; 111 mg sodium; 4 g total dietary fiber.

This recipe was so easy and simple...and it tasted really great. It tasted healthy, because it was! But it was a delicious-fresh-summer-lite kind of healthy...not a boring-no fun-diet kind of healthy. Really.

Husband's reaction: I honestly don't remember. It was a few days ago. But he liked it. I told him he needs to start giving more creative reactions. He usually says, "This is really good, honey." or "This is good." or "I like it." Yeah, boring. :)

Oven Roasted Asparagus

Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients:
Asparagus
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Wash and thoroughly dry as many asparagus spears as you would like. Cut two inches off the woody end.

Arrange the asparagus on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Put baking sheeting to a 400-425 degree oven for 5 minutes.

Serve with your favorite meal. Enjoy!

P.S. Thanks, Mom, for telling me what to do over the phone. :)

Husband's Reaction: "This is just like a treat to me! When it's cooked this way." So, we had some the next day too.

Spinach Burgers (from Dad)

Spinach Burgers
When a regular old beef burger just won't cut it.

1 pkg frozen spinach (thawed)

3 eggs        

½ onion, chopped

2-3 Tb oil

4 slices cheddar cheese (I used grated mozzarella, leftover from a pizza we made a few days ago) 

Combine spinach, eggs, and onion.  Beat together.  Poor into heated oil (should constantly make a sizzling sound).  Cover and simmer till almost cooked through.  Carefully flip over, cover with cheese, and brown other side.  Spread open hard rolls (It's IMPORTANT that the rolls are hard or the bread is toasted or the hamburger buns are dry, because these burgers make regular soft buns soggy pretty fast) with salad dressing and place long slices of spinach burger inside.  I like adding catsup and tomatoes to mine.

This was one of the few things Dad made us when he had to cook dinner.  We hated it.  But now I have come to like them, if not eaten too often.  It’s healthy too, which is a bonus. Try it. You might not hate it as much as it looks like you will hate it. :)

Husband's Reaction: "It's good, but I think I like real hamburgers better. . . .I wonder what turkey burgers taste like."