Healthy Dinners

Dinner tonight: salmon steaks, sweet potato fries and sprouted bean trio salad.

Salmon steaks were on sale at Harris Teeter this week, how could I resist? I've actually never prepared salmon steaks before, at home we prepare salmon fillets on the grill all the time. But I don't have a grill here so into the oven it went!

Baked sweet potato fries are something I make regularly since they are so easy and tasty. I had initially planned on making some sort of mash with them but I couldn't part with the fries... one of these days I will try something new! With the salmon and fries I made sprouted bean trio salad. Sprouted bean trio is a a quick-cooking and nutritious blend of lentils, adzuki, and mung beans by Tru Roots. All I did for this salad was follow the recipe on the back of the package. It was very simple, light and fresh. It made for great leftovers too which is always a plus! The salad makes a good base for an array of other ingredients one might like. Definitely a recipe to get creative and elaborate on!

I was really proud of this meal. It looked so appealing and was so incredibly HEALTHY. I mean just look at it!! (Well... just pretend the beer in the background doesn't exist)
Salmon: high in omega-3 fatty acids
Sweet potatoes: high in vitamin A (~750% per cup WHOA) and fiber
Lentils, adzuki and mung beans: high in fiber and protein

Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:
2 small sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean
~2 tbsp of olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chile powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
Slice potatoes into 1/2" fries (quite the arm workout)
Combine spices in a small dish
Toss fries in olive oil and spices
Arrange fries on a rimmed baking pan, parchment paper works nicely
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, turning once or twice to cook evenly

Sprouted Bean Trio Salad

Ingredients:
1 cup truRoots Organic Sprouted Bean Trio
2/3 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/3 cup peeled, diced cucumber
3 tbsp thinly sliced scallions
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp ground cumin
Salt to taste

Directions:
Cook bean sprout trio according to the directions on the package
Drain and cool to room temperature
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss well to combine

Seltzer

I have a strong love for seltzer water. My parents started buying it for the house a few years ago because it was healthier than soda (obviously) but more fun to drink than plain water. I was skeptical at first and didn't drink it much but then one day it just hit me... this stuff's amazing!
Many times I like to add a bunch of lemon and/or lime slices, but today I did something different.

I remembered the frozen blueberries I had shoved in the back of the freezer and it hit me - add the blueberries to the seltzer! Do it! Best idea EVER. They make the drink nice and cold, give it gorgeous color and while you sip on it the blueberries begin to defrost and infuse it with a lovely flavor. And then you eat them! So simple yet so perfect.

Beans & Rice

Whenever I have the craving for something tasty, healthy, and easy to throw together my go to is always some sort of beans and rice bowl. I have made many bean and rice concoctions but this one was by far the best.

It starts off with some brown rice, then a nice pile of black beans that have been cooked up with sauteed onion, cumin, and chili powder. I then topped that with a sweet potato that I diced up and roasted in the oven with: olive oil, [salt, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, and cumin <-- an incredible blend of spices]
Avocado, a squeeze of lime juice and a bit of sour cream top it off.
Perfect.

Popcorn, Friend or Foe?

When someone thinks of popcorn, movie theaters and warm butteriness most likely *pops* into their head. However, the problem here is that warm yummy bag of popcorn from the movie theater can range from 400 to 1,200 kcals making it a caloric bomb. The microwave variety found on our grocery stores shelves aren't as terrible but aren't all that great either, they are still full of sodium, saturated fat and weird chemicals. No wonder most have deemed popcorn as a junk food that should be avoided.

However, underneath all those layers of salty, buttery goodness popcorn is actually one of the top snack foods one could pick to fuel there growling stomachs when 3pm rolls around. With roughly only 100 kcals and 3.5 grams of fiber in 3 cups, straight up air-popped popcorn is pretty awesome for you.

But the microwaveable bags you can buy are just so easy and convenient... and tasty...
this is true BUT what if I told you that you can make your own microwave popcorn. Super cheap, super healthy, super easy, and still super tasty.

Behold the paper bag. Just fill this baby up with a 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels, fold it over twice (no need to make it air tight or anything), place it in the microwave for about 2 minutes (depending on the strength of you microwave) and voila you have straight-up fresh popcorn.Then comes the fun
part - toppings! There are many options but I love to melt some peanut butter in the microwave (classic or Peanut Butter & Co's dark chocolate dreams) and drizzle it all over the popcorn with a pinch of salt and a couple dashes of cinnamon. Seriously, it's one of my all-time favorite snacks.
Please try this!! You will be hooked!
Just look at it... MMM.
Popcorn, when made right, is totally your friend.

Break the Fast with Breakfast

I have a strong love for breakfast. I don't care if I need to wake up at 5 am in order to have the time to sit down and eat something. Sipping on a hot cup of coffee, while cooking up oatmeal and working on a sudoku just sounds heavenly to me. Especially when no one else is up, it's so quiet and peaceful. I know many people who skimp on breakfast, whether it be because they feel they don't have enough time or because they just don't like it. Not like breakfast... I just don't understand.. how can you not like breakfast??! I would die without breakfast in the morning. DIE.

This morning I toasted two Kashi blueberry waffles, topped them with non-fat Greek yogurt, a couple dashes of cinnamon (I really like cinnamon), a drizzle of honey, and a a banana. It's so good and so simple.

It never really occurred to me to put yogurt on top of a waffle until I experienced my most favorite breakfast item in the entire world - Melanie's Fruit Waffle. Melanies is a small and very popular breakfast/lunch restaurant in Boone, NC and everything they have there is amazing.You should go.

Two warm multi-grain waffles stacked on top of one another, and a big pile of bananas, strawberries and green apple on top, a good dollop of yogurt that slowly runs down the sides, a drizzle of honey, and a dash of cinnamon. Holy crap I am drooling.

If you don't eat breakfast please start. "Break" the fast and eat something, you will do your body so much good. It will kick start your metabolism, make you run more efficiently through out the morning hours and you won't be ravenous by lunch time. Sounds good right? If your response to this is "but I'm just not hungry" then take it one step at a time. Eat a little bit each morning and before you know it your body will start craving it. If you're one of the crazy people who say they don't like breakfast then go ahead and eat something unrelated to breakfast. Make a sandwich, eat left-overs from the night before. Just give your body something.

My favorite breakfast items:

1. Buckwheat pancakes
2. Oatmeal (with peanut butter and bananas)
3. Cinnamon raisin bagel (toasted with peanut butter and bananas)
4. Cereal (especially Kashi GoLean crunch or peanut butter Puffins) (with bananas, light vanilla soy milk, and cinnamon)
5. Waffles (possibly with Greek yogurt or peanut butter and bananas)
6. Greek yogurt with granola, blueberries, bananas, strawberries
7. Sunny side up eggs with toast and fruit
8. Omelet with spinach, feta cheese, tomatoes
9. French toast

The list goes on and on and as you can see I have quite a thing for peanut butter and bananas.

**If you haven't had Peanut Butter & Co's cinnamon raisin swirl peanut butter - go buy it now! It's a bit more expensive than your average peanut butter but it is amazing and I put it on everything. My grandparents got me these for my birthday and the Mighty Maple has proven to be awesome on pancakes or waffles and the Dark Chocolate Dreams melted and drizzled over ice cream or popcorn is incredible. However, no matter how great they are Cinnamon Raisin Swirl will always have a special place in my heart.

Barbeque Salmon Burgers

As I was briefly scrolling through Pinterest, once again briefly... like 5 minutes...definitely not over an hour, I saw this incredible looking salmon burger. If you know me, you know I love LOVE salmon and never have I had a salmon burger before. And since Harris Teeter had this glorious fish on sale I booked it to the store and bought what I needed.

The burgers came out pretty awesome, a little on the dry side (most likely my fault, not the recipes) but super tasty. These also made for great leftovers. I had one the next day over lettuce with chopped tomatoes, red onions, sprouts, and extra barbeque sauce. YUM.

If you are a salmon lover and want to give these babies a shot go to how sweet it is for the recipe!