Tag Archives: healthy dinner

What’s For Dinner in Spring When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking

How did your no white sugar challenge go? I did fairly well. I was able to easily avoid and not feel sad about several sweets put before me. I did take my daughter out for ice cream on Sunday and while it was good I don’t know if it was quite worth feeling like a brick was sitting in my guts the rest of the evening. 🙂

This week my husband won’t be home for half the week for dinner time. I don’t know about you but for some reason when he’s not around I have zero desire to cook dinner even though there are still 3 of us that need to eat!

Here is the plan for the week. What are your favorite quick and easy dinners?

Bachelorette Macaroni (I ate this quite a bit in my early 20s. Mac and cheese with tuna, broccoli and spinach. One pot and you’re done.)

Skillet Gnocchi with Chard and White Beans (one of my favorite dinners)

Fish Tacos with Kiwi Salsa

Potstickers with Rice, avocado and bok choy (we bake the pot stickers and mix the bok choy and avocado with the rice with a little soy sauce and gyoza sauce)

Kids choice (I’m sure this will end of being pancakes of some kind)

What’s for Dinner Preparing for Spring

I didn’t make a shopping list last week because we had so many left overs from my daughter’s birthday party and extra odds and ends around the house. It was kind of fun to be creative with what we had, clean out the fridge and not waste food.

Sometimes dinner looks like this and that’s ok 🙂

left over garlic soup with a side of chicken quesadilla or cauliflower grilled cheese with shredded pork, rice and beans for the kids on a messy dinner table

I taught Yogapuncture for Spring in Crystal Lake Friday night over at Bonnie’s. It was, as usual a lovely evening and we talked a little about spring foods and how to keep a happy, healthy liver energy. (there’s two more opportunities for Spring yogapuncture this month at OhmMother Yoga in West Dundee and Blu Rain Yoga in Antioch too)

Because we are in transition dinners will have some yellow foods to nourish the spleen energy (the spirit of transition) some warm foods since its technically still winter and some green and lighter foods of traditional spring.

What are you in the mood for, for dinner?

Crock pot spaghetti squash and meat balls (first time giving this recipe a go but I love the concept)

Almond crusted salmon with garlic mustard aoli on a bed of lemony creamed spinach (look for a recipe this week)

Pork Chops (they were on sale at the farmer’s market, I’ll be cooking them and serving them alongside some asparagus and mashed cauliflower)

Skillet Gnocchi with white beans and chard (one of my favorite dinners!)

Homemade Rueben sandwiches

1 Pot Three Bean Green Chili

This is a good recipe about balance. Its a hearty meal with lots of health benefits that I like to pair with tortilla chips and sour cream and shredded cheese. The warming nature of the chili itself along with the spices helps to counteract the cooling nature of the sour cream and shredded cheese. Because life is too short to skip the sour cream. 😉 Its also a quick and easy meal, 30 minutes or less to make. I’ve bolded the ingredients that especially benefit the kidney energy of winter.

What you need:

small onion
1lb ground beef (preferably grassfed)
1 red pepper chopped
1/2 cup corn
1 can red kidney beans
1 can white kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
2 12 oz jars of salsa verde
sea salt (I use pink himalayan salt)
black pepper
cumin
shredded cheese
sour cream (or greek yogurt)
cilantro and avocado for garnish
tortilla chips

In a stock pot brown meat and onions, season with salt, pepper, cumin. I eyeball this maybe a tsp each of salt and cumin and 1/2 tsp of pepper. Drain excess liquid.
Add pepper, corn, beans and salsa. Simmer on low for 15 minutes.
Pour into bowls and top with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, avocado and cilantro. Enjoy with tortillas as a side or crumble into chili.

Enjoy!

Kale Walnut Pesto Pasta with Zucchini Meatballs

What You Need (meatballs)
This recipe was inspired by this one here.

Onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
Salt, to taste
Everyday Spices by trader joes (contains garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper)
3 tablespoon parsley
1 pound grass fed ground beef
2 eggs
1 cup grated zucchini
1 cup shredded Quattro Formaggio cheese
1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Stir or mix well with hands until all ingredients are combined well.

Shape mixture into balls and lay on cookie sheets. (For easy cleaning cover cookie sheet with parchment paper)

Bake until cooked through 25-30 minutes.

What You Need (pesto):

One bunch kale
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup Walnuts
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Blanch kale for approximately 1 minute. Drain and rinse with cold water. Pat dry and put in food processor or blender.

Add the rest of ingredients and pulse instill well chopped and combined.

**Time management. Prepare meatballs first. Boil pasta and make pesto while meatballs are baking.

Let me know what you think! 🙂

Coconut Lime Butternut Squash Soup

If you haven’t noticed already I really enjoy soups. I used to be a terrible soup maker and then one day they started to all taste really good. Putting together a nice hardy soup is the perfect meal to have on hand for days you don’t feel like cooking or get home late or don’t feel like cooking. 🙂 This is another week of transitions with the time change, it won’t make you sleepy but it will fill your belly. This batch made several tasty meals.

I started with this recipe here. Below are my adaptations.

1 medium butternut squash (spleen/stomach)
2 tablespoons coconut oil (lung/large intestine)
1 onion (lung/large intestine)
1 large sweet potato, cut into cubes (spleen/stomach)
2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chile pepper, or 1 tablespoons fresh minced chile pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups chicken stock (lung/large intestine)
15 oz coconut milk (lung/large intestine)
Juice of 1 lime (liver/large intestine)
2 cups spinach leaves (liver/large intestine)
Salt and pepper to taste
rice (spleen/stomach)

1. Cut squash length wise and deseed. Cook at 375 until tender about 45 minutes.

2. In coconut oil cook onion until fragrant and translucent. Add sweet potatoes and cook until tender 5-10 minutes or so. Sprinkle 1/2 of cumin and cinnamon and cook. When squash is cooked, scoop out in chunks and add to sweet potatoes. Add the rest of the spices and chicken stock, bring to boil and then lower to simmer. Mix in coconut milk and let simmer for 15 minutes.

3. 5 minutes before serving add spinach and cooked rice.