Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken

Our lunch for the week will be this cilantro lime chicken.  Really easy to make...I love my crock-pot.  I did use a full jalapeno pepper and the recipe has some kick to it.  I shredded the chicken and added a little bit of the leftover salsa sauce to the tupperware for the week.  We'll add some sour cream and make cold chicken tacos for lunch I think. Could eat it on a bed of lettuce as a chicken taco salad too!

Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken

Apple Peanut Butter Snack Bars

These are good, for a healthy snack.  They'd be waaay better with some sugar and butter.  But alas, if it's healthy you're going for these are a pretty good, tasty option.  I used one green delicious apple which I shredded with a cheese grater.  You can't really taste the apple however.  I did use chunky peanut butter, again, since that seems to be what we always have on hand.  I like them as a mid-afternoon healthy snack.  (And next time I might sneak some butter and sugar in too!)

Apple Peanut Butter Snack Bars

No bake energy bites

I'm posting this recipe....though I left out about half the ingredients that were called for.  It's okay though, I put all the important ones (peanut butter, chocolate) in!

Peanut butter and chocolate are probably my favorite combination of ingredients on the planet.  This recipe combines them - in a not terrible for you kind of way.  And by not terrible I mean at least there's not butter and sugar in this one.

The honey provides the sweetness and holds it together.  I did use chunky peanut butter and I can't tell the difference.  I did leave out the flax seed and coconut flakes and I still really like how they turned out.

I'm storing ours in the fridge....at least until they are all eaten for dessert tonight!

No bake energy bites

Black Bean & Quinoa Veggie Burgers

I've made a couple variations of burgers such as this in the past.  This time, I had some quinoa on hand, and was looking for something with a little extra protein.  This is a good one....however, most of the flavor comes from the yogurt sauce.  I added avocado to our burgers, cause why not?  Next time I'd add some more adobo peppers for a little more spice and probably some more quinoa too.  I used the suggested amount and didn't really even notice it - or the oats.  (I also used regular flour - not oat flour).  I think these stayed together slightly better than versions I've made in the past...probably because of the flour?  I didn't refrigerate these patties prior to cooking, since I didn't think ahead that far.  That might have helped them stay together better too.

Black Bean & Quinoa Veggie Burgers

Parmesan Chicken

This recipe comes from a weight watchers blog.  It was good, enough flavor, and still nice to know, relatively healthy.  Don't forget to pound them flat prior to putting them in the oven to help decrease the baking time some.  Stupidly, I used garlic salt in the bread/chesse mix, because I didn't have garlic powder.  I thought there was enough other stuff in there to cover up the salt....alas, I was wrong.  Completely my fault though.  It was still good, but I would recommend using the recommended recipe. I really liked this as another way to cook and eat chicken.

Parmesan Chicken

Avocado and Grilled Corn Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette

Avocados are such a good food in many forms.  Especially delicious in this dish -- another healthy salad.  I followed the instructions for the salad, including fresh, grilled corn.  I think the fresh corn really made this salad.  The dressing, though good, isn't really even necessary.  This salad had a lot of flavor without it.  And you could just put cilantro directly in the salad.  However, I did add some dressing (using red wine vinegar instead of sherry vinegar since that's what I had on hand) and it was nice too.  Filling enough for dinner for me.  Oakley added some chicken on the side.

Avocado and Grilled Corn Salad with Cilantro Vinagrette

Baked meatballs

Meatballs are amazing.  I haven't made them too often myself - but these are easy.  Full of good ingredients.  Baked in the oven for 30 minutes.  I put them on top of some pasta and spaghetti sauce.

Incredible Baked Meatballs. 
1lb hamburger
2 eggs, beaten with 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Parmesan 
1 cup panko or bread crumbs
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup minced fresh basil 

Mix all ingredients with hands. Form into golfball sized meatballs. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

These were good - colorful, really pretty.  I liked the ground turkey but I do feel like it lacked a little bit of flavor, even with the taco seasoning.  The cheese, sour cream and avocado helped make up for that!  The peppers didn't stay together too well, but still tasted great.  I probably put a bit too much olive oil on them at the beginning.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

LIghtened Up Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad Sandwich

We try to be good about packing lunches for the week.  One of the easiest ideas we've come up with is to cook 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts on Sunday night.  We'll mix it with peppers and mayo or lettuce and caesar.  Wrap it in a tortilla each morning and you've got lunch for the day.  As Oakley says, not everyone is comfortable eating the same thing for lunch everyday - but if you can do it, it's a good way to save the money of eating lunch out everyday and it's a decently healthy option.

So, when this recipe came around I was intrigued.  We'd made our usual chicken with apples before, but never tried quite so many delicious things in our usual semi-boring chicken salad.  I'll let you know how it holds up through the week - but one might of this while i was making it showed that it'll definitely beat our normal run of the mill chicken salads.

Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad Sandwich

Kale, Edamame, and Quinoa Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Well, the last semester of grad school is in full swing....and as you can see by my lack of posts I've gone back to my old ways lately.  Nothing we've been eating is worthy of a blog post...until today!  No plans for the Monday of this glorious 3-day weekend led us to do a big grocery trip this morning and a healthy delicious lunch today.

I bring you....kale edamame and quinoa salad with lemon vinaigrette
Full of healthy ingredients, the flavors were a great combination too.  It's a vegan salad - which is unlike me, and very unlike Oakley.  But it was filling enough and he offered up no complaints at the lack of meat.

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

I loved this!  So good, really healthy.  A great taste to it, and I don't generally eat a lot of chickpeas.  Unfortunately i don't have a great store that sells (cheap) fresh vegetables.  Going to do some searching around for that.  However, even with what I got at the regular grocery store I loved this dish.  We ate it for dinner with a chicken breast and then i used the leftovers next day for lunch.  Highly recommend!

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Cilantro Lime Crockpot Chicken

This was easy and good.  However, I will say that the time in the crockpot really diminished the lime and cilantro flavors.  I might add some more toward the end of cooking next time.  To spice up the flavor we added some sour cream (the only unhealthy thing in there!) and some spicy salsa.  This would be good wrapped up as a burrito or even added to a salad.

I do love how easy chicken falls apart after a few hours in the crockpot.  It makes it so easy.  Stays moist too.  I didn't freeze it before, as the original blog suggested, but I think that would have been great too.

Crockpot Cilantro Lime Chicken

Garlic Spinach with shallots

Garlic spinach has been done before, but this recipe added shallots and turned out pretty well.  It's a very healthy recipe and a nice addition for another vegetable sidedish.  Good flavor.  Definitely adding it to my vegetable rotation.

Garlic Spinach with Shallots

Ravioli with Brussel Sprouts and Bacon

Pasta, brussel sprouts, bacon...what's not to love?
3 of my favorite things put together in this dish.  The pecans in this were a great addition - changes up the consistency really nicely.  We really liked this...the bacon adds some good flavor.  Takes a fair bit of salt and pepper though.  Really good.

Ravioli with brussel sprouts and bacon

Roasted Smashed Spicy Sweet Potatoes

These were delicious...but a complete fail. I don't know why.  Clearly I didn't smash them correctly.  They fell apart on the baking sheet.  I tried to put them back together to roast them, which sorta worked.  Luckily, it was dinner for just the two of us and it didn't particularly matter what they looked like.  I smashed them with a bottom of a cup -- not sure what might be better.  The fact that they were falling apart made it a little hard to get the spices to stay on, but it worked well enough.

The taste though was fantastic.  Good spicy and sweet combination.  Will definitely try again!

Roasted Smashed Spicy Sweet Potatoes

Salmon in a bag

Really easy.  Place salmon fillet on lemons.  Add some salt and pepper.  (I added some basil and chives too).  Add a little pat of butter on.  Bake for 20 min at 350 degrees.  Really easy and tasty.  Pretty healthy.

Salmon in a bag

Chicken, Sweet Potato and Apple Skillet

This is a good find.  A great fall/winter dish.  Lots of flavor and best, it's really healthy.  Besides the three pieces of bacon it's all healthy, filling, tasty ingredients.  No butter, cream, etc.

There's a bit of chopping/prep involved in the dish but other than that it's easy to make.  Also very pretty, lots of colors.  Would be a great dish to make for a group of friends - easily doubled too.

Chicken, Sweet Potato and Apple Skillet