Chicken Orzo Summer Salad

May 292012

Ah, my favorite time of the day is right now. Dinner is done, the kitchen is clean, and I can relax on the couch and blog. This evening is especially welcome after the tough day I had at work. Coming back from vacation is always difficult, but today my to-do list was never-ending and I had a ton of assignments that needed to be finished by the end of the day. It was super stressful so coming home and enjoying an easy and fresh dinner was exactly what I needed! Before I share the recipe with you though, let’s talk about my workout.

Workout

Last night Fabio didn’t get home from New York until after midnight. To make things worse, he needed help bringing in all his bags and, since it was late, he had to park far away. This meant I had to stay up waiting for him and didn’t get to bed until way past my bedtime. So, when the alarm rang at 6 am for my morning workout, I opted to snooze for an extra 30 minutes and only ran a mile with Jack. I felt a little guilty for skipping the other half of my workout, but my body was so drained from Memorial Day Weekend and I knew it made more sense to sleep in. I will just have to vamp up my workout tomorrow!

Recipe

I was feeling pretty uninspired today when I was thinking about dinner (must have been that lack of sleep/busy workday bringing me down) so I turned to Cooking Light for some inspiration. I saw this beautiful Chicken Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese which looked bright, colorful, fresh, and easy. I was immediately hooked! Although I had most of the ingredients on hand, I didn’t have any orzo or arugula so I picked some up from Trader Joe’s after work. I couldn’t wait even one day to make this delicious recipe!

Luckily, it lived up to its expectations! It was so flavorful and I loved all the different elements. I actually wound up omitting completely forgetting to add the goat cheese, but it honestly wasn’t missing a thing! I loved this light summer salad and was happy I could incorporate so many veggies into one dish. Here’s how it came together.

First I cooked the orzo according to the package directions. If you’ve never had orzo before, it’s a rice-shaped pasta that makes a great base for salads. I used Trader Joe’s brand (shocking, I know).

While it was cooking, I got all the veggies together. I first chopped up some spinach and arugula. Then I plucked a few leaves (about 3 tbsp.) from my basil plant, julienned them (remember when I talked about that?), and mixed them with the other greens.

Then I moved the greens to the side and got started chopping some red onion, grape tomatoes, asparagus (not pictured- woops), and bell peppers.

The bell peppers I used were frozen (I always buy them in bulk, chop them, and freeze them) so I tossed them in a skillet with the asparagus for a few minutes until both were tender. I used my handy Misto olive oil sprayer to keep the oil to a minimum. I bought it for just a few bucks from TJ Maxx/Ross/Home Goods/one of those stores ages ago and it’s one of my favorite kitchen gadgets!

Once all the veggies were ready, I got the chicken going. I cooked two frozen chicken breasts on the George Foreman grill and seasoned with them with salt and pepper. I love my George Foreman because you just have to plop the frozen chicken down and walk away Smile What could be easier?

Then it was time to make the vinaigrette. It took me literally three seconds to bring together and included some olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. So, so easy.

By this time the orzo was finished cooking so I drained it and allowed it to cool for a minute or two. Then I combined everything (the arugula, spinach, basil, asparagus, bell peppers, red onion, tomatoes, chopped chicken, and vinaigrette) together in a large bowl until everything was mixed thoroughly.

Then it was time to serve!

All the flavors came together beautifully. Plus the recipe made enough for us to have leftovers for lunch! Woohoo!

Chicken Orzo Summer Salad (Adapted from Cooking Light)

Serves three

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
3 cups chopped grilled chicken breast strips
1 cup trimmed arugula
1 cup trimmed spinach
3 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (I used a mix of red and yellow)
1/2 cup chopped asparagus
1/4 cup red onion, diced
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper

Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain well.
Chop the next 6 ingredients (through red onion) and add to a large bowl; toss well.
Combine vinegar, oil, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.
Drizzle vinegar mixture over pasta mixture; toss well to coat.

This salad made me so excited for summer because of all the great produce that’s available. I loved the crunch of the asparagus, the soft tomatoes, and the buttery pasta. Yum!!

What are your favorite seasonal foods? As much as I love fresh tomatoes and asparagus in summer, there’s something to be said for apples in the fall and butternut squash in winter!

Sweet Potatoes Stuffed With Feta, Goat Cheese, & Basil

Recipes 8 Responses »

May 222012

Last night I went shopping with my friend Britt to pick up a few more items for our Memorial Day Weekend extravaganza. I know I mentioned it to you guys briefly, but allow me to give you all the full run down of details. Friday morning around 7:00 am, I will skip my morning workout in order to head over to Britt’s house (which is right by the dog park, only a mile away) where we will embark with our other friends Jess, Megan, Lauren, and Turk (nickname) to Dewey Beach, DE. There we will meet up with our New York friends, Kristen, Megan, Catrina, and Victoria. We will be there from Friday through Monday and will be hanging out on the beach with a ton of people we know from college. A lot of my coworkers will also be there, so it’s going to be a ton of fun!

Although Fabio is not coming with me on this trip (he is going up to NY for a friend’s graduation party and is taking care of Jack), he is planning to do a similar trip with his friends in July which should be a good time. It’s important to have our separate friend time after all!

Dewey Beach is located right in between Ocean City, MD and Bethany Beach, DE. Ocean City is known as more of a hangout for high school kids and Bethany is more for families. Dewey, however, is basically a bar town on the beach and we will be having fun all weekend. We will also be venturing into Ocean City on Saturday via a large bus that is taking us to Seacrets, a huge bar in the water on the bay. Can’t wait!

Seacrets, Ocean City, MD

Source

Anyway, by the time I got home from shopping with Britt, it was already 9:00 so I quickly made dinner. By the time I was done it was too late to blog, but I snapped some pictures so I could share this awesome recipe with you guys today. But, first things first….

Workout

Yesterday’s workout was another good one. I have been loving waking up early to run with Jack and then jumping into an Insanity DVD. It’s so amazing how the warm-ups kick my butt every day even though I’ve done them a million times. It is pretty much guaranteed that I will be drenched in sweat by the end, no matter what. I love it!

After Insanity I spent about 5 minutes doing some extra ab exercises (I do have to be in a bikini on Friday, after all) and then hopped in the shower to begin my day. It was a great workout, as usual!

Recipe

When I got home from shopping last night I was pooped! I wanted something quick and easy for dinner that would be filling and comforting. I looked in the cupboard to see what I was working with and I saw two sweet potatoes that I knew needed to be used soon. I looked through the recipe list I keep on my phone and saw a recipe from Kalyn’s Kitchen for twice-baked sweet potatoes with feta. I had made this recipe back in the fall and remembered loving it, so I decided to give it another go! Here’s how it came together.

First, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I washed two sweet potatoes and cut off the pointy ends. Using a fork, I poked holes all over the potatoes and microwaved them using the baked potato setting until they were soft (about 8 minutes for two).

While the potatoes were “baking,” I started getting together the filling. First I mixed feta (I used fat free), goat cheese (I used chevre), garlic, paprika, red pepper flakes, and olive oil together in a small bowl. Then I julienned (basically chopped, see video here) a few basil leaves into long strips and mixed them in with the cheese mixture.

Kalyn’s original recipe suggests letting this come together in the fridge for about an hour, but I didn’t have time so I nixed this step

Once the sweet potatoes were done cooking, I sliced them down the middle and removed the insides to a separate bowl. Be careful, they are hot!

Then I took ¾ of the cheese mixture and mixed it up with the insides of the sweet potato until everything was well combined. I then put the cheesy insides back into the potato skins.

Then I divided the remaining cheese and sprinkled it on top of the potatoes.

Then I baked the potatoes for about 10 minutes until the cheese started to get bubbly.

I served these potatoes with a small piece of grilled chicken and some asparagus.

Yum! This weeknight meal was so easy and delicious! I loved the flavor of the sweet potatoes with the salty, garlicy, cheese. You must try this!

Sweet Potatoes Stuffed With Feta, Goat Cheese, & Basil (Adapted from Kalyn’s Kitchen)

Serves two

Ingredients

2 small sweet potatoes or yams
1 oz. of crumbled feta (fat free)
1 oz. of crumbled goat cheese (could omit and double the feta)
1/2 tsp. finely minced garlic
¼ tsp. paprika
1 pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp. olive oil
6-7 fresh basil leaves, julienned

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash potatoes and cut off pointy ends, if desired. Poke all over with a fork. Microwave on baked potato setting, or for about 4 minutes per potato, until a fork enters potatoes easily.
While potatoes are cooking, mix together feta, goat cheese, garlic, paprika, red pepper flakes, and olive oil in a separate bowl. Julienne basil leaves and add them to the cheese mixture. Stir to combine.
When potatoes are cooked, slice in half and use a spoon to remove sweet potato insides to a separate bowl. Mix ¾ of cheese mixture in with sweet potato insides.
Place cheesy sweet potato insides back into potato skins and top with remaining cheese.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

This recipe was simple and delicious and made the perfect weeknight side dish. I love mixing sweet and salty flavors, so this one was right up my alley. Yum!

So, do you guys like sweet potatoes? During Thanksgiving I like them in a casserole topped with marshmallows, but during the rest of the year I like them to be paired with savory flavors. So good!

By the way, I am looking for someone to guest post on my blog on Sunday while I am at the beach. I will be able to post on Friday and Monday, but if anyone wants to write a guest post for me on Sunday, I’d appreciate it! Send me an email at chelseaeatstreats@gmail.com if you’re interested!

Quinoa with Basil and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Recipes 3 Responses »

May 082012

Yesterday I was bitten by the skinny bug. Yep, the little sucker snuck up behind me and just when I was feeling really happy maintaining my healthy weight, the skinny bug reminded me that Memorial Day Weekend is rapidly approaching and although my weight is fine right now, my body could look a little better in a bikini. Ok it could look a lot better. I might have some strong abs from so many days of doing crazy Insanity circuits, but if they’re under a layer of flab no one is going to see them. So, I decided that while maintaining a healthy weight has been fine for a while, it’s time to kick my butt back into high gear and get back into bikini-body shape. Oh joy.

Workout

To go along with this new bikini-ready goal, I kicked up today’s workout to another level. First I ran with Jack in the morning and we knocked out our usual mile in no time. Since I am now waking up earlier to exercise, I decided to do an Insanity warm-up from month two after our jog. The month two DVDs are much harder than month one, and the warm-up is a really great way to get my heart rate skyrocketing in a short time. It was hard!

Then after work I did the rest of the Insanity month two DVD and then used my ankle weights to do some strength exercises. Phew! What an intense day. I wish I could tell you how many calories I burned during this evening’s workout, but when I looked down at my heart rate monitor halfway through I realized I forget to press start. Ugh!! Oh well, based on my other days I can guess that I probably burned around 400 calories. Not bad at all!

In between all of that Fabio and I took Jack to the dog park and I brought my new camera. I was experimenting with the settings while Jack played tug-of-war with his friend Oreo and his favorite purple ball.

Jack is obsessed with that purple ball and we always have to wrestle it out of his mouth when it’s time to leave. One time he willingly dropped it on the ground and Fabio and I were shocked, until he lifted his leg and officially “claimed it.” Clearly my dog has impeccable manners. Oops.

Recipe

Tonight’s quinoa recipe isn’t a recipe so much as a tasty combination of flavors that I enjoyed. One thing I love about eating quinoa (and rice, for that matter) is that you can add any flavors you like and it never has to taste the same. There is so much you can do with quinoa! And although I already have two quinoa recipes on this blog, I’m sure that the longer this blog is around (it’s only been 3.5 weeks since I started it!) the more quinoa combinations I’ll acquire for my repertoire. Mmm lots of quinoa? Yes please. Load up the health benefits and yummy grains please!

For tonight’s quinoa, I first rinsed the grains under running water until it was no longer murky. Then I added the quinoa to a pot with some water and brought it to a boil. When it was bubbling nicely, I covered the pot and reduced the heat to low and cooked the quinoa for about 15 minutes until it was fluffy.

While it was cooking I chopped some basil from my basil plant. By the way, I always talk about my basil and cilantro plants that I got from a farmer’s market near me, but I’ve never included a picture of them! Well, here’s a picture as of yesterday so you can see how big they are. These pictures were taken after I plucked a bunch of leaves off of both. Sheesh!

Now you know why I’m always trying to cook with cilantro and basil. There’s so much of it around here!

Anyway, I plucked some leaves from my basil plant a chopped them up so I could add them into the quinoa.

I also took some sun-dried tomatoes (the kind in a packet, not in oil) and let them soak in some hot water for about 5 minutes to reconstitute them a little. Then I chopped these too and waited for the quinoa to finish cooking so I could add them in with the basil.

When the quinoa was nice and fluffy I dumped in some minced garlic (from a jar), the chopped basil, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

I mixed everything up and then seasoned the quinoa with some salt and red pepper flakes for extra flavor. I served the quinoa along side of some roasted veggies and chicken breasts cooked in tomato sauce.

It was quite a tasty dinner!

Quinoa with Basil and Sun-dried Tomatoes

Makes 2 large servings

Ingredients

2/3 cup dry quinoa
1 1/3 cup water
1 bunch basil, chopped
4 small sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 tsp. salt
1 pinch red pepper flakes

Instructions

Rinse quinoa until water runs clear. Add to a pot with water and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat, cooking until quinoa is tender and fluffy.
Chop basil into small pieces, set aside.
Add tomatoes to a small bowl with hot water and allow to sit for about 5 minutes or until they start to regain some moisture (skip this step if using sun-dried tomatoes packaged in oil). Once tomatoes are soft, chop into same size pieces as the basil.
When quinoa has finished cooking stir in basil, tomatoes, salt, and pepper flakes.

I really liked this flavor combination because it had a great Italian taste without being too heavy. It was a perfect light summer side dish. Try it out!

Now for today’s questions: Do you ever get bitten by the skinny bug? How do you balance maintaining a healthy weight and deciding to lose more? I feel like I always want to be a little thinner, but I only get super motivated every now and then and the rest of the time I’m on maintenance mode. But, you gotta do what works for you!

Tomato Basil Pizza on a Whole Wheat Crust

Recipes 1 Response »

Apr 172012

Good morning people! Are there any people reading this blog yet? Probably not. Oh well…these things take time!

Workout

Yesterday’s workout was a good one! It began with a morning jog with Jack and Fabio. Each morning (at least on weekdays) we run 1 mile to get Jack nice and tired for the rest of the day. Someone was super excited yesterday morning.

The sun was barely up and this pup was ready to go.

“Come on mom let’s go!!”

The run itself was great! Sometimes our morning runs can be really painful but yesterday I felt well-rested and it came easily. Even the monster hill that we run up felt ok. Phew!

Part II of my workout comes later on in the day after work. We jogged with Jack up to the dog park, let him hang out for a while, then jogged home. That’s another two miles!

When I came home from the dog park I jumped right into a warm-up circuit from one of my favorite Insanity DVDs. I must tell you that Insanity is my favorite way to work out. Those DVDs will have me drenched in sweat in no time. They are quick and incredibly effective (month 1 DVDs are about 45 minutes long and month 2 DVDs are about an hour long; yesterday I just did the warm-up for 13 minutes). Since my heart rate was already high from our jog, the warm-up circuit had me sweating!

I wore my heart rate monitor during my Insanity workout (I forgot to wear it during our jog) and my maximum heart rate was 187! That’s pretty high for me. I was happy. Smile

Plus I wasn’t complaining about burning 143 calories in only 13 minutes. I’d say that’s pretty good!

The warm-up circuit includes 8 moves and you repeat the circuit 3 times. You are supposed to start out slowly and then build up your speed so that by the third repetition you are sprinting. Some of the moves in the circuit include:

Jogging in place
Jumping jacks
Jump rope
Switch Kicks
High knees, arms out

Some of the other moves are made up by the trainer, Sean T, such as the “1-2-3 Heisman” and “Hit the Floor.” I’m just guessing those are probably not commonly used workout names, right? Winking smile Anyway, Insanity is a great workout and since I had already run 3 miles throughout the day I decided the warm-up was good enough for me!

Recipe

For dinner yesterday I needed to use up a few items we had laying around. First, we had these beautiful tomatoes from Trader Joes.

So many tomatoes!

I also bought a basil plant from the Farmer’s Market near us last week. I absolutely loooove fresh basil so when I saw this plant for only $3 I had to get it.

Ok, so maybe the photo makes it look slightly bigger than it is in real life, but it is still a pretty big plant for only costing three buckaroos!

We also had some whole wheat pizza dough in the freezer and some mozzarella and pizza sauce in the fridge! Hellooooooo homemade pizza!

Ok, so this isn’t exactly a recipe, but it’s what I ate for dinner so just go with it!

First I preheated my oven to 450 degrees. Then I put a cookie sheet (or pizza stone if you have one) upside down on the top rack while the oven was preheating like so:

(Don’t mind the messy oven; I need to clean it I know!)

I let the cookie sheet get nice and hot while I prepped the pizza. To get the pizza started, a first pulled out a large wooden cutting board (just to have a big flat surface) and topped it with a piece of parchment paper. Then I sprinkled some flour onto the parchment paper and placed the whole wheat pizza dough on the floured surface. You can probably skip putting flour on your parchment paper but I’ve had issues with pizza crusts sticking before so I wasn’t taking any chances. Then I began stretching out my dough into a pizza shape.

Then I tossed the pizza in the air and spun it around on my finger to make the dough the same thickness throughout.

Ok come on, you didn’t really think I could twirl a pizza in the air did you? I didn’t think so.

Next comes the toppings! We used store-bought pizza sauce (Fabio actually prefers this to homemade- crazy I know!), mozzarella cheese, and sliced tomatoes that were all from Trader Joes (as was the whole wheat crust…I’m realizing I might have a TJ addiction).

Then I popped my pizza in the oven and let it bake for about five minutes. Once the pizza started to look ready, I pulled off some leaves from my basil plant and placed them on top of my almost-cooked pizza. I’m not a huge fan of crispy cooked basil so I chose to put it on near the end, but you can add the basil whenever you want. Once I put the basil on the pizza I put it back in the oven for a minute or two. Soon the pizza was ready to eat!

I let Fabio do the cutting while I snapped this final photo and then we dug in. I had two slices and Fabio had four! That left two more for me to take to work for lunch! Woohoooo!!

Tomato Basil Pizza with Whole Wheat Crust

(Ok so this is hardly a recipe but…)

Ingredients

Whole wheat pizza dough (you can make your own or use store-bought)
Pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Fresh tomatoes
Fresh Basil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place a cookie sheet or pizza stone upside down on the top rack while oven heats up.

2. Sprinkle flour onto parchment paper and place your dough on top. Begin stretching out your dough.

3. Spread a liberal amount of tomato sauce on the dough and distribute evenly.

4. Top pizza with shredded cheese and sliced tomatoes. We also sprinkled some Italian blend spice on top of our pizza, but this is optional.

5. Place parchment paper with pizza on top onto hot cookie sheet and bake for about 5 minutes. Keep a close eye on the pizza so it doesn’t burn.

6. When the pizza is almost done, remove from oven and top with basil. Place pizza back in the oven for about a minute.

7. Remove pizza from the oven, slice and enjoy!

By the way, I try to follow Meatless Monday whenever I can and this recipe is a great one if you are trying to limit the amount of meat you eat. Look for more Meatless Monday recipes to come!

Question of the day

How do you make homemade pizza? Do you buy pre-made pizza crust? What about pizza sauce? Whenever I make homemade sauce Fabio complains that I should have just used the stuff in the jar! I compromise by buying it from Trader Joes which I feel is somehow fresher than the jarred stuff at other stores.

Soon I want to use my whole grain flours that I won to experiment with a healthy home-made dough. Let me know if you have any recipe suggestions!