Broccoli, Tomato & Cheese Quiche and Sweet Potato Hash

October 3, 2013October 2, 20138 Comments

A few weeks ago, I decided I was in the mood for breakfast for dinner. My sister is an avid quiche maker and I’ve realized that quiche is not only easy to make and delicious to eat, but it is also a dish that reheats really well (and we all know how much I love leftovers!). I did a little research and came across this delicious looking crustless quiche from Cooking Light. Going crustless with quiche is a great way to cut down on calories, and I promise, you won’t miss the crust if you make your quiche tasty enough 😉

To accompany my quiche, I made a sweet potato “hash” recipe that I got from this blog. Super easy, but super tasty!

This meal absolutely hit the spot and was a great, balanced meal to have around for the week!

Broccoli & Tomato Crustless Quiche (from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

2 tsp EVOO
1/2 cup onion, chopped,
1 garlic clove, minced
5 cups broccoli florets
cooking spray
1 1/4 cup skim milk
1 cup shredded reduced- fat Swiss cheese (I used a blended cheese because that’s what I had)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (I skipped this because I didn’t have any)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 large egg whites, lightly beaten
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon grated fresh Parmesan cheese
6 (1-ounce) slices whole wheat bread, toasted (I skipped this all together. Wasn’t necessary!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*.

2. Chop onion, broccoli and tomato. Sauté until the onions are translucent. Add the broccoli in and cook until the broccoli is mostly cooked. Remove from heat, add in the tomatos and place the veggie mixture to the bottom of a pie pan.

3. Combine the milk through eggs in a large bowl. Once it’s combined, pour the mixture over the veggies. Bake for 40 minutes or until the eggs have fully cooked.

Sweet Potato Hash (from fit sugar)

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, wash and dice into small cubes (1/4” square)
2 tbsp. canola or coconut oil
2 cups sweet onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 whole fresh jalapeno pepper, minced (I didn’t add this)
2 cloves of roasted garlic (I just minced my garlic)
1/3 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning.

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Chop the sweet potato and add to the boiling water. Cook until the sweet potato is soft. Remove from the water and let cool.

2. While the sweet potato is cooking, chop your onion and pepper and sauté them until fully cooked.

3. Add the sweet potato to the veggies and let everything simmer on the stove for about 20 minutes on low heat.

All together now:

Mmmm. The quiche was absolutely delicious! Cheesy and veggie-filled and the sweet potato hash was a great substitution for the crust on the quiche. I think I caught myself “mmm”ing while I ate. Good thing I was alone because that would have been weird 😉

Questions for you: Do you like quiche? Have you ever made sweet potato hash? What’s your favorite “breakfast for dinner” meal?

Family Road Trip: Recap {Day 1- Boston to Buffalo}

September 24, 2013September 24, 20132 Comments

Hi, friends! Phew, does anyone else feel like after a long, indulgent weekend, it’s harder to get up and get going on Tuesday than it is on Monday? My 1/2 mile walk to the T in crisp, morning air definitely helps to wake me up, though 🙂

As most of you know, last week/weekend I went on a mini road trip with my parents to Michigan for my cousin, Mary’s, wedding. I took Thursday and Friday off from work since we planned to do the trip in 2 days (so happy we did- 16 hours in the car in one day would have literally caused me to go even more crazy than I already am!). Mom and dad picked me up around 8:30 on Thursday and we wasted no time hitting the road!

I drove the first and last legs of the trip, dad drove in the middle and mom didn’t drive. No shocker there! The trip actually went incredibly smooth, except I quickly realized that I forgot my freshly charged iPad at my apartment. I was so mad because I had just downloaded Gone Girl the night before. Womp, womp.

Traveling with my parents is great because we take lots of bathroom stops and there is never a shortage of treats 😉

Day 1 went incredibly well and fast! We stopped for a picnic lunch around 1 and made it to the hotel around 4:30. I had been waiting for lunch ever since my dad told me all the things he bought. I was absolutely blown away with how thoughtful his food shopping was! Seriously, when he saw the snacks that I packed for myself, he said I didn’t need any of them because he had already gotten them all… and more! Trail mix, granola bars (4 different boxes), crackers, deli meat, chopped veggies, dips, sandwich thins and every type of fruit you could imagine. What an amazing dad, right?!

In typical Monique fashion, I think I had a bit of everything 😉 The weather was gorgeous, wine tasted delicious and it was a great little break from driving!

The second big leg of the trip wasn’t bad at all, and before we knew it, we were at the hotel! Since my sister travels so much, she has lots of points at various hotel chains. She set us up at an awesome Residence Inn in Buffalo, NY. I asked if there were any upgrades available and lucky for us, they did! This place was seriously like an apartment (what I would do to live in an apartment like this hotel suite!).

Downstairs there was a mini kitchen, living room (with a real fire place), dining room area, bathroom and a Murphy Bed (which was surprisingly SO comfortable). Upstairs was a loft-ish bedroom and another bathroom, so this was a perfect suite to share with my parents since we had entirely separate sleeping areas.

Not long after we arrived, mom gave me my “special” bottle of wine (Estancia Chardonnay- right up there with J. Lohr for me!) and we headed out to the pool to relax and soak up the last of the sun for the day.

As I mentioned yesterday, I instructed my mom through a water aerobics workout which was a blast!

Once the sun went down, it started to get a little chilly so we meandered over to the hotel’s complimentary cocktail hour.

Boy do we have fun together! After the happy hour ended, we decided to order in since no one felt like getting back in the car. We went with Greek, but unfortunately, it took forever for the food to get there and by the time it eventually got to us, it wasn’t very warm or fresh. Womp, womp. Overall, though, it was a solid first day and we had lots of laughs and good conversations.

Since this post is already quite lengthy, I’ll share the rest of the trip in another post.

Questions for you: What’s the longest road trip you’ve ever been on? Nicest hotel you’ve ever stayed at? For us, it is Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City- Ahhhh mazing hotel!

A busy weekend in the kitchen!

September 19, 2013September 18, 2013Leave a comment

Hey there! I find that when I’m around on the weekend with some extra time, I tend to spend it in the kitchen. I wouldn’t say that I’m a great cook or baker, but I love doing both and have turned out some pretty delicious meals and baked goods, so I think that’s enough to keep me happy and motivated to keep trying new things.

This past weekend, I had a blast baking festive treats and a Mexican dinner that was super quick and easy to put together. I think it’s probably the cooler fall weather that makes it so comforting to be in the kitchen with the stove going. Whatever it is, I’ll take it, because I love having fun treats in the apartment!

First up, Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. Sunday morning I woke up and decided I wanted to bake pumpkin bread. I went online and did a quick Google search for “healthy pumpkin bread” and stumbled upon a bunch of delicious looking Cooking Light pumpkin bread recipes. I decided to try the Pecan-Topped Pumpkin Bread, substituting the pecans for chocolate chips. MMMM. A pumpkin bread smelling apartment is a great way to start the day;)

Next up, apple crisp. I told Jessi that I would bring apple crisp to her dinner party since I had a bunch of apples from Saturday’s apple picking. I found a great looking Martha Stewart apple crisp recipe and decided to use it! I can’t say I really like to peel apples, but, there was something very soothing and relaxing about peeling and chopping on Sunday, which made for a much more enjoyable process. Could’ve been the glass of wine I was drinking while I peeled and chopped 😉

If I thought the smell of pumpkin bread was delicious, the smell of apple crisp was unbelievable! I absolutely love all apple desserts, but apple crisp is probably my favorite. I made a few different size dishes so I could keep some, and share more.

Lastly, I made a taco salad for dinner! I didn’t want to make anything big this week since I wouldn’t be around on Tuesday and Thursday through Sunday, so using up some frozen chicken and leftover veggies, adding in beans and taco seasoning was the perfect quick and easy dinner!

I had been craving Mexican for a while, so this totally hit the spot. The only thing missing was cheese. I bought Mexican cheese and everything… can’t believe I forgot to add it 😦 Oh well. Once I slathered everything in salsa I couldn’t even tell the difference 😉

Questions for you: What’s your favorite apple recipe? What’s your favorite quick bread recipe? What’s the best thing you ate last weekend?

“Shepherds Pie” {with a healthy twist}

September 12, 2013September 11, 201310 Comments

I say “Shepherds Pie” in quotations because even though this recipe follows the general idea of Shepherds Pie, I made some healthier substitutions where I could. The traditional recipe calls for regular white potatoes and ground beef and while there is nothing wrong with either of those items, I prefer to use sweet potatoes (or a combination of sweet and regular) for their nutritional value (and, ok, taste- I think they taste so much better than regular potatoes) and ground turkey as I am not a huge beef person. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good, juicy burger or piece of steak every now and then, but most of the time I use ground chicken or ground turkey instead of beef since it’s a little more in line with the way I like to eat.

What made this meal even more delicious was the fact that I used carrots, onions and potatoes from my dad’s garden! There’s something about eating things fresh from the garden that makes them taste so much better. I swear, his carrots are a million times better than those “mini” carrots that are loaded with preservatives and whatnot to keep their shelf life longer.

With all that said, let’s get to the recipe!

Healthified Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients

1lb. ground turkey- tip- I got the “Italian Style” version and oh my goodness was that a good choice! it was so full of flavor I didn’t have to add any extra seasonings to it!
1 medium sweet potato
3 small yellow potatoes
1- 1.5 cup(s) canned corn (if you want a lot of veggies in the pie, use 1.5 cups!)
1- 1.5 cup(s) chopped carrots
1- 1.5 cup(s) chopped onions
2tbsp butter
1/4 cup milk

Directions

1. Peel and chop your potatoes. Place into a big pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let it boil until the potatoes are soft.

2. While the potatoes are cooking, preheat your oven to 350* and chop your carrots and onions. Heat a medium skillet with a tbsp. of olive oil and add the onions and carrots. Add in herbs/seasonings of your choice and cook until onions are translucent and carrots are soft.

3. Once the onions and carrots are cooked, remove from the pan and set aside. Heat the pan again and add the ground turkey. Cook until no longer pink.

4. When the potatoes are cooked, drain the water from the pan, add in the butter and milk and mash the potatoes. I didn’t have a masher so I used my hand mixer and it worked great! I also added a dash of salt & pepper for flavor, but that’s optional.

5. At this point, everything should be ready to assemble. Place the meat at the bottom of a casserole dish, then layer the carrots, onions and corn. Finally, top with the mashed potatoes. Bake at 350* for 20-30 minutes or until the top has browned up.

Serve yourself a big heaping of this deliciousness and enjoy!

This was the perfect meal to kickoff the cooler, fall weather that’s starting to stick around (well, except for yesterday. Where did that 90 degree weather come from?! I want sweater and boots weather!). I’ve already started to collect more fall recipes that I can’t wait to make!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite fall weather meal? What’s your favorite healthy substitution?

Artichoke & Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken & a Summer Quinoa Salad

September 5, 2013September 4, 20131 Comment

The title of this post caught your attention, didn’t it? Last week, as I was thinking about what to make for my first *real* meal in my new apartment, I decided I wanted to make something different from the “normal” Monique meals. I always text my friend JP photo’s of my meals and he said a few weeks ago: “your meals always look the same! Delicious, but the same!”, so I decided it was time to change that! In addition to my meal looking different, I also wanted there to be no trace of zucchini or summer squash. No offense to either vegetable, but after 3 meals in a row with those veggies being the main focus (Summer Squash and Zucchini Lasagna, Zucchini Boats, and Zucchini & Summer Squash Parmesan), I wanted nothing to do with them!

While walking and talking to my mom, I decided to make one of my favorite “go to” chicken recipes: Artichoke and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken. A number of Christmas’ ago, my mom got me the Cooking Light Chicken cookbook and this was one of the first recipes I made from it. I’m not big on repeating recipes (why would you when there are SO MANY recipes to try?!), but I have repeated this recipe a handful of times because it’s THAT good. And, it’s really quite easy, which is always a nice thing.

Once I decided on the main dish, I looked through all of my Hannaford “Fresh” magazines (which always has delicious looking recipes- I’ve tried a number of them and have loved them all!), in search of a fun side dish. In the January/February 2013 edition, they had a recipe for a Toasted Quinoa-Pistachio Tabbouleh and I knew that was what I wanted to make. I ended up changing the recipe quite a bit, but I followed the dressing recipe to a T, so that counts for something, right? Anyway, these two recipes paired for a delicious Sunday dinner! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did 🙂

Artichoke & Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken

-recipe is from Cooking Light

Ingredients – Just an FYI, since I was only cooking for myself, I halved the recipe below. This is how it is listed in the cookbook.

2 1/2 tbsp. Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
2 tsp grated lemon ride (I don’t have a grader so I just squeezed the juice of a 1/2 of a lemon instead)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 (6 oz) jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained & chopped
1 (3 oz) package herbed goat cheese, softened
4 (6 oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375*.

2. Combine the first 6 ingredients, sir well.

3. Flatten the chicken breasts so they are nice & thin- it’s easier to roll them this way. Place about 2tbsp of the cheese mixture and roll the chicken (jelly roll style). Secure with toothpicks.

4. Heat a large skillet, coat with a little EVOO and brown the chicken rolls. Move the chicken rolls to a baking pan/dish and bake at 375* for about 15 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink.

Summer Quinoa Salad

-Recipe from Hannaford’s Toasted Quinoa-Pistachio Tabbouleh. My changes are noted in red.

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa
1 3/4 cup low-sodium vegetable broth– I forgot to buy this so I just used 2 cups of water
2 tbsp. EVOO
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/3 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 English cucumber, diced
1 cup chopped parsley (packed)– didn’t buy this so I skipped it, but added lots of basil!
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint– thought this was weird so I skipped it
2 scallions, thinly sliced– didn’t add this
1/3 golden raisins– didn’t add this

Directions

1. Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add quinoa and toast, shaking the pan occasionally. Should brown in 3-5 minutes. Add broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer (covered) until quinoa is tender- about 15 minutes. Once it’s cooked, remove from the heat and let cool. I skipped this- I just cooked the quinoa with water according to the package- how boring 😉

2. While quinoa is cooking, prepare the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes.

3. Chop the tomatoes and cucumber accordingly. If you’re following the recipe, also cut the scallions, parsley, and mint. Add to the dressing.

4. Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add pistachios and toast until fragrant and slightly browned (about 3 minutes). I did this, and burned them. Well, most of them. Whomp. (Don’t worry- I still used them)

5. Once the quinoa has cooled, add it to the cucumbers, tomatoes and dressing. Mix well. Top with toasted pistachios. (if you’re following the recipe exactly, you’d be adding the quinoa to the veggies, herbs, and raisins.

Ta-da! I steamed up some broccoli on the side, even though it wasn’t necessary. This was such a fun and delicious meal that was totally different from the normal meals I make. It’s a great dinner party meal, too!

I happily ate leftovers of this meal for a good part of the week. Once the chicken was gone, I added the quinoa salad to a bed of lettuce, added some sliced turkey deli meat and goat cheese… ohhh my goodness! This was the best “salad” I’ve had in a long time.