Roasted romaine salad

My new obsession is roasting greens for a new and interesting approach to the salad. This is a little creation that made a wonderful lunch for me, but you could certainly add a little more flair and make it into a wonderful dinner salad! Light and healthy, but hearty and warm, this salad has it all!

Roasted Romaine Salad:

1 boiled egg white. (I actually hate egg yolks, but if you like them, you can keep it!)

1 small head of romaine lettuce, cut in half lengthwise, rinsed and dried

6 seedless grapes, cut in half

6 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 corn tortilla, cut into strips, salted, and baked at 450 until crunchy

1 oz feta cheese (sub goat cheese if you like)

salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle the two halves of romaine with salt, pepper, and olive oil and put it cut side down onto a greased (with olive oil, of course!) baking sheet. Cut the grapes and tomatoes and arrange them around the lettuce. Salt and pepper everything and put it in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until slightly browned and roasted looking. Once done, chop the romaine, and layer it in a bowl and top with cheese and the crunchy tortilla! You can sub toasted nuts for the tortilla if you like. It would be equally delicious and delightful! You will be amazed at the flavors that develop in the roasted romaine! I'm a serious foodie, and I know that this certainly wouldn't make it to my blog unless it were flavorful, healthy, and hearty!

Banana-berry cocoa ice cream

Ok, so it's not reallyice cream.. but it's a delicious, fruity, low calorie treat that will happily replace your occasional (or daily) bowl of ice cream! Feel free to get fun and funky with it. May I suggest a tsp of peanut butter in place of the strawberries for a fat burning alternative? How about blueberries? Sprinkle chopped almonds on top for a deliciously crunchy addition! The possibilities are endless! The only thing you can't skip is the banana, as it is what gives this ice cream its creamy and decadent texture! Otherwise you'll end up with a sorbet type dish, and if that's your thing, go for it. Personally I like it creamy!

Banana-berry cocoa ice cream:

1 ripe banana (go organic.. the taste difference is worth it!)

1-3 tbsp cocoa powder ( I say the darker the better!)

3-4 medium strawberries


In a smoothie maker/small blender, add the strawberries and the banana and pulse until smooth. You might want to chop up the banana first to make it easier to blend. Once it's smooth, add the cocoa powder and blend again until it's combined. Pour it into a small ziplock bag and put it in the freezer. If you want to eat the ice cream that day, you can make the process easier by squishing the bag every few hours to make sure it doesn't freeze up all the way. If you're eating it sometime in the future, just make sure you take the bag out of the freezer a bit before you plan on eating it, let it thaw just a bit, and then pulse it in the blender again until the texture is smooth and creamy! It will get there, trust me!

Smoky roasted chickpeas

Stand-by. This is your new go-to snack. Forget the potato chips because these crunchy little wonders will steal your heart and taste buds. You can soak and cook your own chickpeas for a more economical treat, or you can go easy and quick with canned ones! Just make sure you rinse all that extra salt off before you bake them! Enjoy!

Smoky roasted chickpeas:

15 oz can of garbanzo beans/ chickpeas

1/2 tsp smoked chipotle seasoning

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp olive oil or olive oil cooking spray

sprinkle of salt


Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. In the meantime, drain and rinse the chickpeas very well. Allow to dry or pat dry with a paper towel. Spray your baking sheet with cooking spray or olive oil, and lay out the chickpeas in a single layer. Sprinkle with seasonings and a bit more olive oil to coat well and toss with hands until well distributed. Bake at 450 for 40 minutes, making sure to check and shake the pan after 30 minutes to make sure they don't burn. Remove from oven and enjoy! They are crunchy and delicious! Not to mention healthy! Ditch the chip habit!

A fancy tuna lunch

So this is an interesting story actually. I have had a really stressful day, had numerous people to meet with at various times, a newborn to contend with, and a two year old to both take and pick up from school. All before noon. So I didn't have much time for anything really. After school, we still needed to be out of the house for the cleaning ladies, so we had to entertain ourselves a while. We ended up at the grocery store! Kiran had to have a pumpkin, he just wouldn't take no for an answer (he said he wanted to eat it for snacktime..=/) and I was just about starving, so I actually wanted to get stuff to make tabouleh! I have been wanting fish for some time now, and just haven't made it a priority to cook, but when we passed the fish section of the grocery store, and I saw this beautiful, not fishy smelling AT ALL, tuna on sale, I just had to get it to cook for myself during naptime. Here's what I did. I only tell you this because it ended up being absolutely fantastic. Feel free to double the recipe, or quadruple it. This fed me happily for a beautiful lunch.

1 tuna steak, mine was .39 lbs
1 tsp of sesame seeds
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp light mayonnaise
1 dash sriachi vietnamese hot sauce. Rooster sauce, affectionately called.
dash of salt
dash of soy sauce
salad greens of your choice

So I got a skillet heating up with olive oil, a dash of sesame oil, and a small dash of soy sauce as well. It'd be great if you could marinade your tuna in the sesame oil and soy sauce beforehand, but it's okay if you don't. Get the pan nice and hot, then put your salted fish on it. I had mine turned to high to start with, and after a minute, I turned it down to medium. I also put a lid on it to get a little steaming going on in there. I let it do it's thing for 2 minutes, then checked it. It was nice and seared, but it still wasn't done all the way through. This is what you want it to be like. I then salted the other side, pressed a layer of sesame seeds into the top of it, and flipped it over to sear the other side. Make sure your pan has enough oil to keep it from sticking. You don't want it to stick.. =/ Once I had it turned over, I started on my sauce. Get a little bowl and mix 1 tbsp mayo with the sriachi, 1 tsp sesame oil, and a dash of water to loosen it up some. I then put mine into a little sandwich bag and got it all mixed up and ready to go. I probably cooked my fish for 3-4 minutes per side, then I opened it up just a little to see that it was almost well done ( That's how I like fish, can't help myself. If you like it less done, try 3 minutes per side.) On a nice plate, put your salad greens and sprinkle with sesame oil and a little salt. Put your fish on top of it, squeeze the sauce across the top, garnish, and enjoy it! It's even tastier than it looks!

The most important thing to consider here is to NOT overcook your fish. You can always put it back on if it's not done to your liking, but you can't un-cook it. If it gets overcooked, it will taste like the canned stuff. You just don't want to do that to yourself or your beautiful fish.

Tabouleh! or Tabboule or however the heck you spell that..

So I've been in a Mediterranean state of mind lately. I blame the garden and it's super freshness and the ease with which I am able to have such beautiful produce and herbs on demand. Whatever is the reason, I can't complain. I love it when food is done simply and beautifully with no frills. Let the fresh ingredients speak for themselves. They say lovely things. Try this recipe out and see what this simple mediterranean side dish says to you.

It's all quite simple, you start with these ingredients:

1 cup dried bulgar
1 bunch fresh, flatleaf parsley
2 very ripe roma tomatoes, diced
1 large or two small cucumbers, deseeded and diced
5 stalks of celery ( I am obsessed with celery. You can omit if you like. It's not a traditional ingredient anyhow.)
1/3 cup of lemon juice. Fresh preferred
1 bunch of green onions, the whole thing, small chop
1/2 red/yellow/orange bell pepper if desired. And I do!
1/4-1/3 cup good olive oil (I've used plain or lemon infused. Don't waste your lemon infused stuff. There's enough lemon from the juice in there)
salt and pepper to taste

It's really that simple, when you get down to it. Take the time to wash your parsley really good ( I found a little lady bug in there one time. Glad I washed before just chopping into it! ) Pull off all the leaves and chop them finely. It takes some time, sure, but this whole process is guaranteed to help you with your knife skills! You'll be chopping for an hour! Ok, not an hour.. but still. To do the bulgar, you just boil a little over a cup of salted water, put the bulgar in, remove from heat and cover for an hour. Don't open it. Don't touch it. Just let it do it's thing. Once you're done chopping everything else, your bulgar will be ready to use. I'm thinking of trying it with quinoa just to mix it up a bit. Then I'll have to call this dish something else entirely! So you chop everything up, mix it altogether in a big bowl, then put your bulgar in and let it chill out in the fridge a while. It's excellent the day you make it. It's even better the next. And the third day of leftovers is my favorite. Everything has married together and gotten really tasty by then.

So that's all I got for ya. Enjoy it! We like to eat it with sauteed chicken, peppers, and onion stuffed pita with a cumin mayonnaise. I'll let you in on that recipe shortly!