Zucchini Asparagus Salad

I have received several emails asking about salads and salad dressing recipes which has inspired me to devote a whole week to salads here at Losin' it with P.I.N.K. First up is a salad inspired by what is in season right now which is asparagus. It screams with the flavors of spring and is light and refreshing. Serve it with some chicken and you have a salad that is a perfect meal or serve it along side another dish and you have a perfect side salad that is full of flavor.

Asparagus Zucchini Salad
1 zucchini sliced thinly using a vegetable peeler or your Saladacco if you have one
1/2 lb. of asparagus cut into 2-3 inch pieces
1/2 red onion sliced
Lettuce of your choice, I used romaine and spinach

Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and peper


Method

Make your dressing by whisking the Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and salt and pepper. The mustard will act as a binding agent for the vinegar and mustard and should help to create a creamy type vinaigrette.

Slice the onion, and zucchini and chop the aspargus into bite size pieces.

Pour half of the dressing over the onion, zucchini and asparagus and let the vegetable marinate.

While the vegetables are marinating, chop and wash your lettuce and spinach.

Grill the marinating vegetable on a grill pan or roast them in the oven, either will work.

As the vegetables cook, pull them off to a plate so that you don't end up with super mushy vegetables.

Once they are all cooked, let them cool a little bit so that their heat doesn't cause your lettuce to wilt.

When they are cooled slightly, add them to your lettuce along with the remaining vinaigrette.

Toss to dress the salad and Serve.

I served this as a side salad along side some Dijon Chicken

Enjoy! 

Roasted Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

Eating healthy doesn't have to mean boring bland food...quite the contrary. I got my creative juices flowing yesterday in the kitchen and boy was I pleased with the results. I set out to recreate a butternut squash pasta sauce I used to buy at Costco, the results were fantastic and oh so easy to make. Serve it on top of some Zucchini noodles made using the Saladacco along with some grilled chicken and you are set with an easy peasy, gourmet dinner or put in a little more effort and make a vegetable lasagna like I did. Yep, a deliciously amazing vegetable lasagna, I will share how tomorrow.

Roasted Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce
1.5 lbs of butternut squash
4 cloves of garlic
Sea Salt
Pepper
Mrs. Dash original
Olive oil
Almond Milk (I ended up using about a cup, you may use more or less depending on how thick you want your sauce)

Method

Peel the butternut squash and remove the seeds (just a note, you can buy peeled and seeded butternut squash at the grocery store if you want to skip this step)

Cut the squash into bite size pieces.

Spread the squash out on a cookie sheet along with your garlic and mist with a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle a little salt, pepper and Mrs. Dash on top of your squash.

Roast at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until it gets soft. Cooking time will vary depending on how large your squash is cut.

Remove the roasted squash from the oven and transfer the squash to your blender.

Start by adding 1/4 cup of almond milk to your squash and start pureeing. Add in more milk as needed until you have reached the consistency that you desire.

Serve over zucchini noodles or make this yummy vegetable lasagna once I get the recipe posted! How is that for a tease?

By the way, my kids love this sauce, I serve theirs over cheese ravioli's and they are happy as clams. Because of the color, they think it is cheese sauce and I just keep my mouth shut. It is my little secret that I just shared with you all.

Enjoy!

Spinach Zucchini Quinoa Bake

When thinking about what to make for dinner tonight, I wanted to make something that didn't need a lot of babysitting...I was tired and not feeling great so I decided to make some type of casserole. Usually this means something in the vein of Campbell's chicken and rice casserole. You know the one where you mix rice and cream of something soup, sometimes some cheese in a pan and put chicken breasts of the top and bake. Yeah, I know the cream of something soup is awful but the dish is so easy to make when you don't have a lot of time for prep. Well, it got me thinking, could I somehow replicate the dish and make it PINK friendly?

I thought about the Alfredo sauce that I posted about here, and knew that I could use that as the creamy base to cook the rice in. Then I thought about the rice, did I want to use brown rice? I could but brown rice takes so long to cook I wasn't sure it would fully soften in the oven, so I decided to use quinoa because it cooks quickly like the instant rice you would use in the traditional casserole. I knew I was on to something so I decided to give it a try. I however didn't add the chicken on top, you could  with some seasoning and have an easy meal...I didn't because I was really just experimenting this afternoon when I made this and I didn't want to hassle with the chicken part. I simply baked some chicken in the oven at dinner to go along with the dish.

Spinach Zucchini Quinoa Bake
1 cup quinoa
1/4 onion chopped
1 zucchini shredded or use your saladacco if you have one
1 1/2 cups fresh spinach chopped
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup plain almond milk
1 cup water
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp Bragg's Aminos
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped garlic

Method

Chop your onions, mushrooms, spinach and shred your zucchini

(on a side note, as I made zucchini noodles using my saladacco tonight, my kids thought it was so funny that I was getting such long noodles  6+ feet, they said, "Let's pretend we are Lady and the Tramp" so I they stole some of my noodles and spread across the room and proceeded to eat them, until they got closer and closer, you know how it goes. I love that my kids are eating raw zucchini now, before PINK the only way I could get them to eat it was in zucchini bread which is not healthy at all. Okay thanks for humoring me, I just thought the picture was funny and wanted to share.)

Saute your onions, mushrooms, spinach and zucchini in a saute pan with a mist of olive oil.

In a separate bowl, mix your almond milk, water, Dijon, Bragg's, yeast, lemon juice and garlic.

Add your almond milk mixture to the pan along with your quinoa and stir to combine.

When the liquid begins to boil, pour into a casserole dish, mine was about 6 x 9 but an 8x 8 would work or a pie pan. I just wouldn't use a big pan like a 9 x 12, I think the quinoa would be spread to thin and might not cook correctly. At this point you could add your chicken to the top to make it an easy meal.

Cover your dish with foil or a lid if your casserole dish has a lid and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. You could also skip putting it into a pan and baking and just finish it on the stove top letting it simmer until the quinoa has softened, that is fine. I just wanted to be able to forget about it and not have to watch it like you do on the stove top.

Like I said I didn't add chicken to mine, next time I will. I simply sprinkled some almond meal with a little Mrs. Dash to the top of my chicken and baked in the oven. Serve the casserole along with a salad and dinner is done.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Vegi Frittata

What a trying week I have had. We all have them and I will live through it but boy oh boy. All three of my kids have had their own separate issues this week that are wearing on me. Let's just say being a parent is difficult sometimes and leave it at that. When life gets stressful it makes it difficult to stick to healthy eating. Let me tell you it took all my power not to order take out for dinner tonight, it was just one of those days where the kids got home from school and all hell broke loose and before I knew it it was 7:00 and I hadn't even thought about dinner. Instead of ordering take out, I chose to throw together a quick frittata, which is really just a crust-less quiche. This could also be made reset friendly, if you left out the sweet potato. It would be less substantial and more like an omelet but still something that could be made ahead.

Sweet Potato Vegi Frittata (serves 2)
1 medium sweet potato
2 whole eggs
2 egg whites
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp sea salt or Bragg's
1 tsp Original Mrs. Dash
2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
Assorted Chopped vegetables

Method

Slice sweet potato into thin slices.  Remember that a serving of sweet potato is 1 medium sweet potato  which should be about the size of your fist. Mine is slightly larger which is okay since this will make two servings. I just sliced mine up using my Saladacco on the thick setting. I know it looks like there is a ton of potato in the pan but the Saladacco cuts the potato into very thin curly slices that are fun but it really isn't necessary for the recipe, just slice them with a knife, a mandolin, a food processor, any of those will work.

Pile the sweet potato into the pan, I used a pie pan but and 8 x 8 would work also.

Chop your favorite vegetables and add them to the pan, I used spinach, onion, zucchini, assorted bell peppers, and mushroom, but use what you like. Don't be afraid to pile them in either, they will shrink down as they cook.

Crack your eggs, 2 whole eggs 2 eggs whites. I know this is a little more than a serving but I am okay with having a little more protein.

Add in your milk, Dijon, yeast, Mrs. Dash, salt or Braggs to the eggs and mix it up.

Pour over your sweet potato, mix to combine all the ingredients

Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or until the egg has set and all the liquid has been absorbed.

Enjoy!

Thai Chicken Soup

Have you been sitting in the passenger seat of you life lately? I know weird question but one that I found the answer to yesterday when we, took a little trip up to Mt. Hood to do some sledding as a family. You see we didn't go to a sledding hill that has one of those tow rope things, no you have to hike your bottom up to the top of the hill to sled down and then hike back up again. It was no small hill either, sure there were smaller ones but my family didn't want to sled down the small hill, no they wanted to do the "big" hill. My family hiked up and down the hill a few times and I sat and watched as they went up and down, when it occurred to me that this is a pattern in my life, I am always watching other people as they have fun and not participating. I thought to myself, why am I not sledding with my kids and husband? Well, there is that giant hill, there is one reason why I am not sledding. I wasn't sledding for fear that I couldn't get up that giant hill, I was using my weight to determine whether I could or should have fun. I was sitting in the passenger seat allowing this precious moment with my family pass me by. 

Me being a passenger

I made a choice then and there that I was no longer going to be a passenger, I have sat for to long and let life pass me by. I don't want to be the mom that can't be active with her kids any longer. I want my kids to remember a mom who took risks and had fun with them. I got up and started climbing that hill. Guess what, I climbed the hill to the top, the entire hill. I was only intending to climb about half way and sled down but I made it up the entire hill, yep I did. Not once, not twice but probably 5 or 6 times. I could have and would have done more but by the time I finally decided to stop being a passenger, the day was more than half over. Boy was it fun! Please stop being the passenger in your life, take control and don't let the negative thoughts determine what you can and can't do!

Me in the driver's seat!

On to today's recipe, Thai chicken soup! This is a great recipe with loads of flavor and one that you could add in any number of vegetables to make it your own. Yes, I believe it is reset friendly, (you make the choice regarding the curry paste) and one you could also leave out the chicken of and have it as a snack any time you get hungry. 

Thai Chicken Soup

4 ounce boneless skinless chicken breast

3 cups chopped vegetables (I used onion, carrot, broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms)

1 tbsp chopped basil

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 tsp chopped ginger

1 tbsp Thai red curry paste

2 cups water

1 zucchini, cut into noodles (optional)

Method

Brown your chicken in a pot with a mist of olive oil or coconut oil

Remove your chicken from the pan and add in your aromatic vegetables. Those would be your onions, carrots, garlic, and ginger.

Add your chicken back into the pan

Add the remaining vegetables, the water and the Thai red curry paste to your pan and stir to combine. 

Simmer until the vegetables have softened.

When the soup is done add in a squirt of lime juice to the soup. Yes, I used a bottled lime juice and I know a real lime would be much better but I didn't have one.

Turn your zucchini into noodles if you so choose. I use the Saladacco to make my zucchini into noodles.

Spoon your soup over your zucchini noodles.

Enjoy!

Remember don't be a passenger today!