Hawaiian Grilled Chicken
*I found this recipe on adashofthyme.com


3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cups low sodium soy sauce
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 bunch of green onions, chopped (save some for the top)
1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (I like a little more so I upped it to 2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoons sesame oil
1 (13.5 oz) can of coconut milk


Remove any fat from chicken breasts. Mix soy sauce, brown sugar, coconut milk, sesame oil, onions, garlic and water in a bowl.  Marinate chicken for at least 4 hours (I did mine overnight).
Grill chicken on a low heat so the marinade does not burn.  I cooked it about 4 minutes on each side.  Serve with rice or noodles and top with green onions and soy sauce.
*I served this with coconut quinoa and it was perfect! When cooking your quinoa or rice, simply replace half of the water with coconut milk.
*I also reserved 2 cups of the marinade BEFORE I put it on top of the chicken.  I then added 1 1/2 to 2 Tablespoons of corn starch to thicken it to make a sauce.  I used this to drizzle over the grilled chicken and quinoa. 
*I also served this like a kabob.  The recipe didn't call for it but I wanted to squeeze some veggies in there.  I used leftover zucchini, yellow squash and onion. SOOOO good!

 Before hopping on the grill!

 Cooked up and on top of coconut quinoa!

 Close up so you can see the sauce!  It was fantastically delicious!

Garlic and Brown Sugar Chicken

*I modified this recipe from Food.com

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 medium yellow onion, diced

4 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Lightly grease baking dish.

In a small saute pan, saute garlic onion and oil until tender.

Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar.

Place chicken in greased baking dish and cover with the brown sugar and garlic mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake uncovered for 15-30 minutes.  (I only did one chicken breast and it only took 15 minutes).

After done cooking, I put the chicken on a plate and poured the remaining sauce over top of it. This came out incredibly moist and full of flavor. 

Mango and Banana Green Smoothie
1 ripe mango, peeled and seeded
1/2 banana
1 handful (about 1 1/2 cups) baby spinach
1 Tablespoon flax seed meal
1/2 cup Silk pure coconut milk
1/4-1/2 cup water (depending upon how thin you want it)
8 ice cubes


Put all ingredients in blender and blend for 30-45 seconds.  The first time I made this with a whole banana and it was just too much...the consistency was not to my liking. 
Other ways you can make this is to add some raspberries, blueberries, strawberries or pineapple.  The key is the spinach (cuz it gets you the vitamins and nutrients you need without having to taste the spinach). If you haven't tried a green smoothie before just TRUST ME that you CANNOT taste the spinach and JUST DO IT!!!  

 All blended up!

 Kid Tested!

 Kid APPROVED!!!

I started drinking it before I took a picture.  :)  It was great!

Brittany's Tabouli


1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 1/4 cups water
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
4 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 medium yellow onion
2-3 Tablespoons minced garlic
1 1/2 cups spinach, chopped
1 cup baby peas
feta cheese crumbles (optional)
salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil


In a medium pan, bring water to boil and quinoa to a boil.  Turn down to medium to low heat, cover and cook for 16-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
While the quinoa is cooking, dice tomato, cucumber, onion and spinach.  When quinoa is done cooking, pour into serving dish and add lemon juice.  In the same pan used to cook quinoa, add extra virgin olive oil.  When that is hot, add onion and cook for 2 minutes.  Then add spinach and peas to pan and stir.  At this point, I put in 3 tablespoons of water and covered (just to make sure the peas had a hot bath to sit in and heat up).  But you don't have to do that if you don't want to.  When liquids have cooked out and it is heated through, add to quinoa.  Stir together. 
Place 1 cup quinoa mix on plate.  Top with tomatoes and cucumber.  You don't have to use feta cheese, though I highly recommend it.  I then drizzled a very small amount of extra virgin olive oil on top.  Sprinkled with salt and pepper.  


Serves 4-5

Ratatouille
*I got this recipe from Smittenkitchen.com
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 cup tomato puree
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil, divided
1 small eggplant
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1 long red pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme
salt and pepper
softened goat cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
Pour tomato puree in oval baking dish (I only had square so that's what I used). Dropped the garlic cloves and onion into puree. Stir in 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Season the sauce generously with salt and pepper. Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash.  Trim the ends off the red pepper and cut out the core, leaving the red pepper intact like a tube.  Slice the vegetables into thin slices (approximately 1/16 inch). Arrange the cut vegetables concentrically on top of the tomato mixture starting with the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping vegetables so a small part is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a few handfuls leftover that do not fit.  
Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the vegetables and season generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs by running your fingertips down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the vegetables.
Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper that has been cut to fit the inside of the dish.  (THIS is the hardest part of this dish). Bake for approximately 45-55 minutes until the vegetables have released their liquids and are clearly cooked but still hold their structure. They should not be brown around the edges and you should see the tomato sauce bubbling up around them. 
The original recipe suggests serving with a little softened goat cheese, but I think it is really good by itself!

 So pretty!

 Cutting this parchment paper to the correct size was the hardest part of this dish.

I used the extra sauce I had and it was a little too much. 

But it tasted really good!

Vegetable Tian

*adapted recipe from Budgetbytes.blogspot.com

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Large yellow onion, finely diced

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

2 medium zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 large russet potato

2 large tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

1/2-3/4 cup Italian cheese blend

Heat oven to 400 degrees. 

In small pan, heat olive oil, garlic and onions.  Cook on medium to medium high heat until softened (about 5 minutes).

While the onions and garlic are cooking, thinly slice zucchini, squash, potato and tomatoes.  Spray 8x8 pan with cooking spray.  Add garlic and onion mix to the bottom of the pan and spread all over the bottom.  Place the thinly sliced vegetables in the baking dish vertically, in an alternating pattern. Sprinkle GENEROUSLY with salt, pepper and thyme. 

Cover with tin foil and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, top with cheese and cook another 10-15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and is golden brown.  

 Before being put in the oven!

 I almost ate dinner before taking a picture!  

This came out so perfectly yummy! 

 It was so pretty too!

I realized after I cooked it that I did not use the salt, pepper and thyme generously.  But I will next time! 

Jicama
*I got this recipe suggestions from MANY people online


1 Jicama washed, peeled and sliced into sticks
juice from half of a lime
sprinkled chili powder


Mix together and eat.  I also tried the Jicama plain, but it was just not for me.  I read MANY reviews that this was a great way to try jicama.  Let me know if you like this recipe and how you eat your jicama.

Taco Soup
*this is my own recipe


1 small can black beans, DO NOT DRAIN
1 small can small red kidney beans, DO NOT DRAIN
1 small can dark kidney beans, DO NOT DRAIN
1 can corn, drained
1 can crushed tomatoes (my kids don't like the tomatoes if they see it otherwise I would use diced tomatoes)
1 package taco seasoning
1 medium sized onion, chopped
1 pound ground turkey breast, cooked and drained


Brown up turkey breast and chopped onions in a medium sized pot.  Drain any liquids and add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes to heat through, stirring occasionally. 


My kids like this with cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips. I eat mine without all that stuff to keep it on the healthier side.  I also like to top mine with a little reserved chopped onion for a little bit of a crunch!  You can also do this in the crockpot to cook all day to make the flavors mix a little more. 

 This is what it looks like in the pot while cooking!

 This is how the kids like to eat it.  Cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips.

 This is what mine looks like without the extra onions.

This is how I like mine!  YUUUUM!!!

Fresh Zucchini and Roma Tomato Pasta
*modified recipe from starved-writer.com


1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti pasta
1 cup White Bean Alfredo Sauce (listed on this blog)
1/3 small yellow onion
1 zucchini, diced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon dried parsley
1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

In a medium size pot, start some water over high heat.
While that is getting hot, dice up onions, zucchini, tomato.
Once the water is boiling, cook the pasta as directed on the package.
When the pasta is almost finished cooking, heat olive oil in frying pan over medium high heat. Add onions and zucchini and sautee to desired tenderness (I cooked mine for about 5 minutes and added about 2 Tablespoons of water after 3 minutes).  Add diced tomatoes, lemon juice and parsley.  Cook for one minute just to heat through.
Drain pasta and return to pan. Add white bean "alfredo" sauce to pasta. Mix in zucchini and tomato mix and serve.
Serves 2

 This is the veggies ready to be combined with the pasta.

The final outcome.  It taste wonderful!

White Bean "Alfredo" Sauce
* I got this recipe from starved-writer.com

1 can white beans (I used cannellini)
1-2 teaspoon garlic powder
1-2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil


Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend well.  I blended my for about 1 1/2 minutes to make sure it was super smooth. Pour into a pot and heat till desired temperature.  
Serves 4


Now I must say this is nothing like I thought it would be.  I LOOOVE alfredo sauce and was extremely curious to see how this would turn out.  Let me just say it will not taste like Olive Gardens yummy alfredo sauce.  However, it had a very unique taste.  I put it on top of the fresh Zucchini and Tomato Pasta recipe, posted on this blog.  


I can't wait to have the leftovers for tomorrows lunch! Oh, and the pictures below are a DOUBLED batch!

 This was the beans and seasonings.

 This is all ingredients before being blended.

And there you have it!  White Bean "Alfredo" Sauce!

Calabacitas
*I got this recipe idea from my friend Stephanie Scoville
Calabacitas means squash!


1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons crushed garlic
1 yellow onion, diced
4 zucchini, thinly sliced
(I wanted to use 2 zucchini and 2 yellow squash but I didn't have yellow squash so I used what I had.  But it would be better to have both types.)
1 can corn
2 cans diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted diced tomatoes) reserving one can of juice
1/2-3/4 cup monterey jack cheese (I used what I had on hand which was colby jack)

In large frying pan, heat olive oil on medium high then add garlic and onions and saute for a few minutes.  Add zucchini, corn and diced tomatoes with reserved can of juice.  Stir together and cover.  It took me about 8 minutes to get the right texture that I wanted for the zucchini but you can cook yours longer or shorter depending upon your liking. Salt and pepper. I scooped my portion out without adding the cheese so I could save a few calories.  This is soooo yummy without the cheese but my kids of course like things better WITH cheese.  So I added 1/2-3/4 cup cheese covered it and turned the heat off.  The cheese melted and I served it up for the kids.  My kids weren't excited about this meal, but they are still getting used to eating more veggies.  I think this would be wonderful with strips of chicken as well, if you want to add some meat to it.  Next time I think I will add another tablespoon of garlic and a little more onion since we love both of them so much.

Serves 6

Black Bean Salsa Dip
*Modified from my big sis!

5 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

3 cans of corn, drained

2 bunches of cilantro, chopped

3 heaping tablespoons of minced garlic

2 bushels of green onions, chopped both green and white parts

about 8 or 9 roma tomatoes, diced

about 1/2 tablespoon salt

1/2 tablespoon black pepper 

1 bottle (though I like 1 1/2 bottles) of lime juice. 

Mix together and serve with chips.  It is better to let it sit
 overnight then the flavors all mix together.  My favorite is 
when this is cold and I put it on hot rice.  You can also use it 
with eggs, over grilled chicken or in a quesadilla.  The 
possibilities are endless with this one.  It is so fresh and 
healthy!  

This makes a pretty big batch.  But this big of a batch doesn't last more than 3 days in my house.  3 out of 4 of my kids LOVE this! The original recipe my sister gave me was a lot smaller than this and different amounts of onions, cilantro and such.  The more you make it the more you will find your own preferences of how much of which ingredient you like. I personally like more lime juice because it is fantastic when the rice soaks it all up. Perfection!

Squaw Bread, avocado, onion and tomato sandwich


2 pieces toasted squaw bread (you can also use any whole grain hearty bread)
1 avocado, mashed up
2 thin slices red onion
2 roma tomatoes, sliced
extra virgin olive oil
rice wine vinegar
salt
pepper
dry basil


I toast up my squaw bread, then put the mashed up avocado on both pieces (half on each side).  I slice one tomato per piece of bread then top that with a few super thin slices of purple onion.  I use a few drops of olive oil and rice wine vinegar on each piece for a dressing.  Then I sprinkle with very little salt and pepper and top with some dry basil.  SOOOO good!

This is a different way to eat this recipe.  I found that dicing up the tomato and onion made it easier to eat.

Quinoa Side Dish
*I got this recipe from allrecipes.com

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 
  
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 
  
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 
  
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, I used 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 
  
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, I used 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 
  
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 
  
• 1 dash fresh lemon juice (optional)

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the quinoa, and toast, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, or until quinoa is tender.

In a bowl, toss quinoa together with garlic, parsley, thyme, salt, and onion. Sprinkle with lemon juice, and serve.

Serves 4

This went perfectly with the Dijon and Panko Crusted Tilapia!  

Greek Quinoa and Avocado salad
*I got this recipe from bhg.com

• 1/2
  cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained*
  
  
• 1
  cup water
  
  
• 2
  roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
  
  
• 
  
  
  1/2
  cup shredded fresh spinach
  
  
• 1/3
  cup finely chopped red onion (1 small)
  
  
• 2
  tablespoons lemon juice
  
  
• 2
  tablespoons olive oil
  
  
• 1/2
  teaspoon salt
  
  
• Spinach leaves
  
  
• 2
  ripe avocados, halved, seeded, peeled, sliced
  
  
  
  
• 1/3
  cup crumbled feta cheese

In a 1-1/2-quart saucepan combine quinoa and water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, about 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.


Transfer quinoa to a medium bowl. Add tomato, spinach, and onion; stir to combine. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, oil, and salt. Add to quinoa mixture; toss to coat.


Place spinach leaves on 4 salad plates, I used a handful of spinach leaves. Arrange avocado slices on spinach leaves. Spoon quinoa mixture over avocado slices. Sprinkle with some of the feta.


 Makes 4 main-dish servings.

This is what the quinoa looked like before it was plated.  It was so pretty in the bowl!  

Dijon and Panko Crusted Tilapia
*i got this recipe off ask.com


4 tilapia fillets, about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds
2 tablespoons plain greek yogurt
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
Dash pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt


Heat oven to 400°. Lightly grease a large shallow baking dish or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine the mayonnaise and mustard; rub the mixture over the tilapia fillets.

In a food processor, combine the panko and fine bread crumbs, paprika,parsley, pepper, onion powder, and salt. Pulse 4 to 6 
times to combine. Pour bread crumb mixture into a wide, shallow bowl.
Dip the coated fillets in the mixture, turning to coat both sides.

Arrange the coated fillets in the prepared baking dish. I used tinfoil on the bottom of my dish sprayed with Pam for easier clean up.

Bake the fish fillets for 15 to 18 minutes, or until fish is cooked through. The time depends on thickness of the fillets. Fish will flake easily with a fork  when done. Mine almost always takes 15 minutes to cook and no longer. 

Carefully remove the fillets to plates with a spatula.
Serves 4.

Teriyaki Chicken Marinade

‎1/2 c. soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh ginger, minced
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice or wine
2 tbsp. oil
1 tbsp. instant minced onion
1/2 tsp. black pepper

pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)

 

My husband grilled the veggies for me. I halved everything: Green peppers, onions, zuchinni and tomatoes! I would have used red peppers if I had them, but at the last minute I thought "while he is grilling, I should ask him to grill a tomato and see how it tastes." It was AWESOME!!! And I cooked the chicken in a pan (only because we didn't have kabob skewers) and let it caramelize a little so it was sticky from the brown sugar. Did I mention it was super yummy?!?!?

I cut the chicken into chunks before I realized that we didn't have skewers. I let it marinate for 4 hours. I did the rice in the rice cooker and later Andy grilled the veggies while I cooked the chicken in the pan. I started a pan on high heat then added a few teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil and let that get to smoking hot, turned heat to medium high then added the chicken. I used a slotted spoon to get the chicken out of the mix so there wasn't much marinade on it but what WAS on it, I let caramelize.

          So this is my first attempt at a blog!  After many people suggesting that I do so, here I am!  I was given some not so good news from my doctor about my health.  "If you don't change your lifestyle and eating habits you will NOT make it to 60 years old."  Talk about a slap in the face.  Top that with news of a heart murmur and a family history of heart problems and you got one scared lady named Brittany! 
          This information has helped to change my view on the things that I prepare and put into my body. I started going outside my comfort zone of sour cream, cheeses, pizza, pastries, chips and....well, you get the idea.  In all my searching for healthy recipes on pinterest or google, I found that a lot of suggestions were tilapia (a new found favorite) and quinoa (another favorite). I am learning how to substitute plain greek yogurt for things like sour cream, mayo or cream cheese. I am finding flavor in more herbs and spices and less salt.  
          My intent for this blog is to have a place for others to see that you CAN eat healthy AND have it be good too.  I have four kids so I can't be spending all day cooking in the kitchen... but when Brittany's in the kitchen... IT'S GOOD!!! :)