OneMileOneMeal

Meatless Monday or Summer BBQ Side Dish Idea: Fresh Corn Arugula Salad

This dish is one of my favorite from the Whole Foods deli. I couldn't find a recipe online, but I just read the ingredients on the dish and made up a recipe. It's really one of the easiest dishes you can make, and awesome as a side dish for summer time BBQs.

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

• 4 cobs of boiled or grilled fresh corn
• 2 handfuls of fresh arugula chopped
• 1/4 red onion thinly slivered
• 1 tbsp of your favorite vinaigrette (I used a raspberry vinaigrette) or 1/2 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar.
• sea or kosher salt to taste

Let's cook:

• Slice off in strips the sides of the cobs of corn. Break the strip of corn into smaller chunks. Part of the fun of this dish is the odd clusters of corn.

• In a big bowl, put in the corn, the chopped arugula and slivered red onion.

• Pour in the vinaigrette and some salt, and mix well together.

• I start off with 1 tbsp of vinaigrette to get the flavor going. I lean towards just a hint of vinaigrette so the flavors of the corn and arugula are dominant versus the dressing.

• Chill in fridge for like 15 minutes, and serve.

Enjoy!

 

Meatless Monday In 10 Minutes: Baby Bok Choy With Portobello And Sweet Chili Black Bean Sauce

Gotta love the simplicity of a fast veggie dish! I wanted to use some shiitake mushrooms but at Whole Foods they were $12.99/lb and even for me that is a bit much. Portobellos were $5.99, a more palatable price and just as tasty.

I think baby bok choy is one of the most interesting vegetables from a design perspective. When you cut the bok choy bulb down the middle, there is this cool looking design in there...quite artistic I'd say there from Mother Nature.

For this dish, I just made up a sauce from various sauces I had in the fridge. I could have just used tamari by itself but really how much fun is that?

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 4 bulbs of baby bok choy halved down the middle
• 1 portobello mushroom sliced in thin slivers
• 1/4 onion chopped length wise
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 1 tbsp sesame oil or olive oil
• 1 tsp black bean sauce
• 1 tsp tamari
• 1 tsp Sweet Chili Sauce (I use Trader Joe's brand)

• In a wok, heat the oil and the saute the onion garlic until the onion gets soft.

• Toss in the portobello slices and mix in with the onion and garlic. Cover the wok and let cook for about a minute.

• Mix the black bean sauce, tamari, and sweet chili sauce together with 2 tbsp of water to make a sauce.

• Toss the baby bok choy in the wok and mix in well with the portobello, onion, and garlic.

• Pour in the sauce evenly around the baby bok choy. Mix the sauce in with the veggies.

• Cover the wok and let the veggies steam stirring occasionally until the green leafy part of the baby chok starts to get soft and wilty but not mushy.

Pour veggies into a serving platter and enjoy!

 

I'm Totally Captivated! Grilled Watermelon, Arugula and Jicama Salad

I was invited to a Fry's Fresh Attractions cooking class in their spectacular cooking kitchen at their Tatum and Shea store. I would love to have a kitchen like this in my house!

Now that we're heading into summer, it's watermelon season, one of my favorite fruits around because watermelon is so sweet and juicy. I love drinking straight watermelon juice.

On the menu was this Watermelon and Jicama Salad and people this salad blew me away. It's not often I'm blown away but what made squee with glee over this salad was the texture of the grilled watermelon.

When you grill watermelon it ends up looking and has the texture of sashimi tuna...yeah no kidding! I was totally mesmerized by this. It's amazing how grilling almost completely changes the texture of the watermelon. The watermelon went from gritty to gummy...in a most fabulous way! In fact, now I want to make fruit sushi rolls.

This salad is perfect for your next BBQ, and a fun option for the vegetarians in the crowd. Care of Fry's Foods, here is the recipe:

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 1/2c Fresh orange juice, plus 1 tsp zest
• 1/4c Fresh lime juice plus 1 tsp zest
• 2tbsp Honey
• 1tsp Ground black pepper
• 1tsp Kosher salt
• 1ea Jicama cut into matchstick pieces
• 2lbs Seedless watermelon
• 2c Fresh baby arugula
• 3/4c Crumbled Goat Cheese
• EVOO - extra virgin olive oil to coat watermelon for grilling

Let's get cooking:

• In a bowl, whisk together the OJ and lime juices, honey, pepper, and salt. Add the jicama sticks and toss to coast. Set aside.

• Stand the watermelon half cut side down on a cutting board and slice away the rind leaving a solid block of watermelon. Turn the block on its side and cut it into 1-inch thick slices so it kinda looks like melon steaks.

• You can use a BBQ grill or heat a nonstick grill pan over medium heat, and drizzle just enough olive oil over the watermelon slices to thinly coat and place on the hot grill. Grill each side about 2 minutes until grill marks appear.

• Transfer grilled watermelon slices to a cutting board and cut the watermelon into smaller squares for the salad. Season the squares with salt to taste.

• In a mixing bow, toss the arugula and jicama sticks together, and then pour onto on a large serving dish. Toss the grilled watermelon squares on top, and then sprinkle the goat cheese as a final touch. Add some ground pepper for taste.

Enjoy! And if you get enthralled like me and end up making some fruit sushi with the grilled watermelon, do let me know!

 

Meatless Monday Recipe Idea: Vegan Risotto With Cremini Mushrooms, Arugula, and Peas

I was invited to a lovely Mother's Day afternoon early potluck dinner with new friends, Kathleen, Meghanne, and Siri Chand, and wow! what a spectacular time we had.

Since I have been on this "plantstrong" kick and SiriChand is vegan, I decided to experiment and make a vegan risotto from scratch. Yes, from scratch! Admittedly, when I make risotto it's usually just a doctored up version from a box, namely one of the organic risottos from Lundberg....so tasty and easy to make.

And believe it or not, I made this risotto mostly with ingredients I bought at Walmart. Oh yes! Since being blown away by the awesome healthy foods I found at my local Walmart, I have a new level of appreciation for that big boxer. I bought all the ingredients except the vegetables. I could have gotten all the ingredients at Walmart if I used button mushrooms, spinach, and frozen peas. For my dinner, I wanted to do something a little more exotic. Next time, I will try a version with all Walmart ingredients.

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

• 1 cup Italian arborio rice

• 3 cups vegetable broth

• 1/2 cup rice milk

• 1/2 yellow or white onion chopped

• 6 cremini mushrooms chopped

• 2 cups fresh arugula

• 1/2 cup peas

• 2 tbsp Earth Balance buttery spread - I use the non-soy version

• 1 tsp garlic salt

Let's get cooking:

• In a heavy saucepan on medium heat, saute rice in the 2 tbsp of the buttery spread and stir occasionally.

• Add the onions and garlic salt to the rice, and saute until the onion gets tender.

• Add rice milk and stir for about a minute.

• Add 1 cup of the vegetable broth, and mix well with the rice and onions. Cook, uncovered, for about 5 minutes.

• Pour in the remaining 2 cups of broth, and turn heat down to simmer. Let ristotto cook for 10 minutes, still uncovered.

• Stir the mushrooms, peas, and arugula into the risotto. Continue to simmer for another 5-7 minutes or until risotto is very creamy.

• Take saucepan off the burner, and let risotto cool down before serving.

Optional: Sprinkle vegan parmesan cheese onto the risotto.

Enjoy!

 

Tried Something New: Homemade Strawberry Flax Milk

Behold my newest concoction: strawberry flax milk. Oh yes!

I got creative and made a vegan strawberry milk...packed with Omega-3's and enriched with B12. How often do you see that? I think Jamie Oliver wouldn't mind seeing this strawberry milk in schools, yes?

Last week, I mentioned that I went to Walmart and found these 10 healthy things which included Flax Milk. I had never heard of flax milk before, and likey so because this FlaxUSA flax milk is literally the first to market debuting on April 11 this year, and is only sold at Walmart...at the moment.

I was intrigued so I had to try it out, and it's really good! For me with a dairy allergy, it's great to find other non-dairy milk options. I would stick with the Original flavor versus the Vanilla because the Original flavor is sweet on its own and has 7g of sugar per 8fl oz serving.

Normally, I drink Whole Foods 365 brand Rice Milk in Original Flavor and that has 13g of sugar per cup. The flax milk has less sugar. Cutting down on the sugar is a good thing. Although, to thicken the flax milk they put in guar gum and xanthan gum I'm guessing so it has more of a consistency like cow milk. Personally, I kinda like things without additional thickeners.

This flax milk is lactose and dairy free, gluten-free, soy-free, kosher and made with non-GMO ingredients. And amazing, this milk is packed with Omega-3's - 1100mg per serving. If you don't like fish, flax is another good option to get Omega-3's.

The flax milk is also enriched with with Calcium & Vitamins A, D and B12. The B12 is good for vegans, and Flax USA claims that this flax milk has as much Calcium as dairy milk. If that's the case, give the cow a break and try the flax milk.

To have some fun with the flax milk, I saw this recipe for Old School DIY strawberry milk over at The Kitchn, and decided to make a version using the flax milk. My local Whole Foods had an awesome 1-day sale on organic strawberries, $1.99/16oz. carton.

Recipe

• 1-1/2 cup cut fresh organic strawberries
• 3 Tbsp Native USA brand organic cane sugar
• 1-1/4 cup water
• 3 cups flax milk

The original recipe called for 1/2 cup sugar, and I think that is too much especially when we are wanting to be healthier here and cut down on the sugar consumption. I only used 3 tbsp of cane sugar because there is sugar in the strawberries and in the flax milk, and really you don't need to add any sugar at all, but I added just a little sugar to appease the sweet tooth...compromise.

• Boil the strawberries, water and sugar for about 10 minutes until you get a nice strawberry syrup in the pot.

• Strain the boiled strawberries so you separate the syrup from the pulp. Save the strawberry pulp and use on pancakes or as yogurt topping.

• Combine the strawberry syrup and flax milk in a bottle, close the lid, and shake until all mixed. I let my milk sit overnight in the fridge so it was nice and cold.

The strawberry flax milk was sooo delish!

[Recipe]: Meatless Monday Idea: Organic-ish and Under $10 for Four - Peanut Soba Noodle Veggie Stir Fry

I love peanut butter!

And most times, peanut butter is used mainly in sweet treats, sandwiches or food bars, not usually full nutritious meals, so when I saw Budget Bytes' recipe for Peanut Soba Stir Fry, I got really excited.

Look peanut butter with veggies - fiber!

This dish is also vegan and the peanut butter has protein along with no added sugars. Are you feeling all kinds of win here? You should because this dish was really tasty.

Beth's recipe is really simple and I followed it almost to a tee which is rare because I'm always tweaking a recipe.Instead of red peppers I used yellow squash because the salad bar didn't have any peppers. To me the salad bar is also known as the pre-cut veggies bar.

I modified the type of ingredients and used mainly organic ingredients hench the "organic-ish" term...and the cost of my dish came in close to Beth's $8.57 for 6 servings. Mine was $9.59 for 4 large portions or you could squeeze it to 5 smaller portions. The extra cost also came about because I had to buy a whole bottle of Hoisin Sauce.

But still, for almost all organic ingredients, under $10, I find this a deal!

The ingredients I used (all purchased from Whole Foods):

• 1/3lb fresh ground organic peanut butter in the bulk foods section - $1.12

• Organic Soba Noodles from Organic Planet. I love these people. Wrapped around the noodles were these paper bands that said, "Just say not to GMOs." It's my mantra!! - $2.69

• Fresh Broccoli, shredded carrots, mushrooms, yellow squash and green onions from the salad bar. 1/3lb for $2.48

• Ginger .28 cents

• Garlic .33 cents

• Whole Foods 365 brand organic Hoisin Sauce - $2.69 for a bottle

• Sriracha hot sauce

• Olive oil

This dish took me less than 15 minutes to make, and we love fast, simple, and healthy up in here!

Crispy Sweet Potatoes with Turkey Chorizo

I took a whole foodie flair on the traditional Spanish tapas dish Patatas Bravas which if you've never heard of the dish before is a food to a tapas bar like chicken wings is to a sports bar...they go hand-in-hand.

Traditional Patatas Bravas comes with a tomato sauce or aoili sauce and no meat, but in my version, there is no sauce and there is meat. In a way, I've made mine more like a hash. However, bravas sounds sexier than hash.

I also lucked out in that my local Whole Foods had chorizo sausage made out of turkey instead of pork, so in this dish we get to use a leaner meat which is better for cholesterol levels. I also use very little oil so it's more like a flash fry versus a deep fry.

I used sweet potatoes instead of new, fingerling, or russet potatoes because I like how the sweet of potato helps to chillax the spicy of the chorizo. Also, most sweet potatoes are shaped like long tubes, so I cut them into circular slices to give the dish a new shape, circles versus chunks...it's the designer in me!

This dish is really easy to make, and it also makes for a fabulous brunch dish when you want to try something new. It's also gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, and egg-free.

Ingredient (serves 2):

• One long sweet potato peeled and cut into round slivers about 1/4" thick
• One thick turkey chorizo sausage from the meat counter
• 2 garlic cloves crushed
• 1 tbsp green onion chopped
• Salt
• 1/4  tsp dried chili flakes
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Let's cook:

• In a medium pot, boil the sausage in hot water for about 5 minutes until the meat is cooked a bit. The sausage needs to be cooked some because fresh sausage from the meat counter is mushy so it won't cut well into slices when raw. When the sausage is done boiling, drain, let cool down, and then cut into 1/4" thick slices.

• In another pot, boil the sliced potatoes in salted hot water for about 10 minutes until they are tender...not mushy. Drain the potatoes and put them back in the pot so they can air dry for a bit.

• Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add in the potatoes and fry for about 5 minutes, turning the potatoes now and then so they can start to brown on both sides.

• Add in the chorizo and fry until the potatoes are golden crispy.

• Toss in the garlic, flaked chili, and green onions, and cook tossing everything for about one minute. Sprinkle in a little salt to taste.

Serve potatoes and chorizo on a beautiful dish and enjoy!

 

Meatless Monday Dessert Idea: Effortless Chocolate Ricotta Dessert

Not that we make dessert with meat in it, but on your Meatless Monday adventure, why not enjoy a yummy desert as well!

I subscribe to Dr. Weil's Optimum Health Plan newsletter mainly because he's got some really cool recipes for tasty healthy and light dishes. Dr. Weil has a recipe for a Chocolate Ricotta dessert, and I love the idea, so I modified it to fit my palate.

Two big changes, I use agave nectar instead of honey, and pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon. I'm a huge fan of pumpkin pie!

Not only is this dessert pretty healthy, it's effortless to make. In fact, you could probably make this dessert during a TV commercial break.

Ingredients: (2 servings)

• 1/2 cup Ricotta cheese
• 2 tbsp light agave nectar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice - I used Trader Joe's pumpkin pie spice

I replaced the honey with agave nectar because I find that honey has a distinct taste and it can take over. Agave is lighter and the only way you know it's there is because of the sweet boost.

I used Trader Joe's pumpkin pie spice instead of plain cinnamon because the pumpkin pie spice has a blend of nutmeg, ginger, lemon peel, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon. I like blendy spices.

Let's start cookin'

• Put all the ingredients in a small 3-cup food processor starting with the ricotta.
• Press the process button and let the machine do its thing until the ricotta is smooth to your liking.
• You're done!

See told you this desert can be made lickety split!

Put the ricotta in a serving bowl and serve by itself or coupled with ice cream, a tea cookie, or in the picture above, try these Chocolate Tortilla chips made by Food Should Taste Good.

These chips are also gluten-free, lactose-free, cholesterol-free, GMO-free, Kosher and made from all natural ingredients... and yes they taste good! The chocolate tortilla chips actually taste more like flat salty cookies.

The chocolate tortilla chips were a hit with the ricotta dessert. My tummy was blissful.

Every week, Food Should Taste Good does a weekly giveaway on their Facebook page.

Two Awesome Healthy Eating Food Blogs With Recipe Picks

Because of Noshtopia my food blog where eating healthier is fun and flavorful, I check out many, many, many food blogs and posts to see what people are cooking and eating.

Did I mention many?

Admittedly, I have a very high bar for the blogs I go back to and would recommend. My criteria includes remarkable content, gorgeous food pictures, creativity, healthy angle which includes organic and/or all natural ingredients, and a cool person with a positive attitude.

Here are two food blogs that are favorites of mine:

No Recipes by Marc Matsumoto

Marc is one of the most creative of the food bloggers out there, and I love his concept of not being a stickler of recipes because I'm the same way. I look at recipes, but I end up tweaking or making up stuff on my own. I also love his ability to blend western and eastern ingredients and concepts.

His food photography is outstanding! I can't tell you how many times I wanted to take my fork and dig into my screen. Some recipes that stood out to me:

• Shiitake and arugula ravioli. He uses marscapone and tahini which I thought was really creative. And hello, we all know how much I LOVE arugula.

• Vegetarian version of Korean Bi Bim Bap. Marc's version is a healthy meatless alternative of this traditional mixed rice dish with marinated broccoli and pickled raw beets.

• Sweet Miso Glazed Black Cod on a bed of brocoli rabe and natto. Natto originates in Japan, and has a definite take it or leave it kind of taste, but it has numerous health benefits and is high in protein. It's not often that you will see natto used in American dishes, so I really loved the application here.

Follow Marc on Twitter @norecipes

Like No Recipes Facebook Page

Good Life Eats by Katie Goodman

Katie's site is a happy place. You know how you go to some blogs and it just feels good there, well Good Life Eats is one of those places...at least to me.

Katie's palate is very similar to mine, so I really appreciate her recipes and take on food. Her photography is also vibrant and makes you drool. Some recipes that stood out to me:

• Multi-Grain Banana Bread with Flax. I like how she added barley, and oat flour along with the flax. The cool thing with this recipe is that you can also make it vegan by replacing the butter with Earth Balance Soy-free version, the yogurt with a coconut-milk yogurt from So Delicious, and the eggs with one banana or 1/4 cup applesauce for each egg.

• Homemade Pearsauce. I'm not a fan of applesauce either because it reminds me of bad diet food. But I love pears, and there are many varieties of pears so you can mix this recipe up. This pearsauce is also vegan.

• Sweet and Spicy Turkey Curry Soup. I dig the combo of gala apples, sweet potato puree, and a wild and brown rice blend with the turkey and curry. You can also use chicken instead of turkey.

Follow Katie on Twitter @GoodLifeEats

Like Good Life Eats on Facebook

 

Healthed Up Italian: Quinoa and Arugula Beef Meatballs on Top of Spinach Spaghetti

This my friends is one way you can health-up traditional spaghetti and meatballs, a TV dinner dream.

Quinoa and arugula are two of my favorite power foods, so when I saw this recipe on the Whole Foods website for, "Beef and Quinoa Meatballs," I just had to make them!

I did modify the Whole Foods recipe just a bit because you know me, I can never follow directions exact. I always gotta be deviant somehow. Instead of adding zucchini, I added arugula because it's nutrient denser. I omitted the soy sauce and I pan fried in olive oil instead of baked the balls. I like my meatballs to be a little crispy on the outside.

One cup of Quinoa has 24g of protein which is packing and arugula has the 6th highest ANDI score of foods meaning it is nutrient dense so adding the Quinoa and arugula to the meat basically makes them super potent nutritious balls...high-5!

For the pasta sauce, I never make that stuff from scratch when you can get an organic jar of Whole Foods 365 brand pasta sauce and just pour that tomatoey goodness into a pan and heat it up with the meatballs.

For pasta noodles, I usually get Trader Joe's gluten-free spaghetti made from rice flour. But this time, I thought I'd try the Whole Foods 365 brand Spinach Spaghetti. It's not gluten-free but it is more greens...not sure that means anything except that it's not gluten-free...and green, like Kermit food.

Basically, this spaghetti dish was awesome and humbly in my opinion is the stuff the Superheroes would eat. You gotta nutrient load in order to be badass like my girl Wonder Woman and Lara Croft. I would love to take down bad guys in my hot pants and with the magic lasso of truth!

Hey, we're allowed to get Walter Mitty-ish, right?!

On a serious note, these Quinoa and Arugula Beef Meatballs on spinach spaghetti would make for a great tapering week meal before a big race because you get lots of protein, carbs, and some greens especially if you pair the dish with a mixed green salad.