Tag: fresh

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Cream of Asparagus Soup

This week I was craving some soup – so whipped up this Cream of Asparagus Soup. Putting some toasted garlic bread with fresh butter & parmesan on the side, we had a fresh, light, healthy, filling, quick, tasty dinner.

Spinach & Mushroom Frittata

Spinach & Mushroom Frittata

You are less than a 1/2 hour away from a delicious & healthy breakfast made to please! Use all those fresh veggies you have from the market, or the garden and enjoy a breakfast to thrill.

Ranch – version 2

Ranch – version 2

Eating dip with your finger a spoon has never tasted so good! And since I made it myself – I like to think that it has never been better for me either!

When I get home from school, I am often craving a snack (come on, you know you crave a good snack at the end of the day too). Grabbing a cookie or some chips could be so easy, but not as easy to continue losing weight and make healthy choices! I love veggies with dip and like to keep these type of healthier grab & go things close at hand. I love to make my own hummus (so easy too – I’ll post about that soon) but have been on a dip kick recently and found this version of Ranch Dressing after Rich told me the other one I made (although awesome) didn’t taste very “ranch-y”.

Whip out your blender, cut some veggies, and make yourself a nice fresh springtime snack to get you motivated to do whatever it is that you need to do. Snacking is good for the belly, the mouth, and the soul!!

Ranch Dip/Dressing

Ingredients:

  • ¾ cup mayonnaise (light)
  • ¾ cup sour cream (light)
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice (and/or some apple cider vinegar)
  • ¼-1 cup buttermilk (I”m heavy-handed)
  • 1 small bunch chives
  • Small handful parsley
  • 1 – 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1/2 Tablespoon dried dill (more/less to taste)
  • ½ tsp. kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper (1 teaspoon, more/less)

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor starting with just ¼ cup of the buttermilk and blend for 10 seconds. Check the consistency and taste and blend in additional buttermilk as desired. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Get Dipping, dip & snack yourself skinny… no, not “skinny dipping” – “dipping skinny”

Spinach Pancakes

Spinach Pancakes

Now you wait just one minute before you stop reading (actually – you need to start reading in order to start, but don’t stop before you even start… if that even makes any sense). These are not pancakes like you would eat for breakfast… think instead 

Apple Turnovers

Apple Turnovers

Birthdays, Holidays – all reasons to celebrate! Mom’s birthday was a few weeks ago & I wanted to make her apple turnovers and a smoked salmon quiche thing – but realized the evening before I didn’t have the ingredients to do so… just got bagels 

Tomatoes to Salsa

Tomatoes to Salsa

crazy-ugly-huge tomato

Salsa…. one of my FAVORITE foods – always has been & always will be (if I had to name my top 2 foods it would be salsa & chocolate, hands down… just not together – although I do have a gourmet chili-chocolate bar that I love, so maybe I could make a chocolate salsa!). When we got fresh tomatoes from our gardens (some from our garden, some from Rich’s current landlord’s garden – he has lots of heirloom tomatoes which have a fantastic taste, maybe next summer here) I just had to make salsa.

Garden fresh Veggies

Before I did anything, I just had to snap this photo of the bounty – it was too pretty to ignore. All I did for this salsa was chop up tomatoes, different heats (and amounts) of hot peppers since my mom likes it mild, I like it medium hot, dad likes it hot, & Rich likes it burn your face off… so I made two bowls to try to make everyone happy. To the tomatoes and peppers I added chopped onions (scallions), lime juice, cilantro, and some salt & pepper. I do have to say that it actually is not my favorite salsa that I have made, but the freshness of the flavors was absolutely amazing  and there were no complaints.

Bowls of Salsa