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Peaches in My Salad??

31 Oct

Sliced peaches ready for my salad

In my quest to try to eat healthier, I’ve been looking for new recipes to try. I recently came across a recipe in a magazine that caught my eye and I tore it out in case I got brave enough to try it. I must apologize because I don’t remember which magazine I tore this recipe out of, but I’m pretty sure it was one of the women’s healthy living magazines. (Let this be a lesson to all magazines – Listing your title or website at the top or bottom of every editorial page is important for this very reason: reckless people just like me!)

I slightly altered the recipe for simplicity. It was absolutely delicious and I already can’t wait for lunch tomorrow to have more.

Here’s what you’ll need for the salad:

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 peaches, cut into wedges

1 bag spring salad mix

1 cup sliced almonds, toasted (I bought a bag of roasted sliced almonds)

4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

And here’s what you’ll need for the dressing:

1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt (I just bought a single serving of Publix brand yogurt)

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons honey

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

salt and black pepper

1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine 1 tablespoon each honey and vinegar with a fork; add peaches and stir to coat.

Coating peaches in honey and vinegar

2. In a large nonstick pan, sear peaches over medium heat for about 3 minutes per side or until caramelized. Remove from heat and let cool.

Seared peaches

3. While waiting for peaches to cool, whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, mustard, and remaining honey and vinegar in a medium bowl. Drizzle in oil, whisking constantly; season with salt and pepper.

The dressing

4. Divide spring salad mix among four plates. Top with goat cheese, sliced almonds, balsamic peaches and a drizzle of the dressing.

I paired my salad with some Publix rotisserie chicken (my favorite flavor: mojo). My dinner was absolutely delicious. The sweetness of the peaches combined with the balsamic and honey mixture was a pleasant surprise and the goat cheese wasn’t overpowering. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this salad dressing, but I think I’ll be making it on a regular basis!

Rotisserie chicken with yummy salad

When I texted my sister about my delicious salad, she responded with the following text: “Eww. I don’t like fruit in my salad.” I don’t blame her… I can’t stand mandarins in any salad, but this is worth trying.

Do you like any fruit in your salads? Which ones?

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My Pumpkin Obsession: Oatmeal

26 Oct

I had some leftover pumpkin in the refrigerator and saw a friend post on Facebook that adding pumpkin to your oatmeal was a delicious treat. And with my fall obsession with pumpkin, you know I couldn’t resist. I added a tablespoon of pumpkin, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a small squirt of lite butter syrup to my instant oatmeal and it was indeed delish!

I’ve never really added anything but syrup to my oatmeal before. This really makes me want to explore what other goodies I can mix in.

Do you ever mix anything in to your oatmeal? If so, what?

My Pumpkin Obsession: Cookies

21 Oct

I have what I consider to be a very healthy obsession with pumpkin. In the past, this was limited to pumpkin pie, pumpkin spiced lattes from Starbucks and pumpkin ale. But then I tried a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie at my friend Kate and Ryan’s housewarming party and I knew I was in trouble. Kate quickly supplied my habit by sharing the recipe with me. Too my delight, it’s super easy!

It turns out the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe is an allrecipes.com one. You can click here for ingredients and step-by-step instructions on how to make these cookies. The recipe calls for walnuts, but since I don’t want to take the chance with people’s nut allergies, I’ve been leaving them out. I also added a little pumpkin pie spice for extra flavor.

I’ve made these cookies twice so far and the masses love them. They are cake-like and super soft. Did I mention that these are easy to make? Aside from being pumpkin and tasting delish, the dummy-proof instructions are quite the selling point.

Baking pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. My house smelled so good and fall-like.

I made these cookies Wednesday night for a little department shindig we have monthly. Here are the cookies sitting right next to my next pumpkin obsession: Publix Pumpkin Pie ice cream. It has pie crust in it. PIE CRUST! This is one of their limited-edition ice creams, so I strongly suggest you go to the store right now and buy some. (I’m not kidding. Go. The blog will still be here later.)

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies + pumpkin pie ice cream = best ice cream sandwich ever

For the shindig my friend made this pumpkin roll with cream cheese that was amazing. She shared the recipe and I might try it for the holidays. If it passes my dummy test (me making it successfully) then I’ll post pics.

Next up this weekend: pumpkin pancakes.

What’s your favorite pumpkin-flavored recipe?

Playing with Food

17 Oct

I’m not the best cook. But on the bright side, I’m also not the worst cook. I border somewhere between lazy and uninspired. The lazy part is particularly why I absolutely love easy recipes. Easy is something I can do.

While reading one of my favorite local blogs, Meals and Miles, I found this recipe on how to spice up a frozen pizza. Runny eggs used to disgust me, but after four years of watching my boyfriend soak up his yolk with everything on his plate I finally gave in and gave it another go. And I grew to actually crave it. Who am I??

Sprucing up my Archer Farms Mediterranean pizza seemed simple enough. I added bacon, fresh mushrooms, mozzarella (in my opinion pizza can never be too cheesy) and halfway through the baking time I added three eggs as suggested.

Here’s how it looked out of the oven:

My Archer Farms mediterranean pizza with added bacon, mozzarella, mushrooms and eggs

I paired it with a spinach salad with mushrooms, bacon and mozzarella. I like buying spinach because (a) it’s good for you, and (b) you can always use it to make a salad or sauté with salt, pepper and a little parmesan cheese for a yummy side. I hadn’t decided on what type of dressing when I took this pic, but I settled on good ol’ light ranch. That certainly wasn’t the healthiest option, but it did make me oh so happy!

My spruced up pizza with a spinach salad

If you’re not a big yolk fan, this might not be for you, but if you are, I strongly suggest sprucing up your frozen pizza with eggs.

Have you ever added anything unusual to spice up your frozen pizza?