Recipe: Shrimp & Spinach Summer Salad

Hey Cats!

Happy Wednesday-we’ve made it halfway! I hope everyone is having a great week so far. For me, it’s been busy but happy. Monday night I went to a new Bible study with my friends, and last night was my last Junior League meeting of the year. Tonight I’m at home, and will probably be scrambling to get my life together before I head to the beach on Sunday with my friends! SO EXCITED.

I threw this salad together Sunday night, and it was so yummy that I had it again for lunch on Monday! This weekend, I bought shrimp for dinner for a little something different. However, I asked for 1/4 of a pound, but walked out with 3/4 of a pound, and it was like $9 so I’ve had to get creative to use it all. This is just one way! This meal is perfect for lunch or a summer dinner!

Here’s what you’ll need:

-Spinach

-Shrimp

-Quinoa

-Goat Cheese

-Croutons (optional but delicious)

-Lemon vinaigrette (or whatever dressing you desire)

Since I’m going to assume you all know how to combine ingredients in a bowl to make a salad, I don’t need to include steps. But I will tell you how I cooked my shrimp!

1. Melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter
2. Spread raw shrimp out on a cookie sheet. I got mine from the counter, and went with peeled and de-veined.
3. Pour the butter over the shrimp, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper flakes.
4. Toss until evenly coated
5. Cook at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes until pink and curly!

So easy, and so quick! Also, the dressing I used was divine. I found it at the grocery store and thought it would be the perfect light addition to my shrimp salad. It’s called Leo’s Lemon & Caper dressing, and is pictured below. I also like Marzetti’s Lemon dressing, or you could make your own! I liked how the taste didn’t overpower everything else in my salad.

That’s all for meow!

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Recipe-Spicy Shredded Chicken Sweet Potato

Hey Cats!

It’s only Wednesday? This week has been dragging on it seems! I’m going home this weekend, so that could be why. But it has been/is going to be a fun week! Monday night my friends and I made s’mores on the grill at my apartment complex, which was definitely an adventure. Then tonight, I have my end of provisional year party with the Junior League, and it’s Kentucky Derby themed! Stay tuned for pictures of my outfit, because I’m so excited about it.

On to the main event. Sweet potatoes are my new favorite thing, and I’ve been experimenting with different ways to make them for dinner. I’d seen a few recipes on Pinterest that had shredded chicken inside a baked sweet potato, so I decided to make my own version! It’s so easy and requires very little cleanup, which is always a plus!

Here’s what you’ll need:

-1 sweet potato

-1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded

-2 tablespoons sriracha

-1/4 cup lemon juice

-2 tablespoons honey

-cilantro

-salt and pepper

-goat cheese crumbles

Here’s what you do:

1.First, bake your sweet potato and cook your chicken. I baked mine at 400 for 45 minutes, and boiled my chicken breast for about 20 minutes.

2. Once the chicken is cool, shred it.

3. In a bowl, mix together the sriracha, lemon juice, and honey. Adjust amounts to taste!

4. Chop the cilantro finely and stir it into the sauce, along with a sprinkle of salt & pepper.

5. Toss the shredded chicken in the sauce. You can let it marinade for a while if you’d like!

6. Top your tuber with the spicy chicken and goat cheese crumbles.

7. Enjoy!

See, it’s so easy! And if you’d like, you can bake a few potatoes and make more chicken to have it again for lunch or a quick dinner later in the week. I love the spicy chicken with the creamy sweet potato and tangy goat cheese. YUM!

That’s all for meow!

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Recipe- Good Morning Green Smoothie

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Hey Cats!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Mostly because if I don’t eat it, I become irrationally hungry at around 9 am. For the longest time, I thought that I could never have “just” a smoothie for breakfast. “I need to EAT something, not drink it through a straw!”, I exclaimed. Well, a few weeks ago my friend Ashley Snapchatted (Verbs of 2016) me her green smoothie and something came over me like a wave of healthiness: I had to try it. So I tweaked her recipe a bit and now it’s my breakfast every day! This is a great way to make sure you get at least some fruits & veggies in your diet each day, and it’s a healthy way to start your morning!

Here’s what you’ll need:

-1/2 cup soymilk

-1 handful of spinach leaves

-1 whole banana, sliced

-1/4 cup pineapple (I buy the pre-cut chunks from the produce section and just throw a few in!)

-1/2 tablespoon of chia seeds

-1/2 tablespoon of almond butter

Here’s what you do:

1. Load everything into your blender in the order listed. It’s best to have the more dense ingredients closest to the blade so you’re not left with big chunks! I use a single-serving blender similar to this one, so I start with the soymilk and work my way down!
2. Blend it up until it’s smooth and enjoy!

This takes me about 3 minutes every morning, and it’s so delicious! At first I was just blending the milk, spinach, and fruit, but I was noticing that I would get really tired throughout the day, so I added the almond butter for protein! You can change this up any way you choose: my friend Ashley uses mango instead of banana, or you could add berries or use a protein powder. The possibilities are endless! Let me know what your favorite green smoothie recipe is!

That’s all for meow!

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Recipe- Tangy Summer Salad with Salmon

Hey Cats!

Happy Wednesday! This week is both flying and crawling at the same time, if that’s possible. I’ve been trying to eat healthier lately, but it’s also SO HOT in Houston that just the thought of turning the stove on makes me sweat. I typically make a pizza or other fun dinner for myself on the weekend, but after laying out at the pool all day Saturday, I needed something light, but obviously still delicious and filling. So I decided to combine a citrus salmon recipe that I love with a homemade version of my favorite Salata salad. And it was so good I made it without the salmon for lunch until I ran out of kale.

Okay first we need to address this MASSIVE salmon plank. I asked for 4oz, and the little fishmonger just haphazardly whacked off a chunk, weighed it to get the price, and wrapped it up without noticing that it was 6oz. I’m fine with more fish, but I also had to pay more for it, which I wasn’t too pleased about. Also, it was so large that it just fell apart when I tried to plate it, so that’s why it looks kind of sad. But hey, I did the best I could and it’s delicious so that’s all that matters, right?

Here’s what you’ll need:

-1 serving of Honey Garlic Lemon Salmon– this recipe from The Whisking Kitchen is SO good!

-1 cup kale, rinsed and chopped

-1/4 cup fresh spinach, chopped

-3-4 large brussels sprouts, grated or finely chopped

-1 small granny smith apple, thinly sliced or diced

-1/4 cup cooked quinoa

-2 tbsp pine nuts

-2-3 tbsp goat cheese (feel free to go crazy here, I sure did)

-lemon vinaigrette dressing- I used Marzetti’s Simply Dressed Lemon, in the refrigerated section.

Here’s what you do:

1. First, prepare the salmon. It has to marinate for at least 30 minutes, so plan for that. ALSO cook it on a foil-lined pan, because I cannot tell you how long it took me to scrub the burnt honey off my pan.

2. Finely chop the kale and spinach and add to a very large mixing bowl.

3. Add the brussels sprouts, apple, and quinoa and toss.

4. Next, add the pine nuts, cheese, and dressing. Toss until everything is fully coated with dressing. I usually just pour my dressing over the top, but tossing your salad ensures every bite is tasty!

5. Serve your salad with your salmon on top, and enjoy!

What’s your favorite light summer meal? Let me know!

 

That’s all for meow!

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