What's on your plate?

[lylysa]

Hello there, ladies and gents!

Keeping in line with all the fun and interactive threads asking about your most recent halls, items you have your eyes on, what you're currently wearing, what's your hair routine, and more, I've decide to branch out and ask:

"What's on your plate?"

The beauty world doesn't just stop at skin care and cosmetics, it also goes hand in hand with your overall health and well-being, so with that, I'm curious to see what we're all chowing down and snacking on be it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, or inbetween!

For those with apps that help count calories or to those who just want to keep a log, here's a place to share, possibly find and share some recipes, and even tips on maintaining a balanced diet.

Don't just share food items, but even drinks! I'm a huge fan of tea and at least have a cup of green tea a day (anti-oxidants) and drink plenty of water.

For lunch today, I had:

-Brown rice

-Steamed egg

-Steamed red snapper with green onion, sesame oil, and black pepper

-Gai lan (it's a type of Chinese vegetable/greens)

Now, tell me, Beauty Talk world, what do you have? 😄

[malday]

Lemon just brings a nice brightness to dishes! Try it 😄

[DiVWA]

I agree with SocialQuota. It's also worth seeking out preserved lemon halves or slices. (TJ's briefly carried preserved slices but I haven't found them since.) Preserved lemon slices have been fermented, so to speak, so that using them is a shot of citrusy lemon taste and, best yet, you can eat the peel too! The slices are yummy on seafood and other proteins as well as anything else that lemon would taste good on; I like to put them in relishes with grilled veggies like eggplant, red onion, etc.

[EvangelineDamon]

I need to put this on my grocery list!

Once we're moved, I swear I will have post it notes with Diva recommendations everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Lemon is magic, Lylysa!

[DiVWA]

This looks quite yummy. I Love rosemary and large lemon pieces with chicken and mushrooms. So rustic too.

[k617]

Here's what I made for dinner yesterday: cauliflower & broccoli mac & cheese!

Not super healthy per se, but it's easy to use lower fat cheese, skim milk, and it has veggies inside.

I served with a side of honey & soy glazed salmon which DH loves and requests it frequently. It's an odd side for sure but I like to make this mac & cheese because it's quick and easy, and perfect for our post-workout meals.

 

I am also a huge Le Creuset addict. I love these pieces of cookware. Since I got the larger 5 L dutch oven for Christmas from DH, and the 3.3 L one recently from a sale, I hardly reach for any other pots. Also, these baking pans/casserole dishes are the best. The nonstick pan is still my trusty piece of cookware for things like fried eggs and pancakes, though!

[lylysa]

Haha! Funny that you made mac'n cheese! Last night I did that but added tuna and peas! 

Honey and soy glazed salmon is delicious! I make a honey miso salmon that's similar too.

[shirleylin88]

omgosh im drooling! looks so good 😄 

[etscore1]

General question for anyone who feels inspired to answer... 

For those who construct their own salads, do you have any type of formula (for lack of a better word) or philosophy for choosing ingredients? 

When I make my own salads (either at home or at a salad bar at Whole Foods or something of the like), I tend to do one of two things:

1. Completely overestimate the amount of each ingredient and end up with a ridiculous amount of food. While fine at home, it definitely gets me into trouble if I'm at someplace like Whole Foods when it rings up for like $18. 

2. Blank on new ingredient combinations - especially when keeping healthiness in mind - when I'm wandering through a grocery store. I've gotten to the point where I'll just grab one of the prebagged salads and throw some chicken on it and call it a day (which still ends up being delicious, but I digress...)

I think I just need to embrace a less is more philosophy and stop trying to reinvent the wheel.

[DiVWA]

@Etscore, SocialQuota has such good advice and strategy for how to get the best salad ingredients at those in-store salad bars. But I'll address #1 and #2 from a general shopping/cooking viewpoint.

If too much of something is bought, it's used for the dinner and/or the next day(s) meal. And I mean use it as garnish or whatever. Like if I buy too much radicchio, I thinly slice it the next day and place it underneath a chunk of protein (the heat from the protein very slightly wilts and cooks the radicchio a bit). Extra fruits are used at plate edges or in a impromptu salad. Try to figure out how best to use up what you got too much of, even if, at first thought, it seems to be an unusual combination.

I've been approaching salads from a whole new perspective the last year or so. The reason is that I was getting so bored of them that I was avoiding making and eating them. Now they are a big staple for my lunch. The big change I made was to embrace the bitter stuff -- the raw kale, chard and other greens (except mustard greens and collards, which are way too strong to eat raw), even radicchio which is technically a green. Chop into slivers and put at the bottom of your bowl; toss with some olive oil on your hands and massage the greens with your oily hands as this breaks down the antioxidants and makes the greens more approachable for eating.

Another change I made to my salads was to really think about how the flavors come together. So if I have something strong in it that is better to be steamed or cooked first, like cauliflower, I don't have another competing big-flavor thing in it like asparagus. (Greens don't count in this equation.)

I always (and I mean, always) have a protein in my salad. A meat like sliced pork belly or chicken or ham chunks or a seafood like salmon or shrimp. Or a hard boiled egg now and then (although I tend to avoid them as they're sort of obvious and boring).

The biggest change I've made is to have a fruit of some sort in my salad. I started doing this because I got bored with tomatoes and a fruit helps balance the bitterness of the greens. Smaller fruits like berries are best, but small chunks of melon or whatever also works. The fruit with the cut veggies and greens and the protein just tastes so divine.

The other big change I made with having the greens, fruit, protein, etc. is that I no longer use any vinegars or dressings at all. The olive oil massaged on the greens, in combination with everything else, is enough. Avoiding dressing truly makes the flavors clean and crisp and totally satisfying.

[etscore1]

Thank you so much for this DiVWA!- it was super helpful! I'm all about putting fruit in my salads. Huge fruit fan in general and love the touch of sweetness it provides. I also recently had a salad that used bread crumbs instead of croutons, which I thought was genius given that croutons are always obnoxiously hard to stab with a fork. The breadcrumbs still gave that buttery/garlic crunch in a better proportion to each bite.

My favorite salad of all time was near my old work. It was pretty simple - mixed greens, mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries), feta and candied pecans - but they made the most AMAZING balsamic vinaigrette. I don't know what ratio of balsamic to oil they used or how long they had to whisk it, but the dressing was almost fluffy in texture. I've never had anything like it anywhere else, or been able to recreate it. 

Then the real secret, they would take a slice of really good rustic bread, put it on the bottom of the bowl, drizzle the vinaigrette on it, then put the salad on top of it so all the berries and feta would saturate the bread by the time you got around to eating it.  

It doesn't sound all that healthy in retrospect, but I suppose it's all relative. 😉

[DiVWA]

It does sound yummy although I'm not much of a cheese fan anymore.

[etscore1]

I'll do feta or goat cheese, but other than that, parmesan in caesar is the only cheese I do. Not big into the shredded varieties. 

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with fruit in salad, the current rage for me is this one: grilled chicken, havarti, poppy seed dressing, walnuts, sliced apples, mixed greens.

[BaseballMommy]

I don't have advice, but I came here to empathize with you on #1.  I live in the country, so I don't have a Whole Foods, but I do this about every time I make a salad at home.

One of my favorite easy salads to make is spinach leaves, chicken (we buy a rotisserie chicken just to put on salads and it lasts several days!), broccoli, tomatoes, and carrots.  All healthy until I smother it in ranch dressing 😉

[Anonymous]

I typically don't load up on dressing, baby tomatoes or nuts on a build by weight (like Whole Foods). Those increase the price when more often than not it would be cheaper to buy a bag on the side and then add the item. I usually go wedge style recipe of chopped tomato, bacon, and maybe some carrot.

For example, at Target it is 2.25 to buy almost a pound of sliced apples. They sell a quarter bag's worth with a cup of peanut butter for 1.99. If it weren't for the fact I couldn't eat the pound of apple in one go, I wouldn't buy the cup with the peanut butter.  I'm paying the premium for getting the peanut butter and not having to explain to my husband why there is half a bag of conventional apples in the house (because Target charges a rip off price for organic apples that are tiny and mostly core instead of flesh).

[michelleshops]

You guys just reminded me that I didn't take out anything for dinner. Whoops!

[lylysa]

Oh shucks!!!! 😛

[shirleylin88]

we adapted this recipe from a restaurant that we go to quite often.

it's a quinoa chicken kale salad. kind of like a chicken caesar without the caesar dressing 🙂

it's so delicious, great for leftovers and surprisingly filling!

Recipe in Spoiler! 🙂

Spoiler

We usually get 3-4 servings out of this. Sorry for the lack of professionalism for this recipe we kinda just made it up after eating something similiar at a restaurant haha.

1 cup of cooked Quinoa (chilled)

1 - 2 chicken breasts

3 lemons

Kale (I get the bagged kind from Trader Joes and we use half a bag)

Bread Crumbs

Grated Parmesan

Rosemary

Garlic Powder

Pepper

Sea Salt

Garlic Salt

1) Chicken breasts take approx 30 minutes to cook in oven @ 350 degrees. We pressed pepper, garlic salt and rosemary into the chicken breast and covered in foil. Bake the breasts in the oven in the foil making sure it cooks in the juices. After chicken is cooked through, just shred it and leave it out to chill. you can also use a roasted chicken if you want to skip the cooking step!

2) Cook quinoa and keep chilled. 

3) Dressing: I juice 3 lemons usually and then just eyeball about 2-3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin olive oil. I then just eyeball the pepper and garlic powder to taste, I like to add more pepper it gives the salad a little bit of a kick. Sometimes I sprinkle in a bit of sea salt - it's really just preference when it comes to taste but should be tangy.

4) I then combine the kale, quinoa, chicken together in a huge mixing bowl and mix in the dressing.

5) lastly just sprinkle breadcrumb and parmesan on top.

let me know if you try it out! 

[BaseballMommy]

This looks like something right up my alley! Do you mind sharing how you made it? Any special dressing or sauce?

[shirleylin88]

I can PM you the recipe it's super easy!!! the dressing is pretty much just fresh lemon juice, olive oil, pepper and garlic powder 🙂