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]

Oooooooooooohhhh, recipe??? I love eggs with anything haha.

[lyravega]

I made lasagna the way I always make it - meat "filling/sauce", ricotta cheese, mozzarella, parmesan...

As for the egg white crepes, I whisked 8 egg whites with 1 tablespoon of milk. Heated a 10 inch skillet over medium heat, coated it lightly with some coconut oil. Added just enough egg mixture to coat the pan in a very thin layer, about 1/4 ( or less ) of a cup. Covered the skillet with a lid and cooked it for about a minute. You can usually just dump the crepe right out onto a plate, but you might need to use a rubber spatula to help get it out of the pan. Cut them into noodles when they cool down. And, that's it. 🙂

[KateLovesYSL]

Thank you! I'll have to give this a try soon! Sounds delicious !

[lyravega]

I'll be back with details asap, I promise. 

[lylysa]

Me toooooo!!! I love steaming beaten eggs with chicken stock....it comes out like silken tofu!

[ShannonAlexis]

It got cold again, so I made Spanish turkey meatball stew (aka lazy-broke-grad-student-stew). I like to make things that I can eat off of for a few days, and the boyfriend like it so win-win. 

[AMHWKI]

That looks delish!  Mind sharing a recipe?

[ShannonAlexis]

Sure thing! I got it out of a WV Living magazine I think. I'll share the original and the changes I make.

- 2 table spoons olive oil

- 1 large onion     (I didn't have an onion so I just used a lot of minced onion flakes)

- 5 cloves garlic  (Didn't have this either so substituted with some garlic powder)

- 1 teaspoon paprika 

- 1 cup sliced carrots (I didn't have carrots so I used peas. Ideally I think both would be good)

- 2 14oz cans of diced tomatoes

- 2 cups of chicken broth

- 1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (here I substituted 1 cup of ditalini noodles because I don't care for chickpeas)

- 1 and 1/4 pound lean ground turkey (I used Kroger lean turkey meatballs)

- 3/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

- salt and pepper 

- I chose to add baby spinach leaves as well

 - If you're going to use noodles instead of chickpeas, prepare them first and have them sit until ready. They're added pretty quickly. Also, where is says "skillet" I just used a big pot since I didn't transfer the mixture. 2 pots total - 1 for noodles, 1 for everything else.

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, and pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally until soft. Approx. 5 min. Transfer half of the mixture to a large bowl (this is if you're using ground meat. Since I used pre-made meatballs I just kept all of it in the pot). 

2. Add paprika and carrots to the onion mixture and cook for about 1 min. Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, spinach leaves (if desired), and chickpeas/noodles; bring to rapid simmer and cook (stirring occasionally) until the sauce thickens slightly (about 6 min). 

3. Meanwhile, add the ground turkey, parsley, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to the bowl with the reserved of the onion mixture. Mix together and form about 20 meatballs. Place the meatballs in the skillet with the sauce and simmer, turing once, until cooked through, about 7 min. Serve with more pepper and parsley.

----Obviously I skipped this entire step since I used pre-made Kroger meatballs (1 and a half containers, although just 1 would have been fine). 

I did put a little extra paprika, some Italian seasonings, and various other spices in mine because I like spicy things. It's pretty fast (especially if you use pre-made meatballs) and kind of healthy I guess. It's pretty easy to add spices to the broth until you find a balance you like. 

I hope that was easy to follow, I didn't really do what you're supposed to. If you try it let me know if you like it!

[AMHWKI]

Thanks so much!  I will try this soon!

[lylysa]

Two nights ago, I made CHIP-KEN 😛

-2 chicken breasts, butterflied and cut into strips/pieces (I typically end up with 12-15 pieces when working with that amount of chicken)

-1 egg, beaten and set aside in its own container

-Flour or corn starch (used to lightly dredge chicken strips)

-Spices/seasoning (add these into the flour/corn starch, I like to use salt, pepper, and onion powder, feel free to keep it simple or jazz it up as much as your taste buds want)

-Chips, crushed up (no need to make it a super fine powder as you still want there to be crunch)

-Bread crumbs (optional, if you want to add in a seasoned variety in with the chip crumbles you can to help coat chicken even more)

Here are the chips I love to use:

They're pretty flavorful on their own (so I don't need to add in too many spices to the dredging step) with quinoa, brown rice, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, oat fiber, safflower oil, and sea salt.

1. Set oven at 350, line a large baking sheet or tray with foil (because I'm lazy and don't wish to wash a pan after if I don't HAVE to). 

2. Dredge chicken in flour/corn starch mix that has been spiced/seasoned lightly, coating both sides of chicken strips.

3. Dip strips into beaten egg and transfer into a separate container with the chip crumbles (add in the bread crumbs if you want) and coat strips evenly.

4. Lay out strips on foil covered pan/baking sheet, move to oven, bake for 20-30 minutes.

5. Remove from heat, let cool a bit, enjoy as is or with any condiments/dipping sauces! 

You can really play around with the type of chips you use, you can even do baked varieties or use hearty crackers like Cheez-Its or Ritz Cracker Chips.

[DiVWA]

Sounds yummy and is something I also make. Except I substitute the chips for crushed pork rinds mixed with a bit of cashew meal.

[lylysa]

Speaking of pork rinds, my bf had a bag yesterday and I totally mentioned how we should use them as coating one day! You and I must be on the same wavelengths! 😉

[DiVWA]

Pork rinds make great coating--similar to panko crumbs without all the carbs.

I grind them up in my food processor by the bag. The spicy version is also good to have on hand.

[lylysa]

The reason why I've probably never breaded with pork rinds is because once I get my hands on them I make sure non are left! 😄 Haha! I love the spicy variations....gahhhhh now I must do this soon!

[lyravega]

Paleo chicken bruschetta. Sooooo good!

And, new batch of homemade garlic butter. This stuff is just unbelievable yummy. I use it for/in/with anything and everything!

[lylysa]

Commence the Paula Deen butter memes!

[lyravega]

[lylysa]

What's the steps for the garlic butter? Looks whipped up!

I normally just finely dice up garlic cloves and add them to butter I have slowly simmering on the stove top, but I'm always up for new methods!

[lyravega]

I simply leave the butter out on the counter until it's all soft ( few hours ). And, then I squeeze this roasted garlic ( in the photo above ) in it, and "whip" it all together with a fork. The roasted garlic is soft, and cream like, so it is easy to mix it with butter with just a fork. Friggin' delicious!!! You have to try to make this yourself. I know you're gonna love it. 🙂

Have you ever tried/made roasted garlic? If not, you just have to try it! It is divine! ( Very easy to make. ) Plus, it can be used for so many things: spread on bread, pizza or crackers; mashed into salad dressings; mashed into hummus, baba ganoush, or other spreads; used in place of raw garlic in soups, casseroles, and sauces... I "fry" eggs on it ( scrambled eggs are so yummy when prepared on garlic butter )... basically, you can use it for/in/with whatever you want/like. Possibilities are endless. 🙂

Oh, and just in case you didn't know it already - roasted garlic has mild flavor. When you roast garlic like this, its flavor mellows and sweetens. So, don't worry, you can't possibly put "too much" of it in anything. 🙂

"How to roast garlic in the oven" "recipe" is in the spoiler tag.

Spoiler

What you need:

1 or more heads of garlic ( I use one medium-large head of garlic for what would be one stick of butter )

knife

aluminum foil

Instructions:

1. Heat the oven to 400°F: Set a rack in the middle position.
2. Peel (most of) the paper off the garlic: Use your fingers to peel away all the loose, papery, outer layers around the head of garlic. Leave the head itself intact with all the cloves connected.
3. Trim the top off the head of garlic: Trim about 1/4 inch off the top of the head of garlic to expose the tops of the garlic cloves. ( as in my photo above )
4. Wrap in foil and bake: Wrap the garlic aluminum foil and roast in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour. ( I bake mine for an hour )
5. Begin checking the garlic: After 40 minutes, begin checking the garlic. The garlic is done when a center clove is completely soft when pierced with a paring knife. Even once soft, you can continue roasting until deeply golden for a more caramelized flavor ( I like it when more deep golden! ) — check the garlic every 10 minutes. Exact roasting time will depend on the size of your garlic, the variety, and its age.
6. Use or store the garlic: Let the garlic cool in its aluminium wrap, then open and serve. Press on the bottom of a clove to push it out of its paper. ( Just squeeze it out as you would squeeze a cream out of its tube. 🙂 ) Roasted garlic can also be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or frozen for up to 3 months.

[lylysa]

DROOOOOOL

I love garlic so this is perfect and I bet with the whipped consistency it's so much easier to blend into soft goods. Funny enough, I need to get more garlic. Two nights ago I did garlic butter and parm mashed potatoes and used up the remaining cloves in my last bulb. I actually made a bit too much garlic butter for the potatoes so I poured the melted mix into a container to keep in the fridge. Last night when I went to begin my lamb loin chops I got super sad thinking I had no garlic to add into the pan before the meat.....then I remembered that last bit of garlic butter. SAVED! 😄

[lyravega]

😄

Nicely done.

Now, go get some garlic, and make this asap! 😉

It really is a (life) saver. 😄

I'm crazy about garlic, so of course I always have this garlic butter at hand. I just have to have it! I'm panicking if I realize I'm all out!