Saucy Chicken Sausages

Hi Lara,

I have to admit it: I have a new guilty pleasure. Luckily it isn't too guilty, just something savory enough to satisfy my "salty tooth" while also managing a balanced lifestyle. It started with the innocent purchase of chicken sausages, but not just any chicken sausages, they were spinach and feta. It was harmless enough at first, but this new pleasure has evolved into a grand love for all types of chicken sausage, and during my most recent visit to Trader Joe's I found myself putting more than 3 types of chicken sausage into my shopping cart! Luckily I can freeze the ones I don't use while I test-try all the new flavors, but they're so simple and delicious how could I resist??

My most recent purchases, I also bought chicken apple sausage but I already cooked them!

All I do is put some oil into a saucepan and raise it to medium heat. I let the stove heat up for a minute, the cut the uncooked sausage and toss the slices into the pan. The packaging says to let cook for 10 minutes, but I find that after 7 (if my saucepan is especially hot) the sausages cook pretty nicely. It's a personal preference, but I can't wait for you to try these!

My beautiful spinach & feta at their initial toss into the pan

Golden-brown perfection <3 

T-minus one month until I see you for Thanksgiving!
Xoxo,
Kim

Smoothie Bowl

Hello Sweet Sister,

You're absolutely right, it's time to hop back on the blogwagon!! For the past few weeks at school, I've really enjoyed steering away from a lot of bread and dairy. I know that I did that sophomore year of college, but it's sort of feeling like a good time for me to adjust to it again. I'm not cutting them out completely, you KNOW I love my sandwiches and brunches, but I want to cut down. Ya feel?

My diet has been a ton of fruits and vegetables, soups, and proteins. My chef here in the Kappa house makes the absolute best food, and I'm sure you've seen a bit of it on the "Whatpattymakes" Instagram handle I created for her! Willpower is hard, but I want to look my best for when I graduate and enter the real world.

However, that doesn't mean I don't want to treat myself. Tonight, courtesy of stalking too many health Instagrams, I came across something called "banana nice cream". This merely entails taking frozen bananas, a bit of almond milk, and maybe some extra fruits and sticking them in a fruit processor. The results should turn out ice cream-like. Unfortunately for me, living in a sorority house, we don't have a food processor. Luckily, we have a blender.

Because the banana was super frozen and the blender was not particularly strong, I had to add more almond milk than I would have liked. The results were a bit soup-like, and so I created a smoothie bowl. I also added strawberries to the mix, and topped it off with a bit of cacao pieces. Overall, not a bad first attempt!

This is the Kappa fruit salad; I picked out all of the Strawberries for my dessert! Definitely munched watermelon, grapes, and pineapple during the process though...

WHOOP THERE IT IS!!! Agreeably, not anything like ice cream. Think more along the lines of a "smoothie bowl," which is totally all the rage right now anyways.

Hope you're at least kind of impressed! 

Love you,

Lara

The (Not So) Simple Sandwich

Hi Lara,

I know we talked about how we've "fallen off" the blogging bandwagon, and with grad school and a final senior year, could we blame ourselves? The answer: no. But we DO need to make a better effort keeping up with one another, especially with each other's personal food journeys. Those are certainly the most important. I thought you might want a sneak peek into what I packed for lunch tomorrow: The (Not So) Simple Sandwich. "What does this sandwich contain?" you may be wondering. Well, I'll tell you!

She's a beauty, isn't she?

The (Not So) Simple Sandwich

Two slices whole wheat bread

Yellow mustard

Smoked deli turkey

AVOCADO!

Cucumber

Organic Turkey Bacon

Love from your favorite food fan base,

Kim

Sweet Green Smoothie

Larbear,

I used to think I didn't like smoothies; they were too sweet and the ones that Mom used to make us in high school always had a mixture of sneaky vegetables and cookies and cream mix for "nutrition purposes." Kind of put me off my moo shoo if you know what I'm saying. However, the other day I figured I should start over my own concoction of sorts, and decided to make my new favorite smoothie! I call it: Sweet Green Smoothie (see title of post), and it's everything you could possibly want in a breakfast smoothie.

**Note, some measurements were eyeballed, usually (made in a blender) comes out to 2 servings

The perfect breakfast in a cup

Sweet Green Smoothie

Coconut Water

A splash of coconut milk 

3 strawberries

1/2 frozen banana

Drizzle of honey

2 pitted refrigerated dates 

Handful of spinach, kale, and chard

Handful rolled oats

1 tsp unsalted, crunchy almond butter

Let me know what you think of it!

Xoxo,

Kim

Portobello Steaks

Lara,

OKAY. This is seriously one of the most amazing recipes I've ever made, no exaggeration, and you need to make it asap. Vegan portobello steaks, doesn't sound too rich or exciting, but literally I kid you not when I tell you I may be making this recipe every week now. So here it is, the best and most easy recipe ever:

Portobello Steaks
2 Portobello mushrooms (cut out stems, remove gills with a spoon)
Several handfuls of spinach (be generous, spinach shrinks to nothing)
1 chopped white onion
1 clove minced garlic
1 cup broth (beef, vegetable, chicken, etc. I used vegetable but it's whatever you prefer)
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1) Put a thin layer of broth into a large frying pan and let heat for around 2 minutes on high heat
2) Put minced garlic and onion into broth and let sit for another 2 minutes
3) Add spinach, spices, balsamic, and another splash of broth
4) Add portobello mushrooms and the rest of the broth, cover and let sit for 5 minutes
5) Flip mushrooms and cover, cook for an additional 5 minutes
6) Add additional broth if necessary to avoiding sticking
7) Spoon everything (liquid/veggies) onto a plate with curved edges to avoid spilling
8) Enjoy!! ***

***I also heated up 1/2 turkey burger to sprinkle onto my mushroom for some additional protein, so good!

Portobellos with scooped out centers (the one on the left is a little flimsy, but still delicious!)

Minced garlic and my medium white chopped onion

Everything in the pan!

The finished, glorious product. The mushrooms are under all of the veggies, I promise :) 

Xoxo,
Kim

Clean Eats

Lara Love,

With our impending trip to Chicago around the corner, I'm getting more and more excited to see you! I can't wait to share my new workout routines and healthy recipes with you as we traipse around Chi-Town like a couple of old pros. I'm learning to incorporate more protein into my diet; I've increased my weight training and I was seriously lacking in calories and protein throughout my day. 

An amazing spinach and arugula salad topped with chicken, chopped carrots, sweet potato chunks, cucumber, chopped red/yellow bell peppers, steamed cauliflower, and shredded cabbage

I started by simply baking boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes--which I would reheat at meals and chop up to put with salads and other fun "nutrient bowls" as I like to call them. After spending a week blending the chicken and tricolor quinoa with veggies, I decided to get a bit more creative and try my hand at turkey burgers! I blended the ground turkey in a bowl with an egg white (substituted instead of a full egg), freshly minced garlic, chopped white onion, oregano, garlic powder, pepper, chili powder, and crushed ice. I drizzled a bit of olive oil into the pan and let it heat for 3-4 minutes, formed my patties, then let them cook on one side for 4 minutes, and 4 minutes on the other until each side was a golden brown. 

All the ingredients blended together in my big red bowl

There was one lone patty that cooked after these 4, and they all smelled so good!

Front plate holds the 4 1/2 (I ate 1/2) turkey burgers, the back plate holds my beautiful baked chicken

So there you have it: my delicious protein increases and the recipes to go with them! One last bright and colorful meal before I let you go romp all over NYC for the rest of the day...my post workout meal :) 

This magnificent nutrient bowl contains sweet potato, quinoa, steamed cauliflower, fresh cucumber, and 1/2 can of light tuna. 

Xoxo,

Kim

Healthy Eats and Spaghetti Squash

Dearest Lara,

Your chopped salad looks amazing, I love putting an emphasis on fresh, crunchy foods during summer (what else is new?) because the Tucson heat pretty much turns everything to warm mush. Moving past that lovely image. I'm not going on any special "diet", but I am putting a large emphasis on the quality and quantity of foods I'm putting into my body; so no excess sugars, fatty foods, or anything of that nature, and nothing that lacks portion control. I'm trying to turn this into a lifestyle here. 

With that being said, I started my day off with two egg whites and 1/2 grapefruit to fuel my morning workout. My workout consisted of 35 minutes on the treadmill (alternating between walking, jogging, and sprinting), and plenty of upper body weights and ab work. Post workout I was starving, and so I warmed up some chicken I had baked the night before, tricolor quinoa from Trader Joe's, and a handful of steamed asparagus. 

Spiced up the egg whites with some pepper & garlic powder; my breakfast was made classy with tea of course

So yummy! Topped everything with some balsamic vinegar for some extra moisture and flavor

My day was mainly monopolized by moving things out of my old house, and because I'm on the 3rd floor, that was not an easy task. Especially when it's 110 degrees outside and the AC isn't on. I came back to our house only slightly defeated (I have to finish moving out today), and starving. I made a delicious salad out of spinach, arugula, chopped yellow bell peppers, yellow tomatoes, cabbage, several scoops of quinoa, broccoli, and 1/2 can of light tuna. 

Topped with balsamic vinegar, it soaks into the quinoa perfectly!

My friend Lauren came over later in the day, and we decided it would be fun and time well spent to make our home home-cooked dinner. After scouring recipes on Pinterest (of course), we stumbled upon one for spaghetti squash with brussels sprouts and chickpeas. Though it was extremely time consuming, the bulk of the time went into simply baking the spaghetti squash, and after it cooked we sped through the preparation. 

The spaghetti squash took a while to cook, so we steamed broccoli to munch on in the meantime!

Baked the squash at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, the rotated 1/4 and baked another 30 minutes

Removed the seeds from the squash after slicing in half, then scooped the rest into a big bowl

The brussels sprouts were baked in a pan with truffle salt, pepper, and olive oil for 15 minutes, then combined in a pan with chopped onion (sautéed for 6 minutes prior), fresh minced garlic, and dried basil

Added the spaghetti squash, chickpeas, lemon juice, and more truffle salt pepper: VOILA! Perfection.

**The full detailed recipe, along with many amazing others, can be found at:

http://blog.rateyourburn.com/blog/post/2013/09/11/-xx-spaghetti-squash-recipes.aspx

Keep in mind it was 2 people against 1 huge spaghetti squash, and Lauren took home NONE so I now have spaghetti squash for days. Weeks even. 

Have an amazing day at work!

Xoxo,

Kim