Knee Highs

Prepping for the week!

Bread and butter. (at Acacia Midtown)

Turkey and quinoa stuffed red pepper with a side salad.

Dark chocolate brownies with Reese’s pieces. (Taken with Instagram)

Hummus, pita chips, and FALAFELS!!!! (Taken with Instagram at The Brick Oven)

Sauteed Salmon with Mango Kale Salad

Long time no update! So.. I started a diet. I’m about 5 days into the diet and I’m eating the same foods over and over again because it’s easier to stay on track that way (for me at least). So hence me not having much updates.  If I have too much variety, I’ll want to eat and eat and eat!  I’m actually surprised at how much weight I’ve lost so far, even though I know that it’s mainly just water weight. But just to see the numbers on the scale change is very uplifting! It’s very motivational and it keeps me going knowing that I can do it. So yay! 

This was a dish I made one night, just a salmon filet ontop of one of my favorite salads. You can cook the salmon anyway you like using your favorite recipe. But this salad freaking rocks. I got the recipe from Aarti on the Food Network. I watched her since the beginning of the Next Food Network Star about two seasons ago. I normally don’t watch this show, but since there was sort of a connection to someone who was 3rd place on the show, I started watching.

Anyways, I’ve made this salad a few times now and I freaking love it! It’s one of my favorite salads and the best thing about this salad is that the longer the salad sits over the course of a day or two, the better it becomes. The lemon juice helps to soften the kale and the flavors end up blending together so nicely. It’s a very light and simple salad.  It’s quick to put together and your hands will get a little messy because you’ll want to massage the kale and the lemon juice together. 

The first day tastes great.  The second day tastes better.  The third day EVEN BETTER!

The Mango Kale Salad recipe was from the Food Network Show Aarti Party.  My changes are italicized.   

Ingredients

• 1 bunch kale (black kale is especially good), stalks removed and discarded, leaves thinly sliced
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• Kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons honey
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 ripe mango, diced small (about 1 cup) (I like a lot of mangoes in this salad, so I probably used about 4 small ones, change the quantity of this anyway you like depending on your tastes)
• Small handful toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds), about 2 rounded (I didn’t have any on hand so I didn’t include this this time.  But you can just as easily add almonds, or walnuts to this salad and it works really well)

Directions

1.  In large serving bowl, add the kale, half of lemon juice, a drizzle of oil and a little kosher salt. Massage until the kale starts to soften and wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside while you make the dressing.

2.  In a small bowl, whisk remaining lemon juice with the honey and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stream in the 1/4 cup of oil while whisking until a dressing forms, and you like how it tastes.

3.  Pour the dressing over the kale, and add the mango and pepitas. Toss and serve.

This is so good, you’ll have to eat it to believe it. 

You probably think that you’re cooler than me.

Spinach and Watermelon Salad

What better way to pretend it’s summertime than to eat watermelon?  Being that we’ve had such warm weather this winter, it’s basically been spring since January.  So now it’s time for summer and let’s bring on the sun and hot weather already!  I love love love watermelon.  I love love love spinach.  I love love love cheese.  So let’s put them together! 

I wasn’t too sure about mozzarella on this salad, I knew feta would go really well with it, but I really didn’t want to buy a thing of feta and only use it for this one salad.  I could get more use out of mozzarella over a few courses than I would with feta.  So I got mozzarella.  And good thing it actually worked out really well. 

I used a very light homemade dressing.  My go-to salad dressing actually.  I’m not really sure of the measurements, but I will guess for blogging purposes… ^_^

Honey Lime Dressing

• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1/2 lemon or lime (I used a lime that was in my fridge)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt, to taste
• freshly ground pepper, to taste

Mix the ingredients together.  Taste it and see how you like it and adjust accordingly if you want it a little sweeter or a little more tart.  This dressing complements the watermelon spinach combination really well.  This amount was enough to dress two salads, so adjust accordingly if you need more dressing. 

Put your spinach, watermelon, mozzarella (or feta..if you really want) together and mix the dressing over it.  SO GOOD!  You must try!

Hair everywhere!!!! Worth it for that cute teddy bear face.

Let’s play ball!