Vegan Quesadillas

Recently I've been experimenting with going dairy-free. Long story short: I react VERY poorly to carrageenan so that didn't last long. Anyway, it was pretty hard. For me, cheese was one of the most disappointing offerings of the dairy-free market. But then I found the Daiya Havarti Garlic & Jalapeño Wedge. It tasted way better than the other cheeses I had tried and melted fantastically (where others failed). I knew instantly what to make with it. And this is what I came up with. The avocado balances the spiciness of the "cheese" really well making the simplicity of the ingredients work. It's quick, easy, and really yummy.

Grilled Pesto Shrimp

So rather than a recipe, today I present more of an idea, or an inspiration to base a dish on: pesto shrimp. It's really, really easy and very un-fussy but the flavor is fantastic. It's great because if you use pre-made pesto and frozen shrimp, this can be whipped up last minute if need be and served in a variety of ways.

Breakfast Smoothie

I have a love-hate relationship with breakfast. I don't really like cereal, or eggs, or yogurt. But I like really bad breakfast food, like hash-browns and bacon-egg-n-cheeserz (a breakfast sandwich of my childhood). So that kind of made me stop eating breakfast. But recently I concocted an awesome breakfast smoothie that's not awful for me. It started with mocha powder, ice and milk. Then came almond milk instead. Then PB2 (powdered peanut butter) and frozen bananas. Suddenly I had an awesome breakfast smoothie that I really liked and wasn't half bad nutritionally.

Operation Pinterest: 1st Edition

Today I am starting a new series of blog posts called Operation Pinterest. For this series, I will test recipes from Pinterest and relay to you what I think about them. I was inspired by the variety of experiences I've had when testing Pinterest recipes. It doesn't seem to matter how many people pin it, it can still suck, in my opinion. I don't mean this to be a critique of the recipe, or the author, because I don't think that's fair. For one, people's tastes are different: different strokes for different folks. But also, I can't stand it when people change a recipe and then complain about how bad it was. In this case, I did change some ingredients so it's not fair for me to judge the original recipe. I only want to give you my thoughts and advice on the recipe so you can get a better idea about the random recipe you found on Pinterest.
Today I have for you Tomato Basil Chicken from Menu Musings. This recipe is currently very popular on Pinterest. That was what first qualified it as a candidate. Also, it's naturally gluten-free (serving with pasta is optional) with accessible ingredients. Sounds good to me!

Frozen Chocolate Bananas

Today I have a (sort of) healthy summer treat for you! Recently I've been trying to eat healthier, because I'm still not happy with how I feel. My weakest area in this has been snacks. If unhealthy snacks are in the house, I feel compelled to eat them. Then once I eat them, I feel compelled to eat other unhealthy things. I've noticed that direct correlation in myself: when you eat junk you crave junk, when you eat healthy you crave healthy. So in trying to find a sweet, cool snack for summer, I thought of these babies: chocolate covered banana bites. I'm not a huge dark chocolate fan, so I use semi-sweet chips but you could easily switch to a good dark chocolate and this would be pretty dang good for you, and vegan/dairy-free! Keeping these in the freezer makes them like little chocolate covered ice cream bites, perfect for summer.

Salad in a Jar

I learned very quickly after going gluten-free that my fickle, spontaneous eating habits weren't going to work. When I wasn't planning my meals, I was going hungry some nights or eating (gluten free) foods that were not very good for me and not cheap either. That's when I started meal planning. I've only got myself and my fiancé, so we stretch our dinners for multiple days as leftovers. But with no solid breakfast or lunch plans, I was still eating junk too much. Around this time my mom mentioned something she saw online: vacuum sealing salad in jars. She just liked the idea of extending the lifespan of lettuce, but I saw it as a new healthy habit that would help stretch my budget.
We got the idea from an awesome website called http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/ . She has a special section on her blog for jarring salad that covers a lot more than I will in this post. All I do is simple jarring of romaine hearts and, recently, cut onion (by itself in a separate jar). We only buy, cut and jar enough lettuce to last a week, but it absolutely lasts those 7 days without browning or wilting. We do this every week after our weekly grocery trip.