Category Archives: Salads/Greens

Kale Crunch Salad for the week

March 4, 2019


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This salad takes legit 30 minutes to prep, and you can get 3-5 delicious daytime salads out of it. Don’t like feta? Use goat. Don’t like tart cherries? Use another dried fruit…you get the picture. If you need more protein, toss some sliced chicken or quinoa on the top and call it a day. Just make it. **

All the ingredients are pictured below the list, this can also work as a large side salad for a group of 6. (If you use all the ingredients.

  • 2 things of lacinato kale (I don’t like curly kale), stalks removed, thinly sliced
  • 1 head of radicchio, core removed, thinly chopped
  • 1 small tub of feta cheese
  •  3 oz. dried tart cherries (they sell these in the bulk section of the store, or by the raisins.
  • 2 lemons
  • 1 bag of cauliflower florets (10 oz.) or a head of cauli broken into tiny pieces
  • pesto (either store bought or this pesto)
  • balsamic glaze (I use Fini reduction)
  • good quality olive oil
  • chili garlic olive oil (not necessary, but I like to roast my cauliflower with this)
  • chopped candied pecans
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Dried tart cherries, crumbled feta, kale, radicchio, cauliflower, lemons, pesto (HEB brand from cold section is actually pretty good), chili garlic olive oil, Lucini olive oil, and Fini balsamic glaze

Preheat the oven to 425. Toss the cauliflower with 1 tbs of chili olive oil (or regular EVOO if you don’t care for spice or don’t want to buy chili garlic oil) and roast for 25 minutes until browned. While the cauliflower is roasting and making your house smell like a mega fart, wash and chop the kale and radicchio (which will eventually make you actually fart which is fine because your house already smells like death).

To make the salad, take a big handful of kale (2ish cups) and half a cup of the radicchio and massage with 1 tsp good olive oil and juice of half of a lemon. Add in 1/2 – 1 ounce of the cheese, 1/2 ounce of cherries, 1/2 cup of cauliflower. Toss with 1 tbs of pesto and a hefty drizzle of balsamic glaze (about 1 tbs). Toss all together and top with crushed candied pecans if you like them. Or top with sliced chicken or quinoa. Enjoy!

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**Don’t mix everything together until you’re ready to eat it.. store the kale and radicchio together and the cauliflower by itself. Another cauliflower recipe (and an apology to strippers everywhere) will be on the blog tomorrow if my recipe test goes well tonight…..

Even tiny humans who don’t eat vegetables eat it...

Even tiny humans who don’t eat vegetables eat it…

Spicy Edamame

February 19, 2019

If you’ve ever been to Kenichi, you know that they specialize in overpriced (but delicious) sushi and the world’s best spicy edamame. It is coated in a glaze rather than a spicy salt like other places, and I was obsessed in college. I’ve dabbled with trying to create a copycat recipe, and have never gotten close enough, and the internet is a big fat loser in regards to finding the recipe, so here is my latest (and greatest) attempt. Even if it isn’t the exact match, it’s pretty dean close, and very addicting. I’d recommend eating this as a snack, or as an app to one of my fave recipes, Beef and Broccoli, or with the Whole 30 Ramen I’ll be writing up next.

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  • 1/4 C. Soy sauce (or Tamari if you’re one of those gluten free bozos)
  • 1 tsp. Sesame oil
  • 1 tsp. Hoisin (Gluten free hoisin, again, if you’re a bozo)
  • 1/4 tsp. Crushed red pepper flakes (more if you like spicier)
  • 1 tsp. Sriracha (more if spicy fan, less if you’re a wuss)
  • 2 cloves of crushed garlic (or a tsp of the garlic paste that you find by the herbs)
  • 1 tbs. ginger paste (you find by fresh herbs)
  • 1 bag frozen edamame in shells, cooked according to the package instructions.

In a small pan, bring all the sauce ingredients to a simmer, and let it cook down for 2-3 minutes and thicken. Pour over the steamed edamame. Drizzle with more sriracha if necessary. Have napkins handy and dive in.

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Easy Pesto Zoodles with Goat Cheese

February 7, 2019

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I wish I could claim that I love zoodles. But they will never be noddles. I don’t feel like I’ve had an incredible pasta dish, or some crazy good pad Thai when I use spaghetti squash or zucchini in place of a good ole nood, but in an attempt to eat lunches that resemble less of an overweight Italian man, I give you pesto zoodles. Now, if you don’t want to make homemade pesto, use store bought. If you want to use a different noodle substitute, mazeltov. Don’t like goat cheese? Use Parmesan, IDGAF.

If you want to use this as a side, I suggest serving it as the side for Bolognese or Chicken Parmesan Meatballs.

For the homemade pesto…combine the following in your Vitamix/cuisinart. This will make a ton more than you need, so either freeze the rest, or use it in another recipe…

  • 2 cups fresh basil
  • 3/4 c. Olive oil
  • 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/3 c. Toasted pine nuts (or toasted blanched almonds, toasted pecans, etc.)
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • salt and pepper to taste

For the zoodles, I sauted one package of Cece’s Veggie Co. Noodles-Zucchini Veggiccine. They have all sorts of different zoodle types and I’m 99% sure that if we have them in Midland, you have them at your grocery store. Just sauté with  a splash of olive oil for 3 minutes until they are soft. Add in 2 tbs of the pesto and cook for another minute until well combined and top with crumbled goat cheese and crushed red pepper. One package serves one as a big vegetarian meal, or 2 as a side.

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