Bacon Eggplant Grilled Cheese

Healthy Chicken Salad

 This chicken salad is a healthier version of the classic. It is inspired from a Barefoot Contessa recipe my mother-in-law gave  me (she makes the BEST chicken salad). But I also was influenced by a chicken salad sandwich I used to get at Dos Gringos back in DC. I lightened the recipe up and it is so great without any mayo! You can just serve it as is, with some greens on the side (arugula is a nice contrast), or put it in a roll-up. Eat it guilt free.

Makes 10 - 1/2 cup servings
WW = 3 points

Basil, Tomato, Mozzarella Salad

I bought some beautiful tomatoes and purple basil from the farmer's market today.

I was really craving cheese so when I stumbled upon some grass fed mozzarella I bought that too. Keeping up with ww has made my relationship with cheese go through a rough patch...so it was time. But I decided to make a healthy salad for dinner. To make it more hearty I served it over some cooked spelt. This salad was delicious. The only thing I will change next time is that I will not mix all ingredients together at once, instead I will gently toss in the beans and cheese at the end. Because the beans were canned and the cheese was so fresh they started to fall apart with the mixing. I had wanted all the ingredients to marinate together while the spelt took its lovely time cooking (1 hour+!!). But I learned my lesson about this.

This spelt was leftover from my winter csa. Let me tell you, letting it do its' thing is worth it. This was a lesson I learned back in December. You don't want to eat crunchy spelt-- you will end up with a headache.

Serves 6 (1 cup servings)
ww points = salad alone (5 points); salad with arugula and 1/2 cup cooked spelt (7 points)

Cold Cucumber Avocado Soup

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made this soup as an appetizer on a hot summer night. It is refreshing and super fast to make! I know that I have blogged about a few other cucumber soups. What can I say it's hot and nasty out there! This one is by far the creamiest. I adapted it from a Cook's Illustrated Recipe (you may need a membership to view original). Their recipe called for much bigger portions. I also tried to make the process easier and lighten it up a bit for the good ol ww.

Serves 5 (1 cup servings)
ww = 3 points per serving (since this was an appetizer I actually served less of the soup than 1 cup)

Smoked Salmon Spread

This smoked salmon spread was served as part of a four course "mini" dinner. Marc and I had our friends Guez and Azul over. It sounds elaborate but really, I whipped up this meal in a snap. I served smoked salmon spread with cucumbers, cucumber avocado gazpacho soup (next post), swiss chard burgers with sweet potato fries, and then marc's new low-fat chocolate ice cream-- made with skim milk and xanthan gum! This recipe was inspired by the following site.

Skinny Salmon Sandwich

This sandwich is delicious and so light! Let me show you another pic so you can see how simple it is:

Part of the trick is these new light wraps I found called Roll-ups.

Red quinoa and kale pilaf

This recipe kicks ass! It has such texture and flavor. I was inspired by Food 52 to cook it but ended up substituting almost all the ingredients. It is pretty easy, super healthy for you, and very filling without feeling like a piglet. The quinoa is a great source of protein, iron and fiber. Plus it is gluten free so it is easy to digest. I gobbled it up after I went swimming, which is my latest obsession. The dish has more kale than grain in terms of the proportion. I highly recommend making it as a main dish or you can leave out the beans and serve it as a side.

Curried Egg Salad

This recipe is adapted from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks. I wanted to eat something different for breakfast that wouldn't weigh me down. That and I knew I wanted to make homemade pasta for dinner so I wanted to budget the calories. This egg salad is delicious. It does require some chopping but it doesn't take forever to make. Next time I will double it and save the salad for lunch for the week!