Chicken Rollatini

To change things up this week, my sister did the Sunday cooking instead of me.  Since chicken is one of the few dishes that we both enjoy, she settled on a chicken dish instead of fish (which is what she really wanted to make).  One of the recipes that she has had past success with is the Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana from skinnytaste (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/chicken-rollatini-with-spinach-alla.html), so she decided to make that.  The only change that she made from the original recipe, per my request, was to use shredded mozzarella for the top of the chicken instead of slices of mozzarella because it melts better and has a better flavor, in my opinion.  I have never actually made this myself, but it is a more involved recipe than some of the others that I made.  You need thin pieces of chicken that are the correct ounces, so that they can be rolled properly.  Since we couldn't really see what all the chicken pieces look like before we bought the pack of chicken, my sister had to get creative and had to layer two of the smaller pieces so that it was the correct weight.  It is apparently also difficult when it comes to stuffing and rolling the chicken, but you would never know it when you see the finished product!

I ate mine with some broccoli on the side (some of it got eaten before the picture was even taken) and half of a Japanese Sweet Potato.  I know it sounds like a strange combination, but it worked for me.  This chicken recipe is delicious and does not taste like it is healthy, but it is!  The inside is stuffed with spinach, low fat ricotta, and part skim mozzarella, and it is topped with marinara sauce and just a little more mozzarella cheese.  While it is a bit messy and hard to keep the filling from oozing out, it is a great dish.  I highly recommend it as a creative chicken dish to add to the rotation.

Italian Turkey Meatball Subs

Since I did not cook last weekend and ate frozen meals for dinner most of the week, I knew that this weekend I definitely had to cook something.  One of my favorite recipes from Skinnytaste that I have made is the Skinny Italian Turkey Meatballs (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/12/skinny-italian-meatballs-turkey-1-pt.html) and it has been a while since I last made them, so I decided that today would be the day.

The recipe makes 6 servings of 4 meatballs, which is perfect because between me and my sister we have dinner taken care of for 3 nights.  For me the recipe takes longer than it is supposed to according to Skinnytaste (I started at 3:45 and finished at 5:10), but it is pretty simple.  The sauce has crushed tomatoes, garlic, a little olive oil, oregano, fresh basil, salt, pepper, onion, and a bay leaf, and you just let it simmer while you prep the meatballs.  For the meatballs, you just need 1.3 lbs 99% lean ground turkey, seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, parsley, egg, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Since it makes 24 meatballs, I weighed out the meat to make sure that all of the meatballs were the same size, and it came to exactly 1 oz per meatball. The recipe says that the meatballs should take about 20 minutes on simmer, but on my stove it takes about 45 minutes.  I'm not sure why there is such a large discrepancy, but if you are making them just make sure that you check the meatballs after 20 minutes, as they probably will need more time.  

You can choose to eat these with pasta or some other side, but my sister and I prefer to make them as meatball subs.  I found these really great subs in Gristedes, Calandra's Italian Rolls, which are really big and only 90 calories!  The package comes with 6 subs, which is perfect for the recipe.  To make them even better, I follow the package directions and re-heat them in the oven for 10 minutes (wrapped in foil so they remain very soft and fluffy).  

After I took my first bite, I remembered why this was my favorite recipe.  The meatballs are very juicy and flavorful, and the sauce is really delicious as well.  Having it on the sub is definitely the way to go, especially when you heat it up, because it tastes like it is fresh out of the oven.  The sandwich is extremely satisfying and filling and it is hard to believe how healthy the recipe really is!  While there are a lot of recipes that I love to make, most of them pale in comparison to this one.  If you are looking for a  lighter way to satisfy your craving for meatballs or a sub, definitely check this recipe out and i'm sure it won't disappoint!

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

Like I have said previously, I am generally not a fan of muffins with fruit in them (unless it is banana) because when I want a muffin I am looking for something sweet, not tart.  With that being said, these blueberry oatmeal muffins are pretty darn good!  I mean, I probably would not end up making them if they weren't my sisters favorites, but I still think they are delicious.  Again, the recipe is from skinnytaste.com (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/03/insanely-good-blueberry-oatmeal-muffins.html), which is pretty much my go to blog for healthy recipes.

This recipe takes a little more time than my usual muffin recipes, but I wake up early enough that I don't mind waiting a bit longer for these.  First, you have to put the oats in a food processor and soak them in milk for a half hour.  I get pretty restless waiting for the 30 minutes to be up, but in the meantime I prep the other ingredients and preheat the oven.  Once the oats are soaked, it only takes about another 5 minutes to finish the mix and get them in the oven.  This is one of the only recipes that I don't need to substitute anything because it is already super healthy, and making any substitutes would probably taint the recipe.  Besides the oats, it has a very small amount of whole wheat flour to give them the muffin texture, and then it just has egg whites, brown sugar, honey, vanilla, a little bit of olive oil, applesauce, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and of course blueberries!  The muffin tins get filled pretty much to the top, but you don't have to worry about them spilling over because they don't really rise a lot in the oven.  Once the tins are filled, you just put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 22 minutes, and then they are ready to eat!

I prefer this recipe way more than the Honey Coconut Blueberry Bran Muffins that I previously blogged about, because while those muffins tasted healthy, these still have the sweetness that I look for in a muffin.  The combination of the oats with the brown sugar reminds me of a nice bowl of oatmeal, and the blueberries do a good job of breaking up the sweetness.  This recipe put my distaste for fruity muffins to the test, and ultimately I do enjoy these.  It is a nice change from what I usually make, and they feel healthier than some of my other muffin recipes.  If you are someone that likes blueberry muffins, I would give this recipe a try.  It is a bit different from a traditional blueberry muffin because of the oats, but it is still very delicious!

Chloe's Soft Serve Fruit Co

This weekend was such a nice way to kick off the summer season, because the weather was beautiful and warm both yesterday and today.  Since the weather tends to get pretty unpredictable over the summer, we tried to maximize our time outside as much as possible.  Today, we ran around the reservoir in Central Park, which is such a nice run, and then kicked around a soccer ball and laid out in the park for a bit.  The sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky, so it was the perfect time to try to get some color.  I do tend to get restless laying outside for too long because I get very hot and bored, so after about 40 minutes of laying outside we decided it was time to leave the park.  It was around 2:30 and I could feel my blood sugar dropping, so I knew it was time for an afternoon snack.  I usually have some sort of granola bar, but was craving something cold and refreshing.

My sister immediately suggested that we go to Soft Serve Fruit down by Union Square.  She had recently received a coupon for a free sundae from there and has been dying to go, so we traveled downtown for soft serve fruit.

What is great about this place is that it looks like frozen yogurt, but it only contains three ingredients: fruit, water, and some organic cane sugar.  Therefore, it is dairy free, gluten free, and fat free.  The flavors they had today were banana, raspberry, dark chocolate, and mango I believe.  I tried the banana and the dark chocolate flavors, and both were delicious.  The consistency is a bit icy-er than regular soft serve ice cream, but it is still very soft and really refreshing.  Even though I liked the banana, I opted to get the dark chocolate flavor.  The dark chocolate flavor uses the cocoa bean, so even though it isn't necessarily fruit it still is dairy and gluten free.

After deciding on the flavor, it is very similar to Pinkberry in that there are various toppings you can choose from.  Some of them include fruit (bananas, blueberries, mango, etc.), chocolate chips, graham crackers, pretzels, coconut, almonds, chocolate sauce, etc.  After pondering for a while, I chose to get bananas and dark chocolate chips as my topping, which made it that much more delicious.

My sister got the special sundae of the day, which had dark chocolate soft serve, bananas, strawberries, and graham crackers.  She loved the combination, and was very satisfied with her choice.  She usually gets a fruit flavor like raspberry, but today she was inspired by the chocolate.  There are also many delicious sounding smoothies and sundaes, like one that has dark chocolate soft serve, bananas, marshmallow sauce, peanut butter, and chocolate chips, but I didn't want to totally sabotage the healthy snack so I stuck with just two toppings.

Overall, it definitely was the perfect snack for a hot afternoon in the city.  It was very refreshing and delicious, and was very satisfying.  Since it only has three ingredients, if you go there with the hopes that it will taste like typical frozen yogurt, you will probably be disappointed.  It retains the strong fruit flavor (or dark chocolate flavor) and has a hint of sweetness from the cane sugar, but it isn't creamy.  It is also a bit on the expensive side (my small with 2 toppings was 5.75), but it is worth it if you don't go too often.  If you are near Union Square, I would highly recommend coming here on a hot afternoon for a refreshing snack that won't set back your diet.

Hu Kitchen

This morning my sister and I woke up and took a grueling boot camp class in East River Park.  It consisted of a lot of running, strength exercises, and tons of squats!  Needless to say after that class and the walk back to the apartment, we were both pretty sore and hungry.  Upon thinking about where to go for lunch, my sister suggested Hu Kitchen, which is a healthy place near union square that we had been to twice.  The place was created with the Paleo diet in mind, and all of their menu items are gluten free and grain free.  Everything there is fresh, "healthy," and un processed.

The first time that we went, we just shared a gluten free grain free espresso muffin because it was after a class at the gym and we had already eaten breakfast but it was too early for lunch.  The muffin was so good and soft, that it is so hard to believe there is no gluten or grains in it.  It literally melts in your mouth and has a nice and strong espresso flavor to it.  The best part, however, is the small chocolate chunk that is on top of the muffin.  It is a bittersweet dark chocolate chunk (technically, it is cacao because it is dairy free), which is my favorite and was a nice surprise to find in the muffin.  After finishing the muffin and looking at all the food and menu items, we began to plan when our next visit would be.  We knew that our mom was coming into the city the next day and she tries to keep a gluten free diet and is sensitive to a lot of different grains, so we thought it would be the perfect place to take her for lunch.

We ended up going for lunch, and our impressions were mixed.  I got the baked chicken tenders with sweet potato hash on the side, my mom got a turkey meatball with roasted sweet potatoes and carrots on the side, and my sister got a bowl that consisted of quinoa and thai chicken, with a side of roasted brussels sprouts.  My sister loved her bowl, and I tried a bite and can attest to the fact that it was really good.  My mom and I made the mistake of ordering from the glass display case, without realizing that the food was cold and they could not heat it up for you.  The sides that we got, however, were from the hot bar so those came out nice and warm.  

The turkey meatball was really good, it just would've been much better if it were warm.  The chicken tenders that I got were extremely bland, and the fact that they were cold didn't help.  My favorite parts were the sides of sweet potato hash and the roasted brussels sprouts, which were both delicious.  

So, today when my sister suggested it, I was a little wary to return since my previous visit didn't turn out so great.  I decided to give it another try since I like the whole idea of the place, and I wanted another espresso muffin.  My sister and I split the grandmaster veg hot plate with 2 sides (we got the sweet potato hash and brussels sprouts again).  The grandmaster veg consists of roasted vegetables, cashew cream, and housemade marinara sauce, and it is gluten/grain/dairy free.  Upon first examination, it kind of looks like lasagna and it is a huge chunk, so it was more than enough to share. 

The grandmaster veg was much more delicious than it looks in the picture, I promise you.  The combination of the sauce with the vegetables reminded me of a vegetable lasagna, and the crust on top with the layer of cashew cream was the best part.  I would recommend sharing this (or just eating half) because it is so big and very filling.  The sides were very delicious again, and the sweet potato hash was definitely my favorite.  

Since we could not leave without taking something to go, we got two espresso muffins and a dark chocolate bar that is filled with almond butter and quinoa puffs.  We were both pretty full, but had to try a square of the chocolate, and it was amazing.  The chocolate is very dark and the almond butter filling with the crunch of the quinoa puff made it great.  I usually don't like almond butter, but the almond butter filling in this chocolate bar tasted 10x better than regular almond butter, in my opinion.

Overall, I am really glad that this experience at Hu Kitchen was great, because I really wanted to be able to love this place.  While you don't really know if their food/drinks are necessarily "healthy," in terms of fat content/calories since they don't provide the nutritional info, you do know that all of the ingredients are fresh, unprocessed, and grain/gluten free.  I do have to warn you that everything here is very expensive (The lunch with the two sides was about $15, and the chocolate bar, 2 muffins, and iced tea came to $17!) but you do get what you pay for.  Everything is high quality, and you are paying for better, more wholesome ingredients.  They also have a coffee bar, breakfast cereals, a breakfast mashbar, bowls, cold prepared food, warm food, bottled beverages, and snacks to-go.  If you are in the area, I highly recommend coming here and trying it out (just don't get the chicken fingers!)

Rouge Tomate

Tonight, I went to dinner at what my sister has now dubbed her new favorite restaurant in NYC, which really says a lot.  It is always difficult to try to eat healthy when in a restaurant because the portions are at least double the size of a serving, and you never really know exactly what goes into the dishes.  So, when I was doing research on healthy restaurants in the city, I stumbled upon Rouge Tomate.  It is one of the only restaurants in the city that is SPE certified, which means that you can actually go online and see the nutritional breakdown of all of their dishes and the ingredients that goes into them, which is great.  Based on the availabilty of nutritional info and the intriguing menu, we decided to try it out.

The actual restaurant is pretty big and has a very nice ambiance inside.  It would've been a bit nicer if it wasn't torrentially raining outside, but I can't really hold that against them since they can't control the weather.  They have a pretty big drink list, which includes some homemade sodas, juices, cocktails, and an extremely long wine list.  My sister got the Pink Sangria, which was Rose, Plum Gin, Orange, Pineapple, and a Hibiscus Flavored Pineapple, and she said it was a nice, light drink.  Then, after we ordered, they brought an amuse bouche to the table, which was beet carpaccio with a horseradish foam and topped with some pumpernickel breadcrumbs.

This was so delicious, and had a perfect balance to it.  The horseradish was not too strong, and the breadcrumbs added a really nice texture to the beets.  I was super happy because normally when chefs actually make an amuse bouche, it has some sort of fish in it so I never get to eat it, but in this case it had my favorite ingredient, beets! 

Then, someone came to our table with a nice basket of bread and you could choose a slice of sourdough bread (I think thats what it was) or a peasant roll which was basically a wheat roll with a lot of seeds on it.  To have with the bread, they brought yellow lentil hummus and some ricotta cheese.  I had the peasant roll, which was really good with all of the seeds.  I tried the hummus, which was pretty good but I am not a big hummus person so I chose to ate the roll plain.  

For the appetizers, I ordered the beet salad which came with pineapple, pumpernickel breadcrumbs, and burrata cheese.  

When it first came to the table, the first thing that I noticed was the presentation.  It just looks so colorful and pretty that I didn't want to eat it!  Of course, I quickly got over that and dug in.  Every component of the dish worked so well together and the pineapple and breadcrumbs created a nice contrast with the beets.  I have had a lot of beet salads, and this one is by far one of my favorites.  My sister had the Wild Mushroom seasonal toast, which she said was really delicious.  It was two small pieces of sourdough toast topped with tofu aioli, sauerkraut, wild mushrooms and broccoli.  I tried one bite and it was delicious, and I usually don't like cooked mushrooms!

Having already had great bread, a nice amuse bouche, and amazing appetizers, we had really high expectations for the main course.  I ordered the Spring Pea Tofu with Buckwheat, Onion, Peanuts, Peas, Coconut and Rhubarb, and my sister got the Arctic Char. 

Again, the first thing I noticed when the plate came to the table was how pretty and colorful it looked!  You can tell that they really think every component of the dish through and they spend a lot of time on presentation.  The tofu was really delicious, and I usually don't order tofu.  It has a nice pea flavor to it, which set it apart for an ordinary piece of tofu.  All of the components of the dish worked really well together, and it is definitely something that I would recommend and order again.  I was only able to make it through one piece though because I was already pretty full and wanted to save room for dessert!

The dessert menu had some really great options, but my sister and I choose to stick with the small plates because we were pretty full.  Apparently the chocolate sphere is the most popular dessert, which I usually would get since I am a chocoholic, but I was too full and knew that if I ordered it, I would end up eating the whole thing and then would regret it later.  So, I choose the soy chocolate ganache with banana, olive oil powder, and cocoa nibs, and my sister got the small strawberry shortcake.  

The soy chocolate ganache was the perfect dessert!  The ganache was extremely rich and chocolatey, and you would never know that it was soy!  The bananas underneath the chocolate were really sweet and had great texture, which worked well with the ganache.  The size of the dessert made it the perfect way to end the meal without feeling overly stuffed.  And, while I did not try the strawberry shortcake, that got rave reviews as well.

Overall, I would highly recommend this restaurant!  Every single thing that my sister and I got was delicious, and you could tell that they really pay attention to detail.  While it is on the expensive side, it is a nice place to go to for special occasions or when you are looking for a little splurge.  You will leave here knowing that you had a very satisfying, delicious, and healthy meal, which is hard to come by in NYC. 

Bali BBQ Chicken with a Japanese Sweet Potato and Steamed Broccoli

Yesterday was a Whole Foods Day for me because my lunch and dinner both came from the prepared foods section at Whole Foods!  In addition to shopping for lunch options on my recent trip there, I was looking for some dinner items that I could eat on a day where I didn't feel like cooking or having a frozen meal.  So, when I saw their Bali BBQ Chicken, I thought that it was a perfect option.  It is really just a simple piece of grilled chicken with a light coating of some BBQ sauce, which I like since I usually eat pretty plain chicken.  On the side, I had some steamed broccoli and half of a baked japanese yam.  I like the japanese sweet potato better than the regular one because to me it has a sweeter taste.  When shopping for one, the skin has a more purplish color before it is cooked, so it is easier to tell it apart from the other sweet potato varieties.  The inside is also a yellow/whitish color instead of the usual bright orange color.

This was a perfect and easy balanced dinner for me.  It heated up in under a minute, and was so good and filling.  Next time I would probably just get some sauce on the side to dip the chicken in because it was a bit bland even for my taste, but it was still pretty good.  

This is why I love Whole Foods so much!  You can get some really great meal options that can be thrown together in under a minute, and they are all healthy and delicious.  It also makes it look like you spent hours cooking!

Sweet Potato & Quinoa Cake with a Summer Kale Salad

Lunches for me have always been a pretty boring meal, because I usually just end up eating a turkey sandwich.  While I do love turkey sandwiches, I was at a point where I needed to spice things up.  So, last weekend when my sister and I ran in Central Park and decided to stop at Whole Foods on the way back, I was immediately drawn to their prepared food counter.

The Whole Foods in Columbus Circle is, in my opinion, the best one in the city and has a really great selection of prepared foods.  They have a big sushi counter, pizza, hot food bar, prepared food bar, deli counter, sandwich counter, and a great bakery counter.  After looking in all of the the display cases for a while, I decided on a few small things.   Among them was a Sweet Potato Quinoa Cake with Dried Cranberries and a Summer Kale Salad which had some apples, almonds, and a light coating of a sweet dressing.

Today, I finally got around to trying both of them.  I brought it with me to work and it was the perfect lunch.  The quinoa cake is really delicious and filling.  It is basically quinoa, some wild rice, dried cranberries, and sweet potato to bind all the ingredients together in the shape of a patty.  The sweet potato taste really comes through, and it is even better when heated up.  The kale salad was also really delicious and felt very light and springy.  The kale was lightly coated in a sweet dressing, which created a perfect balance.  The apples in the salad also gave it great flavor.  Together, these two dishes were a great combination and were super filling.  After eating it, I felt like I had a really healthy and balanced meal that also tasted delicious, which was a nice change from my usual turkey sandwich!  I will definitely be purchasing both of these dishes again on my next trip to whole foods if they have them!

Honey Coconut Blueberry Bran Muffins

Today is Tuesday, which in my apartment means muffin day!  Since about January, I have tried to make a new and healthy muffin/scone every week.  I use recipes that I found on skinnytaste.com, emilybites.com, and a bunch that I adapted off of Pinterest to make a bit healthier.  Most, if not all, of the muffins that I make have no butter and use unsweetened applesauce instead of oil to keep them moist and low in fat.   I usually limit the quantity of muffins that I make to 4 because even though they are healthier, they are still muffins and should be eaten in moderation.  After making a new kind of muffin every Tuesday for about 3 months, I finally got to the repeats and there are about 8 that made it onto the permanent list (including these)!

So, today was Honey Coconut Blueberry Bran Muffins.  Again, I found the recipe for these on skinnytaste.com (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/08/honey-coconut-blueberry-bran-muffins.html).  I have to admit, I am not the biggest fan of fruit in muffins with the exception of bananas.  But, my sister love blueberries in muffins so I try to be a good roommate and make blueberry muffins once in a while.    That being said, I'm glad that I gave this recipe a shot because I really enjoy these muffins.  They are very hearty and filling, and have nice texture because of the blueberries, coconut, and chopped nuts.  They also have a significant amount of wheat bran which makes them more healthy!  The only real change I made from the skinnytaste recipes was to use pecans instead of walnuts, because I just love pecans.

To me, this muffin has the perfect balance of sweetness, moistness, and healthiness!  Adding the coconut and the chopped nuts adds another layer of taste to them, and the wheat bran makes them very fiberous (not sure if that is actually a word) and filling.  I highly recommend trying this recipe, even if you are skeptical about fruit muffins like I was!

Baked Chicken Parmesan

Since I do not eat any seafood and rarely eat red meat, I usually end up eating some sort of chicken dish everyday.  While it is sometimes a struggle to keep things interesting, this Baked Chicken Parmesan is definitely one of my favorite chicken dishes to make.  It is very easy, super tasty, and you would never even know that it is actually healthy!

I never really ever ordered Chicken Parm in a restaurant partly because I knew how unhealthy it was (since it is usually fried) and partly because I have never been a huge fan of large amounts of cheese.  But, when I started cooking more often and found this recipe from skinnytaste.com (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/04/baked-chicken-parmesan.html) my opinion for the dish has totally changed.  {And just as a side note, skinnytaste.com is my absolute favorite source for healthy and delicious recipes.  She has such amazing recipes posted for every different food category and meal, and she even posts the nutritional info and the weight watchers points for each dish.  I have made probably at least 20 different things from her site, and everything that I have made so far has turned out great and they were so easy to follow.  Highly recommend this blog if you are looking for healthy, delicious, and easy recipes!}

Anyway, back to the chicken parmesan...this is my second time making this dish and it was just as good as I had remembered.  The cutlet is baked in the oven on very high heat which allows the outside to retain its crispiness without being fried, and each piece gets 1 tbsp of sauce and 1 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese which is more than enough.  It is the best to eat right when it comes out of the oven because that is when it is the crispiest and the cheese is the most melted.  But, since it makes 8 portions (I halved it to make 4 instead) the leftovers are still just as delicious.

I had mine with 1/2 cup of penne with1tbsp marinara sauce, and some steamed broccoli.  The overall meal is extremely filling, delicious, and healthy which makes it that much better!  I highly recommend trying the recipe (follow the link above), and checking out the recipes on skinnytaste.com.  Trust me, you will love them!

Nature's Path Flax Plus Cereal

I have major issues when it comes to the granola bar/cereal aisle in the grocery store, and I tend to buy something new to try every time I go through the aisle.  It has come to the point where I don't even allow myself to walk down the aisle unless I know I need something (sometimes, this doesn't even work!).  I don't know what it is, but I just love trying all the new varieties!  Anyway, then I get stuck with huge boxes of cereal in my cabinet and if I end up not liking the cereal, I have to force myself to keep eating it so that it does not go to waste.  That is the case with the Nature's Path Flax Plus Cereal.  I originally had high hopes for this cereal because it is organic, very high in fiber, and low in sugar, which meant it was a healthy alternative to other sugary cereals out there.

It is not bad, it just isn't something that I would buy again.  While I commend them for keeping sugar low, it is definitely reflected in the taste.  I tried adding 1/2 banana to my cereal bowl (which I always do anyway) to sweeten it up, but it didn't help too much.  It is one of those products that actually tastes healthy because it has that wheat-y after taste to it. 

Even though I wouldn't buy it again, I would recommend this cereal if you are looking for a healthy breakfast cereal that is not sweet.  In the meantime, I will continue to slowly make my way through the box until I finally finish it.