What to do with Leftovers!

So when I was prepping lunches for this past week, I made too much quinoa - or maybe I was secretly getting ready for a leftovers post? Yes, let's go with that. So when I was prepping lunches for this past week, I purposely made extra quinoa so that I could use it later in the week for a dinner, which led to this:

I also had a couple peppers and an onion to use up, and I was inspired by the dinner I had a few weeks ago at my BFFs house. Her fiance made his specialty, and it just so happened that the ingredients for his dinner were what I had in my kitchen, minus a few things. I picked up some sauce and sausage at Harris Teeter on my way home from work. 

If you've never tried this sauce, I highly recommend - its super good!

Okay, so I chopped up my peppers and onion and threw them in a skillet with some garlic.

While the veggies were cooking, I prepped the sausage. Then all I had to do was reheat the quinoa and throw everything on a plate! So quick, so easy, so good :)

Are those not the best looking leftovers you've ever seen?

Only problem was that I used up my extra quinoa and now had extra veggies and sausage. Which brings us to about an hour ago. I took all those leftovers (minus the sauce, because ew with eggs) and roughly chopped them - along with the mushrooms I forgot to use last night, oopsie :-/ and threw them in an omelette!

Tell me that doesn't look delicious...I dare you!

Snowflakes for the Snow Day!

This morning school was canceled due to SNOW! I love a good snow day. It definitely went in the pro column when I was deciding about careers. I love making pancakes on snow days and I had recently discovered Immaculate Baking! If you've never tried it, you should. Target carries most of their stuff and I've seen some products at Wegmans.

Making them on my snowflake pan was a bonus. I got the pan for Christmas from a friend who clearly knows me well! They turned out super cute! I sprinkled some raw cane sugar and berries on them and voila:

Berry delicious!

So when my December box from The Honest Company came in, there was a surprise! Organic sugar cookie mix and a really cute snowflake cookie cutter. I meant to bake them over the holidays, but I just never got around to it. Today seemed like the perfect day! So I dragged out the old Kitchen Aid and got to work!

They taste as good as they look

2 posts in 2 days...maybe I'm a blogger after all? 

“Isn’t that seaweed?”

…”no, that’s kelp. This is kale.”

“Oh. Okay, I’ll try it.”

That was the theme of today’s Roasted Kale Salad with Goat Cheese and Lemon Dressing. But let’s go back to the beginning…

It all started at Wegmans (shocker). I was browsing the greens and I saw this big bag of kale and immediately thought of The Bachelor. If you watch, you know why. So, I was like okay I can do something with kale, right? And today, I found out that I totally can! I can do something amazing with kale. Which means I get to share it with YOU so you can do it too! Yayyyyy!

So when I got home, I divided it up into 2 baking dishes just so I could do it all at once:

Then, I drizzled about 1 tablespoon of EVOO over each pan and sprinkled some pepper and minced garlic:

I popped them into the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes (18 if you really want specifics). When I took them out, I combined them into one pan and sprinkled some goat cheese over the top:

Seriously...could this look any more delicious?

Then I opened the fridge, saw a lemon, and had a glorious idea (don't be so surprised). I juiced half a lemon and sprinkled? Can you sprinkle a liquid? Whatever, I need a thesaurus. Anyway, I sprinkled the lemon juice over the salad. 

It was amazing! This is my new favorite salad. It was so, so good. My grandfather even ate some. He didn't want to, like at all, but I made him and he said it "wasn't that bad." So he basically loved it. And you will too, so go make it!

Caprese Quinoa Salad with Chicken

Okay so by popular demand (aka someone mentioned in passing that I should blog), I'm restarting this thing! I'm a TERRIBLE blogger as proven by my 5 month absence, so don't expect much! And since I'm writing this and watching the Bachelor instead of getting ready for work, we best get a snow day tomorrow...

So I've recently become obsessed with Wegmans. It used to overwhelm me, but since discovering their iPhone app (what??! you don't know about it?! DOWNLOAD NOW), I feel much less stressed! You build your grocery list online and it sorts it by aisle - ahhhhmazing!!

So I think that the best way to eat clean and be successful in whatever plan you're on, preparation is key! So, I like to do a bunch of prep at one time. And lately that prep has been school lunches for the week, which brings us to today's post...Caprese Quinoa Salad with Chicken. Here we go!

So I grabbed all the ingredients you need for caprese salad. Obviously the Harris Teeter glaze is not clean, but I'll use it until it runs out. And since it doesn't expire until March of 2020 (gross), I have some time to find a replacement...

Okay, along we go. I seasoned the chicken - just dusted it with cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper (NO SALT FRIENDS). Bake it at 425 for 25-30 minutes.

While the chicken was baking, I made my quinoa - 1:2 dry to wet ratio. I just cooked it in water, nothing fancy today. But so fluffy!

Then I let both the chicken and the quinoa cool and started chopping. Let me just show you one of the best kitchen tools...

This thing is AMAZING! Buy it here!! You just put the tomato (or grape if that's what you're into) in the slot and it quarters it for you! Saves sooooo much time!! And it's super convenient! Sorry for all the exclamation points! Including that one...but seriously I'm a sucker for kitchen gadgets. You'll see (if I keep blogging) :-/

Okay, back to chopping. Chopped the chicken, mozzarella, and basil.

Then, I just layered them into the jars and squirted some glaze on the top. Voila!

So there's a shelf in the fridge that I dedicate to lunch stuff. The past few weeks its been the main dish and then berry parfaits and yogurts.

And then I clean, chop, and divide all the other fruits and veggies that find their way into my cart and put them in the crisper. That way when I get home, I can just grab and snack. Its mostly about convenience my friends...

Yay! Next week, I'm thinking of a tuna avocado pasta salad, so that should be a good time :)