Weekly Produce Prep and Easy Veggie Salads

We all try to eat more vegetables.  But how easy has it been for you to eat them at home?   For me, not so much.  I realized it takes a little work to get them ready to grab on the go or when searching for a light snack.  If veggies aren't easily available, I find myself leaning towards not so healthy options.

However, I'm proud to say that I haven't bought as much junk food over the past couple of years. And also I try to limit our processed foods to items such as canned beans, tomatoes, condiments and a few others. But for the most part, we eat freshly prepared meals daily.  The meals I try to make consist of a protein with a fresh or frozen vegetable side or maybe just a vegetarian meal once or twice a week.

Anyway, I've been more diligent about purchasing more produce during my weekly grocery shopping.  The issue I came across was that I didn't have (make) time to cut up or prep any for snacking or lunch.  I decided to just pick a day to cut and portion out veggies for the week.  I guess normal people would probably do all the work the day they actually buy the groceries.  Meh.  I'll try but grocery day is usually the day I plan to accomplish a million other things on my to do list.

I recently discovered Sprouts and how many awesome deals they have.  Now I mainly get my produce there.  Wednesdays are awesome because you can get last week's ad prices AND the new week ad prices.  That's great to know so I can compare veggie prices and get everything in one trip.

It seriously only took me about a half hour to get everything washed, cut, portioned, packed. AND I also thought it would be a good idea to make quick lunches such as Caprese salad and pickled cucumber salad while I was at it.  I feel pretty good about myself right now.  Let's see if I can continue this each week.

*I had more veggies and forgot to take photos of those and the salads. Boo.  I took a photo before I used some of the prepped veggies for dinner.  I had cut carrots into sticks for snacking and just diced them up for a dish for dinner.

CAPRESE SALAD

4 oz mozzarella, balls or cubed
1 medium tomato, sliced
Fresh basil leaves (*I had 4 little leaves. You can use more to your liking but that's all my little in-home herb garden had at the moment)
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Balsamic reduction (1/2 c balsamic vinegar boiled in small saucepan until reduced to half. Takes about 10 minutes.)

While balsamic vinegar is reducing, prep mozzarella and tomatoes and place in a small bowl.  Thinly slice basil and add to salad.  Add a small pinch of salt and pepper and drizzle a little olive oil.  Taste and add more seasonings as desired.  If serving right away, drizzle a little balsamic reduction on top.  I would keep reduction in small container separate from salad if serving for lunch or snack the next day.

*Balsamic reduction will make more than you need for this one dish. It takes just a small drizzle to add flavor.  It keeps forever so store it in a tightly covered container to use later.  Drizzle on steaks, salads, brie and more.

PICKLED CUCUMBER SALAD

1 large cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced then halved
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper, to taste
red pepper flakes, to taste

Whisk rice vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Taste and add more seasonings to your liking.  Add red pepper flakes for a kick.

Quick Mini Pie Bites

I love tiny desserts! I love them even more when they are super simple. I was having a craving after dinner and needed something easy and sweet.  I pulled a couple of ingredients together and figured the results couldn't possibly turn out bad.

I was right!  I'll be honest and say that I could have easily eaten all of them by myself but I'm so nice I shared with my husband.  He loves raspberry so I let him have most of the ones with raspberry jam.  I ate most of the pockets with cherry jam.  They tasted like little cherry pies. Yum! These would also be good with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. 

1 sheet of puff pastry
Jam of your choice (cherry, raspberry, apricot)
sugar for sprinkling
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 415 degrees. Butter a cookie sheet. Lightly beat the egg in a small bowl and set aside.  Fold out pastry and cut along seams to get 3 long strips. Then cut each of those twice so you get 3 squares. I used a pizza cutter as it the easiest and cleanest way in my opinion. Place the squares onto prepared cookie sheet.

Spoon about a tablespoon of jam in the center of each square of pastry. Pull up 2 opposite corners and pinch together, then the remaining corners and pinch corners closed in the center so it forms a little pouch. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle a pinch of sugar over the top of each pouch.

Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until golden and puffy.  Makes 9 small bites.

Christmas Treats and Memories

Happy 12-12-12!! I know it's been a while since I've posted but it took me a bit to get motivated and feel the spirit of the holidays. I finally started holiday baking this week while listening to Christmas music and it did the trick. It also brought back sweet memories of making Christmas Sugar Cookies with my mom when I was younger. It was a tradition while we were kids but slowly went away as we got older and weren't all home together as often for the holidays. That made me sad. So I concentrated on the good memories such as decorating the tree, baking and decorating cookies. Also, my two younger brothers and I each got an ornament for several years with our name and year engraved on a brass ornament each year. I remember how each year we'd all get excited to see the previous year's ornaments and hang our own on the tree and mom would smile. She has such a pretty smile. I love her!

My husband and I started our own tradition by collecting ornaments throughout the year when we travel. We pick out an ornament everywhere we visit and try to put the year and location if it doesn't already show it. It's fun to decorate the tree each year and reminisce about where we've been each year and add the new ornaments we've accumulated that year. We hope to pass on the tradition someday to our future children and share our stories and memories with them while we drink hot cocoa and decorate the tree.

Some of our favorite ornaments so far...

Japan 2012

Maui 2011

Prague 2007 (My husband's favorite)

Budapest 2007

Back to the goodies. I decided to make a variety of treats. I usually bake more cookies but decided to mix it up a bit by adding some snack mixes and bread.

I baked my first batch of Rosemary and Kalamata Olive mini breads. They turned out really tasty and will be a great addition to any snack tray or meal. I used the recipe from Baking Bites. Their recipe is for one loaf but I was able to make 4 mini loaves out of the recipe.

One of my husband's favorite Christmas treats is the snack mix I put together each year. It's super simple and great to giveaway or put out for your holiday party. I like the colors!! I don't even remember how I came up with it but I assume the colors had something to do with it.

Christmas Snack Mix

1/2 c pistachios (I remove shells to make it easier to eat)
1/2 c pecans (any of your favorite nuts would work)
1/2 c white chocolate chips
1/2 c craisins or dried cherries

Makes 2 cups of snack mix. Can easily be doubled.

I also made some easy Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels and drizzled with green colored white chocolate. Six Sisters has a great easy recipe that I used.

My latest treats were Shortbread Cookies. I love eating them with coffee or hot cocoa all winter long. This recipe makes a lot so whether you plan to gobble them up yourself or share, you'll have plenty. I used the recipe from my all-time favorite blogger and desperate housewife, The Pioneer Woman.

Now get baking and spreading the holiday joy in the form of homemade goodies!!

Fall Snack Mix

My husband and I love to snack.  I can't keep chips or candy in the pantry or we'd polish them off on day one.  I only purchase snacks when I know we have company coming over or there's a good football game that I know my husband will be watching.  I like to stock him up on goodies for game days because I'm such a great wife. 

While wasting time creeping on Pinterest one day, I saw all kinds of fall snack mixes.  I decided to make a big batch and keep in a gallon ziplock baggie to keep fresh.  I put together a bunch of things we both like.  It's very easy and so festive this time of year!

Fall Snack Mix

1 bag of pretzels (I used the snaps - the square waffle looking ones)
1 lb of M & M's (I used peanut but the plain or peanut butter would be good too)
1 bag of milk chocolate chips
1 bag of caramel bits or nibs (I found them at Wal-Mart with the chocolate chips in the baking aisle)
1 bag of candy corn (I used a mix that had the pumpkin shapes, regular candy corn and caramel candy corn)

Mix all together in a big bowl and you have a tasty fall mix for snacking.   I felt it needed a little more saltiness so bugels or chex mix would be good to add.  I whipped up a batch of homemade chex mix using Pioneer Woman's Chex Party Mix Recipe.  Then I added most of it to the mix and kept some by itself separately to enjoy with the sweets mixed in.   Enjoy!