Work is reaaaaalllllly slow today.

What good, healthy foods have you had lately? Recipes aren't necessary (but I've never turned one down).

I made pork chops the other night that turned out really well. Dredged them in whole wheat flour seasoned w/ dried Italian herbs, salt & pepper, and cooked them ~4 minutes per side, and set them aside. Then I deglazed the pan with a splash of white wine and added two (undrained) cans of diced tomatoes, more Italian herbs, and garlic. After that heated up, I put the pork chops back in and let everything cook a bit.

I made tabbouleh in chicken broth, and added Italian seasonings to the mix. When it was done, I served the smothered pork chops & tomato sauce over the tabbouleh. It was tasty! I expect I'll try it with chicken, and use a little lemon twist to Mediterranean things up a little...and maybe a dollop of yogurt on top.

Last week I made a casserolish thing using leftovers from the fridge. It was flax seed pasta, chicken, mushrooms, green beans and some fauxfredo (healthed up alfredo) sauce. I topped it with a bit of skim milk mozzerella and baked it for 30 minutes. Very tasty. I did not grow up eating casseroles, so I felt very clever having assembled this.

I have been visiting the farmers market lately. It has been fun getting the local produce. I can't say that all of it has tasted better than the stuff I get at the supermarket, but it's still fun to go. I have been feeling very clever freezing a bunch of fruit for smoothies later in the year. Last Friday I pitted 2lbs of cherries with a paring knife.

I had a huge salad for lunch that had grilled chicken, cannellini beans, orange pepper, yellow pepper, tomato and cucumber, and home made white wine vinaigrette. (We had this for dinner a couple of days ago.)

I made chicken tacos a couple of nights ago. I baked chicken breasts in diced tomato, peppers, onions and garlic, addes some spices and then shredded the chicken after it was done to make the tacos.

I will probably have the chicken from the tacos over rice and with black beans for dinner tonight.

Dawn

I made this healthier version of zucchini bread from Cooking Light last weekend. It's not my mom's zucchini bread but it is pretty tasty and MUCH healthier.

Peg

I made grilled hamburgers on Sunday. I have grilled very little this summer, because I have been so crazy & cleaning the grill isn't high on my "I really want to do this" list. They were amazing on the homemade hamburger buns that I made to go with them.

I inhaled about 8 quarts of blueberries in about 3 weeks, now I'm suffering from major withdrawl. Blueberries are my favorite berry ever, with strawberries just a hair behind in priority. Sniff...

I have some great peaches, am being buried under a massive amount of mesculun greens, spinach, arugula, and kale from my garden. Silly me, I didn't think I'd have that much in the way of greens, and I am going crazy trying to keep up. I guess I'm a better farmer than I thought.

We've been enjoying fruit too and I've been doing lots of grilled fish with fruit salsa.
The last one I made was a peach salsa - peaches, some finely chopped onion, splash of fresh lime juice and a pinch of red pepper flakes. It went super with the grouper we had for dinner that night but it also works with chicken.

This one was good, although the amount of oil involved made it slightly less healthy...

I chopped a couple of red onions and a ginormous amount of garlic and sautéed them in evoo. I chopped basil and added the onions and some more evoo. Threw some frozen shrimp into the pan and swirled them around. Served the onion-basil mixture and the shrimp over spinach fettucine and topped with grated cheese. Yum, but not low-cal.

I made a pasta dish the other night that my family loved. WW shells with a sauce of fat free ricotta, garlic, fresh herbs, salt, pepper, and cherry tomatoes that had been roasted on a cookie sheet with EVOO just until they started to crinkle. I left most of the oil on the sheet when moving the tomatoes into the blender. They named it summer alfredo sauce.

I served it with a side of sauteed greens and garlic.

alli

I have been loving the fruit this summer. I have been eating peaches pretty much every week on my cereal and pluots when I can find them. This week, I have cantaloupe--don't buy it much anymore because it seems the taste isn't what it used to be, but this one is pretty good. Had some wonderful sweet red grapes a few weeks ago.

Oh, and in some sort of miracle, our Safeway had whole fresh pineapples for 99 cents! I have NEVER EVER seen pineapples that cheap in this area. In the DC area, I was used to paying $4.99 or $5.99 regular price and maybe as low as $3.99 if they were on sale. Here in Reho, they have been a bit cheaper, but 99 cents was still a great deal. I got one and picked one up for the boys as I was going to their house for dinner that night. YUMMO!