--MY FAVORITE HEALTHY FAT SNACK!--This has definitely been done before (like most of my food) but I had to post it cause its so dang good. Sliced avacadoes and tomatoes, salt and fresh cracked pepper, balsamic vinegar and lots of olive oil, basil, a few diced red onions, and a smidge of lemon zest and/or juice! Nothing to it, makes a great appetizer or in-between meal snack. You could easily leave out the basil, onion and lemon but I just had it and thought it gave it a bold extra something.

--PITA PIZZA--I'm telling you, I have no secrets, just regular food for regular people. This is just whole wheat pitas with sauca, cheese and toppings. Boston and I make it together, he prefers the plain cheese and I pile on the veggies. I broil the pita for a minute first just to get it a bit crisp to avoid soggy bread from the sauce. Then I pile on the stuff and bake it at 450 for like 10 or 12 minutes. So good and feels so much better than take out pizza. If you keep the cheese at a minimum you avoid lots of calories especially compared to take out.

GRILL IT? ROAST IT? WHATEVAH--Think I'm a big fan of chicken? Once, sometimes twice a week I thaw out a ton of chicken and bust out my favorite marinade of all time... italian dressing!! Any kind, even light, is such a great flavor for chicken and can morph into any dish for leftovers. So for this dish I grilled some of that marinaded chicken. For the veggies I grabbed whatever I had in the fridge, including portabello mushrooms, and tossed it all in a little olive oil. (turned the oven to 425) Spread it all out on a cookie sheet and salt and peppered everything, I added a smidge of this dry herb "herbs de provence", topped it all with some minced garlic and freshly grated parmesan. Roasted in a really hot oven for about 16 to 20 minutes. Easy, simple, yum.

CLASSIC STIR FRY--Love it love it. I think I have this a couple times a week. Its so easy and yum and I think I'm obsessed with stir fry with all the random veggies I have. I thought I had nothing to eat and I made this in like 20 minutes. The costco individually wrapped frozen chicken makes it so easy. Carrot and broccoli seems to last in my fridge the longest and I always have some barilla plus angel hair pasta. Cut it all up, throw it in a wok with some oil, add a bit of soy and/or teriyaki sauce, and for me the key is adding minced garlic during the last few minutes AND at the very end when the veggies are just about right drizzle a bit of sesame oil on everything. But can't forget throwing in some cooked pasta to fry it all up together. I topped it with some toasted sesame seeds, yum. I ALWAYS eat this with chop sticks just to make it more special.

Leftover chicken seems to be the key to a lot of my foods, its like its better the second time around.
-LETTUCE CUPS-- I just cut up some leftover grilled chicken, made a balsamic garlic dressing and chopped up some bell peps and tomatoes. These are butter lettuce peices, so delish!
-EASY TACO SALAD--Slow cooking a few breasts of chicken with a bunch of salsa in a crock pot is probably the oldest trick in the book but it is one of my favorites. I just sauteed some bell peppers, onions and zuccini before I put it all together. Cut up some lettuce, throw on the chicken, some cheese, the veggies and I happen to have some avacadoes so of course that was the best part. Salsa and a few chips completed it. No biggy, no secrets, just pretty and healthy food. -PF CHANGS INSPIRED LETTUCE CUPS--I finally tried this hoisin sauce the food network is always talking about. Thats pretty much the key to what I did there. I chopped up some chicken, onions, and red bell peps and fried it up with soy sauce and chile pepper flakes while toasting some peanuts in another pan. I added just a bit of the hoisin sauce, cooked it long enough to make it sticky, put it in the lettuce cups and topped it with green onions, orange zest and the peanuts. Mmm mm

HOBO DINNER... SALMON STYLE -I'm inlove with salmon and there's no question I love my veggies. And I'm pretty sure no one will tell you its unhealthy. Since I always have my basic veggies and my frozon salmon, this is my fall back meal. I love love love it. But I HAVE to include a lemon or its not worth making. Its really simple, takes maybe 10 minutes to prepare and 22 minutes in the oven at about 425 degrees. Once you've got everything cut up, lay out a couple pieces of tin foil on top of each other and lay down the salmon, salt and pepper it and put a slice or two of lemon on it. Just throw on your veggies. I always like to use either a shallot or thinly cut red onions, put that on first, the deeper into the pile the more it cooks. Anything else is good but normally I use thinly sliced carrots, chopped red bell peppers, larger cut zuccini and sometimes broccoli. I'm sure any other veggies would do as well. Once you've piled it all together add a couple more slices of lemon. Now for the best part... (simple ingredients we all have, no secrets here) a little S&P, big drizzle of EVOO, a couple splashes of red wine vinegar and white wine. The more of these liquids you add, the more yummy juice you have to poor on once its all done. Fold it all up in the tin foil so its closed up tight and put it in a hot oven on a cookie sheet so it won't spill out. 22 minutes is just good enough to cook the salmon all the way but keep it very tender. Simple and healthy.

Since I'm obviously obsessed with veggies this is one of the things I do to stay prepared. Just take an hour of two a week and chop chop chop and ziplock. All the color and cutting makes me feel good and ready for a healthy week. It really helps.

Whats food without the people you make and eat it with? -Thats my Boston and his cuz Shareen helping me make Ellie Krieger's healthy chocolate cookies. They were so sweet and funny about it. Good little helpers. -Boston loves breakfast for dinner so thats him eatin some of that strawberry french toast. -Carl doesn't cook much but once in a while he'll make some awesome blueberry pancakes. He doesn't like chunks of berry so he blends them in the magic bullet with a little water and just adds it to the batter. Purple pancakes are gooood.

-This tostada-looking thing is one of my favorites if I have a few extra minutes. Just let my egg cook in its pan while in another I let a tortilla toast up a bit on both sides so its nice and crisp. I smeared on the refried beans and then sprinkled on some cheese before adding the egg to heat it up. I had some lettuce and tomato so I added that to make it more restaurantee. Of course I had it with salsa and man oh man, this is a great post work out meal in the morning. -The oatmeal is not one of my favorites but if I add some good fruit I am good to go, some beautiful cherries helped me out that day.

-Strawberry french toast is pretty self explanatory... I had some pretty crusty french toast waiting to be used. I soaked them a bit longer than normal in the eggs and went on with the usual. We use lots of syrup when in comes to these kinds of breakfasts so I decided to go with a bit of powdered sugar and strawberries instead, yum yum.

Most of my food is thrown together last second and taken with my camera phone (cause I'm too hungry to get formal) so its not gorgeous but its fun to take pics to remember what I've made.

-EGG AND VEGGIES--Leftover cooked potatoes are one of my favorites to have around because you can grab some veggies and eggs and in 5 minutes on a frying pan, you have a yummy omelette. Butter flavored cooking spray and salt and pepper make in all possible... And of course a little cheese.

-CHICKEN ASPARAGUS PASTA--Had some leftover grilled chicken so I cut up some random veggies and put it on the grill pan with some olive oil and S&P, as soon as they were almost done I cut cut up the chicken and mixed it in with the veggies to heat it up a bit.(some chile pepper flakes added a great kick as well) While it was all going I just cooked a little angel hair (barilla plus-tastier than whole wheat pasta) and added some alfredo sauce(I know, not so healthy, eh). A smidge of lemon zest, parmesan and cracked pepper did the trick. A bit of parsley would've been great but it was good.

-PITA CRISP--The pita bread there was just a random thing I threw together one hungry afternoon when it seemed I had NOTHING to eat. Sauteed the last of my bell peps and onions and a little leftover chicken, broiled the (wheat)pita bread on both sides and ate it with hummus. Might sound weird but it went together quite well.