GRILLED VEGGIE SALAD!!!

I cannot say enough about grilled veggie salad. Its like getting the satisfaction of a nice hot flavorful dinner but having the lightness of a salad. You can eat a giant plate of food and feel great. It may sound weird to combine the hot with the cold but it is one of my favorite meals ever.
I swear its so simple and easy and pretty self explanatory. I always just take whatever veggies I have (I used asparagus, zuccini, yellow bell pepper) and olive oil, salt and pepper them and grill em, outside or on a grill pan. While they grill I take any vinaigrette and toss any lettuce with it, maybe cut a few fresh veggies. (Here I used balsamic, a spring mix, tomatoes) I put the warm veggies on the bottom and top it with the lettuce and tomatoes and used a peeler to add some shreds of parmesan. Don't forget the cheese, I LOVE me some goat cheese or mozzeralla balls with this as well. You can always add chicken but the reason I love this is because it doesn't need much and its so tasty.

SIMPLE ORANGE ROUGHY WITH SAUTEED ASPARAGUS

This literally took 15 minutes to put together. I am not very familiar with white fish but I do know most are healthy and light so I decided to go for some orange roughy and it was worth it. WAY better than tilapia. I simply salt and peppered and seasoned the fish with some lemon pepper seasoning and a slice of real lemon, drizzled a little olive oil and a smidge of butter, cooked it in a 350 oven for about 10-11 minutes. While it cooked I cut up a few pieces of asparagus, red bell pepper and garlic and sauteed. Nothing to it! Simiple, healthy, yum and quick.

--SALMON AND RICE NEVER GETS OLD-- Okay so maybe it does but that doesn't mean I'll ever stop making and eating it. Its too easy and yummy and I change it up a bit each time. So I usually take my salmon and marinate it in anything, dressings, vinaigrettes, a mix of something salty and sweet, the list is endless. The easiest way to cook it in my opinion is broiling it. Takes two seconds to turn it on, put it on the pan and put it right under for about 6 to 8 minutes. Thats the easiest. Or sometimes I fry it in the pan real high for a minute, flip it over and put it in a really hot oven for 5 or 6 minutes. But then theres the best... GRILL IT. Oh the flavor... I have no words. Takes only a couple minutes on each side and it just melts in your mouth. So thats my low down on cooking sweet salmon, I could be way off on the proper techniques but thats what works for me. Anyway both of these meals I made in literally ten minutes, no joke. I was starving one day, didn't have any food I thought. I defrosted my salmon (okay that took an extra 10 minutes) chopped up some onions and mushrooms along with some garlic which I mashed up really well and poored on a bit of honey and S and P and made kind of a paste for the salmon. I just spread it on the salmon, filled the pan with olive oil and started frying. While it fried I poored in just enough balsamic v to kind of marinate it. I didn't have time for marinating so this was my way of getting around it. I flipped it and threw it in the oven at 450 for a bit. Sauteed my onions and mushrooms and cooked some brown rice in the... wait for it... microwave. Thanks you Uncle Bens 90 second healthy rices! Threw it all together and poored on a bit more balsamic and olive oil. Pretty good for 10 minutes. This other more colorful picture of salmon took on a more asian flavor, again simple simple. I had this piece marinating (in some asain sesame dressing) for no longer than an hour and I broiled it. Again the uncle ben's brown rice and I decided to thinly sliced the veggies just to change it up and it took less time to cook so it worked out. Just sauteed them in a pan with the usual olive oil and S and P. Again I put it all together and poored a little sesame oil and soy sauce over the top with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.

--JUST A GREEK SALAD-- Oh how much I love me veggies and balsamic goodness. So I was sick of paying $13 for a dang Greek salad when I was craving one. I stocked up on veggies and maybe a little feta (I seem to be one of the few inlove with that cheese. Hey, less calories so take that haters) and made an extremely simple vinaigrette. In a tupperware I put a smidge of dijon, honey, and balsamic vinegar. (least to most in that order, like just a little more each ingredient) salt and cracked pepper and as much olive oil as ya like. Close the lid, shake it up and poor it on the spring mix lettuce or whatever lettuce you like. I added everything I could think of but there are only a few ingredients I feel totally necessary: tomatoes, red onions, feta and either some kind of olive or artichoke hearts, which is what I used because thats what I had. Yum yummedy yum. I added a grilled chicken breast (simply on a grill pan with a bit of S and P) the second time I ate it. I know, overload, but it was so healthful and filling!

--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.