Southwest Corn Salad

categories: Posts, Recipes, Salads

 

I love spending time with my mom, and more importantly getting recipes from her. Lucky for me, she doesn’t live too far away. Over the weekend, on one of my weekly visits, she was going on and on about a new salad she’d tried out – something about corn and avocados. At the word avocados my ears perked up (think small puppy ears) and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the recipe. Next thing I know, she pulls out a Tupperware with leftover salad and starts going down the list of ingredients. That’s when I started my menu planning for the week, Sunday afternoon. It’s a really light salad, as the dressing is super simple. I’m not really one for complicated salad dressings. My dressing of choice is olive oil and lemon juice on most occasions. (more…)

Broccoli Cheese Soup

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Posts, Recipes, Soups

 

One of my favorite soups at Panera, is their broccoli cheese soup. Some days, usually in the winter, I like to indulge in a bowl of Panera’s broccoli cheese soup … in a bread bowl. And yes, I eat the whole bread bowl too. Unfortunately, those indulgences lead to the small needle on my scale tipping in the wrong direction the next morning. But every woman should indulge in food, every once in a while. I try to keep from ordering the bread bowl unless it’s a serious emergency. And by emergency, I mean having the bread bowl rather than eating practically everything with carbs at home. Who’s to say I don’t balance everything out by having lettuce for dinner, or foregoing dinner altogether. (more…)

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Quiche

categories: Breakfast, Posts, Recipes

 

A couple days ago I gave you all a glimpse into my mom and my mother-daughter trip. Taking one of those as an adult is really important because you start to realize how much closer you are to your mom when you’re not trying to keep things from her as a teen/college student who’s obviously getting into some sort of trouble. It’s a whole new perspective when you realize you and your mother have a lot more in common than you think, and she can actually give you some pretty good advice. Especially because watching you grow up, she probably knows a lot more about you than you thought, or that you even knew yourself. Rude Awakening. (more…)

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Skinny Corn Chowder

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Posts, Recipes, Soups

 

It’s Ramadan, that month on the lunar calendar when you can’t have food, water, or gum from sunrise to sunset. It’s also a month when you’re supposed to concentrate on other things besides food, being a better person, getting closer to your faith, etc. While all that’s true, I find more and more that Ramadan is really All About the Food. We’ve received numerous dinner invites, even a few weeks before Ramadan even started. With the long days (16 hours, give or take), all I can think about is food. What happens, is that although I’ve been eying the sweets in the fridge, or thinking about burgers, dinner time rolls around and I can’t down more than soup and salad. Go figure. All those cravings for nothing. It makes sense, you’re stomach contracts when you’re fasting so you can’t stuff it like you usually do. Unless you’re one of those people that doesn’t mind the uncomfortable feeling of being so full you need to unbutton the top button on your jeans and lay down until you fall asleep. (more…)

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Oven Fried Fish and Chips

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Posts, Recipes, Seafood

 

Winter Break 2010 I went on a four-country tour of Europe with my mother. We spent the last leg of our trip in London. It’s a great city, if you don’t mind rain, gloom and cars coming at you from the wrong side of the road. It wasn’t all rain and gray skies. We enjoyed spending hours in Harrods and afternoon tea at The Savoy. And we even tried the oh-so-famous English Fish and Chips. Did I mention that they serve fish and chips with something called mushy peas? Well that was a shocker. Standing in a crowded pub trying to figure out how exactly to get my order in, and then not even being able to comprehend the words “mushy peas” on the chalkboard behind the register. Looking like the clueless Americans we were, someone finally explained that mushy peas were in fact, mushy peas. Kind of like mashed potatoes, but we’re talking about green peas here. In a very un-American like manner, I stepped out of my comfort zone and ordered said peas. The meal was everything I had expected (mushy peas aside) – Greasy and delicious. The peas weren’t bad either. It must be the English way of adding vegetables to their diet. (more…)