Eat Skinny: Veggie Open Face Sandwich Melts Recipe
PIN IT!Happy Friday! Do I have something delicious for you!
I just got back into town yesterday from beautiful Monterey and the moment I looked out my window this morning, I was immediately reminded I’m back in ol’ NOVA. No more of these views for me, at least until November when I’m back in Northern Cali!
But, recap of my amazing trip is coming Monday. Today? We’re talking fresh veggie melts. Because they are just that damn good. Not only are they delicious, they are EASY. Just a little sauteing, a bit of broiling and a dash of sprinkling and your lunch, dinner, snack is served.
Fresh, delicious, healthy and easy. What more could you want? I stumbled upon this recipe in my One Pot Weight Watchers cookbook and immediately knew I had to make it. I wanted something savory, cheesy and delicious, but not with all the fat and calories. Pretty much a daily conundrum in my life. Luckily, these gooey, crunchy melts satisfied every craving and more.
These are the perfect for an appetizer, a meal or when you have one of those “I want cheese and crunchy bread immediately” moments. Plus for just 4 points for one, you really can’t feel guilty about it. You can have your cheese and eat it too! Well, that doesn’t make as much sense as the other, but you catch my drift.
Veggie Open Face Melts
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE
Serves 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: >15 minutes
Ingredients:
- 8 slices of crispy whole wheat french bread
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 1 red pepper, sliced
- 1/2 zucchini, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- Dash of salt and pepper
- 8 thin slices of fresh mozzarella
- About 1 cup baby arugula
Directions:
- Preheat broiler and grease a grill pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In another pan, heat 3/4 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and cook until softened, about 2 – 3 minutes. Add in zucchini, red pepper, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper and cook until those vegetables are soft, about 2 – 3 more minutes. Remove from heat.
- Arrange bread slices on the grill pan and drizzle with a drizzle of the remaining olive oil. Carefully scoop vegetables on top of the bread. Place the cheese slice over the veggies. Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper.
- Place melts in the broiler and cook until cheese is fully melted and bread is browned, about 2 – 3 minutes. Remove from heat, add arugula to each and enjoy!
Nutritional information per serving (2 melts):
Calories: 321
Fat: 13 grams
Carbohydrates: 31.5 grams
Protein: 15.75 grams
Fiber: 6 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 8
Guest Post with Bake Your Day
Hi friends!! Greetings from GORGEOUS Monterey, California. Guys? I don’t think I’m ever leaving. This town is incredible. So beautiful, so peaceful and so relaxing.
Plus, the strawberries? I’ll happily stay for those. I’ll happily live on the side of the road stuffing my face with this plump, incredibly fresh and delicious berries. But, alas, I’m running late, as always and don’t have time to go into full detail about my trip. All I know is, El? I’m not coming home.
I want to thank Cassie for guest posting for me! Cassie is one of my favorite bloggers in the entire world. She’s an incredible, incredible photographer, she’s so passionate about what she does, she’s always there to help you out, whether it’s a simple retweet or a kind word of advice, she’s become one of my rocks and go to people in this crazy world. So Cassie? Love ya!
Hi friends! I am Cassie from Bake Your Day and I can’t even tell you how happy I am to be posting for Claire today. I have been reading, and loving, Claire’s blog for a while now. I truly look to her as a friend so I was thrilled when she asked me to post! So while she is having a blast in sunny California, we are going to be here talking about food. Fair trade, right?
I know she likes to keep things healthy and while I love cookies, I also aim to consume a healthy, whole diet…most of the time, anyway!
So I got to brainstorming and decided that quinoa was the perfect route. It is a staple in my house, and to tell you the truth, I don’t even buy rice anymore, and rarely cook pasta, because I have replaced both with quinoa. It is so versatile. Not only is it gluten-free, full of fiber and loaded with lots of vitamins and minerals, but it’s packed with protein. Quinoa is considered a complete protein because it contains all proteins that our bodies do not produce, so we rely on food sources to provide them to us. <End biology lesson for the day.>
This salad is so quick and simple, and packed with flavor. And I’m not sure about you, but I can’t seem to get enough avocados recently. I have been eating them in every which way possible and they appear here, in the form of a creamy dressing. And the best part is that I didn’t add any mayo, sour cream, etc. and still achieved a creamy and flavorful dressing. This salad was good warm but it was really best after it sat in the fridge for a few hours. Either way, I think you will enjoy all of the flavors and textures that are going on.
Mexican Quinoa Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing Salad Recipe
Yield: 6 servings as a side; 4 servings as a main dish
Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
For the salad:
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups homemade vegetable broth
- 1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15.5 ounce) can sweet corn, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 1 jalapeno, seeds and membrane removed, sliced
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp. paprika
For the avocado dressing:
- 1 avocado, pitted
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
- 2 Tbs. freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp. honey
- 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 Tbs. olive oil
Directions:
- For the salad, combine the quinoa and vegetable broth in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed and the germ of the quinoa is exposed. Remove from heat.
- While the quinoa is cooking, combine the black beans, corn, tomatoes, green onions, jalapeno, cilantro, cumin and paprika in a large bowl.
- Prepare the dressing by combining all of the dressing ingredients (everything except the olive oil) in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine and then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Turn on the processor and then slowly stream the olive oil through the top opening, continuing to process until the dressing is combined.
- Add the quinoa to the black bean/corn mixture and toss to combine. Pour the dressing over the mixture. Serve warm or chilled. Top with additional cilantro if desired.
Enjoy!! Thanks again Cassie!
Eat Skinny: Chobani Mac N’ Cheese
Happy Monday friends and fans! Hope your weekend was great and all the mom’s (and moms to be) had a perfect day yesterday! Unlike today in the DC area, the weather was perfect! My weekend was great (although I’m kicking myself for not getting more done yesterday). One of the highlights was having the chance to meet up with some other amazing DC bloggers for a dinner sponsored by Chobani!
The meal was hosted at The Federalist, a swanky little restaurant in DC.
They had planned an amazing meal for us, including incredible gazpacho with minty Chobani. Really, like orgasmic almost. I”m not going to go into FULL detail of the dinner [recap will be tomorrow], but I do have to say THANK YOU again to our amazing host, Emily!
Saturday’s meal left me feeling incredibly inspired [albeit a little full/uncomfortable] to get into the kitchen and create something delicious with Chobani. Given that the yogurt itself is delicious, it’s not a hard feat to make something taste good using it. So yesterday, while I was putzing around the house watching Lifetime, I decided to make one of my absolute favorite meals a bit lighter and creamier by swapping in some CHO.
Baked mac n’ cheese! Well, not exactly mac because I didn’t have enough macaroni noodles. So I just threw in the rest of the elbow noodles I had, threw in some farfalle and a bit of spaghetti. I know, it sounds like a mad science experiment. But, the noodles don’t really matter in this dish, do they? What matters is the oh-so-creamy and cheesy sauce and the crispy topping.
As you know, traditional mac isn’t healthy. Or diet friendly. Especially if you buy it in a box. Homemade is a little better since you can control the ingredients. However, most recipes I find for baked mac have almost 2 sticks of butter! I’m all about butter, but 2 sticks? Really Paula Deen? Instead of a box of butter and 30 ounces of cheese, I subbed in some creamy non-fat and 2% CHO.
I’ve had regular mac and skinny mac, both of which were delicious. However, they don’t hold a FLAME to this recipe. The Greek yogurt addition gives this sauce a bit of a tang and makes it 1000x creamier. It tastes indulgent and decadent without the extra calories or fat. That in my book is a double whammy.
Guys, believe me when I say this, AGAIN. This is the creamiest, most decadent, most delicious macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had. Even better than the baked gnocchi. I know, I know. BOLD statement. But just try it, okay? I promise you’ll be a CHO macaroni convert in no time.
Inspired by this recipe.
Chobani Baked Mac n’ Cheese
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE
Serves about 7 – 8
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 32 minutes
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces macaroni, penne or farfelle noodles
- 4 1/2 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 1 cup nonfat milk
- 1/2 cup nonfat Chobani
- 6 ounces part skim cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon 2% Chobani
- Liberal dashes salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 3 quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Bring noodles to a boil in water, rinse and set aside.
- In a large pan, heat 1/2 tablespoon butter. Add onions and cook on medium high heat until just translucent, about 3 – 4 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan, heat remaining butter. Add flour and cook about 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in milk and 1/2 cup yogurt until mixture is thick. Remove from heat and stir in cheddar, mozzarella and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese and remaining 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon yogurt. Mix well. Add salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon chili powder. Mix onions, pasta and sauce together.
- Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, remaining 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese and 1 tablespoon chili powder. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and bread crumbs have browned.
Nutritional information per 1 cup serving:
Calories: 289
Fat: 12 grams
Carbohydrates: 28 grams
Protein: 14.5 grams
Fiber: 4.5 grams
Weight Watchers Points Plus Points: 7
Skinny Cocktails for Mother's Day
Friday, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see your face. This week, as you may have picked up from yesterday’s post, was rough. Today isn’t proving to be much better. Lost an article I worked my butt off on yesterday and now have to re-do it. Thanks universe, I didn’t already have enough on my plate! However, I’m looking to the glass-half-full perspective. I’ve got date night tonight, spinning tomorrow, a great dinner with Chobani (and Gretchen!) tomorrow night. Things can only go up.
Now, I had planned on making some perfectly awesome Mother’s Day brunch thing today but, given the fact I ate a pizza last night, I think I’m going to skip that, get straight to work and just share some cocktails. I mean, moms work hard, don’t you think they deserve some drinks? But before we get there, gotta give a little shout out to the woman who brought my crazy ass into this world, mother-Avis!
Back in the rebellious days of her youth, I think. Here, let me dig up a more recent one.
True or false, that was her profile picture for over a year. If you voted true, you get a cookie. That picture about sums up my mother. She’s wild. She’s hilarious, fun loving, outgoing, adventurous and not to mention the best cook and baker I’ve ever met. I know I was NOT easy to raise (hello horrible 16 year old Claire, I’m talking to you!) so thanks for not kicking me out, sending me to boarding school or you know, killing me. Not to mention she’s just the best mom there is. I love you mom! Wish I could be there to celebrate!
Now, this post couldn’t be more appropriate for her since she also likes to enjoy the occasional libation. So cheers, ma, these cocktails are for you!
Watermelon bellinis
Spiked blackberry lemonade
Sparkling gin & juice [mix champagne, gin and juice together. Easy peasy!]
Malibu massage shooters
Grapefruit and gin jar
Beermosa
Plus, you can always go the old-fashioned route, some sparkling rosè! What mom doesn’t love a little bubbly?
Happy Mother’s Day to all of those amazing moms out there who put up with brats like me, everyday, without question or doubt. Y’all rock! Have a perfect day on Sunday!
Claire
Tags:bellini recipes, brunch cocktail recipes, champagne recipes, cocktail recipes, featured, healthy cocktail recipes, mimosa recipes, Mother's Day brunch recipes, Mother's Day cocktail recipes, Mother's Day recipes, skinny cocktail recipes
Uncertainty & the Big Green Monster
Top of the mornin’ to ya, friends! How goes it? Things are actually moving relatively smooth over here. I got a legit nights sleep, woke up early so I could actually respond to emails and read a few blogs and I’m enjoying a big fat piece of peanut butter cake with my coffee. This morning doesn’t suck, for sure.
Now, before anything else, it’s time to announce the lucky winner of the Orka Steamer Giveaway! And the drum roll please…
aka, Angy! Congrats, girl!
Now, before we hop into today’s real life post, gulp, I have to share something I made y’all!
Gluten-free brownies. Made with BLACK BEANS! I know, I’m a weirdo. But trust me, they are incredibly delicious.
Want the recipe? Check out Healthy Foodie Travels who has the very recipe posted. GO NOW!
If only all of life woes could be solved by a simple brownie. Wouldn’t that be rad? As promised, I’m going to talk about real life problems today that sadly can’t be fixed by a delicious brownie or even a dip into the peanut butter jar. But, don’t worry, I’m going to inter-spruce this heavy post with some pretty pictures of Charleston. Ah, my peaceful place.
Uncertainty, jealousy. Not two new words to y’all and not new feelings to me, however, lately, it’s all I’ve been feeling.Things on the back end of this pretty little blog haven’t been pretty the past couple weeks and I don’t blame you for not realizing it. I can slap on a happy face and dance around like the best of them.
Nothing serious is wrong, I’m not dying, sick or getting divorced, for example. I’m just struggling with ME, my identity and where I think I belong in this crazy world. I know how lucky I am to do what I do. Trust me. I cook, bake, craft, take pictures and write, all day. And get paid for it! I’ve gone from 2 articles a month to 5 a day, so clearly I’m doing something right. You’d think that would give me some sort of confidence and certainty in what I do, but it doesn’t. In fact, I’m not more self conscious and uncertain than ever.
I’ve come a long way with this blog, in all aspects of it. I’ve grown as a writer, a photographer and a baker/cook. My views have tripled and I’ve made some amazing friends. However, each day, I’m constantly questioning every single thing I do, doubting every move I make and giving in to the big green monster at every turn. There’s a lot of incredibly talented people in the food blogging world, and instead of feeling encouraged and inspired by their posts, I feel dissapointed in my own. Every beautiful picture I see Kita post or every delicious, innovative recipe I see on How Sweet It Is, I feel more and more insecure about my own content, my own recipes, my own photography. No matter how well something of mine turns out, the big green monster takes over and I’m filled with jealousy of what it COULD HAVE BEEN if I had the right camera, the right lighting, more money, the right props, etc, etc, etc. No matter what I do, it’s never enough. And you know what? That feeling is crippling.
I’m not writing this to get pity, gosh no. I’m just writing it because if I don’t, I’m going to burst. Growing up as the fat girl, the chubby cousin, “thunder thighs”, confidence wasn’t something I had a whole lot of. Then, I went to college, lost 25 pounds and it hit me like a sack of bricks. I started to feel pretty, thin, unstoppable. That, of course, led to disaster, but that’s for another day, another page in my memoir. My confidence was shattered again. However, I moved to Georgia, joined the school paper and found a major that I loved and you know what? I was good at. Confidence regained. I was on top of the world and my department, nothing could stop me. Oh, and my body? Never looked better. Well, you know, that was until I graduated, got a job at the bottom of the totem poll then was immediately reminded how “little” I was. Confidence? Disappearing with each second I was pushed around and told to make copies. It wasn’t until I lost my job, found one were I was appreciated, respected and valued that my confidence resurfaced. My weight was manageable and I had it all figured out. Then, things got better. I got an amazing chance to freelance for She Knows and, like you know, went from an article a month to where I am now. Despite a great career and successful articles, my confidence in me, my job, my worth is on shaky grounds again.
Very fitting photograph, right? Rest in Peace Claire’s confidence. In all reality, I know why I’m feeling like this. I’m 26 years old and despite having an AWESOME job, I don’t make trunks full of money. I’m living paycheck to paycheck, trying to get by. And you know what’s disheartening? Having friends who are my age and YOUNGER making 6 figures. I know, money isn’t the key to happiness, but I see people who are really successfull, really determined and I wonder “should I have stayed in corporate? Should I have stayed climbing the ladder in an office position?” For many people who I’ve voiced this to, they’ve shot back “NO! YOU HATED IT! YOU’RE HAPPY NOW!” Half of that is true, yes. I did. But the uncertainty and what-if is starting to weigh down on me. I didn’t like sitting in a cube from 9 – 5 but I liked having money to put towards my debts, add to a savings and you know, like live with. Not being comfortable financially makes it harder to be comfortable with my job, no matter how much I like it.
As I preluded to before, another cause for uncertainty in my life is blogging. I love blogging. I love the people I’ve met, the opportunities that have arisen from it, the stress relief it provides. But that’s not the only reason I blog. I blog, in hopes, that more chances, more success and more opportunities will come from it. Does that make me horrible? I hope not. I’d be hard pressed to meet one blogger who only does it for love and isn’t driven by traffic. But because of this, it’s hard NOT to feel insecure and a bit uncertain when other blogs are doing so well and you’re kinda just floating there in your corner of the internet. I’m always so incredibly proud of my peers but a twinge of jealousy always comes with that. “Why not me?” “What am I doing wrong?” I know this is a normal feeling but lately, it’s really been taken over. I’ve lost the ability to just be happy for my friends, which is the WORST feeling in the entire world.
The one thing that I am certain about is my future. I’m going to go to culinary school, I’m going to open a little skinny cafe in Charleston, I’m going to write a book [re: memoir]. The timeline is hazy but I stand by these goals and aspirations. Thankfully, when I’m starting to feel uncertain about my abilities, my talents, my success, I know that I have these things to push me through. I can’t say that’s enough though. I wish there was an easy anecdoate to feeling jealous and uncertain all the time. I wish I could turn it off like a light switch. But, life isn’t that easy, as we know.
I just hope I can find a way to deal with these issues and move past them. I guess I wrote this to A) get it off my chest B) hope and pray one of you have gone through this and know how to get past it! How do you feel confidant and certain? What are your secrets to not letting the green monster in? I love my job, my husband, my family and my life, and I want to love them without uncertainity, without jealousy. I just want to be happy for people without feeling like I’ve done something wrong. Does anyone have an anecdote for that?
So, thanks guys. For listening, not judging me and for helping me get through this. I’m going to go try to find a way to invent the magic, bad-feeling-erasing brownie.
