Lunch for the Week

I like to use Sundays as a time to get a couple meals together to carry me through the week and keep me from eating lunch or dinner out too often. One item I like to throw together is a fresh salad where I incorporate some type of bean or grain. For this I will use things like garbanzo beans, quinoa, tabbouleh, etc and then add in any veggies that I have on-hand. From there I usually drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Throughout the week you can use this salad as your base and mix it up. For one meal add in tuna, another meal you can stuff a pita or atop spinach leaves.

The salad I made below consisted of garbanzo beans, celery, cucumber, onion and tuna. I put the mixture over kale leaves and topped with feta for a delicious and healthy meal.

Let me know what combinations you try!

Weekend Brunch: Salmon Frittata, Potatoes and Strawberry Bread

For Mother's Day I wanted to plan a special, delicious (and somewhat healthy) brunch for my mom. I knew right away that I would be making a frittata with some of her favorite ingredients and along with that I made strawberry bread and rosemary potatoes. I made the bread the night before so it was ready to go and the potatoes and frittata were pretty quick to throw together in the morning and are perfect for a homemade brunch!

Salmon, Asparagus & Goat Cheese Frittata

This is definitely a "use what you have in the refrigerator" kind of recipe with no strict recipe or measurements to follow. For this combo I used the below ingredients, but you can really use any combo of ingredients that you want to use up!

Ingredients:
- Eggs (2 eggs per person) mixed together in a separate bowl
- Asparagus, chopped
- Red onion, chopped
- Smoked salmon
- Goat cheese

Directions:
Throw the asparagus and onion (or whatever vegetables you are using) into the pan and saute for a few minutes with olive oil, salt and pepper until they begin to get tender. Next add in the smoked salmon and saute for a few more minutes to combine the ingredients. Add the egg and do not stir. Let the frittata cook until the bottom is light brown (check by lightly lifting with a spatula). Once this happens, the top should still be pretty "eggy" and add in crumbles of the goat cheese. Once the egg starts to set transfer to the oven and broil for a few minutes to brown and cook the top. The broil will happen very quickly so watch it closely so it doesn't burn!

Rosemary Potatoes 

For this I used a small bag of fingerling potatoes that I had on hand and simple chopped, coated with olive oil, salt & pepper, and dried rosemary. Mix together and spread out on a greased cookie sheet. Cook time will vary for the amount and size of potatoes you use but at least 20 - 30 minutes. Watch and stir them every ten minutes or so until they become golden brown and tender.

Strawberry Wheat Bread

I was so excited when I saw this bread on a great blog, Cate's World Kitchen. It's such a fun, summery idea to use fresh strawberries in bread. This was the perfect pairing to the egg and potatoes, but I will also be making this on Sundays to have for breakfast or snacks during the week :).

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups fresh diced strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease an 8 x 4″ loaf pan.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until the evenly yellow, but not so much that it turns frothy. Stir in the yogurt, oil, and vanilla and stir until evenly mixed.

Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until there are no longer traces of flour. *Note: this will be rather sticky and you'll be wondering if you missed an ingredient b/c it seems to dry... not to worry though, this is normal!

Gently fold in the strawberries, then pour into the prepared pan.

 

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before slicing.

I hope you enjoy these recipes and would love to hear what you like to make for brunch!

Stack'em Bracelets Trend

I am currently loving the trend of stacking many bracelets together on one wrist and even adding a watch in the mix. It's such a fun way to wear multiple pieces of jewelry and mix styles. It's a great complement to any outfit!

Below I paired a couple bracelets with an oversized watch. This is a trend where you can definitely mix metals, fabrics, etc... so go look through your bracelets and start stacking!

Pictured above:
Watch: Michael Kors (at Nordstrom)
Mixed gold chain bracelet: Jewel Mint
Gold sparkle bracelet: Jcrew