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mediterranean pasta {recipe}

during the three years i worked as the general manager for a local brewery i fell in love with the mediterranean wheat pasta we offered. since leaving the company nearly two years ago i still crave this simply light and healthy pasta dish. i have made it once before but i revisited it over the weekend knowing it fit into cycle three of the 17-day diet guidelines. suz here is another vegetarian recipe i am happy to share! oh! and did i mention that i skipped using wheat pasta and replaced it with brown rice spaghetti. delish! pair it with a glass of white wine, a simple salad and sorbet and you’ve got one amazing guiltless meal.

here’s what you need:

1 cup baby spinach

1/2 cup grape tomatoes cut in half.

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup artichokes, i used frozen (defrosted) but any variety works

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup feta (17dd use fat-free)

juice of a lemon (mine was really juicy so i only used half)

1 TB butter

1/4 cup white wine (i used budget friendly pinot grigio)

brown rice spaghetti, cooked according to package directions

here’s how:

in a skillet melt butter. add in onions and sauté until soft, 5-8 minutes. add in garlic and cook for a minute, do not brown the garlic. squeeze the lemon juice into skillet and then wine. let the sauce simmer for a few minutes deglazing the pan. add in tomatoes, spinach, artichokes and cook until spinach is wilted. add the spaghetti to the skillet and toss to coat. plate the pasta and top with feta cheese. enjoy!

have you cooked with brown rice pasta? what are your thoughts about it? i thought it was very starchy, especially while cooking but once it was mixed with everything i thought it tasted just like wheat pasta minus the chewy-ness.

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Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

now that i am about to start cycle four of the 17-day diet i have begun to incorporate meals that we used to eat back into our lives but with a healthy twist. take these stuffed peppers for instance, the old school recipe our grandma’s used to make had ground beef and other non-figure flattering ingredients. mine on the other hand skips the meat and adds in the super food, quinoa which packs in the protein along with the black beans. this meal was so filling and made for great leftovers.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
recipe adapted from good life eats

the ingredients:

2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped1/2 of a poblano pepper, diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 – 8.5 oz. can corn, drained
1 – 15 oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
1 – 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 1/2 cups grated Pepper jack cheese, divided
4 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs removed

Directions:

Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and poblano pepper and cook 5 minutes, or until soft. Add cumin and garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Stir in drained tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated.

Stir in quinoa, carrots, and 1 3/4 cups water. Cover, and bring to a boil. reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Combine quinoa and carrots with black beans, corn, 1 cup of cheese, and the onion mixture from the first step, . Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour liquid from tomatoes in bottom of baking dish.

Fill each bell pepper half with heaping 3/4-cup quinoa mixture, and place in baking dish. Cover with foil, and bake 40 minutes. Uncover, and sprinkle each pepper with 1 tablespoon of remaining cheese. Bake 15 minutes more, or until tops of stuffed peppers are browned. Let stand 5 minutes. Transfer stuffed peppers to serving plates, and drizzle each with pan juices before serving

the 17-day diet version without the jack cheese or you could substitute fat-free.

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steppin’ out {link-up}

this is my first time linking up to mandy’s “steppin’ out” saturdays. i have followed her witty, vintage lovin’, well-written blog for a while now but never have i linked up. i guess mostly because i would never say i have style, especially since most days i live in juicy sweats. just keepin’ it real. but this saturday was a little different because i actually went out, with adults sans kids. amazing i tell you. plus, since i have lost fifteen pounds my flabby tire isn’t hanging over my pants like custard oozing out of a gorgeously fried donut. mmm…donuts. total homer simpson moment.

okay, the picture quality is crap. thank you cell phone and a hubby who was laughing at me.

jacket / (nordstrom) – sweater / rubbish (nordstrom) – jeans / charlotte russe – boots / børn (nordstrom)

the girls and i at URBN in north park, sd.

mom’s night out for a cause

last week i headed downtown to san diego’s palomar hotel for the event to support the american heart associations, go red for women campaign. i won tickets to the event in the hotels swanky spa, sé, so i took janelle as my free guest and tessa came along with us. the three of us usually spend time together with our kids so having a night out with just us is always great fun. janelle won the best prizes and she will be taking tessa and i out to burlap in del mar in the near future.