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Looking and feeling great doesn't mean depriving yourself of the foods you love.
I have a menu that'll make you feel good inside and out.
Yummy!
Egg and kale breakfast wraps,
sunshine on a plate.
Sautéed veggies, hummus, and a poached egg
wrapped in a warm tortilla.
Roasted vegetables with chipotle cream.
Crunchy pita topped with bright veggies,
hardy beans, and a spicy kick.
Grilled salmon and pineapple with avocado dressing,
one of my favorite light dinners.
Grilled, succulent fillets,
sweet pineapple rings, and a creamy dressing.
Banana and walnut smoothie,
a feel good treat to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Smooth, creamy, and delicious.
It's feel good food that your family will love.
♪♪
♪♪
I'm halving some grape tomatoes
for my egg and kale breakfast wraps, and these are quite fabulous.
In fact, you can even make this mixture the night before
so you can make making these wraps really easy and fast in the morning.
It's a great way to start your day.
We're gonna heat up a pan and add a little bit of olive oil.
You could use any kind of tomato you really want,
I just really like the grape tomatoes, they cook really quickly,
and they're nice and sweet.
We're gonna chop up a shallot to add a little bit more flavor,
and the shallot's really nice and mild and sweet.
We're gonna make a really quick little sauté of tomatoes and kale,
and then season it with a little bit of garlic,
thyme, and shallots,
and then on top of it, we're gonna put a poached egg,
put it in a wrap with some hummus, and eat it up.
We're gonna add a little bit of salt
and then two cloves of garlic.
You can add as much or as little garlic as you like.
I like just a little bit of garlic flavor,
basically making a very fresh tomato sauce.
Let's give this a quick little stir.
Just toss it a little bit so the tomatoes really start to cook.
Mm, that smells good already.
Then, to the tomatoes, we're gonna add
some fresh thyme, and I grow a lot of thyme in my garden.
It's an herb that is very hardy, very easy to grow.
Nice, lemony flavor to it, plus, because we're gonna use kale,
and kale's a pretty hardy vegetable,
you want an herb that can kind of hold up to that and really season it.
And, for a little pep,
this is completely optional, but if you want to make it slightly spicy,
add just a little bit of red pepper flakes.
Very minimal, but it gives it just that little extra kick,
and sometimes, I need that in the morning.
All right, now, time for the kale.
So I have five leaves of kale,
and I think that, right now,
kale is probably one of the most popular vegetables,
and if you look at a restaurant menu,
you will see that they do everything under the moon with kale.
Since you can find so much kale at the grocery store and it's so good for you,
it's a really great way to add in a different vegetable
so that you're not always using spinach,
which is usually the thing you'll find in these kind of wraps.
Just take the stem out,
we'll chop the leaves, and then we'll cook them,
and they kind of wilt down just like spinach does.
Kale is a great way to start the day, and it's full of great vitamins.
I mean, any leafy green like this is gonna be
pretty extraordinary for ya.
A little bit of salt, and...
maybe just a tiny bit more olive oil.
And then just start tossing it.
So while that cooks, we're also gonna add a little bit of fresh basil.
Sweet, nice basil.
Great texture, great flavor, and really does perfume the whole mixture.
Give it another little toss.
Let's grab our eggs.
I keep the eggs cold until right before I'm ready to poach them.
We've got some water that we've got boiling.
I want to add some salt just to flavor the water.
I'm gonna grab a lemon.
When people poach eggs, usually they'll either do
a little bit of vinegar or some lemon juice.
You need a little bit of acid to keep the egg
from falling apart in the actual water,
'cause you want to keep it intact.
I take the back of a spoon,
and I create a little vortex in the actual water,
and then I'm gonna crack the egg and dump it in the center of the vortex
and leave it alone for about 3 minutes, just to cook it.
We grab a cold egg, and it's key to have a cold egg,
because that way, you have more of a chance of
the egg yolk staying together.
While that cooks...
I'm gonna get started on my tortilla.
So I have some 10-inch whole wheat tortillas.
I'm gonna grab one tortilla-- you can warm them up in the oven
at 250 degrees, just to soften them a little bit.
You can do that in the microwave, you can do it in the skillet.
Just keep them warm so they're nice and pliable.
I'm gonna spread a little bit of hummus, and this is just store-bought hummus,
just makes life a little bit easier when you're making breakfast.
Garbanzo beans are a great source of protein,
and you just spread it out, and it also acts as the glue
to hold everything in here, so when you eat it,
it makes it really easy to eat.
We're gonna add
a few spoonfuls
of the greens.
You can see how pretty the colors are already.
That's what you're going for.
It makes you smile in the morning.
On top of that,
we go for our egg.
And I like to do one egg at a time.
It just makes it a lot easier to control.
And you put the egg right in the center there.
I take a little paring knife,
and I just make a little slit in the top of the yolk.
Let it seep all over into the veggies.
Then, I grab a fork.
We're gonna fold this over to make it into a wrap,
and you see how the hummus allows everything to stick together?
And you could close that off if you wanted to,
or you could leave it open, just makes it easier.
I like to leave it open so you can see the prettiness.
And then, I'll show you what it looks like on the inside.
You can see all of the filling
with the yolk, and it just looks super yummy.
It's the perfect little package for breakfast--
sweet tomatoes, perfect amount of greens.
Up next, my roasted vegetables with chipotle cream.
Talk about a feast for the eyes.
This vibrant dish tastes as great as it looks.
♪♪
I'm finishing up with my two zucchini
for my roasted vegetables with chipotle cream,
and I've already cut 1 pound of butternut squash,
and I made the cubes for the butternut squash
a little bit smaller than the zucchini,
because they take a little longer to cook,
and I wanted to cook everything together in the oven.
So zucchini, butternut squash, and red bell pepper,
and you could kinda use whatever veggies you want.
I really like this combo-- I love the color,
and I love the flavors.
Now, we want to add some beans.
I like a little beans for a little bit of protein,
and so I'm just using one 15-ounce can of kidney beans.
I just drain and rinse it,
and then we want to season all the veggies together,
'cause we're gonna roast them in the oven and give them a nice amount of sweetness.
So a little bit of olive oil,
and, to keep it nice and moist, some salt.
Then, to add lots of flavor, we're gonna add
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of dried oregano.
You want to use dried oregano since we're gonna bake this in the oven for about 1/2 hour,
so fresh herbs would sort of burn up, so you really want something
that can hold up in the oven, and the dried oregano
and the dried herbs are really good with that.
And we're also gonna add about 2 teaspoons of ground cumin,
and the cumin adds a nice warmth and will work really well
with the chipotle cream we're gonna add later on, as well.
Now I just wanna mix it with my hands,
make sure that all of the vegetables and the beans
are coated with the oregano and the cumin.
I'm gonna pop these in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes
until they're roasted and golden brown.
♪♪
I'm making my chipotle cream for my roasted vegetables,
and as you can see, they're golden brown,
and they look so good.
So for the chipotle cream, we're gonna use 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt,
and the idea with the Greek yogurt is that they strain it,
and so it's a little bit thicker, which works really well
with a cream like this... there we go.
Then, we're gonna add a little kick of flavor to this.
We're gonna use a chipotle pepper.
It's a jalapeno that's marinated in spices and a tomato paste
and a little bit of vinegar.
So you want to make sure that if you don't like
a lot of spice in your chipotle cream,
you want to use maybe a little bit less, maybe use half.
And we're putting the seeds and everything in there.
I like a little bit of a kick,
especially when you're not adding meat, just to kind of--
opens up your taste buds, and it makes everything taste really good.
And then, we're gonna add a little bit of lime juice.
Cut it horizontally like this,
and then a lot of times, when you squeeze it,
you can get a little bit more juice out of it.
We're gonna do about 1 tablespoon of lime juice.
And we're gonna do 1 teaspoon of agave--
just a little bit of sweetness, and I love the texture of the agave.
It's not too thick, it's not too thin,
and it's not smoky, it doesn't-- it just adds sweetness
without changing the flavor at all,
and then you just mix it all together,
and that's how easy it is to make chipotle cream.
So now, time to put this all together.
I'm gonna grab a plate.
We're gonna grab one of these pitas,
and what I did with the pita is I opened it up,
and I toasted it until it's nice and crispy.
Then...
we're just gonna add the veggies right over it.
You want to give the veggies a chance to kinda cool a little bit,
and look how colorful it is-- you want to make sure your food has lots of color,
'cause that's what's gonna make you want to eat it.
And then you just do a little chipotle cream
right over the top.
It looks really pretty-- okay, and this is the way I like to eat it.
So I like to break off a piece,
I put a bunch of veggies on it,
and I kind of just scoop it.
There we go.
[pita crunches]
It's like the pita
is the perfect little fork or spoon
to kind of eat all the veggies, you know?
The veggies are slightly sweet
with that spicy kick in the chipotle cream.
Mm!
This is such a great lunch--
great lunch, light dinner,
whatever you want it to be.
Mm mm mm.
So delicious and totally satisfying.
All right, up next, my grilled salmon
with pineapple and avocado dressing.
Simple yet dramatic.
Herby, creamy, and grilled to perfection.
♪♪
I'm chopping some herbs
for my grilled salmon with avocado dressing.
What I like to do is season the salmon
with a little bit of herb oil just to give it a little extra flavor,
and then I just put it on the grill for just a couple of minutes
to create a nice crust on the salmon.
We're also gonna brush this herb oil on some pineapple slices.
It's a really nice, light dinner.
It's one of my favorite dinners to eat when I've come off of a long trip
and I've been traveling a lot and eating out a lot.
I just chopped up some chives,
and now I'm gonna chop up some tarragon.
The licorice flavor works really well with seafood.
So I'm gonna do sort of a combo of different herbs.
And then we're also gonna use
some basil.
I love basil-- nice, fresh flavor,
and I always think, when you're trying to lighten foods up,
fresh herbs are a really great way to go.
So what we're gonna do is we're just gonna add
half of the herbs into this bowl
and the other half, we're gonna put in the food processor
for the avocado dressing.
And then we're gonna add a little bit of olive oil in here.
A little salt and a little pepper.
Just mix this all together,
and that is the herb oil-- very, very simple.
So now, let's grab the salmon
and the pineapple-- I got some really pretty salmon.
The colors of this dish are fantastic.
So I have two pieces of salmon.
They're 4 ounces each, and then I have
two slices of pineapple, and I'm using fresh pineapple.
Now, if you can't find fresh pineapple at the grocery store,
you can just use canned pineapple.
You just want to really make sure and wipe down the pineapple really well,
because sometimes they're too wet.
You really want to get a nice grill mark.
Put the herb oil right over the pieces.
Put some on the pineapple.
This is a really great mixture of colors and textures and flavors.
I really love it, all three together.
So now, we're gonna get it on the grill,
and you want to make sure that the grill pan is nice and hot,
and you want everything to sizzle as soon as you put it down.
So let's start with the salmon-- we're gonna put herb-side down.
[sizzling]
There we go.
And...
[sizzling]
That is a hot grill, that is what we want.
And then we'll do the same with the pineapple,
herb-side down, and we're just gonna grill it for a few minutes.
[sizzling]
So while that grills,
let's get started on the avocado dressing.
So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a nice avocado,
and you want to halve it,
and we're only gonna use half of an avocado.
Avocados are really good for you.
I like to just score the avocado in my hand like this,
and then use a spoon to just spoon it out,
just the same way I make guacamole or any of that.
So we're gonna take the avocado and just add it right on top of the herbs
that we added in here before.
This is a really great dressing
you could add on salads,
toss over a baked potato, or even toss with warm pasta.
It just--it's really yummy... or even use it as a dip.
We're gonna add the juice of one lemon,
kind of add a little citrusy bite to it all.
Then we're gonna add one garlic clove,
'cause I want to add a little bit garlic flavor to this, but not a lot.
I'm gonna add a little secret ingredient--
it's anchovy paste, and I always have it in my pantry,
and I just add just a little hint,
just like 1/8 of a teaspoon of anchovy paste.
It adds that little bit of salty bite
that you just can never put your finger on,
and if you don't want to use anchovy paste,
then you can always use a little extra salt.
Salt, pepper,
and then we're gonna use a little bit of olive oil to kind of loosen it up
and turn it into a dressing.
All right, now before we blend this all together,
let's flip our fish
and the pineapple.
Ooh, yeah...gorge.
And the key to getting really nice grill marks is to leave the salmon alone
for the full 3 to 4 minutes that you're cooking it
so it creates a nice crust.
And then the pineapple, ooh, yeah.
Beautiful pineapple!
While that continues to cook,
let's blend this all together.
[food processor whirring]
Ahh, the herbs,
a little bit of garlic.
Let's see if the seasoning is right.
Mm!
It's a winner!
Grab a plate,
and I'm gonna show you how to put this all together.
You're gonna see how beautiful this is.
So we're gonna grab a piece of pineapple.
Look at those beautiful grill marks.
We're gonna add a piece of the salmon.
And...
some of the avocado dressing
right over the top.
And then, best part,
I love the color combo, and I love the fact
that it's got some sweetness
and it's got the creaminess from the avocado.
And then you've got the salmon in there, too.
Okay.
It's hot.
Mm, mm!
The pineapple is so good.
It's warmed through, and it's slightly smoky
with the soft salmon and then the creamy avocado.
This dish makes me very happy.
Up next, a really fun dessert that you can share--
my banana walnut smoothie.
It's a sweet and heavenly dessert
in a glass.
♪♪
I'm starting with my banana for my banana and walnut smoothie,
a really healthy, sweet treat,
which I love.
Actually, I feel good when I drink it.
It's good for me, and it tastes delicious.
Slice up a half a banana,
and we've already got 1 and 1/2 cups of ice in the blender.
This is very easy and very good.
And then we're gonna use about 3 tablespoons of walnuts.
It's about four whole walnuts.
And we're just gonna chop up the walnuts.
And I love the combo of the walnut and the banana together.
I think they're a really nice mix.
Plus, walnuts are sort of decadent,
so a little bit goes a long way, but the flavor is fantastic,
especially in the smoothie.
Then we're also gonna add two dates,
and the dates really add creaminess
and a sweetness, too.
They're intensely sweet and chewy,
so they're really good in here.
Nothing kind of sweetens this quite like a date does.
You would think a banana would do it, but it doesn't, it's not enough.
The dates really add an amazing amount of sweetness
and thicken the smoothie, as well.
Then we're gonna add 1/2 cup of coconut water.
Coconut water's become really popular,
and you can find it at the grocery store.
It's quite good for you,
and it really hydrates your body,
and...
to reinforce the nutty flavor and add another element of creaminess,
we're gonna add 1/2 cup of almond milk,
and you want to use unsweetened almond milk
just really to keep the sugar content down.
And that's it!
So now, we're just gonna blend this all together.
This could even be a meal if you need, like,
a really quick meal in the morning or at lunchtime,
this could be it.
[blender whirring]
Ahh! Smells so good.
So we're just gonna pour it in here.
I'm gonna show you how nice it is, look at that.
Yummy!
Put a little straw in it, give it a little stir.
Mm!
It's perfectly sweet.
Nice and smooth.
Mm!
A delicious, sweet treat,
and I feel good drinking it.
Here's to feeling good.