Vaca-tovation: the act of going on vacation, stuffing yourself with delicious foods and drink and then coming home with new motivation to eat healthy again.
Sorry for the long hiatus folks, but to tell you the truth, I haven't been all that motivated or inspired in the kitchen lately. So we've been having a lot of throw-together dinners consisting of a lot of salads, vegetables, grilling out, and pulling out whatever we froze 4 months ago. It's also been extremely hot here for the past few weeks, consistently at triple digit temperatures; and call me crazy but slaving over a hot oven or a stove for 30-45 mins after I get home from work just hasn't sounded appealing. HOWEVER, this post is about "vaca-tovation" and that's just how I feel now. Went on a wonderful trip to Hawaii with my husband and our good friends and had a completely glutinous week of good food and tropical drinks and now I'm back home and newly motivated to get my eating back on track. This is one of the upsides to getting back from vacation, so embrace it! In the past 6 weeks of not blogging, I did manage to make a few recipes that I thought were post-worthy. So I'm happy to share and maybe help some of you become vaca-tovated after your summer trips.
The first recipe, "Shrimp and Corn Cakes with Heirloom Tomato Salsa" is from Cooking Light magazines' June Issue and I made this for a dinner with a girl friend. It was really good and really filling. I did find heirloom tomatoes and the salsa turned out delicious and fresh tasting, but I'm sure it would taste just as good with regular on-the-vine tomatoes or Roma tomatoes. This also made for an easy lunch the next day. I thought it was a nice twist on a traditional crab cake type of recipe without as much fat and calories.
The next recipe, "Hoisin-Glazed Salmon Burgers with Pickled Cucumbers", also from Cooking Lights' June issue, is definitely going to be a make again recipe. Jon and I loved the sweet and salty taste of the burgers and the pickled cucumbers added a lot of flavor and got me thinking about pickling more of my own stuff! We just paired this with some sweet potato fries. This may even be a good burger recipe to make ahead freeze to use for our nights when we just want something quick. I'll give it a try and let you know!
The following couple of recipes are two summer treat recipes that I thought were really nutritionally dense without breaking the calorie/fat bank. As a side note, for the "Peach Cobbler", from Clean Eatings' June issue, I just used normal sugar instead of evaporated cane juice and I used arrowroot powder instead of potato starch. Arrowroot and potato starch powders are just thickening agents, so you can use corn starch as well.
The "5-Ingredient Almond Date Bars" was an online recipe find off of the site Ohsheglows.com and I actually ended up making the bars in a pan and then freezing them for about 4 hours and then cut them into bars and kept them in the refrigerator. They were way too soft to try and cut after first assembling them! And just a side-note about dates: they are packed with fiber and other great nutritional benefits as well as being extremely sweet. I've started replacing sugar with dates in my smoothies or chopped up over oatmeal. Give them a try!
I made those salmon burgers on Dad's birthday. My guests raved about them. That recipe is definitely a keeper. I think I added an extra egg, though, so the burgers would stick together. I also cooked them inside on a cast iron grill, instead of outside as I had planned. That worked well.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Love the new word!
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