Instant Cherry Spinach Salad

Okay, so I wanted a salad with a lot of flavor that could be made without chopping anything up and in less than two minutes.

Following my typical salad recipe: salad base + sweet + salty + crunchy + big flavor

All I did was use base: prepackaged spinach (on sale!), sweet: dried cherries (on sale at Aldi's), salty/crunchy: sunflower seeds,  salty/big flavor: blue cheese crumbles, and low-cal salad dressing.

When I have time to cut things up, I do enjoy adding tomato and other veggies would be delicious as well

Feels fancy and can literally be made in 30 seconds.

Southwest Chicken Skillet

https://www.budgetbytes.com/2014/05/southwest-chicken-skillet/

So, I kind of messed this one up. One, my pans are apparently not nonstick and that was a pain and interferred with quality simmering. Two, I substituted a bunch of ingredients again (random tomatillo sauce and diced tomatoes for salsa and chicken broth). Three, I ran out of time for cooking and never set a timer soooo took it off a bit early.

So, long story short, when you do those things, the rice will be a little chewy/crunchy, but it was still delightful overall. Key points: SO EASY. SO. SO. EASY. If you're into chicken, this is effortless.

Balsamic Sweet Potato Onion Roast

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/241834/oven-roasted-sweet-potatoes/

Technically, I was inspired by the above recipe. I couldn't get it to load the directions on my phone. So my new directions became the laziest possible. Chop up onion and sweet potato and put it on the aluminum foil you just pulled the kale chips off of. Pour some olive oil, some balsamic vinegar, and some pepper on it. Put in oven at 350 until you're impatient. Delicious!

Kale Chips

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/176957/baked-kale-chips/

I think this woudl be better using a mister. Maybe I'll try Pam next time. Also trying spices.

Sweet potato and black bean and avocado burritos

http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2014/04/healthy-sweet-potato-black-bean-avocado-breakfast-burritos/

Tried it! I'm not real sure it's worth the effort. It took like an hour to cook for and assemble six, which would get faster, but still. And it's yummy, but not oh my god this is amazing yummy.

It was really delicious reheated though. If I'm willing to put the effort in, its worth it.

Staple: Parfait Desert

So, if I want a healthy desert, I've been just shoving a "yogurt" on the bowl, a handful of cereal, and a handful of fresh fruit. I've been minding the sugar in them, so it's reasonably healthy.

Staple: Shakshuka Shakshuka Shakshuka!

Sooooo, this was delicious and easy and cheap and healthy. (And if you leave out the sugar- which I did-- meets the Whole 30 requirements, which I'm not doing, but a friend is)

I can already tell that it's going to be a staple recipe. It takes like no effort, it's real hard to screw up --like a soup is. And it's hearty and delicious.

I didn't really spice it much because I wanted to leave it up to my friend to make it to her level.

http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2010/07/summer-2010-travel-blog-shakshuka/

I also think it'd be interesting to try it with some spinach or some mushrooms.

This time I served it over pasta because it was what I had, but next time that crusty crunchy bread would be amazing.

I think next time I might try this variety:

https://www.budgetbytes.com/2016/04/smoky-white-bean-shakshuka/

I have now tried the budget bytes variety and I actually liked the first version better! The beans make it more feeling, but I like the more veggies more.