Power Up: Quinoa and Lentil Salad

Power up your days with this vegetarian salad made with lentils and quinoa! It's may be low in fat but it's high in flavor!

This is seriously my first quinoa recipe, like for real. I know this is a healthy food blog, but even I was skeptical on quinoa for a while. I mean even the name quinoa, pronounced keeen-waaaah it just comes off as persnickety and pretentious.... right?! Oh I'm sorry it not quinoa, it's keeen-wah. Excuse me fancy pants!

Stone Fruit and Burrata Salad with Lemon Basil Dressing

Step up your salad game with some burrata! This salad is loaded with fresh summer fruits and has a lemon and fresh basil dressing. Serve to your guests and look super fancy for very little work!

I am always inspired by other blogs. Since I have a blog, I am sure you can imagine how many I read and comment on. I forget where I saw it... but I saw a stone fruit and burrata salad, so I thought I would do my own. I mean helllllo peaches and succulent and juicy with the magical creamy cheese called burrata?! NOOOOOO brainer!

Do you guys know what burrata is? Don't feel bad, I googled it when I saw it too. Seriously, google has made it possible to not sound stupid on social media. Soooo anyways burrata is like fresh mozzarella kicked up 10 notches... why you ask? Well it is just a pouch of fresh mozzarella- inside is the best part, cream and scraps of more fresh mozzarella. Good for you? No... but come one there is only 3 oz. in the whole recipe. Savor the hell outta it!

Can you imagine all these flavors mingling in your palette?? I could when I heard stone fruit and burrata. So much so I totally made this and I am totally allergic to peach skin. I had an itchy throat, but it was sooooo worth it. Kinda dumb? Sure! But I just had to and with the lemon basil dressing- it was TO DIE FOOOOOR! Or at least to itchy throat for, right?!

It is also simple and quick to put together! Can you beat that?! Pretty damn fabulous!

What you need

1 large ripe peach (I used a white peach)

2 mango nectarines (if you cannot find those you can use regular)

3 oz. burrata

Dressing

5 large basil leaves (more for garnish if desired)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

How to make it

1- Throw all fruit and pieces of burrata on a board.

2- In a food processor, combine all dressing ingredients.

3- Drizzle dressing on salad- DONE!

Nutritional Information

Yields 5 servings, under 200 calories each!

5 points plus on Weight Watchers

Lemon Pesto Chicken

Why is this a Foodgasm?

So I am already sure you know the foodgasm that is pesto. Especially fresh pesto (PS- fresh pesto is so easy to make it is criminal to buy the stuff. Seriously!). So I recently was making pesto and wanted to add my own spin to it, just a little spin by adding the zest and juice of one large lemon. Just the simple addition of lemon to pesto brightened it up and brought out some more complex flavors. It's like summer as a sauce. That is what I imagine summer would taste like: bright, light, fresh and earthy with some pep in it's step.

I learned the joy of pesto from my chef obsession Fabio Viviani. What I like to say about pesto is like he says, I can give you some measurements, but you gotta go by the how thick you want it. Also take into account the more oil, nuts and cheese you add the more fat that sauce is gonna have. The awesome thing about this recipe is that not only does the lemon add flavor but some of the liquid in this recipe is from lemon juice and that adds NO FAT! YAY!

Pesto Quiche

Pesto Quiche Crust-astic option

Why is this a Foodgasm? A little pesto goes a loooong way here! Just imagine a nice quiche that is creamy and soft but add in the punch of pesto and you got some taste bud magic! I LOVE the way this came out, sweet, salty creamy with some garlic flavor, YUM! I made this recipe two ways: inside of a ready made pie crust and a lower carb option by using muffin tins and paper wrappers with a slice of potato on the bottom.

Low Carb Individual Pesto Quiches

Yields 8 servings