LAZY BERRY SALAD (a re-post)

Several years ago , I was asked to prepare a couple of simple,  recipes on our local news morning show (WSILTV-3).

What a blast hanging with this morning crew who made my time there enjoyable, and made me feel at ease. I shared a recipe for my LAZY BERRY SALAD.

 I call it a LAZY salad because it's a recipe for the lazy cook or the overwhelmed cook with no time for getting a meal together but would still like a nice lunch or light dinner to serve.

Hey, it's OK to be lazy! The only work you will have to do here is drive to the supermarket. Unless you can get someone else to do that for ya.

Here's what you need:

Purchase a bag of "lazy lettuce". You know, the lettuce (all varieties) that comes pre-washed and bagged, ready to eat.  I prefer the ORGANIC ones,  because, well, I'm not a fan of eating pesticides.

Add some sliced, fresh strawberries. (Again, spring for the organic ones, if you can.)  I slice my berries with an egg slicer, because, you got it,  I'm LAZY, and, the egg slicer makes nice, uniform slices, if you're into that sort of thing.

Add a small container of Feta Cheese (about 4 oz. or more if you like feta).

Add a small bag of sliced almonds (I'm too lazy to try to slice my own! Goodness- I'm not Martha Stewart, here).

Add some pre-cooked chunks of grilled chicken (or rotisserie chicken from the supermarket that a non-lazy worker has already risen early just to prepare for the lazy people).

Serve with prepared bottled Raspberry or Strawberry vinaigrette (cuz you're too lazy to make your own ;)

Serve on a brightly colored PAPER PLATE cuz dishwashing is out of the question on a lazy day!

Enjoy your lazy day, with this lazy girl recipe. I hope I didn't tire you from causing you to read the directions.

Enjoy~Everything in Moderation

For the love of QUINOA (a re-post)

*This was originally posted in 2013


I am rather new to the world of Quinoa. I didn't even know for the longest time that it is pronounced "Keen-wah", and I was calling it "Quin-noah"...just like it's spelled. Go figure.

I LOVE this stuff!  First of all, it's  a SUPER FOOD! Meaning, it could almost stand alone as far as nutrition goes...Well, almost.

I don't  eat diet food, but I love healthy food, believe it or not. And this is so much better for our bodies than white rice, which Quinoa can replace in most recipes.

For those of you who haven't tried it, it is similar to rice, but with a nutty flavor. It is bland on its own (like rice) so seasoning is required.  You can fix this sooooooo many delicious ways (just google QUINOA RECIPES and see for yourself.

One of my favorite ways, is to prepare it with savory seasonings to go alongside a chicken or turkey dish. Which is what I did here.

For this recipe, you will need:

1-2 T. butter (I used REAL organic butter--no margarine, PLEASE!)
1 cup UNCOOKED Quinoa (I used the organic, and it needs to be rinsed first.)
2 T. fresh chopped garlic
2 cups broth (I used organic chicken broth, but you can also use vegetable broth)
2 T. FRESH parsley
1/2 tsp. fresh thyme
1/4 tsp. salt
onion ( about a half of a white one- or more)

Melt butter in skillet and add quinoa. Toast it (takes about 5 minutes in the skillet, while stirring around so it doesn't burn). Add garlic and Stir in the broth and bring to a boil. Then reduce to simmer and cover and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the rest of seasonings and cover again and cook for at least 5 minutes more.
Serve warm.

For the chicken, I just placed some butter in my skillet, and sprinkled with Italian seasoning ( a little bit from my spice jar) and cooked till done.  I steamed the broccoli.

To make it even healthier, you could replace the butter in both recipes with olive oil, which I sometimes do...but not tonight. ;)

ENJOY~Everything in Moderation