Fruit and Meat For Breakfast

Another tasty little breakfast that my hubbie really enjoyed!  The dark purple grapes were some of the sweetest grapes I've ever had - tasted just like grape juice!   Thanks Farm Fresh!

The Meat

- 2-3 pieces of bacon

- 2 breakfast links,

- 2 eggs

- salt, pepper, basil to taste

The Veggies

- 1/2 heirloom tomato, sliced

- 1/4 onion, sliced

The Fruit

- 4-6 large chunks of musk melon

- 12-15 grapes

I always start cooking the breakfast links first, since they take the longest to prepare.  I make the entire breakfast on the same griddle pan, using high heat to cook the meat and medium heat for the eggs.

After the links have been cooking a few minutes, roll them over and then add the bacon to the pan.  Flip the strips of bacon after 2-3 minutes and cook until crispy.  Make sure to save the grease for future meals!

After I remove the bacon from the griddle pan, I lower the heat to medium and cooked the eggs over easy.  It only takes 2-3 minutes for the egg to be solid enough to flip, and I usually only let it cook on my "easy" side approximately 30 seconds before removing from heat. While I cooked the eggs, I also cooked the sliced tomato and onions in some of the leftover grease, making sure the onions got soft and full of flavor, around 3 minutes.  

I plated the eggs and meat and put my heaping serving of grapes and melon onto the plate also.  YUM.

Wilted Spinach Salad with Sausage

Another easy lunch.  We never get tired of eating salads, and I try to make them in different ways all the time to keep us from getting tired of them, haha. 

The Meat

- 2 chicken sausage

The Veggies

- 1 heirloom carrot, sliced

- 1/2 cup broccoli, chopped

- 1 green onion, diced

- 1 heirloom tomato, sliced

- 2 cup spinach, raw and chopped

- shredded mozzarella to taste

The Dressing

- 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil

- 4-6 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar from Modena

The Fruit

- 10-12 large chunks of musk melon

- two handful of grapes

Cook the chicken sausages approximately 8-10 minutes on high heat until the centers are no longer pink.  Slice them up.

Toss together all the salad fixings, and drizzle the oil and vinegar on top of everything.  Put the sausages on top and throw on some cheese.  Put the fruit to the side (the melon will soak up some of the balsamic vinegar from the bottom of the plates and taste extra good).  Enjoy your lunch, just like you do everyday.

Turkey Patties with Dill Yogurt Sauce

This is a light dinner, it tastes amazing and the ground turkey tastes soooo good with the Greek yogurt sauce.  We have been enjoying fresh cucumber in all sorts of ways this summer, and putting the diced cucumber into the Greek yogurt is a great way to lighten up your dinner and add some zesty crunch!

The Meat

- 1 pound ground turkey, divided into 4 patties
- curry spice, salt, pepper, dill, crushed red pepper to taste

The Veggies

- 1 head of broccoli, chopped

- 1 small head purple cauliflower, chopped
-lemon juice to taste

2 summer squashes, sliced

- 1/2 cup red grapes, sliced in halves

- 1 large slicing tomato, chopped

- 1 tablespoon dried cranberries
- salt, pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon olive oil

The Sauce

- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt

- 6 slices cucumber, diced

- 1 teaspoon lemon juice

- salt, dill, pepper to taste

- 1/2 green onion, sliced


Preheat the oven to 380 degrees.


Slice the squash and tomatoes and put them into your small baking dish.  Then add the water, seasoning, cranberries, and oil.  Pop it all in the oven and bake it for around 35 minutes.





Put the broccoli and cauliflower into your steamer and steam for 15 minutes.  Splash them with the lemon juice when they are all done.  I like to keep them a little firm, I feel like the vegetables taste better when they aren't too mushy.  The lemon is a nice way to give them a tangy kick without relying on too much seasoning.





The patties I cooked on my griddle pan at high heat, flipping them after 4 minutes.  While they cooked I whipped up my sauce, folding in all the ingredients and spooning it together until it is creamy and consistent.

Lunch To Go

I send my husband to work with a home packed lunch every day.  Usually he gets a salad loaded with goodies, and he loves it!  He also gets some mixed nuts and fruit to round out his meal, or save them for snacks throughout the day.  This is a pretty typical salad that he gets, and it goes in our awesome Klip-it containers that we got at the Container Store.  

The Meat

- 1 spicy turkey potato sausage

The Veggies

 - 1/2 cup shredded romain lettuce

- 1/2 cup raw spinach, shredded

- 1 heirloom carrot, sliced

- 6-8 cherry tomatoes

- 1 mushroom, sliced

- 1/2 green onion, sliced

- 1/2 slicing tomato, sliced

- 5 slices cucumber

- 1/3 cup broccoli

- parmesan to taste 

- 2 tablespoons Caesar dressing 

The Fruits

- 3-5 strawberries

- 1 handful red grapes

- 1 handful blueberries

The Nuts

- 1/2 cup salted almonds

- 1/2 cup cashews

- 1/4 cup hazelnuts

- 1/4 cup pecans

- 3 dried apricots, chopped

I cut up the sausage first and put in on the griddle pan while making breakfast's bacon.  By precutting the sausage it cooks quicker, which means I get to make breakfast, lunch, and hang out with my husband before he leaves for work.  I'm big on multi-tasking.

I put the romaine and spinach in the bottom of the salad container and layer the carrot, sausage, and parmesan on top.  The upper level of the salad container gets the other goodies, and the dressing goes in the sweet little dressing pot (in the middle).  When it is time for lunch, my husband will toss the salad with the dressing so everything will still be fresh and crispy, versus wilted and slimy from sitting in the dressing for hours.

I cut the tops off the strawberries and mix together the grapes and blueberries, and toss the nuts into the second half of the split container.  I make sure to include a napkin for him and that's it.  It only takes around 10 minutes to pack this lunch and everything in it is healthy and delicious.  It's perfectly portioned out thanks to the cool containers, and it's so good for you to eat raw veggies like this.  

A Favorite Simple Dessert

Giving up ice cream was tough, until I discovered Greek yogurt.  Now I use it as my base whenever I want a sweet treat.  

The Dessert

- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt

- 2 tablespoons honey

- 1/4 cup blueberries

- 1/4 cup grapes, sliced

- 1/4 cup watermelon, cubed

Layer all the ingredients - I did the watermelon on the bottom, with yogurt, then honey, then grapes, then more yogurt, then more honey, and last the blueberries.  It makes the presentation fun.  I use my noshing cups to serve this dessert because they are the perfect portion size. 

You can make all sorts of varieties of this dessert - any fruit will do, and nuts are a great addition.  We often put in cashews, walnuts, or pecans, those nuts in particular go well with the honey.  You could also swap out the honey for maple syrup if you wanted, or sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on top.  It's all good.