Good Clean Summer Love Pasta Salad with Love Beets and Organic Girl

I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE me some beets and organic greens! So when Love Beets and Organic Girl let me in on their #GoodCleanSummerLove campaign, I was SO excited to play around!

Before we get into the recipe deets, let me tell you guys about this amazing contest. One lucky winner is going to win an entire year's supply of Love Beets and Organic Girl (insert heart eyes and hand raising emoji here)! I'll put the full details on how to enter at the bottom of this post, so make sure you check it out!

So back to the eats. Beets and greens scream summer to me (hence the campaign I'm guessing), and of course they both go great in a salad. But I decided I wanted to kick it up a level. What else screams summer? Grilling, corn, and pasta salads. So why not bring them all together? Trust me you want to bring them all together...

Here's What You'll Need:

-1 lb pasta, cooked (I used sprouted penne, but lentil or whole grain pastas are also great)
-2 cups Organic Girl pepper greens
-4 Love Beets organic cooked beets, chopped
-1/4 cup Organic Girl pomegranate balsamic dressing
-3/4 cup feta
-2 ears of corn
-1 tbsp olive oil
-1/4 cup pine nuts
-Sea Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1) Preheat your grill to medium high heat.
2) Remove the silk from the corn and pull down the husks. Coat the corn in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Replace the husks back up around the corn.
3) Grill the corn for about 20 minutes, rotating 1/4 of the way every 5 minutes.
4) Once cooked, shave the kernels off the cob using a knife.
5) Toast the pine nuts on the stove top until just golden brown (about 3-5 minutes).
6) In a large bowl, mix together the pasta, beets, pepper greens, corn, pine nuts, and feta.
7) Add in the dressing (and salt and pepper to taste) and mix completely until evenly distributed.
8) Serve and enjoy!

This pasta salad is literally like summer in side dish form. It's perfect for a picnic, bbq, or even as a meal through out the week. Let me know what you think in the comments, and make sure to check on the contest rules below.
 

Sweet and Spicy Grilled Tempeh

I promise that I won't only post grilled recipes from now through like November (even if I want to), but in the meantime, another grilled recipe.

I had picked up some tempeh the other day and decided it needed to be grilled. So I started playing around with marinade ideas. One thing led to another, and I had some sort of sweet but salty but spicy but DELICIOUS marinade. I didn't really know what to call it, so you just get "Sweet and Spicy". But's it's good, like really good. And you will be pouring the marinade on top of the grilled tempeh, trust me. So I recommend not throwing it out.

Here's What You'll Need:

-8 oz package of tempeh, cut into 4 triangles
-1/4 cup maple syrup
-1/4 cup Bragg's Liquid Aminos
-1-2 tbsp sriracha (depending on how spicy you want it)
-1 clove garlic, minced

(Serves 2)

Instructions:

1) Mix together the marinade in a bowl or bag, and marinate the tempeh for at least an hour.
2) Heat up your grill, and toss the tempeh on. Cook for about 3-5 minutes per side until lightly charred.
3) Remove from heat, add some additional marinade as sauce, serve with your favorite sides, and enjoy!

So easy and so delicious. Does it get much better than that?

Let me know what you think!

Grilled Pineapple BBQ Shrimp Kabobs

I'm just gonna say it, grilling season is officially here! Okay, maybe not to everyone. But when it's warm enough to stand outside long enough to grill and the sun is shining, to me, it's grilling season. 

I recently tried Rootz Sauce's amazing sauces, one of which is a pineapple BBQ sauce (yes, you read that right - YUM). I decided to go with this pineapple BBQ idea and make some kabobs, and what better ingredients than shrimp, fresh pineapple, and some yummy veggies.

Here's What You'll Need:

-1 lb uncooked, de-veined, unshelled shrimp
-1 small container of fresh pineapple cubes (or feel free to cut up your own pineapple)
-1 small container of baby Bella mushrooms
-1 small container of cherry tomatoes
-1 red onion, cut into about 1 in chunks
-1 bell pepper, cut into about 1 in chunks
-1/2 cup of Rootz Pineapple BBQ Sauce

(Serves 4-5 people)

Instructions:

1) Marinate the shrimp in the BBQ sauce for at least an hour.
2) Soak your skewers in water for about 30 minutes or more before assembling your kabobs.
3) Preheat your grill and begin to assemble your skewers. Add at least one of each ingredient to a skewer, and double up where desired. I had at least 2 shrimp on each kabob.
4) Toss the kabobs on the grill, cooking for about 3-5 minutes per side. You can slather any additional BBQ sauce (from marinating) right onto the shrimp on the grill.
5) Remove from heat, serve, and enjoy!

Honesty, these are so simple. The hardest part is assembling the kabobs, and that's more time consuming than difficult. And trust me, it's worth it!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!
 

Spiralized Zucchini Summer Salad with Balsamic Chicken

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a huge fan of grilling. I'd probably be just fine (if not really happy) grilling most of my meals. It's pretty simple. You can make a delicious marinade and just let your ingredients soak it up the fridge for a bit before throwing it on the grill, or you can just add some seasoning and throw it on.  Then you flip it over a couple of times, and, voila, a delicious, flavorful meal. Plus, in the meantime, you can prepare whatever else you need for your dish.

As August is creeping by (it's somehow almost half way over), I want to utilize that grill as much as possible. I decided to use another of my favorite tools, the spiralizer, to make a fresh, summer-inspired salad.

Here's what you'll need:

-3 chicken breasts (the nutrition info accounts for 5 oz chicken breasts)
-1 1/2 large or 2 medium sized zucchini, spiralized (I used the ribbon blade but any will do)
-1/2 avocado, cubed
-1 ear of corn
-1/2 large tomato, cubed
-1/8 red onion, chopped
-1 granny smith apple, cubed
-6 tbsp feta

For the marinade:
-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
-2 tbsp spicy brown mustard
-2 tbsp lemon juice
-1 clove of garlic, minced
-A dash of Himalayan sea salt
-A dash of black pepper

For the dressing:
-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
-1 tbsp olive oil
-3 tsp spicy brown mustard
-1/2 clove of garlic, minced
-Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1) Mix all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl or plastic bag, add the chicken, and let it marinate for at least 30 minutes to an hour (the longer the better).
2) Heat up the grill.
3) Peel down the husk of the corn (without removing) and discard of the corn silk. Pull the husk back up to cover the corn, and toss it on the grill. The corn will cook for a total of 20-25 minutes (rotating every 5 minutes or so).
3) After about 5 minutes, add the chicken to the grill. The chicken will cook for about 7 minutes on each side.
4) In the meantime, chop up your ingredients if you haven't already done so, and make the dressing.
5) Remove the chicken and corn from the grill when they are done cooking.
6) Let the chicken sit for about 5 minutes, and then cut it into slices.
7) Cut the corn kernels off the cob.
8) You can either mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl or create individual bowls. I tend to do the latter. Add the raw zucchini noodles. Top them with apple, onion, tomato, avocado, corn, feta, and finally the chicken. Add on some dressing, and enjoy!

The mixture of the raw zucchini plus  the fresh tomatoes, apple, and onion mixed with the grilled chicken and corn is the perfect summer meal. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did, and let me know what you think below! Also feel free to sign up for (free) e-mail updates on new posts.

Healthy Chicken Parmesan Burgers

Grilled food is without a doubt some of my favorite food. I get so excited when it starts to get warm in the spring because that means that grilling season has finally arrived. Not to say that I won't grill in the winter because, trust me, I will. Over the past couple of months, I've grilled everything from salmon to turkey burgers to kabobs, but I wanted to try something a little different.

I was trying to come up with what I should cook for dinner for my boyfriend and myself. Chicken parm, one of his favorites, instantly came to mind. But I wanted to grill and I wanted to make something healthy. Then it dawned on me - why can't I have all three? How about healthy chicken parm burgers. I even stuffed in some spinach because I love getting in greens wherever I can.

Here's what you'll need:

-1 lb ground chicken
-1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
-1/4 grated parmesan cheese
-1 tsp dried basil
-1 tsp Italian seasoning
-2 cloves garlic, chopped
-1 cup spinach
-1/3 cup tomato/marinara sauce
-1/4 tsp Himalayan sea salt
-1/4 tsp ground black pepper
-1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
-1/3 cup part skim mozzarella, shredded

Instructions:

1) Mix together all ingredients except for the mozzarella in a  bowl.
2) Form mixture into 3 to 4 burger patties depending on the size patties you'd like. We made 3 because we were going bunless.
3) Grill the burgers for about 8 minutes on each side. Watch the burgers closely because cooking times may vary by grill.
4) Add the shredded mozzarella to the tops of the burgers and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
5) Remove the burgers from the grill and serve as desired. You can also add some additional sauce if you'd like.

I also grilled some broccolini (tossed in olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes) and whole tomatoes as sides. They were both delicious and highly recommended! The tomatoes were great with the burger and are a good substitute for adding additional sauce.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did! Let me know what you think, and feel free to subscribe to e-mail updates on new blog posts below!