Complete Meal Monday: Garlic,
Shallot,
and
White
Wine
Flounder
with
Spinach,
Watercress, and Strawberry
Salad
At times it is easier to find inspiration when you have the
whole meal in front of you! I decided to start doing complete
meal inspiration to help viewers visualize what unprocessed
and real dinners look like. I get a lot of questions about
what we eat, and while some of the recipes give a little
insight, this lays out exactly what we eat in a meal. I’m not
able to attach two recipes to one post, so for the red
wine vinaigrette for the salad click here.
The Fish
We love fish, especially Flounder (sorry I know I need to mix
up my fish recipes!). I think part of eating unprocessed foods
is using different ingredients and keeping it fresh. My
husband and I were both thinking about shallots for some
reason so he picked up a few at the grocery store, and BAM! I
have a brand new recipe to share. He tends to get random
things at the grocery store which is awesome because so many
new recipes of mine come from him picking up unexpected items
each week. If you are just getting into eating unprocessed
foods one of the best things to do is try new things, and fill
your refrigerator with fresh produce and herbs. I made a nice
white wine sauce to bake over this flounder, which included
butter, shallots, garlic, lemon, white wine, and fresh
parsley. Not only is it beautiful, it tastes amazing!
The Salad
I can’t stress this enough.. making your own dressings is an
essential part of eating unprocessed foods because store
bought dressings are some of the worst products on grocery
store shelves. It gets even worse because almost all of the
companies making bottled dressings use unethical labeling to
trick consumers into thinking they are getting a quality
product. In reality 95% of bottled dressings are made of
soybean oil, MSG, preservatives, and unlabeled ingredients
under the “natural flavors” loophole. I’ve talked about Hidden
Valley Ranch, so I won’t go over that again. However,
sometimes vinaigrettes slip through the cracks because people
assume they are just oil and vinegar. Here are the ingredients
in WishBone’s Balsamic Breeze Salad Spritzer (I couldn’t find
the Red Wine one online, hopefully they don’t make it
anymore):
Ingredients: Water, Balsamic Vinegar, High Fructose Corn
Syrup, Soybean Oil, Salt, Distilled Vinegar, Extra Virgin
Olive Oil, Onion Juice, Garlic Juice, Xanthan Gum, Natural
Flavors (Soy), (Sorbic Acid, Calcium Disodium EDTA) Used To
Protect Quality, Wine, Sulfur Dioxide (Used To Protect
Quality).
These ingredients just make me sad. I would honestly look at
this product and think it was a healthier alternative to
regular bottled dressing because you just spray it on. The
only ingredients this product should have are olive oil,
balsamic vinegar, and spices. I have NO idea where the high
fructose corn syrup, EDTA, or emulsifiers came from. Shame on
WishBone for tricking consumers like this!
With that being said, this salad is one of my favorites! I’m a
feta lover, and the saltiness of feta cheese pairs perfectly
with strawberries. I also threw in some walnuts, spinach, and
watercress and had a delicious salad loaded with tons
nutrition. I mentioned previously, I can’t attach two recipes
to one post, so if you want the dressing recipe click here. To
make this salad just desired amount of ingredients with a
small amount of dressing and enjoy! A little bit of this
dressing goes a long way!
Classic
Sauce
Alfredo
and
Herb
I don’t know anybody who doesn’t love a good pasta dish. This
recipe is simple to make, takes only a few minutes, and can’t
be beat by ANY jarred version. My toddler loves this served
with whole wheat penne pasta and topped with sautéed mushrooms
and eggplant (I’m eggplant obsessed). I love it topped with
spicy chicken or even fish. All around, it goes great with any
vegetables or protein, which makes it one of my go-to recipes.
White
Bean
Tacos
(With
Avacado Cilantro-Lime Sauce)
I love mixing things up with meatless Monday meals! We were on
our way home from a trip with the in-laws for Memorial Day
weekend and we spent a good part of the day traveling. I can’t
even explain how tired I was when we arrived home. The latte I
had on the way home just wasn’t cutting it! Needless to say we
arrived home with nothing to eat and take-out was calling my
name. The problem with take-out though is NOTHING fits our
lifestyle. We have not found any places in our area that don’t
serve refined food bombs, so take-out for us is almost nonexistent. We do bend the rules once in a while but I’m always
left feeling really drained after eating highly refined
foods. My body quickly reminds me how much it doesn’t like bad
food choices, and I always experience pretty bad “crashes”.
This is reason enough for me to stick with the good stuff
because with 3 kids I need energy, and I was already drained
from traveling.
I pinned the Avocado Cilantro-Lime Sauce from The Garden
Grazer on the way home from our trip, which she paired with
another bean taco recipe (thanks for the inspiration!). I
switched a few things up with the bean filling and it was
amazing. My kids didn’t even question the fact that the tacos
weren’t beef and after I ate 2 tacos the only words I could
utter were “I really needed that.” The best part was, it took
about 5 minutes to make the filling and another 5 for the
sauce. 10 minutes to an amazing and healthy meal is where it
is at!
I should also mention that we are really choosey when it comes
to taco shells. We purchase certified Non-GMO shells from
Garden of Eatin because they are Non-GMO and do not contain
soybean oil. They are a dollar or two more then the big name
brands but the extra money is worth it when you are getting a
quality product from a good company. We also love their blue
corn tortilla chips!
*Here is a link to the strained tomatoes I use, that are
jarred instead of canned. This product is about as good as
fresh as it gets, and contains no added salt! LOVE IT!
Spicy Black Eyed Pea Burgers
(Morningstar Alternative)
Buying good food to feed a family of 5 can be expensive! One
thing we try to do to save money, try new things, and
be healthier overall is take the focus off of meat in our
meals. There are so many unknowns about the meat industry in
America, and quite frankly I just don’t trust any of the big
name brands. We do buy organic meats, but they are super
expensive! I do use a few tricks to stretch the meat we buy,
but I also love throwing in one or two meatless meals every
week. I like experimenting with new ingredients and creating
new recipes that do not contain meat and so far my family has
really loved all of veggie friendly meals I’ve served. My kids
do love beans and I’ve been serving lentils to my toddler
since before he could even talk. Both of these are awesome
alternatives to meat and contain tons of protein and fiber.