Happy Belly – Part 7

I feel like I’ve really stepped up my at-home food game lately.  When it’s just me, I have a habit of having the same salad all day, everyday.  Now that my boyfriend and I eat most of our meals together, I’m a little bit more creative, I step away from the salads, and I try new things.  Here’s a peek at what’s been on dinner table menu during the last few months …

We made Inspiralized’s lamb meatballs, with a side salad, spiralized cucumbers, and hummus.  The meatballs were good, but I think they could have been made with any ground meat — it was really the whole combination of flavors and textures that made it a success!

Post-Whole30, I try to (loosely) stick to Whole30 principles for as long as I can stand it.  We have made this (Whole30-compliant) Coconut Lime Chicken from The Whole Cook several times.  It is so good and so easy.  Since we haven’t been Whole30-ing, we have ours over rice, but it would be delicious on top of cauliflower rice or all on its own.

I’m a fan of Skinnytaste.  The recipes are always yummy and never taste like you’re making sacrifices in the name of fewer calories.  The Easy Bagels have been on repeat around here.  We started off with Stuffed Bagel Balls, but have recently been just making bagels.  I will say that they’re not real bagels; they’re more like biscuits, but that doesn’t bother me.  They keep well, bake exactly as the recipe says they will, and they’re really yummy.

Recently, my boyfriend and I went to Gunshow, an Atlanta restaurant where the menu rotates and the dining style is a bit unorthodox.  Chefs prepare dishes with seasonal ingredients and then present the dishes on trays to diners.  If you want a dish, they leave a plate of it with you.  If not, they move on and you wait for the next dish to come around.  It was a fun experience and we tried some really delicious things.  First up was a gnocchi dish with a mix of beans, tomatoes, and dill.  Fried feta followed and I was in love.  We tried a few other things before finishing our meal with a fancy cinnamon toast dessert.

I’m not a huge avocado fan, but I’ve been making myself little batches of two-minute guacamole to have with my eggs for breakfast.  Trader Joe’s Teeny Tiny Avocados are the perfect, single-serving size for someone who wants just enough, but not too much, avocado.  And every one I’ve sliced into has been perfectly ripe.  (My two-minute guacamole goes something like this:  slice into tiny avocado, squeal about how cute it is, mash to desired consistency, add a tablespoon or so of chopped red onion, add a pinch salt, add more lime juice than you think you’ll need, stir it all up.)

A little charcuterie spread inspiration never hurt anyone!  My boyfriend and his buddies like their cheese — I snapped this at one of their get-togethers.  This spread landed on the side of being rich and sweet.  It’s not exactly my thing, since I’m a fan of pickled things and sharper cheese, but it was beautiful!

We were getting a little bored with regular pancakes, so we whipped up a Dutch Baby Pancake a couple of weekends ago.  We used this basic recipe.  It was delicious, easy, and beautiful.  Plus, I just love watching them puff up in the oven!

Around here, we like pasta and we like feta cheese.  This lemon pasta with pine nuts, feta, and mint from Molly Yeh was a big hit.  It looks and sounds way more difficult than it was.  Granted, her recipe includes homemade pasta and we definitely didn’t do that.  With boxed pasta, it comes together really easily.

Another Skinnytaste recipe, this time from her Fast and Slow cookbook!  These chicken and couscous bowls with piri piri were delicious.  They were light, but filling, and required very little work.  And they kept well for lunch leftovers.

And another one from The Whole Cook!  This tropical salsa chicken was really yummy, and just different enough that it was a nice break from the monotony of all of our other go-to chicken dinners.  The pineapple-y salsa was really yummy!

Ugh, I’ve made myself hungry.  Tell me what’s been making your belly happy lately.  And, if you’re interested, you can find more of what’s made my belly happy here.