Tag: chicken

MyPlate Bake #4: Greek Turkey Meatballs with Saucy Green Beans and Acorn Squash

The MyPlate Bake: Greek Turkey Meatballs
National Nutrition Month is coming to a close, but we still have time to bite into one more tasty variation on the MyPlate Bake! So far we’ve cranked up the oven for Maple Dijon Chicken with broccoli and potato wedges, Sriracha BBQ Tofu with spiralized zucchini medley and sweet potatoes, and SuperFood Salmon with crispy kale and tiny perfect roasted potatoes. Yeah… the flavorRD household has been eating well this month!

And that’s what this project is really all about: eating well. Life gets crazy and complicated, but it’s so important to make it a priority to take care of our well-being. If I’ve helped even one person to feed themselves good food with a minimum of stress and a maximum of flavor, I consider that a win.

For our last venture into effortlessly balanced one-pan meals, we’re going Greek! This wholesome meal is built on fresh veggies and lean protein, and made irresistible with savory Mediterranean-style flavors. If you’ve already been tuning in for this series, I’m sure you’ve got the hang of this method by now. But let’s take one last time to break down exactly how simple this is…

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Special Series for National Nutrition Month! Introducing… The MyPlate Bake

The MyPlate Bake: healthy home-cooked dinner for 2. One pan. One hot oven. One hour, start to finish.
March is National Nutrition Month, and it’s prime time for talking up my favorite subject: healthy food, and how to enjoy it!

This year’s theme is “Bite into a Healthy Lifestyle,” and I’m celebrating by biting into an exciting new series of recipes inspired by USDA’s MyPlate. I’m a big fan of the simplicity of this food icon, designed to make it easy to build a healthier diet, one plate at a time. If you ask me, striving to make your plates look more like MyPlate (with half of the real estate covered by fruits and veggies) is one of the most straightforward ways to shift your eating habits to become healthier than ever.

For this recipe series, I’m calling my invention the MyPlate Bake. The concept is to follow the MyPlate formula of 1/2 veggies + 1/4 carbs + 1/4 protein, and roast it all together on a single sheet pan. This results in a healthy home-cooked dinner for two, made from scratch with whole food ingredients, in under an hour (prep and clean-up included). Believe it!

I’ll be updating the blog every week this month with a tasty new variation, so stay tuned! First up is an instant classic that I already know will be a go-to in my kitchen: the Maple Dijon Chicken MyPlate Bake.

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Savory Stuffed Acorn Squash

Fall is taking its sweet time making its way to San Diego. And the infinite scroll on my Pinterest feed just offers too many pages of impeccably styled autumnal foods for my own good. With the allure of cool days and pumpkin-everything, there’s only so much more I can take of ice water and chopped salads for dinner. If you’re in the same boat, I wish I had a better solution than this one: let’s pretend. This week, I suspended my disbelief long enough to fire up the oven and whip up this roasted seasonal squashy treat. So worth it!

The result was savory, satisfying, and absolutely LOADED with nutrition. And while it gives off the vibe of a fancier weekend dinner, this thing is a 40 minute meal! I can hardly think of an easier way to break into the new season and fulfill your hearty home-cooking dreams.

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Spicy Artichoke Pasta

You know those nights when you come home from work, you have no plans for dinner, you haven’t thawed anything from the freezer, and your veggie crisper has seen better days? This is one of my favorite back-pocket recipe when I’m in a Pantry Pinch. All shelf-stable ingredients, fast and easy, satisfying and delicious!

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Mom’s Chicken Cacciatore

After spending a weekend with the family, I felt like my return to apartment life could benefit from some real home cooking. Time for a Mom Recipe, you know? I don’t know if Spring has sprung where you are yet, but even here in southern California the nights are chilly enough to encourage stewy, braise-y dinners. So readers, today you’re lucky enough to learn about one of our most popular family recipes: my mom’s chicken cacciatore.

Cacciatore is Italian for ‘hunter,’ and as I understand it, the idea behind the dish is that hunters are able to pick up wild mushrooms while out in the forest. I don’t claim any real Italian authenticity, but the thing that sets this recipe apart is the sauce. Ohhh, the sauce… It’s tomato-based, but doesn’t really even taste like a tomato sauce. Some kind of magic alchemy goes on between the wine, broth and aromatics that yields something complex, herbaceous, and completely revelatory.

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Fresh Vietnamese Noodle Bowls

Last summer was my first time eating bún – a refreshing Vietnamese salad of cold noodles, charred meat and crunchy veggies. It was during a week-long trip to San Diego that I took with Grant to make preparations for our cross-country move. 

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