So I’m finally coming around the bend with my flu situation (woohoo!) I’m still pretty congested and I feel kind of bad for my coworkers having to hear me blow my nose all the time – but hey – at least I’m upright and functional. Yesterday the hubby was at an all day working session/dinner for his PhD program, and I was surprisingly productive during the day: caught up on all of my work email from the past week that I had neglected while I was in flu country, caught up on all my personal email, watched some trashy TV while resting on the couch, you know how it goes. So with all of that, I was inspired to actually make a light & healthy dinner for one that included some form of hot liquids while the husband was out.
The theme of this meal was: dressing up regular / pre-packaged ingredients for a gourmet, 15 minute dinner! Here are the ingredients I used:
First up: Butternut Squash Soup
This literally has two Ingredients: Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash Soup and MicroGreens (that’s the part that dresses up the meal!)
Directions: Heat up the butternut squash soup in a microwave safe bowl until it’s steaming hot. Top with MicroGreens and enjoy.
How good does that look? You’d never guess it literally took 3 minutes to prepare and came partially from a pre-made soup. It tasted amazing and the microgreens added a delicious fresh crunch in each bite of the soup.
Next: My Gourmet Salad Flatbread – which was slightly more involved (read: took 5-10 min instead of 3 min to make)
The Ingredients:
- One whole wheat or sprouted wheat tortilla, toasted until crisp
- 2 wedges of Laughing Cow Light Garlic Cheese
- 1 oz (a few thin slices) of organic pepper jack cheese
- 3 fresh romaine lettuce leaves
- 1 tomato, sliced
- A handful of microgreens
- Salt & pepper
The Directions:
1. Toast the tortilla until crisp, spread with the laughing cow cheese wedges and then top with the organic pepper jack cheese slices while still warm (so the cheeses melt together)
2. Top with romaine leaves, season with salt & pepper. Top with tomato slices, season again with salt & pepper. Top with microgreens. Enjoy!
This dish turned out to be wonderful – it was light and refreshing, but still was filling because of the protein from the cheese and the whole grains from the tortilla. It was like a salad on a flatbread – delicious, and a great weekend meal for one.
