Month: May 2022

Dinner Lunch

Copycat Freshii Bowls with Spicy Yogurt Sauce

I love eating out and trying new places, but when I find something I love, I want to figure out how to make it at home. This is one of our favorite dinners to make because you add what you like and it’s full of veggies. Freshii bowls can be a little expensive as well so it so much more cost effective to make them at home.

One of the main things I love about this bowl is the homemade spicy yogurt sauce. I have said it here before and if you know me, I love sauces! We love to store our extras in these squeeze bottles because they are so convenient.

Homemade spicy yogurt sauce
Finished Freshii Bowl

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of dried quinoa
  • 2 baked chicken breasts (find the recipe here) or use hard boiled eggs for protein if you don’t want chicken
  • 1/2 can sweet corn drained
  • 1/3 cup grated pickled beets
  • 1 cup diced cherry/grape tomatoes
  • 2 cups chopped fresh kale
  • 1 half of an avocado diced
  • 1/2 cup black beans, drained and rinsed (we sometimes mash ours and heat them up with a little salt)
  • Spicy yogurt sauce
  • hot sauce (we love Sriracha)
  • Corn chips to top (optional but adds a great crunch!)

Directions

  1. Bake your chicken how you like, this is our favorite way to bake our chicken.
  2. While your chicken bakes, cook your quinoa according to the directions on your package.
  3. While your quinoa cooks, rinse and chop your veggies.
  4. Add everything to your freshii bowls, we really don’t measure anything, we just add what looks good to our bowls and we definitely don’t use all the quinoa that this recipe makes.
  5. Once everything, except your corn chips, is in your bowl, give it a good stir and then add your corn chips last. You don’t have to do this but it just helps them from getting soggy.
Dinner Lunch

Easy Chicken Breasts in the Oven

There are two things in my opinion that comes to cooking chicken breasts (or any chicken for that matter) that you don’t want to do. You don’t want to overcook it, and you don’t want to under season it. No one wants dry and bland chicken, and it is easy to over cook it in the oven.

I have noticed that several electronic food thermometers have presets for different meats, and some them are way past the safe temperature for chicken. The internal temperature for chicken breasts should be 165°. So here is an article from the Food Network if you would like to read more.

We eat a lot of chicken and we use this recipe a lot for several different meals. We put them in our Copycat Freshii Bowls with our Spicy Yogurt Sauce, our Chicken Bacon Salads with Homemade Ranch, and sometimes we just eat it as is with a little hot sauce!

Chicken breasts and ingredients

For this recipe you only need 5 ingredients: Salt, pepper, olive oil ,chicken of course, and your favorite no salt seasoning. We get ours from Costco because it is very well used. You can also find it here on Amazon!

Let chicken breasts rest for 5 minutes before cutting

Ingredients

  • 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper (about small pinch of each for each side of chicken)
  • about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of no salt seasoning per chicken breast

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°.
  2. Coat all sides of your chicken breasts with the ingredients, and honestly I really don’t measure mine because we make it so often, I just sprinkle some on to coat the chicken.
  3. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until your meat thermometer measures 165°.
  4. Remove from oven and let rest on a cutting board for about 5 minutes before cutting because you want to let it rest. Enjoy!
Other

Quick and Easy Spicy Yogurt Sauce

I am a sauce person. I love a good sauce to put on my food and to dip my foods in. This spicy yogurt sauce came from a recipe I found for shrimp tacos here, but you can use it on what ever you like. In this house, we love making Copycat Freshii Bowls, so this is the main meal we use the sauce for. And like I said, I am a sauce person so I have doubled the recipe.

This sauce lasts as long as your yogurt is good for. So you can store it and use again and again! Ours doesn’t last very long though. If you have read some of my other recipe posts, you will know that I love my spicy foods. This sauce is spicy but sometimes I will even add some Sriracha to the recipe to make it even more spicy.

Ingredients for the spicy yogurt sauce

Besides coming together so quickly, the other thing I love about this recipe is that I almost always have these ingredients on hand. So anytime I have a craving for it, I’m probably not going to need to run to the store and get anything.

Spicy yogurt sauce made at home

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (we love the 11% one by Oikos)
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • the juice from one lime (about 1 tablespoon)
  • 1 teaspoon each of cayenne pepper and ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon each of paprika, chili powder and garlic powder
  • pinch of salt

Directions

  1. Mix everything together in a bowl with a whisk and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 7-10 days (Depending on the expiration date of your yogurt!)

Helpful tips: We love to store our leftover sauce in a squeeze bottle for easy use, just give a little shake before using.

If you try this recipe please tag me on Instagram! I would love to see it.

Side Dishes

Easy and Fresh, Vegan Cous Cous Salad

This cous cous salad is one of my favorite side dishes to make and it’s perfect for spring and summer. It’s so fresh, light and easy to make. If I’m going to a potluck or something in the summer, I’m either making my homemade macaroni salad, or I’m probably making this! I always get compliments on this salad because everyone loves it.

I have to credit this recipe to my lovely husband, he first made this for me for part of my birthday dinner several years ago and now I make it all the time. The fresh lemon juice and crunchy veggies makes it so refreshing and delicious!

Ingredients for the cous cous salad
finely chopped veggies are my favorite
fresh cous cous salad

Ingredients

  • 2 cups dry cous cous
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons juiced)
  • 1 cup finely chopped orange bell pepper
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
  • 1 cup diced cherry tomatoes
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • some mint leaved chopped for topping (this is optional but adds that nice fresh flavor)

Directions

  1. Cook your cous cous according to the directions on the package. I like to add vegetable broth and water to mine because the broth gives it a nice flavor. Once it is cooked, add the lemon juice and olive oil, then let cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or the freezer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. While your cous cous is cooling, chop your vegetables, then add them to cooled cous cous. It doesn’t have to be completely chilled, but we don’t want the cous cous to be hot and cook our veggies.
  3. Add salt and pepper to taste and top with some fresh mint. Keep refrigerated and serve cold, enjoy!

This recipe keeps fairly well for 4-5 days in the refrigerator.

Helpful tools: lemon squeezer, rubber spatula, mixing bowls

Hot Drinks

Easy Matcha Latte at Home

I love getting a nice hot matcha latte in the cool weather, but they can be a little pricy. So I have figured out how to make mine at home and make it exactly how I want and it’s much less expensive.

Preparing drinks for friends and family is one of my favorite things to do when I have people over. I love making people feel at home and it’s always nice to chat over a nice drink. This is one of my go-to’s because it comes together quickly and it’s so tasty.

Sifting your matcha powder makes it easier to mix later
Your matcha powder and water should look like a paste
Blend your latte for a minute or two to make it nice and frothy
Hot Matcha Latte

Ingredients

  • 12 oz milk (I use whole milk but feel free to use what ever milk or milk substitute you like)
  • 1 teaspoon matcha powder sifted (this isn’t completely necessary but it will make mixing it later much easier)
  • 1-2 teaspoons hot water
  • 1/2 tablespoon pure maple syrup

Directions

  1. Heat your milk in a sauce pan, taking care not to burn.
  2. While your milk is heating up, tiny whisk the water into your matcha powder so that is looks like a paste.
  3. Add matcha powder paste and maple syrup to the milk and then whisk or blend with a milk frother or immersion blender until frothy. Pour into your favorite glass and enjoy!

To Try: Cool your latte and pour over ice for a nice cool summer drink! I love a good iced matcha latte just as much as I love a hot one. Also, feel free to sweeten your matcha latte with whatever you like because everyone is different! I just like the natural sweetness of the maple syrup and you don’t need much.

If you try this recipe please tag me on instagram! I would love to see it.