Right now I am still in Spain. I have been here for a few days now and it feels great. I have come to visit family and friends as well as search for a piece of land. It is great to be back to the place where I grew up.

I am planning on building a house and be able to own little piece of Spain. At some point I would like to come back, who knows, so having something here will make it a lot easier. Anyways, I will probably let you know somewhere along the way how the construction is doing and update you on the process in case someone is interested in investing here. Prices are very friendly and the quality of life is something very different to the US.

Grass feed beef is really popular already since people are picking up on the nutritional benefits it offers compared to conventional beef. This in terms is also prompting people to start consuming grass feed dairy. A much better alternative especially for the little ones.

Onto the recipe now.

If you search in my blog, I have plenty of pizza recipes that I am sure you will like. I have some classic ones but also some unconventional combinations.

I used to make my own pizza dough but now I just buy whole wheat pizza dough since it is so cheap, good and saves a lot of time. You can still make your own pizza dough if you prefer though.

To make this variation just make sure that your frozen spinach is drained and thawed other wise your pizza will get really soggy and wet. As far as the cheese is concerned, you can add any type of cheese you like. I choose a mixture of mozzarella and goat cheese but anything goes.

I have also used fresh and frozen kale before in place of frozen spinach so add whatever veggies rocks your boat.

Anyways, I leave you with this amazing, tasty and easy whole wheat spinach goat cheese pizza that I hope you get to make. Let me know how you like it.

Enjoy!

Whole wheat spinach goat cheese pizza

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 8 servings

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 whole wheat pizza dough, homemade is best
• 10 oz goat cheese
• 16 oz Mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 lb frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• Pinch of celtic salt
• Pepper flakes, optional

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

To roll the pizza dough, sprinkle some flour on your work surface where you will roll out the pizza. With a rolling pin roll out the dough and transfer the rolled dough onto the pizza stone, or baking sheet previously lined with unbleached parchment paper or any other pizza baking tray you are using.

Spread the shredded mozzarella cheese over the pizza dough followed by spinach and goat cheese. Sprinkle the salt and pepper flakes. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until golden.

Serve immediately.

The post Whole wheat spinach goat cheese pizza appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

While making this vegan mac and cheese with spinach version I was extremely skeptical.

The sound of actually not having any cheese, since I love cheese, sounded all sorts of wrong to me, but to my surprise, I totally loved it.

I think the garlic and the nutritional yeast is what made the sauce taste super fantastic. Because I love garlic, I added about 4-5 cloves which made the sauce taste amazing. It was also my first time using nutritional yeast. Again, I was super skeptical but this ingredient kind of replaces a little bit of the cheese taste so it gives the sauce an amazing flavor.

My kids weren’t even able to tell the difference. I told them it was mac and cheese and that is all I had to say. The ate every bit of it. I was actually glad at the fact that I doubled the batch because through out the week they were able to take this with them for lunch to school.

The post Vegan mac and cheese with spinach appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

For this chicken coconut curry I was able to use my new Circulon® 11″ French skillet. What a wonderful skillet to have. It is one of those pieces of kitchen equipment that would make your cooking a lot easier and more confortable when using.

Some characteristics of Circulon cookware are:

• Circulon’s unique circle surface is combined with premium metal-utensil safe nonstick for superior performance that lasts

• Heavy-duty hard-anodized construction is twice as hard as stainless steel

• Dishwasher safe for convenience

• Induction suitable = versatility for your kitchen today, tomorrow and in the future

• Metal utensil safe nonstick on the pan interior and exterior = quick & easy to clean

• Oven safe to 400°F

I think Circulon kitchen ware makes a great gift for newly engaged couples. Their products are solution oriented, innovative, effective and straight forward to use. A wedding means starting a new home with new essentials. Circulon can easily get her kitchen in order, and just like her marriage, their cookware will last a lifetime.

Retailers where you can register Circulon at – are Macy’s, Kohl’s and Target.

Onto the recipe. As you know, this recipe is very versatile. If you like you can use any type of protein. Using shrimp as well as extra-firm tofu will work for those that want to keep it vegetarian.

It also freezes rather well so if you are like me and like to make double the batch and save some for the future this is a great recipe to do that with. It comes really handy when you are super busy and don’t have time to prepare dinner.

You can also use quinoa in place or brown rice to serve this with or even Naan bread. I always have quinoa and brown rice in my pantry so I normally alternate between the two.

GIVEAWAY, Closed

I am pleased to inform you that Circulon is giving away a “Starter Pack” to Eat Good 4 Life readers. Items included in the giveaway ($150 retail value!):
– 4.5 Qt. Chef Pan: $39.99 Retail Value
– 11″ French Skillet: $39.99 Retail Value
– 3.5 Qt. Covered Straining Saucepan: $59.99 Retail Value
– 10″x15″ Cookie Pan: $9.99 Retail Value

Rules:

• You must be 18 yrs old to enter

• Only US residents

• I will announce the winner 6/3

All you have to do is comment below and let me know how you would be using the pans. Super easy to enter right? so good luck.

Elizabeth Bigelow you are the winner of the pan set, Congrats!!

Well I hope you like this versatile and super simple and easy chicken coconut curry recipe. Like I mentioned before, you can also use any type of protein of your choice and keep this vegetarian if you like, so get creative.

Enjoy!

Chicken coconut curry

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken breast, diced
• 1 red pepper, roughly chopped
• 5 oz fresh spinach
• 6 oz coconut milk
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 tsp celtic salt
• 2 scallions, chopped
• Fresh cilantro

Marinade

• 1 tbsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
• 6 ozcoconut milk
• 2 tbs soy sauce

Directions:

Over medium to high heat, place the coriander seeds in the skillet and roast until fragrant. About 2 minutes. Transfer them to a mortar and pulverized. Alternatively, you can place the cooled seeds in a zip log bag and pound them with a rolling pin.

Place the powder in a bowl together with the rest of the marinade ingredients. Add the chicken and mix through until all the chicken is coated. Marinade for 30 minutes.

Over medium to high heat place the olive oil in the skilled and at the chicken. Cook on one side for about 3-4 minutes. Turn the chicken over and add the red pepper. Cook the chicken and peppers further for another 3 minutes. Add the coconut milk, salt and cook until the sauce reduces. About 2 minutes.

Turn the heat off and add the scallions, spinach and chopped cilantro. Serve with brown rice or quinoa.

NOTE: You can double the batch and freeze leftovers. You can also use any other protein of choice such as shrimp or extra-firm tofu.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Circulon. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post Chicken coconut curry appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

I love Moroccan food and flavors. It is also a favorite cuisine of mine even though I don’t get to cook Moroccan food as much as I would like. Today I figured I try to incorporate ingredients and spices that resemble that type of cuisine and see how it works. To my surprise, rather well for salads.

By adding cumin to the dressing, as well as using dates and chickpeas was enough for me to give the salad the Moroccan flavor I was looking for. I truly love cumin so this salad was totally up my alley. A very simple yet delicious salad.

So today is mother’s day and to be honest I have nothing especial planned. Probably go to the gym, bake a cake and prepare a few blog posts since I will be going to school next week and I have to get all my posts scheduled prior to starting.

To be honest the only thing I want in this world is to keep healthy and grow old to be able to see my kids develop into good human beings. I would like to travel more, have more flexibility with money by having a healthier bank account and perhaps have a a bigger home, however, to be honest, these are things that I don’t strive for or concentrate on because there are far more important things.

Being nice and compasionate, putting positive things out onto the universe and so forth is what I strive for.

Anyhow, I hope all the mother’s out there have a wonderful especial day. Perhaps I should have baked a cake or made something more indicative of the day but I think this salad is fine with me so I hope you like it.

Enjoy!

Moroccan buckwheat salad

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 6 servings

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups buckwheat
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 2 oz fresh spinach, chopped
• 6 oz cooked chickpeas
• 6 pitted dates, chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 oz fresh cilantro, chopped
• pepper flakes, optional

Dressing

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 3 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp celtic salt

 

Directions:

Cook buckwheat according to package instructions and let it cool completely.

In a large mixing bowl add the salad ingredients together with the buckwheat and set aside.

In a glass jar mix the dressing ingredients and pour over the veggies. Combine and serve immediately.

NOTE: You can quinoa, farro or pearl couscous for this recipe.

The post Moroccan buckwheat salad appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

If you are like me and love curries you are going to love this chickpea spinach curry not only for its flavor but because it is super easy to make.

I was able to make this recipe in my pressure cooker. You can use your own pressure cooker or get this one that is is just the bomb. I have never had a pressure cooker before because I was really afraid of them but this one not only is super easy to use but you can cook a multitude of things since it is also a rice cooker, slow cooker and much more.

Come May, when I start my physician assistant program, I am taking it with me so that I can make easy, healthy recipes.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker you can also do this recipe in the stove top, however, it will take you longer. I used pre-soak chickpeas and in the pressure cooker it takes only about 20-25 minutes. In the stove top I anticipate that it will take at least double if not triple the time.

I have also made a video to show you how super easy this recipe so make sure you take a look.

I have made this a multitude of times and I have been able to freeze it no problem. The only thing I have to do is re-heat it and make some rice for it. So easy and quick. Great for a meatless dinner.

By the way, I am currently in Thailand for cooking school. I am learning the best recipes. Thai flavor is just simply out of this world. I will be posting a couple of recipes upon my return so if you like Thai food you are in for a treat. I will also show you the places I visited so that if you ever have a chance to come you can experience these amazing places as well so stay tuned!

Anyhow, I leave you with this chickpea spinach curry that is nothing but easy, delicious and healthy.

Enjoy!

Chickpea spinach curry

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 8 servings

Total Time: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 14 oz coconut cream
• 1 lb pre-soaked chickpeas
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp red curry paste
• 1 lb frozen chopped spinach
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 4 cups water
• Celtic salt
• Ground pepper to taste

Directions:

Add all the ingredients to your insta-pot or pressure cooker and set for 20-25 minutes. Serve with brown rice.

You may freeze leftovers.

Note: If you would like to make this recipe on the stove top the chickpeas will take double the time if not triple. I also set my instapot to 30 minutes because I used 1 1/2 lbs of chickpeas.

The post chickpea spinach curry appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

If you are like me and like to enjoy your greens often, making salads is an easy way to accomplish this. For this salad, this time around I incorporated some hulled hemp seeds, which I have been obsessed with lately. I also made a tahini dressing, which I am also obsessed with.

Hulled hemp seeds taste very nutty and you can have them even on their own. I sometimes sprinkle them on my yogurt and granola. They are so good…

Believe or not, hemps seeds are rich in essential fats (Omega 3 & 6), antioxidants, amino acids, fiber, iron, zinc, carotene, phospholipids, phytosterols, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin D, vitamin E, chlorophyll, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, copper, potassium, phosphorus, and enzymes. All in all they are a great ingredient to include to your diet.

If you haven’t tried them before I suggest you do. You can purchase them over at Bob’s Red Mill. They have so many products I love. Definitely one of my favorite places to purchase my health goods.

I also used fresh chopped spinach because that is what I had on hand, however, you can also use kale or any other greens of your choice. The same goes for your salad ingredients. Anything goes so if you don’t like onions or any other ingredients swap them for your own favorite ones.

As far as the tahini, I just recently started using it and to be honest I have no idea why I waited so long. A great ingredient to use for many things not just salad dressing so stay tuned for some other recipes where I used tahini.

I hope you like this fresh spinach salad with tahini dressing. I will be making more healthy, creative salads soon so stay tuned.

Enjoy!

Fresh spinach salad with tahini dressing

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 12 oz fresh spinach, chopped
• 3 carrots, julienne
• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/3 cup hulled hemp seeds

Dressing 

• 1 cup tahini 
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 tbs sesame oil
• 3 tbs soy sauce (Tamari for a vegan version)
• 2 tbs maple syrup
• 1-2 tbsp ginger, chopped

 

Directions:

In a medium mixing bowl add the salad dressing ingredients and with a wire whisk combine until you obtain a homogenous mixture.

In a large salad bowl add the salad ingredients followed by a little bit of the salad dressing. Mix through and serve immediately.

Note: The dressing makes about 8 servings so you will have some leftover. I store my dressing in weck jars or ball jars.

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