It finally has been feeling like summer and it’s still strawberry season – life is good! Strawberries peak in May and June so when I was planning my calendar for the year I had come up with a bunch of recipes utilizing strawberries in June.

Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits, although I have a lot of favorite fruits, and I love using them in both sweet and savory dishes. It is hard to beat a peak fresh strawberry bursting with sweetness!

The inspiration for this recipe came from last year’s Mini Strawberry Balsamic Pizzas with Chicken and Sweet Onions. I was am still so obsessed with the flavor combination that I decided they needed a reappearance this summer, this time in quesadilla form. The first component of these Chicken and Strawberry Quesadillas is the simple no-cook strawberry spread made with fresh strawberries. There is balsamic vinegar in the strawberry spread that helps balance the sweetness.

Next, the quesadillas have chicken and fresh basil. Finally, they are loaded up with melted, gooey mozzarella cheese and goat cheese. You can do all mozzarella cheese if you prefer, but I love the extra flavor the little pockets of goat cheese bring to the quesadillas and goat cheese and strawberries are a classic pairing.

I topped my quesadilla wedges with a drizzle of balsamic glaze, some fresh strawberry chunks and a little fresh basil for some added strawberry flavor and because it makes them look extra fancy. The additional strawberries on top make the quesadillas more sweet so if you like your meals more savory than I would skip them, but I am all about that sweet and savory combo!

I have a ton of recipes on Lemon & Mocha that highlight fresh strawberries so I’m linking to a few of them below so you can get the most out of your strawberries this month. Enjoy!

Chicken and Strawberry Quesadillas

 

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Yield: 2 quesadillas

Ingredients

• ¼ cup finely chopped strawberries (about 2 large strawberries), plus more for topping
• 1 teaspoon honey
• ½ teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
• 2 flour tortillas
• ⅔ cup shredded mozzarella, divided
• ¼ cup crumbled goat cheese, divided
• ⅔ cup chopped cooked chicken (about ½ chicken breast)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, plus more for topping
• Balsamic glaze, for topping

Directions

1. Combine the strawberries, honey and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl. Let sit for 15 to 20 minutes then mash well with a fork or potato masher. Place the tortillas on a clean surface then divide the strawberry spread between them. Spread it around to coat the tortilla.
2. Heat 1 teaspoon of the vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Once hot, put in the tortilla with the strawberry spread side up. Sprinkle ⅓ cup of the shredded mozzarella all over the strawberry spread followed by 2 tablespoons of the goat cheese. Once the cheese has melted, put ⅓ cup of the chopped chicken and 1 tablespoon of the basil on one half of the tortilla. Carefully fold over the tortilla to cover the half with the chicken and increase the heat to medium-high. Watch the quesadilla carefully as it browns quickly; once browned carefully flip to the other side and let the other side brown. Once done, remove from the pan to a clean cutting surface. Let the pan cool slightly then lightly wipe out with the paper towel, heat the remaining teaspoon of vegetable oil and repeat the steps for the second quesadilla.
3. To serve, cut quesadillas then top with additional chopped strawberries, basil and balsamic glaze.

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Lauren Uncategorized 6 Comments

It’s taken quite a few years, but I finally have the process down to ensure Matt and I eat healthy homemade dinners. Side note: just because I know what the process is that doesn’t always mean it gets put into action! The key for Matt and I is that by the time Matt gets home from work, dinner needs to be already made, already in progress or, if it hasn’t been started, then able to be ready in roughly twenty minutes or less. Otherwise we end up ordering takeout or making Annie’s mac and cheese or Trader Joe’s frozen pizza.

I have no idea exactly why this is the case, but years have proven to me that it is an absolute scientific fact. Part of it might be that we are both always hungry by the time Matt gets home (we eat early, usually around 5:30 – 6:00 PM) and part of it might be that being back together again signals that the relaxing and lazy part of our night can begin. One guaranteed way to make sure we get our vegetables in at dinnertime is to have a kale salad ready.

I know some of you aren’t kale fans, but Matt and I love it, especially when I’ve taken the time to massage and soften the kale leaves. All the toppings and dressing are already mixed in so it’s as simple as dishing into some bowls and chowing down. I wanted to make a fresh version for summertime and came up with this Tropical Kale Salad. I’ve added shredded red cabbage, red bell pepper, scallions, avocado, mandarin oranges and strawberries then tossed it with a quick homemade sesame ginger soy dressing.

If you don’t love kale you could always swap it out for some fresh spinach or lettuce. I love salads with a bit of sweetness to them and the mandarin oranges and strawberries are just right to get those tropical summer vibes. The creaminess of the avocado is a necessary addition; if you are worried about your avocado getting brown you could always wait and add it right before eating.

I’ve never had someone get so excited about me saying I’ve made a kale salad than Matt, although after writing this I wonder how much to contribute to the taste and how much to contribute to the ease of immediately having something to eat after walking in the door! (I just asked Matt and he said he loves the salad, but that ready-to-go dinner is nice, too – haha!) Do you have any strategies you use for weeknight meals to avoid the takeout trap?

Tropical Kale Salad

 

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Yield: 2 servings as a main dish or 4 servings as a side salad

Ingredients

for the salad

• 10 ounces kale
• ¾ cup shredded red cabbage
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 scallion, sliced
• ½ avocado, diced
• 2 mandarin oranges, peeled and sectioned
• 3 large strawberries, hulled and chopped

for the dressing

• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon sesame seeds
• ¼ teaspoon fresh grated ginger

Directions

for the salad

1. Remove all thick ribs and stems; roughly chop. Place in a large mixing bowl. Continue to tear and massage the kale for 5 minutes. To massage the kale scrunch it up with both your hands, release, and scrunch up some more, tossing and tearing as you go. This helps tenderize the kale and reduce its bitterness by breaking down the cellulose structure.
2. Add the cabbage, bell pepper and scallion. Pour the dressing over top then toss to combine. Add the avocado, oranges and strawberries then gently toss to combine. Top with more sesame seeds if desired.

for the dressing

1. Whisk together all the ingredients until combined.

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Lauren Uncategorized 5 Comments

It’s hard to know exactly when my pasta obsession began, but it’s at least as far back as I can remember. My brother and I used to have noodles with every dinner and we would even stuff it inside pita pockets sometimes. Yes, essentially a noodle sandwich. Yes, we were odd. I think most people tend to love pasta to some degree. I mean, how can you not? It’s simple, starchy and satisfying.

Somewhere down the line I decided pasta was a cheat meal. Matt and I would go weeks without having pasta for dinner. Then this past year, especially while preparing for my healthy January posts, I started thinking a lot about what healthy food means to me and came to the conclusion that I needed to remove the pasta cheat meal mentality. Instead of nixing pasta completely I needed to rebalance my pasta meal. A plate piled high with just spaghetti, marinara and cheese could be replaced with a smaller portion of pasta loaded with veggies. But still cheese. There always has to be cheese.

Since then Matt and I have been enjoying weeknight pasta, happily and healthily – at least with what healthy means to me. I now have three favorite healthy pasta hacks, two of which I have shared on Lemon & Mocha before. One is all the different types of alternative pasta on the market. I personally tend not to enjoy whole wheat pasta, but I have gladly embraced rice pasta, red lentil pasta, green bean pasta and, my new favorite, Barilla Veggie Spaghetti. No, this is not sponsored, it just tastes really good and is made with 25% vegetable puree making it slightly better for you than regular spaghetti. That is what I used in this recipe, but you can use any type of spaghetti you prefer.

My second hack I want to share is adding cauliflower puree to make pasta sauces creamy. I used this tasty trick in the Skinny Chicken Fusilli Alla Vodka with Basil, Spinach and Parmesan recipe and it works just as well here to create a rich pesto cream sauce without any actual cream. My third healthy pasta tip that I also shared with my Winter Pesto Pasta recipe is swapping out some of the pasta for zucchini noodles.

In addition to all those yummy ingredients I’ve kept it simple with some spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and of course Parmesan. This healthy creamy pesto pasta comes together really quickly making it a great weeknight meal. Keep it vegetarian or eat with some meatballs or chicken sausage. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Healthy Creamy Pesto Pasta with Zucchini, Spinach and Sun-dried Tomatoes

 

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Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 6 ounces spaghetti (I used Barilla Veggie Spaghetti)
• 1 cup frozen cauliflower florets
• ⅓ cup pesto
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 ounces fresh spinach
• 2 zucchinis, noodled; about 2.5 cups
• ⅔ cup julienned sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ⅓ cup fresh grated Parmesan, plus more for topping
• Fresh chopped basil for garnish
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Boil water for the pasta in a large pot. Once the water is boiling, add the spaghetti and set your timer according to the package instructions (mine was for 9 minutes). When there are 6 minutes left on your timer, add the cauliflower florets. When the timer goes off, drain the pasta and cauliflower, being sure to reserve 2 tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Carefully separate out the cauliflower florets. In a high-speed blender, puree the cooked cauliflower florets, reserved cooking liquid and the pesto until smooth. Alternatively you could puree the cauliflower then just stir it into the pesto if you like the texture of the pesto and don’t want it completely smooth.
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, until almost wilted then add the zucchini noodles and the sun-dried tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper; sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for 30 seconds then remove from the heat.
3. Add the pesto mixture, the spaghetti and the Parmesan to the sauté pan. Toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve topped with additional Parmesan and fresh chopped basil.

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Lauren Uncategorized 2 Comments

I never thought I would be obsessed with a lettuce wrap until I tasted these Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook. When I got this cookbook a few years ago I asked Matt to pick out a couple recipes he would be interested in and of course he went right to the beef section. Lean ground beef is sautéed with finely chopped carrots, red bell pepper and scallions then coated in a sweet and savory sauce.

The sauce has only five ingredients, but I was shocked at how flavorful it was and it immediately became a go-to recipe. The sauce is able to add so much punch because there’s a few secret ingredients. Soy sauce, ginger and garlic are all standard fare for Asian lettuce wraps, but then we have hoisin and orange marmalade. I’ve discussed my love for the salty and sweet qualities of hoisin before in the Crispy Sesame Pecan Chicken Tenders with a Hoisin Dipping Sauce and the Hoisin Beef Kebobs posts. The orange marmalade adds the perfect amounts of citrus and sweet notes to the dish that gives it that gotta-have-seconds vibe.

I love the freshness the crispy lettuce wraps add. I usually use Boston or Bibb lettuce and I like to scoop the filling onto the lettuce right before I eat it otherwise I find the lettuce can get soggy. Although there is a bit of chopping, the actual cooking of the lettuce wraps on the stove takes ten to twelve minutes making it a great weeknight meal to have in your back pocket.

I’ve never tried these lettuce wraps with ground turkey instead of beef, but I’m sure they would still taste good. They just wouldn’t have the rich sumptuous quality you get from eating beef.

On a slightly unrelated note, have any of you tried the Impossible Burger? There’s a few restaurants around us that have it, but we haven’t tried it out yet. For those of you that haven’t heard of it, it’s a plant-based burger that supposedly tastes like real meat. I’m intrigued by the potential positive environmental implications, but the ingredient list gives me some pause. Hmm… anyways, have a great Wednesday and I hope you love these Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps!

Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps

 

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Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons orange marmalade
• 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon hoisin
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 pound 93% lean ground beef
• 8 scallions, trimmed and sliced
• 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 red pepper, finely chopped
• 12 Boston or Bibb lettuce leaves

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the marmalade, soy sauce, hoisin, ginger and garlic until combined. Set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the beef, scallions, carrots and red pepper; cook for 5-7 minutes or until the meat is mostly cooked. Add the sauce and cook for 5 minutes, until well blended. Remove from the heat and serve with the lettuce leaves.

Notes

The cookbook suggests serving with a side of watermelon. I usually just serve them alongside some additional veggies.

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Lauren Uncategorized 6 Comments

If you know me well then you know I love chicken fingers. They’re crispy, crunchy, perfect for dipping and full of childhood nostalgia. I even mention them in my about Lauren section. Although I usually only have chicken fingers while I’m eating out, I do (attempt) to keep homemade panko crusted chicken bites in the freezer. I say attempt because the batch is usually gone before the week is over.

While going through my recipe binders that I mentioned in the Balsamic Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Gorgonzola and Walnuts post I came across these Crispy Sesame Pecan Chicken Tenders from a 2011 issue of Food Network Magazine. Their recipe calls for shallow frying the tenders, but I knew my baking method for my panko crusted chicken bites was tried and true for creating crispy coated chicken so I baked them instead.

The chicken tenders get dipped in frothy egg whites and then are coated in a combination of panko breadcrumbs, finely chopped pecans, sesame seeds, paprika and salt. The key to achieving crispy chicken tenders in the oven is to place them on a wire cooling rack coated with nonstick cooking spray that you’ve placed on a large baking sheet. This is the same method used for my Baked Pistachio Crusted Chicken. The hot oven air circulates around all sides of the chicken tenders making sure every single bite is crispy – no air fryer needed!

I was a little shocked at how obsessed I was with the panko-pecan-sesame combination. They taste so well together and provide a perfect crunch.

Since these aren’t ordinary chicken tenders I thought they deserved a simple, but stepped-up dipping sauce. The sesame had me thinking of Asian flavors and since I still had hoisin in the fridge from the Hoisin Beef Kebobs I whipped up a quick dipping sauce of hoisin, mayonnaise and lime juice. It’s creamy, sweet and a little tangy. I hope you love these Crispy Sesame Pecan Chicken Tenders as much as we do!

Crispy Sesame Pecan Chicken Tenders with a Hoisin Dipping Sauce

 

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Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• ½ cup finely chopped pecans
• ¼ cup sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg whites
• 1½ pounds bone skinless chicken tenders, or breasts cut into 1” wide strips
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• Cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a wire cooling rack with nonstick cooking spray then place on top of a large baking sheet. Set aside.
2. In a shallow, wide bowl, combine the panko breadcrumbs, chopped pecans, sesame seeds, paprika and salt. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy. Working with 1 tender at a time, dip the chicken in the egg whites then dip in the panko mixture to coat completely. Place on the prepared wire rack so the chicken tenders aren’t touching. Lightly spray the top of the chicken with cooking spray (I use olive oil or coconut oil spray) then bake for 20-22 minutes. Chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. Keep on the wire rack until serving with the hoisin dipping sauce.
4. While the chicken is baking, make the hoisin dipping sauce. In a medium bowl combine the hoisin, mayo and lime juice.

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 Recipe adapted from September 2011 issue of Food Network Magazine.

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Lauren Uncategorized 2 Comments