food. mango chicken salad with couscous.

This was a find on my epicurious app. Mangoes are not in season here so we opted for Mango with Ginger
Chutney and honestly, I was just too busy to pick up some of the other ingredients needed so I made other substitutions. In the end, we were a huge fan of the couscous and we'll be making it again as a side.

Mango Chicken Salad with Couscous
Ingredients:
1/4 cup couscous, follow the directions to cook
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped green bell pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon canola oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (3 ounces each)
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup Japanese rice vinegar
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/2 head each romaine, frisée, hydro Bibb lettuce (we sub'd a head of romaine)
1 cup arugula
1/2 mango, thinly sliced (we sub'd Mango & Ginger Chutney)

Directions:
In a bowl, combine couscous, bell peppers, onion, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1/3 cup water. Season with salt.

In a large skillet over high heat, heat canola oil. Cook chicken until golden brown on the bottom, 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Flip chicken and cook through, 6 to 8 minutes. Cool chicken; cut into 1/2-inch dice.

In a blender set to medium, blend lime juice, vinegar, mustard, honey and soy sauce. Slowly add remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Season with salt.

Break up romaine and combine with arugula in a bowl. Divide lettuce, couscous, chicken and mango chutney among 4 plates. Dress salad with mustard vinaigrette.

For the original recipe, click here.

food. fettucini alla marie.

Skip the jarred pasta sauce and take the 10-15 minutes to make this. It's that good. Really.

This recipe came from our friends Joe and Marie after a recent visit to Australia. As usual with many of our friends, food became a topic of conversation over a few glasses bottles of wine. Pasta, among other dishes, usually always goes well with wine. Ummm....wine, pasta, pasta, wine....

Fettucini Alla Marie
Ingredients: 
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 a white onion, minced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 pound prosciutto, julienned (we used about 80 grams)
1/6 pound pancetta, tear in strips (again, we used about 80 grams)
1 cup frozen peas, thawed (optional)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for garnish
White wine
1 pound fresh fettuccini
parsley

Directions:
1. Open the bottle of wine and pour a glass and start enjoying.
2. Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for a couple minutes or until tender.
3. Add prosciutto and pancetta and let it cook for 2 minutes then add a splash of white wine and let simmer for a minute. Season with salt and pepper, to taste then add cream and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Sprinkle cheese over top and stir to melt and combine. Cook until heated through.
5. In a large pot of boiling salted water, add fettuccini and cook until al dente. Add peas a few minutes before draining.
6. After draining add the peas and fettucini to skillet. Toss to combine pasta with sauce and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve, garnished with extra cheese and parsley.

Jen's Notes:
After we made the sauce, my exact words were "I could swim in this". I repeat the above, it's that good.
We increased the prosciutto, pancetta, and cream...we like all three so why not.
You could easily increase/decrease ingredients to your liking.

active. the color run.

Have you heard of it? The insanely colorful 5K aka happiest 5K on the planet...The Color Run! I remember the first time I saw this nutty event was from a video on chill.com. Below is one of their videos (couldn't find the one from chill.com). How do you watch this and not think - yes, I want to do that. EMERGENCY! How do I sign up?!


The Color Run was new to Adelaide this year and I was pretty stoked to sign up. While Nate had a few reservations...in the end it was a blast. Basically this is how the event is set up - you show up with your white shirt (crazy outfits optional), waves of people are let loose on a 5k. At each k, you're met with a blast of color - orange, blue, pink, yellow, and finally a shower of almost every color you can think of. It's amazing. No need to be an athlete, it's uber fun for kids (be sure they have swim googles to rock to protect their eyes), and you should really opt in for the crazy outfits. Don't forget to bring towels and an extra change of clothes for your car ride home.

It wasn't very hard to convince Nate to sign up for next year. My outfit is already picked out - white shirt, white tutu, white leggings...it's going to be awesome. Next challenge...do I even try to convince him to where the same thing? Stay tuned to find out.

More info on The Color Run: http://thecolorrun.com/

There were over 10,000 people at the Adelaide Color Run.

food. ultimate pork tacos with spicy black bean avocado green salad.

Holy crap that's a long recipe title!

Another recipe from Jamie Oliver...yes, we're a bit hooked to the show. We have to get our food porn somehow - there isn't a Food Network channel down here...yet.

Ultimate Pork Tacos with Spicy Black Bean, Avocado, Green Salad
Pork Ingredients:
350 g skinless higher-welfare pork belly - we just found stir-fry pork at the butcher and used that
1 heaped teaspoon fennel seeds
1 heaped teaspoon sweet smoked paprika

Bean Ingredients: 
olive oil
1 good pinch cumin seeds
spring onions
cloves of garlic
1 x 400 g tin of black beans

Salad Ingredients:
1 fresh red or green chilli
Spinach or any type of lettuce you would like to use in your tacos
½ a bunch fresh coriander
1 ripe avocado
1 large ripe tomato
1 eating apple
low-salt soy sauce
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 lime

Chilli sauce
4 tablespoons fat-free natural yoghurt
Tortillas

Directions:
1. Heat a medium frying pan and tip pork into pan with the fennel seeds, paprika, salt and pepper, and stir regularly
2. Heat a second medium frying pan and put 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the cumin seeds
3. Trim, slice and add the spring onions, squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher, then stir in the beans and their juices, and simmer
4. Finely slice the chilli, spinach and most of the top leafy half of the coriander, then halve, destone, peel and chop the avocado, along with the tomato
5. Toss and pile all this on a platter, coarsely grating or matchsticking the apple on top
6. Ripple a little chilli sauce through the yoghurt in a small bowl
7. Stir, mush and season the beans to taste
8. Drizzle the salad with a little soy sauce, the extra virgin olive oil and lime juice, then toss together
9. Drain the fat from the pork pan, then serve

Jen's Notes:
This recipe originally had hard shell tacos. Since we're not a fan, I swapped them out for tortillas  The next day I just had this as a salad for lunch and it was pretty tasty. Even with all the dressing on the salad, it held up pretty well.

Be sure you use canned black beans for this recipe. I tried the dried beans in a pressure cooker and it turned out a bit dry. Why dried beans? Because black beans are a minority here in Australia. If you're coming to visit, bring some cans with you!

We weren't a huge fan of the pork but the bean/salad combo was nice (or as they say in Aus, beautiful). I've already added that portion of the recipe as a menu option for future meals.

For the original recipe, click here. 

breakfast. busy people.

This is the breakfast of a busy...errrr...late person. Total fail on my time management.

On the bright side, at least I had enough time to do a batch of boiled eggs earlier in the week.

food. chicken tikka lentil, spinach & naan salad

Amazing. This was a recipe we saw on Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals. Being me, this was going to take about 30-45 minutes. Sorry, no Jamie Oliver support team in our kitchen! If you're into Indian food and want to be healthy, try this recipe!

Chicken Tikka Lentil, Spinach & Naan Salad
Chicken Ingredients:
2 skinless chicken breasts
2 heaped tsp tikka paste
4 chestnut mushrooms (I used button mushrooms)

Salad Ingredients:
4 spring onions (I have these in the freezer, already cut up)
1 fresh red chilli
1 heaped tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
olive oil
1 x 250g pack of ready-to-eat Puy lentils (I used about a cup or so of dry lentils, cooked in a pressure cooker)
1 ripe tomato
red wine vinegar
1 big bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro for all my readers from the States - I think that's one of you b/c I don't do anything to market my blog!)
2 lemons
4 tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt
1 heaped tbsp raw cashew nuts
1 heaped tbsp mango chutney
1 tsp turmeric
2 naan breads
200g baby spinach
½ a cucumber
1 carrot
30g feta cheese (really, use as much as you want. Feta is delicious)

Directions:
1. Heat a pan to cook the chicken.
2. Clean and butterfly the chicken breast. Toss with  salt, pepper and the tikka paste
3. Place on the hot pan with the halved mushrooms, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, until nicely charred and cooked through
4. Heat another pan for the lentil mixture.
5. Trim and finely slice the spring onions and half the chilli.
6. Put the mustard and cumin seeds and 2 tablespoons of oil into the second pan, followed by the sliced spring onion and chilli.
7. Tip the lentils into the pan, squash in the tomato and add a pinch of salt and pepper and a splash of red wine vinegar.
8. Toss occasionally for a couple of minutes, then turn the heat off.
9. In a food processor, add coriander stalks, the juice of 1 lemon, the yoghurt, cashews, mango chutney and turmeric, then whiz up until smooth. This is going to be your dressing. It's bomb.com.au.
10. Remove the cooked chicken and mushrooms from the griddle and put the naan on the pan.
11. Tip the baby spinach on to a serving board or platter, scatter over the lentils, speed-peel the cucumber and carrot over the top and sprinkle over the mushrooms.
12. Slice the chicken, naan and remaining chilli and arrange on top, then crumble over the feta and spoon over the dressing.
13. Finish with the coriander leaves and serve with lemon wedges.

Jen's Notes:
As I said above, AMAZING! Make it and let me know what you think - write a comment down below or feel free to tweet me, @JenEvison.

For the original recipe, click here.

food. veggie packed turkey meatloaf.

Nate and I love this modern twist to a classic dish. Note, there's a lot of chopping involved unless you have something like the Chop and Measure.

The photo is leftovers (yes, I've finally started finishing them). Since we don't have a microwave, I sliced up a few slices and pan fried them to heat them up. That will be another post - tough decisions had to be made!

Veggie Packed Turkey Meatloaf by Bobby Flay.
Ingredients 

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 
• 1 small zucchini, finely diced 
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced 
• 1 yellow bell pepper, finely diced 
• 5 cloves garlic, smashed to a paste with coarse salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes 
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten 
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme 
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley 
• 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey (90 percent lean) 
• 1 cup panko (coarse Japanese breadcrumbs) 
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Romano or Parmesan cheese 
• 3/4 cup ketchup 
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 

Directions 
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over high heat. Add the zucchini, bell peppers, garlic paste and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper and cook until the vegetables are almost soft, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the egg and fresh herbs in a large bowl. Add the turkey, panko, grated cheese, 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar and the cooled vegetables; mix until just combined.

Gently press the mixture into a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Whisk the remaining 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes in a small bowl; brush the mixture over the entire loaf. Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Jen's Notes
Lots of chopping, but totally worth it. It's helpful if you have a meat thermometer on hand so you know when it's done.

Click here for the original recipe.

found. mini.

I could roll in this.

health. cleanse.

Broke down and am in the middle of a health cleanse with Nate. Today is day four. Of ten.

Basically, this is how it's going:

The day before the cleanse we were a bit hungover...and by a bit I mean mac and cheese for breakfast hungover...happy birthday, Brett.

Our "last meal" included oysters kilpatrick, haloumi cheese salad, eye filet, creme brûlée. It was amazing. And helped finally kick the hangover.

Days 1-3: Good. Not as bad as I thought it would be. We even got work outs in (Nate is much better at working out than I am).

Day 4: Sniffed banana bread with cream cheese frosting for about a minute (yep, holding up people at work from actually enjoying the bread). REALLY wanted Thai food for dinner but instead had chicken and a salad. We'll see how days 5-10 .

Downside: We don't have a scale so I won't be able to tell you if we've lost weight.

Upside: We are feeling better and I think a pair of jeans that are usually snug seem to be a bit more comfortable. Nate created a delicious salmon recipe that I'll add to the blog.

If you're interested in learning about the cleanse we're on, look up AdvoCare Herbal Cleanse.

Tips on how to complete a cleanse are welcome! Leave a comment below or tweet me-@JenEvison #cleansetips

wine. save the earth.

Word.