Avocado Salsa

One thing I miss about living a little further south is El Pollo Loco. Everything I got at that restaurant was delicious (although slightly over priced in my humble opinion). My favorite thing to order was their Chicken Taco Al' Carbon and I would drench it in this amazing avocado salsa.
So being that we no longer live by an El Pollo Loco I had to go in search of a copycat recipe. 
This recipe is PRETTY DARN CLOSE to El Pollo Loco's Original avocado salsa. I say original because they changed the recipe for theirs a few years ago (per the update below). I don't know if they changed it back but this is our favorite homemade version.
We like ours a bit more thick then how they have theirs but aside from thickness, everything else is pretty spot on.
This recipe is a great alternative to salsa's that use a tomato base for those who can't have tomatoes or who are just looking for something different. We like to make a double batch and keep it in the fridge for a few days to eat with chips and quesadillas.

**UPDATE** I have recently been noticing that the kind at El Pollo Loco is spicier then it used to be and read a sign somewhere that they don't use the jalapeno anymore to make this but they use a habanero pepper instead. So I guess if you like the extra heat you can change the type of pepper in this recipe but I prefer the taste of the original salsa better.

Cashew Chicken

This recipe is legit. It is full of flavor and just flat out delicious. My kids love it, I love it, my husband loves it...I'm sure if I had a pet they would love it as well. It takes hardly any time to put together from start to finish and is anti-inflammatory!
💥Mind Blown💥
In all seriousness, this is just a darn good recipe. It's got the crunch of the roasted cashews and all the wonderful flavors you would expect from an Asian dish.
Since discovering this recipe (and tweaking it) we have had it almost every other week. That's a pretty big deal in this household because I don't like to make very many meals over and over again.
Give it a try, you won't regret it, and your gut will thank you!

Lentil Curry Soup

So it's been a while. I go through these periods of time where I get really into blogging and then I need a break. But, here is one of our favorite soup recipes. We make this quite often at our house.  This stuff is great.
This soup recipe is one that is not only warm to eat but is full of those delicious warm curry flavors. I love it so much! 
Besides the flavor being amazing, another awesome thing I like about it is that it comes together pretty fast which makes it great for a weeknight meal.
This soup is great for many dietary needs. It's anti-inflammatory which is awesome for me as I have been trialing foods right now.
Every week we try to do a meal that doesn't have any meat in it. This is a great recipe if your trying to cut out some meat because having the lentils in it makes it very filling.
*This picture isn't the most appetizing to look at but I promise it is worth trying!!!*

Egg Roll in a Bowl

Okay, since the last recipe shared was about the most unhealthy recipe in the world, I decided I should remind you all that generally I do love cooking healthier 😂
This recipe is SO CLOSE to being anti-inflammatory that I decided to label it as such anyway, even though the sauce drizzled on top is not. The rest of it is, so if you follow the anti-inflammatory diet, just don't add the spicy mayo sauce on the top, but I HIGHLY suggest adding it when you can because it is delicious.
I love the flavors that are in typical egg rolls, but sometimes I don't want the added carbs and fat from deep frying them. This recipe is so full of flavor that you don't even miss the added grease.

Anti-Inflammatory Lettuce Wraps

I love lettuce wraps. They make me feel like I am doing something good for my body, and everybody else in my family loves them as well. Double win for me. I know I have another lettuce wraps recipe on the blog already, but this one is one that we have been making a lot lately because it is full of ingredients that are anti-inflammatory. I honestly can't decide which recipe I like better. I guess you can decide if you make both of them 😁
One thing I love about this recipe is that yes it has meat in it, but it's also loaded with minced up mushrooms, which helps stretch the meat without you even realizing it's mushrooms. My daughter HATES and I mean HATES mushrooms. If we get a supreme pizza with mushrooms on it, even if we pick them off, she won't eat it because the sauce and bread take on the flavor of the once placed mushroom. True story. BUT...she loves this recipe. Gobbles it up every stinking time! Of course, I don't tell her there are mushrooms in it until after she has already consumed a massive plate full and every time she gets mad at me and tells me she hates mushrooms, and yet I continue making it, and she continues to enjoy it. 😏😏

Turmeric Roasted Cauliflower

Is everybody else's bodies just exhausted from the massive amounts of over eating from the last couple of weeks?! Mine is. From having 3 birthdays, Thanksgiving, and a baptism, my body has been feeling a bit like it needs a break from the carbs and sugar. Thus the need to blog about a few more of my favorite Anti-Inflammatory recipes. Can you have to many? I don't think so.
This recipe here has been one that I have made over and over again.
Usually I'm not a huge cauliflower fan but roasting it does amazing things to it and honestly the turmeric seasoning and other spices make this recipe a keeper in my book.
I'm always looking for new ways to cook vegetables. Side dishes in my house get pretty boring and I feel like I get in this cycle of "okay do I roast it, steam it, or just boil it to tar tonight?"
I'm so glad that I have a side dish now that has amazing flavors, is healthy, and looks beautiful in color!

Slow Cooker Basil Chicken

I love basil. Like, absolutely love it. So when a friend of mine told me I need to try a similar Basil Chicken recipe, I knew I needed to jump on it immediately. This recipe is amazing. If you like curry, and you like basil, this recipe will be your jam.
I think sometimes people feel that Anti-Inflammatory recipes are lackluster in the flavor department, but I am here to show you otherwise. This Anti-Inflammatory recipe is jam packed with flavor and seriously will not disappoint. I love the fact that this dish is made in the slow cooker, because it makes my house smell delicious for many hours and it helps to keep dinner time less hectic. I also love the fact that I GENERALLY will have all of the ingredients on hand to make this, which makes it budget friendly and easy to add into a rotation when I have forgotten something at the store for a different meal.
I haven't tried to figure out times for making it in the Pressure Cooker yet, but I'm sure that won't be to far off in the future.

Homemade Chicken Broth

Oh chicken broth. We love this stuff so much at my house. Whenever I get a rotisserie chicken from Costco or have leftover bones from any kind of chicken (or turkey) I make broth out of it and store it in the freezer for a rainy day.
When one of us is sick at our house we heat up some of this yummy deliciousness and it makes us feel so much better! Its a great way to get a lot of nutrients into your body.
I use this for all sorts of recipes. I especially love it in my Homemade Chicken and Quinoa Soup! It is a great start to any soup to be honest :)
You will not be sorry you tried making your own homemade broth, and may not even go back to buying that store bought kind because this stuff has so much more flavor!

By the way, I just want to give a big shout out to my wonderful followers.  Man, I really do appreciate all of you who follow my blog and enjoy these recipes. It really makes me happy to know that sharing great recipes can really help people enjoy being in the kitchen. I appreciate all of your comments as well! When I see that I have new comments it seriously makes my day a billion times better! SO THANK YOU!

Butternut Squash Soup

It's soup season! I love fall. The leaves changing, the weather getting cooler (although it's gotten cold to fast for me this year), and the general bout of excitement that seems to be in the air for the rest of the year because there are so many awesome holidays over the next few months! I'm not usually a craver of soup but I feel like our family has been sick with something new every couple of weeks this season so we have been enjoying A LOT of soup at this house. There is just something about being sick and eating an awesome bowl of soup that makes everything in your body feel better, for the 10 minutes it takes to eat it 😁
Anyone who knows me well knows that fall flavors are generally not my favorite. I avoid Pinterest at all costs once September hits because all I see on there is "Pumpkin this" and "Squash that". Pumpkins should be carved...not eaten...JUST KIDDING! I came across this recipe in a cookbook and it screamed fall flavors. Like I stated above, I usually go right by a recipe like this, BUT, for some odd reason I decided nope we are going to try it. GUYS!!!! I am so glad I did. Who knew butternut squash could actually taste okay?! 😂
This soup has so many "warm" spices in it that roast in the oven with the butternut squash helping the squash to develop some really tasty flavors! So if you are looking for a delicious soup that screams fall, you need to give this one a try.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

I have a recipe for stuffed peppers that I absolutely love. I decided to tweek said recipe to be an Anti-Inflammatory version and guess what... I literally can't decide which recipe I like better. The other night I decided to make both of the recipes to eat so I could figure out which I liked best and it was an equal tie. They are very similar, but this recipe leaves out some of those inflammatory ingredients that give some of us problems. 
If you have been to my blog before and looked at this recipe, I have changed it a bit so make sure you give this new version a try!

"Everything" Bagel Baked Chicken

Have you tried the Everything Bagel Seasoning yet?! This stuff is AMAZING! I literally put it on almost everything I make now. Okay, maybe not everything but when I am looking for a simple way to jazz up any kind of meat or veggie I pull out this stuff and sprinkle away! It used to be that you could only find this stuff at Trader Joes, but I have recently been able to find variations of it at Walmart and Costco as well.
Okay now that you know what seasoning I'm actually talking about, let's talk chicken. This chicken is beyond delicious, and probably one of the easiest recipes you can possibly make. It's juicy, full of flavor, and again, incredibly easy. Now this picture does not do this chicken justice, so just trust me when I say that it's delicious. At first I had a hard time getting my kids to try this because they couldn't get past the "little black stuff" all over it, but once I got them to try a bite (possibly forced) 🤷, they shoveled the rest down easily.

Mediterranean Chicken

I have been loving my slow cooker lately. For some reason, I have been busier then usual lately and by the time I get home I haven't wanted to fix dinner. Thus the amazingness of the slow cooker comes into action. Being able to prepare my meals earlier in the day and let it cook while I am out and about makes my life so much easier! Not only does it make dinner time less chaotic, but your house smells amazing the whole time it's cooking, or you get to walk into a home that smells fantastic after a long day.
Is there anything better then that? Okay, having somebody else do all the prep and cooking would probably be better BUT this is a close second. 😁
This is a new recipe that we tried out that is Anti-Inflammatory! Wahoo, I know it's been a while since I added a recipe that knocks out all of those inflammatory foods, but here it is. This dish is packed with flavor. If you have a love for kalamata olives, you will love this dish...if not...well it may not be your favorite! I LOVED this dish and I hope you do as well!
*I also like to prepare this in the Pressure Cooker so I don't need to dirty up another pan to saute the chicken. I have only prepared it using the saute and slow cooker features so far, so if you try it with a different feature you will have to let me know how it turned out!

Chicken and Andouille Sausage

This right here is one of my favorite Anti-Inflammatory recipes ever. I love how the flavors of the ingredients give the broth such amazing flavor.  The andouille sausage gives the broth the slightest hint of heat, which I love. This dish is great to serve on any day of the year because you can make this as soupy or not as you like. When it's hot outside I generally don't add as much of the liquid because I'm not a huge soup fan when its hot, but when it's cold, I add a LOT more of the broth and less of the quinoa to make it feel more soup like.
*I know the picture doesn't look that appetizing with the chicken having the skin on, but leaving the skin on while cooking helps add more flavor to your broth. You can also remove the skin before cooking to have less calories and it will still taste great.

Grilled Zucchini

This is a side dish that I have recently fallen in love with and have made many times during the past few weeks. Growing up, pretty much the only way we ever had zucchini was dredge it in egg and flour and fry it in butter. Which don't get me wrong is wonderful...but full of extra calories that you don't need...all the time :).
Keeping things simple in my kitchen is the best way for me to get a healthier meal on the table. These go with any main dish, but especially work great if you are already cooking something out on the grill. Last night we did these up with some grilled corn on the cob and some grilled pork chops and it was amazing! My husband has become quite the grilling master. This side dish is not only healthy but comes together in a matter of minutes. Enjoy!

Banana Nut Buckwheat

My families favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Especially my kids. They love everything carb related; Waffles, Pancakes, German Pancakes, etc. I personally cannot handle having a lot of carbs in the morning because it makes me bloat super bad for the rest of the day, so I usually try fix myself something a little less carb heavy. If you like to eat oatmeal, then this is a recipe you need to try. I had never had much buckwheat until I went on an Anti-Inflammatory diet and found that it is very similar to steel cut oats, but cooks faster! This recipe is great for those mornings when you are looking for something that is healthy, not to time consuming, and tastes great.

Roasted Chickpea "Croutons"

I know what you are thinking. There is no way that chickpeas can replace the heavenly crouton that usually tops my salad. Trust me. I get it. I was a bit skeptical as well. Anybody who knows me knows that I love bread. All things bread are my downfall, but I am here to say that although these Roasted Chickpeas are not exactly like a crouton, they do satisfy my need for something crunchy and delicious on top of my salads. I recently paired them up with an Anti-Inflammatory Caesar Salad and it was pretty amazing.
So if you are looking for a gluten free alternative, give these a try.
*To be honest, I have actually just sat down and eaten these as a snack as well, not just as a salad topper*

Anti-Inflammatory Caesar Salad

Who would have thought that the words anti-inflammatory and Caesar dressing would be in the same sentence.  Every time I go to a restaurant, I order a Caesar salad. There is just something magical about that dressing that gets me salivating.
Now I am not about to claim that this recipe for the dressing tastes exactly like a Caesar dressing, but it is pretty darn close, especially for having not really ANY of the same ingredients. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted, especially for how easy it was to make. I topped my salad with some crunchy oven roasted chickpeas, to replace the croutons, and some sliced grilled chicken.

Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies

To get personal for a bit, my daughter and I have both been struggling with Rheumatoid Arthritis and it seems like since my daughter started kindergarten she had been having pain every single day. This was so frustrating to me as her parent. I am used to the pain because I have dealt with it my whole life, but to see her suffer breaks my heart. Anyway, with her being in pain so often, we decided it was time to get serious and get her food triggers figured out so that we could at least keep her pain to a minimum.
So long story short, I have been trying out a bunch of new recipes to post for you guys and I will work hard to get them on here!
This recipe that I found is not only awesome, but it all cooks in one pan which makes for a less hectic clean up process. We had this recipe on DAY 1 of our journey through the diet. I liked it because it made a massive amount of food and had plenty of leftovers to have for lunches throughout the week. This recipe is super versatile because all veggies and seasonings can be swapped out for your preferences.

Basic Quinoa

Its time to jump on the quinoa bandwagon. Quinoa seems to be a cooking fad that has been going around for the past couple of years. I tried it a while back and thought it was so nasty and couldn't understand why anybody would want to eat this. The health benefits were enough to try it again, still wasn't my favorite. Then when I started eating more anti-inflammatory foods, I had to learn to like it. It is definitely an acquired taste, but now I use it ALLLLL the time. I rarely use rice anymore and use this in place of it. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. YOU HAVE TO RINSE IT!!! Who would have thought that by not rinsing it well enough it would totally change the flavor?! Well it does. So before you attempt to cook it make sure that you rinse and rinse and rinse it otherwise it will have this bitter flavor that just isn't good at all. You basically cook it exactly like rice, only it shouldn't take as long.

Mediterranean Chicken Bowls

This recipe was shared with me by an amazing friend of mine, who also happens to be a fantastic cook! She knows that I love Middle Eastern food and knew I had been looking for a recipe that I could tweak a bit to turn it into an Anti-Inflammatory recipe. The flavors in this recipe are so bright and fresh but also have all of the warm spices that are classic to the food in that area. Having the fresh vegetables alongside the warm quinoa and chicken really adds that crunch that, for me, makes for the perfect texture combination in your mouth. The thing that ties this dish together so well is the sauce. I personally like to throw all the ingredients in my bowl with a big dollop of sauce and mix it like a tornado ran through so that I get a little bit of everything in one bite.
One of my favorite things that I love about this dish is that it is full of foods that are Anti-Inflammatory. I hear people say all the time that Ant-Inflammatory foods are bland or that they feel like there just aren't any good recipes out there. Well, here it is. This recipe is far from bland.