Sunny Spinach Side Salad

Gooodevening all!! 

Tonight I felt horrible, yup still sick. After being to the doctor now for the 4th time, they finally find out I have an inflammation.. Something wrong with my kidney so I am getting a full check on Wednesday and antibiotics for now. Yeah you hear that right, antibiotics.. something I reallllly hate to take. Well, I hate to take any kind of medications, even painkillers, but it also made me determined to start getting back on track. No more snacking and cheating, but eating healthy and only healthy until my body is back to normal. Yes I do eat healthy about 60% of the time, but the last few weeks I indulged way too much ;-) Anyway.. this evening I whipped up an amazing dinner, from all fresh ingredients I bought on the farmers market. I roasted a turkey thigh in the oven.. amaaaaazing! I'm so sorry my boyfriend butchered the turkey before I was able to make the picture hahha he loved it! With the turkey I served roasted sweet potato and this loaded superfood salad.

Ingredients

Spinach leaves (washed)

a box of cherry tomatoes

1/2 box of raspberries (fresh)

1 zucchini

old goat cheese (hard)

2 tbsp of pine nuts

half a red onion, chopped

some sun dried tomatoes

raspberry vinaigrette

hazelnut or walnut oil

Get a grill pan on high heat and sprinkle the zucchini with olive oil, salt, pepper and then grill until they have a beautiful brown stripe and are caramelised. Get a big bowl and start with shredding your spinach a bit, so the leaves are not huge. That doesn't eat very pleasant ;-) Now add the tomatoes, you can slice them up however you like. Roast the pine nuts in a dry pan and in the  meanwhile add all the other ingredients in the bowl. Finish with pine nuts and grated goat cheese and serve with the vinaigrette and oil. Amazingly delicious!! 

"Spaghetti di Salme"

This dish makes a wonderful dinner, packed with nutrition, less on the calories! It contains 3 very healthy ingredients that can contribute to your health and is amazing for when you are watching your diet. 

First up: Spinach. A plant with remarkable abilities to restore energy, increase vitality and improve the quality of blood. Why? Primarily the fact that it is rich in iron, iron plays a central role in the function of red blood cells. Further it contains heaps of vitamins, like vitamin K, A, C and magnesium and vitamin B2. 

Next up: Zucchini. One cup of zucchini only has 36 calories and 10% of the RDA of dietary fibre, which aids in digestion, prevents constipation, maintains low blood sugar and curbs overeating. 

Number 3: Salmon. Of course the salmon contributes to the dish, an excellent source of high-quality protein, vitamin and minerals (like potassium, selenium and vitamin B12) but their content of omega-3 fatty acids is what we would like to receive the most.  

Just scroll down and see how to make this vitamin, mineral and omega-3 packed healthy but most importantly damn delicious dish!

Ingredients

1 salmon fillet with skin
a big handful of fresh spinach
1 small zucchini
fresh lemon
1 tablespoon genovese or home made Pesto (20g)

Optional home made pesto
small handful of roasted pine nuts
olive oil
bunch of basil
1 garlic clove
piece of Parmesan
salt and pepper

When you have a spiralizer, make "spaghetti" of your courgette. If not grab your (cheese) peeler to make a nice spaghetti/tagliatelle kind of shape. In the meanwhile heat some olive oil in a frying pan and bake the salmon with some salt and pepper, skin side down for about 7 minutes on medium high heat. Now when you want to make your home made pesto, blitz everything together in your blender. Basicly add as much olive oil as it needs to become runny enough (and the good part is that the left overs can be stored in a jar in your fridge). If you don't want to make your own one, just put the home bought pesto on your cutting board ;-). Now it's time to check your salmon, bake the other side for as long as it needs, depending on the thickness of your fish. It's best when it's still pink in the middle and it will cook trough a bit when you remove it out of the pan. Pack your salmon in some foil, so it stays warm and than it's time to add your zucchini to the same pan, add the pesto, a big handful of spinach and just swirl the pan around for a about a minute. Just until the zucchini is starting to melt a bit with the pesto and it all gets gooey and warm. Transfer to a plate and arrange the salmon on top, serve with a slice of lemon.

Seriously, damn tasty!