Minestrone Chili

This is a nice and quick meal for a cold day. It always reminds me of being at my grandparents house because that is where I ate it growing up.

Process:
Mix 1 can of minestrone soup with 1 can of turkey chili or vegetarian chili. Heat on the stove until warm throughout. Served best with crunchy sesame seed breadsticks.

You can also add some frozen vegetables into the pot if you are looking for some more substance. My favorite soup ti use is Progresso Minestrone Extra Fiber. If you have a pot of homemade vegetable or minestrone soup in your fridge, you can use that for this recipe, too.

Avocado Salad

This is really tasty and quick to make. It is also nice and healthy.
Process:
1. Slice an avocado in half and slice out the meat. Keep the shell for serving.
2. Chop 3 cherry tomatoes, 1 mushroom, a small amount of onion, and 2 mini peppers.
3. Gently toss with the avocado and a pinch of salt in a small bowl.
4. Spoon back into the avocado shell and serve!

Whole Wheat Pizza

I came across ths dough recipe in a magazine about 2 years ago. It is by far the best whole wheat pizza dough recipe that I have found. You can roll it thin and it crisps up like thin crust. You can roll it thick and it fluffs up nicely. Now, to keep it healthy, you have to make good choices about what you put on your pizza (no, pepperoni and linguisa don't make the cut).I am a big pizza fan and could eat it for every meal, every day. What's great about this recipe is that it is so easy to make and leftover dough freezes great for a quick meal some other time.

Whole Wheat Dough Ingredients
1 1/2 cup warm water
2 packets (1/4 oz each) active dry yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
Palm of salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions (written for a bread machine, but you can make it by hand, as well)
1. Add ingredients to bread machine in the order listed above.
2. Set the machine to the "dough" setting. This typically takes 1:15, but your dough is ready at the end without the need to punch it down or knead it.
3. Split the dough into desired sections. I typically split it into 4 equal sections so that it makes 2 meals.
4. Roll dough to desired thickness. I highly suggest using corn meal opposed to flour fr our rolling and baking purposes.
5. Bake at 450 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until crust is golden.

Suggested toppings
Baked or grilled chicken breast
Black olives
Tomatoes
Peppers
2% cheese
Mushrooms
Onion
Spinach
Other vegetables

Lemon Grilled Shrimp

Ingredients
1 1/4 pounds large shrimp (I like to get them peeled and clean so as not to deal with the mess and extra work)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic (garlic powder will work if you don't have fresh garlic)
1 tablespoon each fresh chopped rosemary and thyme (or a few shakes of ground rosemary/thyme)
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Process
1. Combine lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, and herbs together in a resealable bag. Add shrimp and mix well. Place in the refrigerator for about 1 hour (make sure to turn it over halfway through as your mixture probably won't cover all of the shrimp entirely).
2. Grill over high heat on the BBQ or in a grill pan, about 3 minutes per side.

I like to serve these over salad for lunch or over pasta for dinner.