Sunday Strategist: A Week of Healthy Menus—June 27-July 1

Every Sunday, we publish a week of Cooking Light dinner plans filled with our favorite recipes—both from current issues and classics. Each meal is designed to be ready and on the table in about an hour so that you have more time to enjoy the food you’ve prepared and the company of those you’ve prepared it for.

If you like having a healthy meal plan but want something customized to your dietary or caloric needs, check out The Cooking Light Diet. It’s a calorie-driven weekly meal plan—breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner—based on your dieting goals and food preferences.

Monday: Honestly, I can eat Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic—or some riff on it—at least three times a week during the summer. Sometimes I’ll toss in a little zucchini or bell pepper; if it’s not Meatless Monday, I may add a some crisp bacon or browned Italian sausage (not that you need either). Sweet, peak-season cherry tomatoes, abundant now in farmers’ markets and backyard gardens, are the star. Not counting salt, pepper, and olive oil, it’s a five-ingredient dish with surprisingly deep flavor. Round out the meal with our wonderfully crunchy, fantastically simple Cucumber Salad; to simplify, use just one type of bell pepper.

Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic

Cucumber Salad

Tuesday: How’s this for a fun way to honor Taco Tuesday? Shrimp Tacos with Corn Salsa pair sweet-briny shrimp with crunchy-fresh summer corn—a match made in foodie heaven! For a side dish with a little sass, try Spicy Grilled Mango with Chiles and Crema. No crema on hand? No worries—drizzle with yogurt or sour cream. And if you have young ‘uns in the house who are sensitive to spice (as I do), just leave the jalapeños off their portion.

Shrimp Tacos with Corn Salsa

Spicy Grilled Mango with Chiles and Crema

Wednesday: For me, Hump-Day dinners must be (a) easy and (b) fun—a not-too-much-work celebration for getting more than halfway through the week. So this Wednesday meal is like a fun backyard barbecue, without actually having to sweat it out in, you know, the backyard. Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs give you cookout flavor in only 20 minutes by utilizing the broiler (your indoor, upside-down grill!). Keep the BBQ party vibes going with Pesto Potato Salad, my new favorite, flavor-packed version of the classic picnic dish.

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

Pesto Potato Salad

Thursday: It’s just such a great time for fresh produce, so here’s another farmers’ market/garden dinner. Zucchini, Walnut, and Feta Cakes with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce are not only filling but also filled with zucchini goodness—more than a cup of the green stuff per serving (great for all you gardeners with a bumper crop of zuke). While good slicers are abundant, try this simple Tomato Salad with Avocado and Onion, a brilliant partnering of sweet-juicy tomatoes and creamy-rich avocado.

Zucchini, Walnut, and Feta Cakes with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce

Tomato Salad with Avocado and Onion

Friday: When I was growing up, summer Fridays meant Fish-Fry Fridays. Now that I’m an adult and not up for a weekly vat of hot oil, I am grateful for recipes like Bayou Catfish Fillets, which give you fried-fish yumminess with the convenience of the broiler. If you’d like to sub in tilapia for the catfish, brush the fish first with a little canola or olive oil before coating in the breading (tilapia is a leaner fish). Carry on the fish “fry” theme with classic accompaniments: Tequila Slaw with Lime and Cilantro (the tequila really boosts the flavor, but it’s fine to leave it out) and Broiler Garlic Bread.

Bayou Catfish Fillets

Tequila Slaw with Lime and Cilantro

Broiler Garlic Bread

Dessert Bonus: If you have a craving for a sweet fruit crisp but don’t have the time to bake one, Stovetop Summer Fruit Crisp is here to save the day! In less than 20 minutes, you get juicy, barely-cooked fruit, crunchy topping, and a scoop of vanilla fro-yo.

Stovetop Summer Fruit Crisp

 

Are your ready to start your week off light? Sign up for our newsletter and get a fresh ideas to supercharge your healthy eating and cooking routine. We’ll deliver every Sunday Strategist, plus new recipes and delicious dinner inspiration to your inbox every weekend.

Keep Reading:

• Our Newest Five-Star Dinners
• Smart Shopping and Healthy Meal Planning with the Cooking Light Diet
• 4 Ways With Our Favorite Summer Food: Corn

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Sunday Strategist: A Week of Healthy Menus—June 20 – 25

Every Sunday, we publish a week of Cooking Light dinner plans filled with our favorite recipes—both from current issues and classics. Each meal is designed to be ready and on the table in about an hour so that you have more time to enjoy the food you’ve prepared and the company of those you’ve prepared it for.

If you like having a healthy meal plan but want something customized to your dietary or caloric needs, check out The Cooking Light Diet. It’s a calorie-driven weekly meal plan—breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner—based on your dieting goals and food preferences.

The Plan
Monday: Pesto Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Mozzarella with Tomato and Peach Salad with Almonds
Tuesday: Yogurt-Marinated Chicken and Zucchini Kebabs with Red Pepper Couscous
Wednesday: Tomato Panzanella with Shrimp and Basil
Thursday: Summer Squash and Corn Chowder with Tomato Toast
Friday: Turkey Tenders with Haricots Verts with Cherry Tomatoes and Mushrooms
Dessert Bonus: Sheet Pan S’mores

Monday: When you go to a summer potluck and fill up on fresh, vibrant pasta salad instead of grilled or barbecued mains, you know you have a winner. We turned Pesto Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Mozzarella into the main event for a meatless Monday everyone will love. Serve with another favorite seasonal pairing: Tomato and Peach Salad with Almonds.

Pesto Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Mozzarella

Tomato and Peach Salad with Almonds

Tuesday: Change up your weeknight chicken routine with Yogurt-Marinated Chicken and Zucchini Kebabs, either cooked outdoors on the grill or indoors on a grill pan. The spiced yogurt mixture adds tons of flavor without needing to sit for hours, making it perfect for summer weeknight meals. Serve a tomato and parsley salad and Red Pepper Couscous.

Yogurt-Marinated Chicken and Zucchini Kebabs

Red Pepper Couscous

Wednesday: This one-dish Tomato Panzanella with Shrimp and Basil salad is perfect for hot weather. Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad, and its design is brilliant: toasted bread cubes absorb the vinaigrette while adding crunch and heft to the main dish. Instead of shrimp, try grilled chicken breast or flank steak, or just cubes of fresh mozzarella.

Tomato Panzanella with Shrimp and Basil

Thursday: If you think soups have no place in your summer meal rotation, you’ve got to try our Summer Squash and Corn Chowder. Far from overly creamy or heavy, the squash and corn keep this soup light, fresh, and sweet. Bacon and cheddar are the perfect toppers. Keep the side simple with Tomato Toasts.

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

Tomato Toasts

Friday: Skip the end-of-a-long-week drive-thru and try crispy Turkey Tenders instead, dipped in a kicky Sriracha Mayo. Instead of fries, Haricots Verts with Cherry Tomatoes and Mushrooms are a satisfying, veggie-packed side.

Turkey Tenders

Haricots Verts with Cherry Tomatoes and Mushrooms

Dessert Bonus: We take this nostalgic campfire treat to new heights with Sheet Pan S’mores. Think of it as a chocolate cream pie in a graham cracker crust with a billowy marshmallow-meringue topping. What’s not to love?

Sheet Pan S’mores

Are your ready to start your week off light? Sign up for our newsletter and get a fresh ideas to supercharge your healthy eating and cooking routine. We’ll deliver every Sunday Strategist, plus new recipes and delicious dinner inspiration to your inbox every weekend.

Keep Reading:

• Our Newest Five-Star Dinners
• Smart Shopping and Healthy Meal Planning with the Cooking Light Diet
• 4 Ways With Our Favorite Summer Food: Corn

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3-Ingredient Tropical Mango Pops

This summer, we’ve created a seriously delicious series of 3-ingredient ice pop recipes. If you can imagine it, we’ve managed to make our favorite summer flavors even easier to enjoy by combining them, freezing them, and licking them for a cool slurpable treat. Check back each week as we reveal another pop. Let us know in the comments if you have any combinations you want us to try.

Illustration: Christina Harrison

3-Ingredient Tropical Mango Pops

Ingredients
2 cups cubed fresh ripe mango
1/3 cup canned full-fat coconut milk
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Preparation
1. Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into pop molds. Freeze for 4 hours or until firm. Enjoy!

Serves 4 (serving size 1 [3-ounce] pop)
CALORIES 88; FAT 4.3g (sat 3.6g, mono 0.3g, poly 0.1g); PROTEIN 1g; CARB 13g; FIBER 1g;SUGARS 11g (estimated added sugars 0g); CHOL 0mg; IRON 1 mg; SODIUM 3mg; CALC 13mg

More 3-Ingredient Pops:

• 3-Ingredient Fudgy Banana Pops
• 3-Ingredient Dairy-Free Strawberries and Cream Pops
• Creamy Avocado Lemonade Pops

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Good Food: Black Pig Meat Co. Cider Cracklins

Photo: Courtesy of Black Pig Meat Co.

By Kate Malin

At Black Pig Meat Co., husband and wife team John Stewart and Duskie Estes know the importance of using whole animals, snout to tail. With this in mind, they developed a creative line of products to use the parts of the pig that are not used to make their award winning slow cured bacon. From lip balm to caramel popcorn, all their porky products use pasture-raised animals, nurtured without antibiotics, hormones, or gestation crates.

Drawing on the rich history of apple growing in California’s Western Sonoma County, John and Duskie designed their Cider Cracklins, apple cider vinegar chicharrones, an addictive snack that they serve with burgers in place of fries at their restaurant Zazu Kitchen + Farm. The tang and sweetness of the apple cider vinegar is perfectly complemented by the rich bacon taste to the chicharrones, which are fried to have an irresistible crunch. Pair with a burger, a cold beer, or snack right out of the bag.

Photo: Courtesy of Black Pig Meat Co.

Black Pig Meat Co. Cider Cracklins are available at http://ift.tt/1UVDIs5 and in stores across the country. Solstice Canyon is part of the Good Food Awards, a project to honor food and drink producers making the sort of food we all want to eat – tasty, authentic and responsible, and a proud member of the Good Food Merchants Guild, national association uniting American craft food businesses to connect, convene and promote Good Food businesses of all sizes.

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From her grassroots work at the Good Food Awards to her continued education at NYU’s Food Studies Master’s Program, Kate Malin brings an unparalleled passion for great food and good people.

More Good Food Finds:

• Omnivore Vulcano Classic Hot Sauce
• Charles-Chocolate Salty Sweet Cashew Bar
• Solstice Canyon Cardamom and Clove Almond Butter

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Chef Ashley Christensen Shares Her Favorite Southern Vegetable Recipes

Chef Ashley Christensen has made incredible strides in the food world in just a few short years. The James Beard award-winning chef runs seven Raleigh, NC restaurants in addition to an event business and commissary kitchen. Death & Taxes, her most recent restaurant, was just named to Food & Wine’s 2016 best restaurants.

In our July issue, Christensen shares her favorite vegetable dishes—most of them rooted in her childhood, not her world travels or years in professional kitchens. “Cooking is a way of subconsciously connecting with what you grew up with, what reminds you of home. It comes back to how fulfilling and rich those memories are,” she said.

Christensen’s mother was an avid cook; her father was a gardener and hobbyist beekeeper. She remembers herbs quick drying on the dashboard of her dad’s old Volvo, sliced tomatoes at every summer meal, and her mother running outside to snip a few chives from the garden to sprinkle over a dish.

One thing she makes clear: the notion of Southern food as only a deep-fried, gravy-smothered, vegetable-fearing culture is not true, and never has been. “As my mother would say, Southern food is about what grows in the Southern earth.” It’s about appreciating the raw and cooked aspects of all produce, respecting the perfectly simple (ripe tomatoes and salt is a perfect dish), and bringing people to the table for great food and great conversation.

As de facto Southerners based in Birmingham, AL, we couldn’t agree more. Look for Christensen’s stellar vegetable recipes in our July issue.

More from our Vegetable Cooking Series:

• French Vegetable Cooking
• Italian Vegetable Cooking
• Greek Vegetable Cooking

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Great Gifts for Dad

Father’s Day is just around the corner. Haven’t picked something up yet for your dad who’s always in the kitchen? Well we’ve got you covered with ten gift suggestions that are sure to thrill his inner foodie:

For the dad who loves whipping up brunch for the whole family: Mauviel M’steel Crepe Pan ($25)
Made of high density black steel, this crepe pan is naturally non-stick and a great heat conductor, while still being significantly lighter than cast iron. When not making piles of crepes, it’s a great choice for searing foods.

Image source: Mauviel

For the dad who goes off-road: Igloo Trailmate Cooler ($300)
Touted as an “all terrain cooler,” the Trailmate has a tough build suited for trips everywhere from the beach to the woods. A built-in fold out table with cup holders also makes prepping and serving food an easy task.

Image source: Igloo

For the dad who is a craft beer connoisseur: 12 Piece Oregon Craft Brewers Truffle Collection ($30)
Why just drink beer when you can eat it, too? Inspired by the designs and tastes of Oregon’s craft brewers, this Truffle Collection features signature chocolates in the flavors of Wheat, Brown, Porter, and IPA. Sure to be a favorite for any beer or chocolate lover.

Image source: Moonstruck Chocolate

For the dad who seriously loves his steaks: Wüsthof Epicure 4-Piece Steak Knife Set ($349.95)
Made specifically to cut meat without shredding, this 4-Piece Steak Knife Set is a steak-lover’s dream. With a ceramic-coated blade to prevent sticking and wide curved design to enhance comfort, it will give you the perfect cut every time.

Image source: Sur La Table

For the dad who brunches away the weekend: Oster Electric Griddle with Warming Tray ($40)
Here with a solution to the cold pancake crisis is the Electric Griddle with Warming Tray! With a non-stick durable surface and energy efficient design, it’s an easy-to-use product that will make sure everyone’s breakfast is hot and ready at the same time.

Image source: Target

For the dad with awesome knife skills: Shun Kanso Asian Utility Knife, 7″ ($140)
Handcrafted in Japan, this Asian Utility Knife was designed to be a simplistic zen-inspired addition to dad’s kitchen. Perfect balance between the handle, made of the same dark tagayasan wood used in the swords of ancient samurais, and the vanadium stainless steel blade make it a precise choice for dads who are serious about their knife block.

Image source: Williams-Sonoma

 

For the dad who loves artisan food, but doesn’t want to shop for it: Mantry ($49 every two months)
Mantry is the ultimate food-lover subscription service geared towards men. Every two months, subscribers receive a wooden crate on their doorstop full of six full-size (!) artisan food products from around the U.S. Each box has a theme and is full of fun editorial stories and recipes to go along with the items.

Image source: Mantry

For the dad who can’t get enough kebabs: Sur La Table Stainless-Steel Skewers ($8/set of 6)
Forget those pesky wooden kebabs that need soaking, these Stainless-Steel Skewers are ready to go when you are. Easy to turn handles make it simple cooking for satays, grilled kebabs, and more.

Image source: Sur La Table

For the dad who is a jet-setter: Carry on Cocktail Kit – The Bloody Mary ($24)
Complete with a tin carrying case, Bloody Mary mix, rimming salt, and pickles, this Cocktail Kit has everything dad needs for an easy flight. A touch of class is added with the inclusion of a linen coaster and bar spoon. He can order the accompanying liquor when he’s on the plane, and dad’s next flight is sure to sail on by.

Image source: W&P Design

For the dad who grills on-the-go: All Clad Stainless Steel 4-Piece BBQ Tool Set with Case ($144)
Shiny and new, two of our favorite things! For the grill master who can’t get enough tools, this lifetime warranty BBQ Tool Set is a great choice. It’s complete with a carrying case to easily grab-and-go for grilling at parties or the park, taking the hassle out of grilling away from your backyard.

Image source: Bloomingdale’s

Get More Father’s Day Ideas:

• A Father’s Day Breakfast That Will Knock His Slippers Off
• Gifts for Dad’s Favorite Drink
• What to Cook Dad This Weekend

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