1st phorm

1st phorm is a high-quality recipes brand for weight loss like healthy recipes, dinner, dessert, and lunch ideas

LUNCH

coleslaw with pineapple

Paleo-Friendly Pineapple Coleslaw + BBQ Sides

sweet roasted vegetables

Honey Balsamic Roasted Veggies

yogurt dill salad dressing

Easy Salmon Salad with Greek Yogurt Dill Dressing

Quinoa Pasta Salad with Chicken Sausage

Quinoa Pasta Salad with Chicken Sausage

chipotle brown rice recipe

Copy Cat: Cilantro Lime Brown Rice

Spiralized Tzatziki Cucumber Salad

Spiralized Tzatziki Cucumber Salad

See More;

Healthy dinner

Salmon Bean Burgers

SALMON BEAN BURGERS

Black Bean Quinoa Veggie Burgers

Black Bean Quinoa Veggie Burgers

Lemon Grass, Ginger, Soy Pork Chops

Lemon Grass Ginger Soy Pork Chops

lemon pepper salmon

lemon pepper salmon

Shrimp Stir Fry + BUTI

Shrimp Stir Fry + BUTI

homemade beef w/ broccoli & [brown] fried rice

homemade beef broccoli fried rice

See More;

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Healthy snacks
  • Recipe
  • Healthy lunch
  • Healthy dessert
  • Breakfast oats
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • About us

Mandarin Orange and Brown Rice Salad

November 27, 2023 by Lee Hersh Leave a Comment

Mandarin Orange and Brown Rice Salad

Have you started cooking your grains in bulk yet? You should; It makes meal planning a breeze.

Mandarin Orange and Brown Rice Salad

The above brown rice salad was inspired by a recipe we teach through Cooking Matters program. It’s healthy and delicious. Plus, even if you’re not a “good cook,” no worries. This creation is as easy as it can be!

Ingredients for Mandarin Orange and Brown Rice Salad

  • 2C cooked brown rice
  • 1C mandarain oranges
  • Juice from mandarin oranges
  • -1C frozen peas
  • 1C dried cranberries
  • Dressing: 1T EVOO, 3T mandarain orange juice, 1T honey, 1/2t salt, 1/2t pepper

Method
Mix all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. To make the dressing, whisk together olive oil, mandarin orange juice, honey, and spices. Then, poor over the brown rice mixture and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving, or until chilled. (you can serve it at room temperature, but I prefer cold.)

Mandarin Orange and Brown Rice Salad
Mandarin Orange and Brown Rice Salad
Mandarin Orange and Brown Rice Salad

10 Facts about Brown Rice sauce

  1. Only the outermost layer of the rice kernel, the hull, is removed to produce brown rice, where white rice is further processed, removing the bran and the germ layer (and most of the nutrients!)
  2. When brown rice is milled into white rice- 67% of vitamin D, 80% vitamin B, 90% of vitamin B6, 60% iron, and ALL dietary fiber and essential fatty acids are LOST. 
  3. Brown rice can stay good in the refrigerator for up to 7 days!
  4. Rice supplies as much of half of the daily calories for half of the world’s population; making it one of the most important foods in the world.
  5. Brown rice is an excellent source of Fiber and Selenium along with many other antioxidants. 
  6. Because brown rice is a whole grain, it has been known to help reduce the risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Childhood Asthma, High Cholesterol,  Cardiovascular Disease, Metabolic Syndrome and Heart Disease.
  7. 1 serving of brown rice is equivalent to 1 cup cooked or 1/2 cup uncooked.
  8. Rice is often categorized by size: short grain, medium grain, and long grain. Short grain has the highest starch content, making it the stickiest, where long grain remains separated when cooked because it is lighter.
  9. Rice is believed to have first been cultivated 6,000 years ago in China. Recently, archeologists discovered that rice could actually be as old as 9,000 years old.
  10. There are over 8,000 different varieties of rice, for example: Basmati, Sweet Rice, Jasmine, Bhutanese Red Rice, and Arborio.

Nutritional Profile

What is your favorite way to eat brown rice?

I love pairing brown rice with black beans or with a veggie stir fry.

Do you like leftovers? or does it gross you out?

In general, I am not a big leftover fan, but when it comes to left over grains it’s a different story!

See more healthy recipes

Filed Under: Healthy lunch Tagged With: Mandarin Orange and Brown Rice Salad

Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad

November 27, 2023 by Lee Hersh Leave a Comment

Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad

Another day of summer down- another day spent with my favorite three kids! They honestly make my heart melt with the words that come out of their mouths! How could this picture not make you smile?

Last year, I made my family a picture book at the end of the summer documenting all of the fun stuff we did. I had my camera out all day and Charlie asked me if I was going to do the same thing this year. I said yes and he DEMANDED I take a picture of him and his stuffed animals. *so cute* This kid is seriously the epitome of awesome.

On a foodier note, I got to talking with Jackie this morning, their mom, about QUINOA! When I first started making quinoa, I could never get it quite right. I either cooked it too fast, leaving it hard and crunchy, or too slow- making it too mushy. I even burnt it a few times! *yikes* I took on the task of making my family a delicious quinoa salad. Good thing I’ve finally mastered quinoa making.

Is your mouth watering yet? Don’t lie to me…

Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad ingredients

  • 1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked
  • 8 oz fresh mozerella
  • 1 carton grape tomatoes, halved
  • fresh basil, to taste
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • salt & pepper
  1. Method:In a medium sized pan, bring 1C water and ½C quinoa to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and simmer on LOW until all of the water is absorbed. This should take anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes. *Cooking your quinoa on low is extremely important. If you let it simmer on a hotter flame, the water will absorb too quickly and the quinoa will turn out hard!
  2. Cool the cooked quinoa in the refrigerator for at least an hour before preparing the salad.
  3. To prepare the salad, slice grape tomatoes in half [hot dog way] and cut the block of fresh mozzarella into bite size pieces. Mix together. Then, add the chopped basil and cooked quinoa and give the salad a toss. Next, drizzle on the olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, and season with a little salt/pepper (to taste). Give your salad a final toss and serve cool or at room temperature.

I do have to say that the lighting was PERFECT for these photos. Maybe I’m just a perfect photographer? *BAHAHA* jk. But really, I think I can taste the fresh basil and mozzarella cheese through these pictures! Look who I caught in action helping me with the dishes…

didn’t even ask him to help! Charlie is one of those goofy kids who makes crazy sound affects. If only I knew how to spell the noise he was making to imitate the water flow. *fshhhhhhhh*

On a side note- I’m finally exploring different settings on my camera. I haven’t been able to grasp the whole lighting/exposure/white balance thang.

Crazy what blurring and sharpening the background can do to the foreground of a photo! Anyways- I’m pondering going to bed at 8PM tonight. I am pooped. Until tomorrow blogistas!

Today’s Top Quotes

-“Stop being a himmacrip!”translation = Stop being a hypocrite! 

–“And I told him, you gotta keep your eye on prize.”

-What is your favorite fresh herb?

-What is your favorite whole grain?

-Don’t forget: I’m going to Boulder on Friday, so if you have any foodie/adventure recommendations. Let me know

See more healthy recipes

Top recipes

Filed Under: Healthy lunch Tagged With: Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad

Rosemary Balsamic Green Bean Salad

November 27, 2023 by Lee Hersh Leave a Comment

Rosemary Balsamic Green Bean Salad

Never again will I ever- willingly ride the bus from Minneapolis to Milwaukee. Anxiety level = THROUGH THE ROOF. I’m already a stage 5

clinger

back seat driver and the “oh shit handle” is my best friend. Me + smelly, crowded bus = a hot sweaty mess.I will however, continue to use public transportation for shorter distances because its just convenient and more sustainable!

Anyways- now that my treacherous trip is over I wanted to share my a delicious, healthy recipe with you! Since I’ve started going to the Farmer’s Market on a regular basis, I can finally afford to buy a variety of vegetables because the prices are so low. More types of veggies means a larger quantity of veggies. Now… I am a little bit of a produce police. (because I no long use the word hate) I dislike it when people waste good produce, whether it be an overly ripe banana or rotten spinach. Wasting food = no bueno.

With that being said, I need to make sure I’m not wasting any of my good food. Solution? Whip up a biggggg ol’ batch of Rosemary Balsamic Green Bean Salad.   

Rosemary Balsamic Green Bean Salad

I’ve found that if I actually cook my veggies in bulk I 1) eat more veggies in general 2) don’t waste my veggies and 3) save a butt load of time.

Rosemary Balsamic Green Bean Salad

Ingredients
-1 lb. green beans
-1 sweet red onion, diced
-1 yellow pepper, diced
-handful of pine nuts
-2 cloves of garlic, minced
-1T EVOO
-salt & pepper
-1/2T rosemary
-1/4C aged balsamic vinegar
-2T low sodium soy sauce

Method
1. In a medium sized pot, boil your green beans for 10-15 minutes. Set aside.
2. In a large skillet, sauté your pepper and onion in minced garlic and EVOO. Season with salt and pepper. Next, Add in your softened green beans and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes. Add in your balsamic, soy sauce, and rosemary and let simmer.
3. Serve hot or COLD and top with pine nuts.

The aged balsamic gives it a sweet flavor mixed with a little bit of salty from the soy sauce. In my opinion, this salad is best cold. I’ve also been known to top it with 1 or 2T of hummus. YUM.

Rosemary Balsamic Green Bean Salad

When I make this dish, I can usually get 4 servings out of it. That’s 4 meals I don’t have to cook! Easy peezy lemon squeezy.

Rosemary Balsamic Green Bean Salad

Moving on to more DIY. Look what I made yesterday. A drying towel!

Sorry for the awkward lighting, I’m too lazy to retake photos!

Rosemary Balsamic Green Bean Salad

This is actually a lot easier to make than it looks! All you need is a dish/bathroom towel in what ever size you like and fabric!

Measure-Cut-Sew. I sewed my fabric down to a plain white bathroom towel (because they were cheaper than dish towels) and bam. Because this towel had a lot of give, it was difficult to get it perfect. It almost seemed a little bit warped- but I give myself an A for effort!

See more healthy recipes

Top recipes

Filed Under: Healthy lunch Tagged With: Rosemary Balsamic Green Bean Salad

Breakfast Lunch Dinner Quinoa

November 27, 2023 by Lee Hersh Leave a Comment

Breakfast Lunch Dinner Quinoa

I think it is pretty obvious that quinoa is my favorite grain. It’s just so… beautiful and scrumptious and versatile and healthy and I love everything about it. Obsessive much? Nahhhh.

I made a big ol’ batch of quinoa on Sunday night and thought it would be fun to spice it up for the week. I like to call this BLD Quinoa, because you can really eat it for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner.

Breakfast Lunch Dinner Quinoa

Breakfast Lunch Dinner Quinoa

Ingredients

  • 1C quinoa, uncooked
  • 2C water
  • 1C dried cranberries (less or more)
  • 1/2C sunflower seeds
  • 2T honey
  • 1/4C balsamic vinegar

Method

1. In a medium sized pot, bring 2 cups of water and 1 cup quinoa to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer until all water is absorbed. Transfer into a large tupperware and refrigerate for 2 hours.

2. Once your quinoa has cooled, mix in the rest of your ingredients.

Breakfast Lunch Dinner Quinoa

You can have it just like so for breakfast or even add a little greek yogurt and more honey. Orrrrr you can put it on top of spinach and cottage cheese with a dash more balsamic vinegar.

On a different note. Look what I got yesterday at Food Day…

Breakfast Lunch Dinner Quinoa

Coco Bananas Peanut Butter. Yes, that means chocolate + banana + peanut butter. Um, heaven? Not only was the peanut butter delicious, but it also benefits an amazing cause!

PB Crave had their product launch yesterday at the U of M’s Food Day! They donated all of the proceeds to Project Peanut Butter, a nonprofit supporting malnutrition.Peanut Butter saves the worldOther flavors by PB Crave include Razzle Dazzle, Cookie Nookie, and Choco Choco. Dayum. Num num. I tried all 4 flavors and liked Coco Bananas best 

What is your all time favorite Peanut Butter brand/flavor?

Favorite grain———-> Go!

see more healthy recipes

Top recipes

Filed Under: Healthy lunch Tagged With: Breakfast Lunch Dinner Quinoa

Easy Stewed Tomatoes and Lentils

November 26, 2023 by Lee Hersh Leave a Comment

Easy Stewed Tomatoes and Lentils

Not all the things I make turn out be this beautiful…

Easy Stewed Tomatoes and Lentils
Easy Stewed Tomatoes and Lentils
Easy Stewed Tomatoes and Lentils

Where am I going with this? Okay, you see. I get a little bit self conscious when I post chili/soup/lentil recipes because the photos never do its taste justice.

I promise you, this dish is beyond delicious. It’s very similar to a vegetarian chili minus the beans. I have been on a chili powder/cumin kick lately, and literally add it to everything.

Ingredients for Easy Stewed Tomatoes and Lentils (g/f)

*yields 4 servings

  • 1C lentils, washed (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
  • 1 can diced tomatoes (I use Del Monte No Salt Added)
  • 2T garbanzo bean flour or cornstarch (thickening agent)
  • 2C water
  • 1/2t pepper
  • 1T chili powder
  • 1/2T cumin
  • 1t garlic salt

Method
In a medium sized pot, bring all ingredients, except garbanzo bean flour, to a rolling boil. Then, reduce heat and simmer on low until most of the water is absorbed. It will take about 15-20 minutes. Then, add in garbanzo bean flour to thicken the remaining liquid and cook uncovered for an additional 2 minutes.

Easy Stewed Tomatoes and Lentils
Easy Stewed Tomatoes and Lentils

This is delicious served as is in a big ol’ bowl. or….

Wabam! On top of spinach with a scoop of low fat cottage cheese, plum tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar! nom nom nom. This was my lunch for the past three days 

This girl has another laid back weekend. Lots of paper writing to do. I still can’t believe the semester ends next Wednesday! Where the heck has time gone??

Have a lovely weekend!
-L

Are you a lentil lover?

What are your plans for the weekend? 

See more healthy recipes

Top recipes

Filed Under: Healthy lunch Tagged With: Easy Stewed Tomatoes and Lentils

Red Caprese Quinoa Salad

November 26, 2023 by Lee Hersh Leave a Comment

Red Caprese Quinoa Salad

Recently, one of my recipes from 9 months ago (Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad) went viral on Pinterest/Stumble Upon. No idea how it happened, but according to my analytics, it has increased FFF’s traffic by almost 5 times its daily views. The power of social media. CRAZY.

Anyways, in honor of this happening, I revisited my old recipe this weekend for a delicious BBQ side dish. This time however, I used red quinoa as opposed to white.

Red Caprese Quinoa Salad
Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Red Caprese Quinoa Salad

Red Caprese Quinoa Salad


  • Author: Lee Hersh
Print Recipe
Save Recipe Recipe Saved

Ingredients

Scale
  • ½C quinoa
  • 8 oz fresh mozerella
  • 1 carton grape tomatoes, halved
  • fresh basil
  • 2T olive oil
  • salt & pepper

Instructions

  1. In a medium sized pan, bring 1C water and ½C quinoa to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and simmer on LOW until all of the water is absorbed. This should take anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes. *Cooking your quinoa on low is extremely important. If you let it simmer on a hotter flame, the water will absorb too quickly and the quinoa will turn out hard!
  2. Cool the cooked quinoa in the refrigerator for at least an hour before preparing the salad.
  3. To prepare the salad, slice grape tomatoes in half [hot dog way] and cut the block of fresh mozzarella into bite size pieces. Mix together. Then, add the chopped basil and cooked quinoa and give the salad a toss. Next, drizzle on the olive oil and season with a little salt/pepper (to taste). Give your salad a final toss and serve cool or at room temperature.

Did you make this recipe?

Share a photo and tag us — we can’t wait to see what you’ve made!

Red Caprese Quinoa Salad
Red Caprese Quinoa Salad

Blake has the best yard for grilling and get togethers. We had a bunch of people over for a St. Patty’s Day Celebration after watching some March Madness in downtown Minneapolis at a bar called The Newsroom. I have never participated in this holiday, but there is a large Irish influence here in St. Paul. The weather was in the lower 80’s which is extremely abnormal for this time of year, but perfect for grilling. We had steaks, veggie shishkabobs w/ pineapple, red quinoa caprese salad, a poppyseed strawberry salad (a la Brian), orderves (a la Carly), and drinks.

Ingredients Red Caprese Quinoa Salad

  • quinoa
  • mozerella
  • tomatoes
  • basil
  • olive oil
  • salt & pepper
Red Caprese Quinoa Salad

I of course had a little bit of everything…

Red Caprese Quinoa Salad
Red Caprese Quinoa Salad

Anyways, I wanted to thank everyone for the kind words from my last post about my job offer. It’s so great to know that you all support me! I seriously wouldn’t be blogging, let alone where I am today, if it weren’t for your comments and feedback. Don’t stop!Happy Monday

-L

What did you do for St. Patty’s Day?

What is your favorite BBQ food?

See more healthy recipes

Top recipes

Filed Under: Healthy lunch Tagged With: Red Caprese Quinoa Salad

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • …
  • 122
  • Next Page »
  • Facebook
  • GitHub
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Breakfast

Chicken Fajita Breakfast Bake

Chicken Fajita Breakfast Bake

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Bake

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Bake

Easy Banana Protein Mug Cake

Easy Banana Protein Mug Cake

See More;

[

Privacy Policy