Breakfast and lunch anyone?

I hope all of you guys had a great weekend! I did some bridal dress shopping, but I will  get into that at a later post. However, I did promise you guys my fruit smoothie recipe and I also have this great soup recipe (especially with the cold months coming in, who doesn't want a great soup recipe?) that I got from my Martha Stewart Living magazine, because I love everything Martha Stewart (and also Barefoot Contessa).

My fiance makes my fruit smoothies the night before. We buy frozen fruit and I usually buy blueberries, raspberries and a fruit mix with mangoes, peaches, and strawberries (I get the Welch's brand). I am usually one that likes to save a couple of dollars, however, I had the worst experience with the Stop and Shop store brand of mixed fruit, which contained mangoes, strawberries, peaches, and pineapples. It was gross. Left a horrible after taste in my mouth and I couldn't even finish it. That bag was promptly thrown out. Make sure you pick your frozen fruit wisely!

So I don't know how much my fiance puts into it, but he eye balls it as he tells me. You need three ingredients:

- Frozen fruit of your choice (about a cup)
- Whole milk (or almond milk if lactose)
- Greek yogurt (plain) or Whole Milk Plain Yogurt (I either buy Chobani when it is on sale, or Stonyfield for regular yogurt) - if lactose, don't use it!

Blend ingredients together. Add milk and yogurt depending on how thick you would like the smoothie to be.

You can substitute ingredients with your own, but this is how I make them. Seth plays around with how thick my smoothie will adding more or less yogurt. I like mine a little thicker. It's flavorful and filling, but I always add either two hard boil eggs or a Fiber One granola bar. And that is my breakfast after my morning workouts during the week.

This is a blueberry/raspberry smoothie

Last night, I made a spicy sausage, lentil and escarole salad soup. You can find it here

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 12 ounces spicy Italian sausage, removed from casing
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped (3/4 cup)
• 1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (2 tablespoons)
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup brown lentils, rinsed and drained
• 1 small head escarole, thinly sliced (5 cups)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large pot over medium-high. Add sausage, carrots, onion, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally and breaking up sausage into bite-size pieces, until meat is no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste; cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add broth, 3 cups water, and lentils. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, toss escarole with lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Top stew with escarole salad, drizzle with more oil, and serve.

Side notes: I definitely used a medium sized onion, but I love onion. This was really easy to make and I heated up leftovers for lunch today and it was great. You can substitute spicy sausage to sweet, but I love a little spice in my food. 

Thanks Martha Stewart Living for an awesome October recipe :)

Happy cooking, everyone!