My kids have been telling me to post our healthy baked potato soup recipe for a long time. This healthy potato soup made with cauliflower might be one of the most requested dinners every time I ask my family the question – what do you want for dinner this week? How do I say no to that??

Any time I can get my family to eat a healthy soup is a win in my book. This Slow Cooker Cauliflower Potato Soup aka Baked Potato Soup is one of the best weeknight meals since it comes together simply and can be reheated easily for those of us who are in a season of life where dinner time is a bit staggered due to sports practices and other activities with our kids.

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I’m pretty obsessed with grilling all the veggies right now. I have been loving experimenting with different veggies on the grill from this cauliflower to this grilled broccoli I made a couple of summers ago.

A few years ago, I picked up a simple little grilling basket/wok at Target. Since then, I’ve been grilling vegetables in it like crazy. I normally stick to peppers and onions or some kind of squash medley, but this grilled cauliflower is definitely one of my favorites.

Before throwing it on the grill I added sliced Vidalia onion to it and seasoned it up with some dried oregano, salt, pepper and a good drizzle of olive oil. During this time I made sure I was preheating my grill basket. Preheating your grill basket is like preheating your wok on your stove, it ensures your vegetables will get a good char and stay a bit more crisp. I just started doing this recently and love the results.

We loved how the grilled cauliflower turned out!

Honestly, we could have eaten just as is. It was delicious and a side dish that I will definitely be making again. But since I had some leftover quinoa in the refrigerator begging to be turned into a salad, I went that route. Using up some odds and ends in the fridge, this Greek Grilled Cauliflower and Vidalia Onion Quinoa Salad recipe was born.

It was light, fresh but still substantial enough to stand as a vegetarian meal (I enjoyed leftovers for lunch the next day!). We served it along some typical barbecue fare: grilled steaks, chicken sausages, corn, potatoes, a tomato and basil salad. It really worked well as part of our meal and would be a great addition to barbecue or picnic this summer.

Enjoy!

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Since February, I’ve been working hard at the gym to transform my body. Sounds extreme, I know, but really I’m just focused on building muscle and losing fat so honestly it’s not just about weight loss but more about inches and how my clothes are feeling. I experienced my first “success” last weekend that caught me off guard when I begrudgingly put on a pair of jeans (I hate wearing jeans, they make me cranky) and they surprisingly fit very well. It was a bit of a shock to me because although I have lost 8 pounds on the scale since the beginning of the year (it goes up and down after each weekend, weekends are tough for me), I haven’t really noticed since I typically wear workout clothes or leggings most days. Wearing jeans comfortably has always been a goal of mine and I call this major progress!

One of the most important things I’m working on right now in addition to my gym workouts is nutrition. I’m dedicated to using My Fitness Pal every day to track what I’m eating. I’ve been doing this 50 days now and I have to say, it really has trained me to stop before mindlessly eating or making a food choice I know I’ll regret later. Do I still eat pizza with my family on Saturday night? Yes, but less. I also drink a beer and eat tacos with my husband at lunch on Sunday, but just one beer (and too many tacos) and I try to walk extra later so my Fitbit can tell me how many exercise calories I burned to make me feel a little better. Or I just lay around on the couch and work extra hard at the gym the next day. I’m living a good, balanced life right now and seeing changes in my body and myself when it comes to food and I do think it has to do with being so much more mindful than I was before. It is not extreme weight loss and body transformation, it’s slow and steady and habit forming and that’s encouraging.

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My kids don’t believe me that Thansgiving is next week. Actually, they believe me now, because they looked into their school planners this weekend and saw that a 2-day school week is just around the corner. It creeps up pretty fast doesn’t it?

As we were discussing our Thanksgiving plans, of course we talked about what we would be eating. I love that my kids are now old enough to really get excited about food holidays like Thanksgiving and remember traditional parts of our menu, like my family’s Italian Thanksgiving Stuffing, which was the first thing they requested. The second thing they requested? Mashed potatoes. My kids love mashed potatoes so I decided to try out this Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes recipe out on them this past weekend.

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Raise your hand if you love a good stir fry. (My hand is raised high – and so are my family’s hands too.)

Stir fries are a busy weeknight’s lifesaver. They are simple, healthy and quick. A no brainer really if you think about it. All it takes is a little prep (those precut bags of veggies at the grocery store come in real handy if you are really short on time) and a good wok.

Here are a few more healthy dinner ideas for you.

I’ve been lacking in the good wok department for quite some time. I have not had much luck with woks over the years for some reason. They have always seemed to get warped and become lopsided on my cooktop and the inside of the wok gets a little sad looking after some time.

Swiss Diamond recently sent me their 14″ Nonstick Wok to test out and I am so impressed. The quality is amazing. It’s a huge wok (and comes with a glass lid) so you can easily make stir fries packed with veggies your whole family will love – like this Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry I made this week. Their nonstick coating is made with real diamond crystals (pretty cool, huh) and they are made of heavy-duty cast aluminum with a flat bottom so no warping, tipping or spinning will be happening.

I’m excited to offer the same wok to one lucky reader too – see the below the recipe to enter the giveaway!

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One thing about my college years that I truly miss is time with my friends. Since college life consisted of pretty much classes, work, classes, work and partying, my friends were like family and a big part of my everyday. My good friend Belle and I were pretty inseparable for a good part of my time at UF, and I miss her dearly. We worked together, we lived in the same neighborhood (and eventually became roommates) and hung out in the same friend circle. We were pretty much attached at the hip, starting off our days watching morning tv with coffee, then hitting the gym for a couple of hours and coming home to make a huge pasta lunch for us (and her roommates) before making our way to the evening shift at work.

Our pasta dishes were always a work of art. At least we thought so. I remember we would get so creative in doctoring up jarred sauce with tons of dried herbs and spices and Parmesan cheese. Because that’s all pasta needed in college right?

These days, I still like to consider my pasta dishes pretty special. Though, they are a lot different. White pasta has turned into whole grain pasta, and you’ll pretty much always find a vegetable or two included in the pasta party. But what hasn’t changed is the feeling of pure comfort a big bowl of pasta brings me. And for some reason, this Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Broccoli and Cauliflower that I made for dinner last night made me think of my friend and our good ole days of college.

What makes this pasta special is that it comes together in less than 20 minutes, is good for you and your family will love it. I picked up a couple of packages of broccoli and cauliflower florets on sale last week and they had to be used up (like now). I kept things simple and didn’t bother chopping up any onion or fresh garlic (this was hard for me!) but instead added a good amount of seasoning to make sure it tasted special.

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There’s a pizza place in my area that my family and I LOVE to eat at. It’s one of those pizza places that has a coal fired oven where the pizzas come out nice and crisp, well done and in our opinion, just perfect. They have the best toppings (Italian finger peppers anyone?? HOT HOT HOT!), garlic rosemary chicken wings cooked in the same oven smothered in grilled onions and served with perfect foccaccia triangles, huge salads and great beer and wine. The atmosphere is easy, fun, and family friendly – a good place to be. Just the thought of a visit to Anthony’s makes my mouth water…no lie.

The only problem? It’s a small hike from our house. About a 35-40 minute hike out of our small, quiet piece of suburbia to be exact, and really that’s just a bit too far to drive for Friday night pizza as far as I’m concerned. Sigh. It is what it is…and what it’s become for us is a treat that we try to enjoy every few months (birthday dinners!) or if we happen to be driving through the area like we found ourselves just a couple of weekends ago on our way back from Sanibel.

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My family and I just got back from spending a glorious week at the beach. We rented a place in Sanibel Island, a tiny little piece of land surrounded by water off the coast of southwest Florida.

Paradise I call it.

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