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Eat your heart out Rachel Ray!  JK I love her… but honestly, we all have those days where we get home and ordering take out seems like too much of a feat – ordering, waiting, finding cash to tip the delivery guy… ugh.  I have been working on creating a few easy meals to keep up my sleeves for days like those and the other day before we started eating J asked why I wasn’t taking a picture… “It’s not very exciting… it took me like 5 minutes to make” “WHITNEY that’s the best type of post!!” Not sure if that’s accurate or not, but I’m taking my PR agents advice and sharing this with you all… here are a few of my favorite 10 minute meals right now (by 10 minutes, I mean you actually “cooking” for 10 minutes… there may be longer baking/waiting time):

Easy Tomato Raviolis

• Packaged Raviolis (I used Corn Ricotta Raviolis)
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cup EVOO
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil,
• sliced into ribbons

1. Cool raviolis according to package’s directions.
2. While raviolis are cooking, warm olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat.
3. Add garlic and cook for a minute or so, or until fragrant.
4. Add tomatoes and sauté until they are right about about to burst (5 minutes or so).
5. Season with salt and pepper and reduce heat to low.
6. Transfer drained ravioli to sauce and top with basil and grated parmesan cheese.

Eggplant Pizzas

• 1 Eggplant
• Pizza sauce
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• Optional: Basil, cherry tomatoes, any other toppings

1. Slice eggplant into 1/2 inch circles.  Lightly sprinkle with salt (TRUST ME – LIGHTLY… I could barely eat my first batch because they were so salty) and stack between paper towels to dry out for 20-30 minutes (depends in how much of a rush you are – the longer the better).
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Scrape off the salt and drizzle a little olive oil on each round. Bake for 10 minutes per side (about 20 minutes total).
4. Remove and top with pizza sauce, cheese, strips of basil, halved cherry tomatoes and any other toppings and broil for 5 minutes (or until cheese is melted and golden).
5. Enjoy!

Kale Noodle Bowl with Avocado Miso Dressing

• 1 bunch dino kale, destemmed & cut into ribbons
• 1 package buckwheat soba noodles
• 1 avocado, ripe
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tablespoon EVOO
• 3 tablespoons white miso
• 1/2 of a lime

1. Cook soba noodles according to package’s instructions.
2. While noodles are cooking, blend avocado, garlic, miso, EVOO, lime juice and 3/4 cup water in a blender or food processor (feel free to add more or less water to get sauce to a preferred consistency).
3. Drain noodles once cooked and rinse (to stop cooking).
4. Combine noodles, kale and dressing in a bowl and mix.
5. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and a lime wedge for garnish.
6. This salad is also great cold as leftovers – a 10 minute dinner AND lunch! Woot!

One of my favorite health tips is to “eat the rainbow.”  It not only tastes good, makes you feel great, but it looks amazing! With summer (and its produce) season coming to an end… I’m trying to enjoy as much fruity goodness as I can.  One of my favorite ways? This gorgeous fruit salad!

Mozzarella, Blackberry & Nectarine Salad

• 1 pint blackberries
• 2 nectarines, cut into segments
• 1 mango, sliced into segments
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 ball fresh mozzarella, sliced
• 10 basil leaves, cut into ribbons
• frisee (optional)

Dressing

• 1/2 cup rice vinegar, plus 2 tablespoons
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon cardamom pods (optional)

1. Drizzle red onion slices with 2 tablespoons of vinegar and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
2. To make dressing, bring vinegar and honey to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat.
3. Remove from heat and add cardamom pods (if you decide to). Let stand covered until cooled. Remove pods.
4. While onions are pickling, assemble your fruit and cheese on a platter.
5. Top with pickled onions and drizzle with vinaigrette dressing.
6. Sprinkle with ribbons of basil and enjoy!

 This salad is also great with homemade sourdough croutons (just fry in EVOO and sprinkle with a little salt).

My husband loves chicken schnitzel, so I wanted to find a way to make it in a way that wouldn’t totally ruin whats left of my bikini bod.  Thank goodness for Eating Well and their amazing adaption – this definitely is going to make its way to the top of my “Weekday Meals” list (everything was ready to go in under 30 minutes (including cook time!!).

Crispy Chicken Schnitzel with Herb-Brown Butter

• 2 8-ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts (I asked my butcher to butterfly them)
• 1/4 cup white whole-wheat flour (regular white flour is fine in a pinch)
• 1 large eggs, beaten
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1-2 cups fresh whole-wheat breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used dill and chives)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Coat a large baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.
3. If you didn’t get your chicken breasts butterflied, now is the time to halve them horizontally and pound with a meat mallet until 1/4 inch thick.
4. Season chicken with salt and pepper.
5. Place flour in a shallow dish, beaten egg in a shallow dish and flour/lemon zest in a third dish.
6. Coat both sides of the chicken in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs and transfer to your prepared baked sheet. Spray with olive oil cooking spray.
7. Bake the chicken until golden brown about 10-12 minutes.
8. While chicken is baking, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.  Cook about 2 minutes, until butter just starts to brown.  Add olive oil and minced shallot and cook for 30 seconds more.
9. Remove from heat and stir in herbs. Season with salt and pepper.
10. Serve chicken on a bed of mixed greens and top with herb sauce and lemon slices.