Wellness Wednesday With Lauren: Goat Cheese Salad and Tomato Basil Soup

I am still recovering from my whirlwind trip to San Francisco.  So, I figured I'd get back into the swing of things with a great healthy recipe I recently tried.  Great for getting back in shape for beach wear season!  BTW...Tiffany - when is that post coming??  I need to purchase fabulous beach/swim wear for when I go to the beach in June.

Goat Cheese Salad:
Ingredients:
-  Spring salad/spinach salad
-  Short log of herb goat cheese
-  Almonds, pistachios or pine nuts, chopped
-  Red seedless grapes, halved
-  Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:
-  Roll 6 1-inch pieces of goat cheese into a ball
-  Lay out nuts and role goat cheese to coat
-  Serve goat cheese topping over salad with halved grapes, top with black pepper and your favorite balsamic vinaigrette.

Tomato Basic Soup:
We got this recipe from Food Network, however we modified to the recipe below:

Ingredients:
-  1 (14 oz.) can chopped tomatoes
-  3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
-  Salt and freshly ground black pepper
-  1 yellow onion, diced
-  2 cloves garlic, minced
-  1 cup chicken broth
-  1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves or 2 tablespoons dried basil
-  2 tablespoons butter

Instructions:
-  Preheat oven to 450 degrees
-  Strain the chopped canned tomatoes, reserving the juices in a bowl, and spread onto a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and roast until caramelized (about 10 - 15 minutes)
-  While tomatoes are roasting... in a saucepan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat.  Add the onion and garlic, cook until softened (about 10 minutes)
-  Add the roasted chopped caned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, chicken broth, and butter.  SImmer until vegetables are very tender (about 15 minutes)
-  Add basil
-  Pour mixture into a blender and puree allowing for some steam to escape from the top.  Serve immediately.

Enjoy!
Lauren