Southwestern Loaded Baked Sweet Potato

This meal was surprisingly a HUGE hit in my family. Blew me away! I thought I was going to have to bribe and force my family to eat this. We will definitely make this again and again! I love Gina's Skinnytaste Blog. Here is the link to her recipe and below is what I did:) It's not a pretty dish (at least when I made it it wasn't) but it was very tasty! The original recipe is made to be vegetarian. You can keep it that way or add your favorite meat. I added pork from my southwestern green chili shredded pork but I think even shredded rotisserie chicken would be good in this too!

Ingredients:

• 4 medium sized sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt 
• 1 tsp taco seasoning (I make this recipe in large quantity and used 1 tsp of this)
• 1 tsp olive or canola oil
• 1 medium zucchini, cut into half moons 1 inch thick
• 1 small green chili- diced
• 1/2 sweet onion cut into rings
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika or smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 can low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup mild or spicy salsa
• 1/2 cup reduced fat Mexican cheese blend (I used shredded cheddar since I had it on hand)
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions or cilantro (I chopped up 2 green onions)
• 1 cup of any cooked meat you have (pork, chicken- shredded) OPTIONAL

Directions:

Poke holes in the potato with a fork, cook on your microwave’s potato setting until potatoes are soft and cooked through (about 8-10 minutes on high for 4 potatoes). If you don't have a microwave, bake about 45 minutes at 400°F.

Combine yogurt and taco seasoning in a small bowl, mix well. (I just added the taco seasoning right to the cup of yogurt, shown below, and stirred in well.

Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add peppers, onions, zucchini, chili powder, paprika, cumin and salt; cook until the onions have caramelized slightly, about 5 minutes. Add black beans, stir to combine and heat through (about another 3 minutes). Add your cooked shredded meat. Cook till heated through. (I put a lid on this and cooked on low till I had everything else ready to go)

USE a fork to pierce the top in an oval shape, then remove the top of each potato. Top with 2 tbsp shredded cheese, 1/3 cup of black bean mixture, 2 tbsp Greek yogurt mixture and 2 tbsp salsa of salsa. Sprinkle any green onions or cilantro over the top.  Enjoy!

Greek Yogurt with taco seasoning mixed in (SO much better than sour cream!!)

Cut open top, add cheese and veggie/meat/black bean mixture...

Top with the yogurt and sprinkle on any other toppings. Dig in while hot!! 

Southwest Green Chili Shredded Pork

This is one of the simplest and best meals I made while on our 24 Advocare Challenge (diet). This makes a ton so it's best if you are making for a crowd or plan this meal as is for day one and use the left overs on top of nacho's, in a quesadilla or on top a loaded southwest sweet potato!

You will need a crockpot and the following ingredients:

*3-4lb Pork shoulder, trimmed of fat
*2 T Extra virgin Olive Oil
*small sweet onion, cut into half rings
*1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, no salt added
*1 4 oz can diced green cili's
*1 can of your favorite flavor Rotel (I use the green chili and tomato)
*1-2 whole anaheim green chilies, sliced into strips (Or another large can of green chilies-drained)
*2 tsp ground cumin
*salt and pepper

Optional ingredients for making into tacos:
*Corn tortillas
*Salsa verde
*sliced avocado
*Low fat sour cream

Optional toppings if making a carb free meal as I did in these pictures
*lime slices
*salsa of any kind
*sliced avocado
*cilantro

Directions:
1. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and season with salt and pepper. Cook on all sides till browned (about 8-10 mins total)
2. Place pork in slow cooker. Add onion, tomatoes, green chilies, rotel and cumin. Add 1/2 cup- 1 cup water (I didn't do this, but I added the tomatoes and rotel with the juices)
3. Cook on low for 8-10 hours until fork tender. You can use two forks to shred pork right in the crock pot and mix will all the sauteed onions and peppers. YUM.

Serve either as is, in tacos, as quesadilla, nachos, or on a potato! Enjoy and invite some friends over to share! :) Sorry, no pictures below of this served in taco's... they were eaten WAY too quickly to snap a photo!

On top of fully loaded nachos! 

On a loaded sweet potato! HUGE hit in my house!

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes & Asparagus with Rosemary Olive Oil

I was making ribeye's for dinner so I wanted to get some asparagus and some potatoes for the sides. I found this cool looking bag of Restaurant Style Baby Fingerling Potatoes... they were tri-colored (golden, red and purple). So i got home and I was trying to think of how to make these and it just so happens there was a recipe using both the potatoes and the asparagus on the front of the bag!! BAM! That was easy!! Here is a picture of the bag...

So, luckily I had fresh rosemary in my garden and I followed the recipe exactly... it was amazing!! I highly recommend!! If you can't find these cool tri-colored potatoes at your store, just do a mixture of golden and red fingerling potatoes... it just won't be as pretty as mine! :)

INGREDIENTS:
*2 T fresh Rosemary- minced
*1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
*1 lb fresh Asparagus- trimmed
*1/2 lb Pacific Gold fingerling potatoes (I used half of the 1.5lb bag) Cleaned and cut in half vertically
*1/4 tsp sea salt
*fresh ground black pepper to taste
*lemon wedges (I used 1 lemon cut into 6 wedges)

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Toss potatoes with 2 T olive oil. Roast in oven for 20-30 mins on a roasting pan (or cookie sheet) until potatoes are slightly browned. Remove from oven.
3. Toss asparagus with remaining olive oil. Add them to the roasting pan with the potatoes. Place back in oven for 15-20 mins, turning frequently, until potatoes are fork tender.
4. Arrange potatoes and asparagus on a platter. Drizzle some lemon juice over the top and sprinkle with the fresh rosemary, salt and pepper. (I used the juice of 3-4 wedges and used other 2 as garnish on the platter.
5. Serve and enjoy!!

Thank you Progressiverecipes.com for an amazing recipe that I will make again and again!

Tuna Salad with NO MAYO

I am trying to eat healthier and I love tuna salad, but let's face it... mayo just isn't on most diet plans! Here is a great way to eat your tuna. You can eat this plain with a fork if you are trying to stay low carb, or you can put it on multi grain crackers or bread! This actually is better if you make it and let it sit in the fridge a couple hours before eating it. I sometimes add extra lemon/lime because I LOVE citrus.

Ingredients:
*1 lg can albacore chunk white tuna in water- drain well
*1 large celery stalk- diced small
* 1/2 small green bell pepper- chopped into small pieces
* 1/3 cup fresh cilantro
* 2 limes juiced
* 1 lemon juiced
* pepper (and I added nature seasonings)

Mix all together in bowl. Eat right away or let marinate in fridge a few hours before eating. Enjoy and feel good eating it too!

Asian Turkey Wrap- Under 200 calories

I was getting sick of eating so many salads everyday for lunch and I wanted to try to create a healthy sandwich or wrap. I already had most of this stuff on hand so off I went to find a somewhat healthy tortilla and dressing to make a wrap with. 

These LaTortilla Factory, multigrain tortillas are only 100 calories per tortilla. They have 15 grams of fiber and 9 grams of protein!

This dressing only has 35 calories per 2T! I only use around 1 T of it. 

Ingredients:

*1 Tortilla (I like the LaTortilla Factory, Multi grain with EVOO. (See picture below)

*1-2 T of Newman's Own Lite Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing

*shredded red cabbage

*shredded carrots

*julienne cucumber

*small handful of fresh spinach or field greens

*2 slices of low sodium oven roasted deli turkey 

In small bowl, mix the veggies with the dressing till well coated. Spread out the veggies in the middle of the tortilla. Place two slices of deli turkey on the tortilla.  Roll the tortilla tight (I use two tooth picks to hold it together) and cut it in half and serve. Great summer wrap! 

Veggie Breakfast Pizza

This is great to make for breakfast or snack. Great way to get veggies in in the am. I would cut this into fourths and each piece would count as one meal (snack). So you can use whatever veggies and herbs you like really, (I didn't add an ingredient list because it's really up to you what you want in and on it) but here is what i did...

Use a oven safe skillet/fry pan with edges that are at least 1 inch up.
spray with Pam

I added about 1tsp of olive oil and sauteed garlic and chopped sweet onion (you could also add raw bell peppers and mushrooms at this step). Saute until onions are soft.

I then added some chopped red pepper that I had roasted on the grill the night before. And I added a handful of chopped fresh spinach. Distribute all veggies evenly.

In separate bowl, I put in 3 organic brown eggs and about 4 egg whites (from carton). Wisk well with some black pepper. Pour this in skillet over all the veggies. 

DON'T STIR EGGS. You will just let this cook till edges are done and you can run spatula around edges. Middle will still not be done. Once edges are done, add any herbs to top

I added fresh basil and oregano chopped from my garden. I also chopped half a tomato and sprinkled those on top. Place whole skillet under broiler in oven until middle is cooked through and slightly golden brown on top.

Serve. YUM

Next time I'm going to use zucchini and asparagus and saute with the onions and do everything else the same.

Ginger-Garlic Fish in Parchment Paper

I've been seeing a ton of recipes for fish in parchment paper and I wanted to try it out. This recipe is influenced by Rachael Ray. I changed it a bit, mainly with the veggies. Here is her original recipe. Below is what I did and we LOVED it! Even the kids gobbled it up!

This is a super easy recipe... The hardest part was learning how to wrap the parchment paper... I watched this video to learn how.

* 2 6-oz white fish (We used Ono fish. Seabass would be really good too. Possibly Mahi or Halibut too)
* 2 scallions, cut into 3 inch pieces (optional)
* 2 inch knob of fresh ginger- peeled and thinly sliced
* 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
* 1 small zucchini- julienned
* 1 medium carrot- julienned
* 1 1/2 T honey
* 1 1/2 T tamari sause (a fancy kind of soy- found in Asian isle)
* 1 T rice wine vinegar
* salt and pepper
* 2 pieced of 12 inch long Parchment Paper
* Egg wash for brushing parchment paper (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Place your parchment paper down. Put an imaginary vertical line down the middle. In the middle of one side... start laying your ingredients.

3. I started by putting the scallions down first along with the sliced ginger and garlic. Next place your fish on top. Season well with pepper and salt. Place your julienned veggies on top of the fish.

4. In a bowl, mix together the honey, tamari sauce and rice wine vinegar till mixed well. Drizzle half of the mixture over each fish.

5. I brushed egg white along the sides of the parchment paper and then rolled up each side (like shown in video making triangles) until it formed two pockets.

6. Place pockets on baking pan and bake for 12-14 minutes (I baked mine for closer to 17 minutes because they were really thick pieces and I like fish a little more done.

Start placing the food in the middle of one half the parchment paper 

I layered by placing scallions, ginger and garlic on bottom, then I laid the fish on top. Season fish with salt and pepper.  Top with a mound of your julienned veggies.

Drizzle sauce over top

Brush with egg was along sides

Fold the other half over till edges line up and fold up to seal

Place pockets on cookie sheet. Bake

Rip (or cut with scissors) open the top... careful for the steam. Don't let juices spill out.

I placed sticky rice on my plate. Then with spatula, I took fish out of pouch with veggies on top and placed on rice. Next I took the pouch and poured the sauce over the top. We served along side green beans too.

YUMMY and healthy!!

Enjoy!

Pan Sauteed Chicken with Veggies and Herbs

Four reasons why I love this dinner... 1. It's really healthy 2. It's SOOOO good (and the smell of your house is even better!) 3. You can really play with the recipe... making as little, or as much as your family needs and changing up the veggies to your liking or what you have on hand. 4. It's really easy to make!

I came across this recipe because I had a bag of potatoes, some carrots and tons of fresh herbs in my fridge that I wanted to use before they went bad. I also had some chicken and was wanting a healthy, chicken and veggie meal. I found this recipe in a Taste of Home magazine. It was actually on an ad for Swanson Chicken Stock. I changed up a few things, but mostly followed what they did.

I think the only thing I would change next time I make this would be to add some minced garlic along with the olive oil before adding the onions and potatoes. I would also probably use a tad more lemon juice because I am a BIG fan of lemon!

Ingredients:

* 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
* 1/4 tsp paprika
* 2 T all-purpose flour
* 4 bone-in chicken breast halves (I used 2 organic, boneless skinless chicken breasts that were huge... together they weighed 1 1/5 lbs)
* 2 T olive oil (I also used 1 T butter)
* 2 small red onions, cut into quarters (I used 1 medium sized onion)
* 1 lb new potatoes, cut into quarters (I used 5 medium size russet potatoes because I had them on hand)
* 8 oz fresh whole baby carrots (about 16), green tops trimmed to 1 inch (I used one bunch (6) of baby carrots and 2 regular carrots, again because I had them on hand)
* 2 cups Chicken Stock (I used Free Ranch Chicken Broth- not sure what exactly the difference is between stock and broth, but I always have broth on hand) (I also made steamed rice on the side that I used half water and half chicken broth for)
* 3 T lemon juice (I used the juice of one large lemon plus I cleaned and sliced a second lemon and put the slices in while baking)
* 1 T chopped fresh oregano leaves (I just threw in 3-4 branches- I didn't chop. I think it added good flavor to the broth. Next time I may throw in 2-3 branches and chop some in as well)
* 1 Branch fresh Rosemary (Optional- I had this on hand so I used it, but recipe didn't call for it.)
* 1 T chopped fresh thyme leaves

1. Heat the oven to 350. Combine black pepper, paprika and flour. Coat the chicken with the flour mixture.

2. Heat the oil in a 12-inch oven safe skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until it's well browned on all sides (around 3-4 minutes per side). Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.

3. Add the onions and potatoes to the skillet and cook for 5-7 minutes. I seasoned these with some pepper and salt and Nature Seasonings. Add the carrots (I also added 1 T of butter here) and cook a few more minutes. Then add stock (broth), lemon juice and oregano (and rosemary if you are using it) and heat to a boil. Return the chicken to the skillet (I then added the sliced lemon on top). Cover the skillet.

4. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Take out, stir and put back in, uncovered, for another 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Sprinkle with the thyme. Serve!


I served this along side of jasmine rice that I put in my rice cooker. For the liquid, I used 1 part water to 1 part chicken broth. Once it was done, I stirred (fluffed) and added a drizzle of olive oil and some kosher salt. Stir again. I served the chicken and veggies on the side of the rice. I then ladled the juice from chicken/veggie dish over everything.

ENJOY

My ingredients

Noticed how I chopped off most of the green leafy part, leaving about an inch of green.

Lemon slices

Fresh oregano and rosemary branches

chopped fresh thyme

Coat chicken and put in pan with hot oil to brown both sides

Remove chicken, add veggies

Add broth, lemon juice, oregano, (rosemary and lemon slices if you are using them)

After cooking

Served alongside rice and pouring the "gravy" over the top of everything

Mmm Mmm Good!

Whole Grain Waffles

My kids are obsessed with Eggo waffle, and since we are a family that is on the go in the am, we don't typically have time for a long, sit down breakfast on school days. I wanted to make waffles in a big batch that I could freeze and take them out to toast as needed. (Kind of the idea of the eggo, but I wanted to use healthier ingredients). A friend gave me this recipe she got from All Recipe's website and said she loved it. I have to warn you, my husband was not a fan. I thought they were good with butter and syrup, and the kids gobbled them up plain. The key to remember, these aren't your to be your fluffy waffles you get at a waffle house. These are replacing EGGOS. And they are HEALTHY. My kids ate them. I enjoy them. And I like the ingredients in them. For those reasons, I am posting this recipe and I will make them again! If you are making waffles for a special breakfast and ONLY looking for taste... these aren't the right ones... in my opinion.

I tripled this recipe. We ate them fresh that morning and I put the rest in large zip locks to freeze and use for the next month.

Ingredients:
*2 eggs, beaten
*1 3/4 Cup skim Milk (I used 1% organic milk because I had it on hand)
*1/4 Cup canola oil (or coconut oil)
*1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
*1 tsp vanilla extract
*1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
*1/2 cup flax seed meal
*1/4 cup wheat germ
*1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour, which is probably why they didn't taste as good to my husband who doesn't like wheat bread)
*4 tsp baking powder (aluminum-free)
*1 T sugar
*1/4 tsp salt
*1 tsp cinnamon

I also added some fresh blueberries.

Directions:
1) In large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, oil, applesauce, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat in whole wheat pastry flour, flax seed meal, wheat germ, whole wheat flour (or all purpose), baking powder, sugar, and salt until batter is smooth. Fold in blueberries if you are adding them.
2) Preheat waffle iron and coat with cooking spray. Pour batter into waffle iron in batches and cook until crisp and golden brown.

(we tried two different waffle irons. These are MUCH better when made in one that makes thinner waffles. We didn't care for the thick, belgian waffle)

mixture looks grainy

Pour ladle full into center of waffle iron

Makes thin, crisp waffles. Perfect for freezing and re-toasting!

ENJOY!