Buffalo Chicken Burgers

Its 60 degrees here and I am thinking spring. Tonight its buffalo chicken burgers. I will post in the morning!

186 Calorie Egg Breakfast

Need breakfast in a hurry? It's the most important meal of the day! Get a jump on your day with this super quick 186 calorie breakfast! Oh, and BACON!

This is another one of my make ahead breakfast ideas....

Eggy Muffin Cups and and English Muffin, YUMMY!

You will need to...

Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients for Eggy Muffin Cups

Oscar Meyer Ready to Serve REAL Bacon Bits

2 Cups Fresh Baby Spinach

6 Fresh Mushrooms, diced

Weight Watchers Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Egg Beaters

Ground Flax Seed

Spray a nonstick saute pan with cooking spray and add spinach and mushrooms, saute until wilted.

Meanwhile....

Add 1 Tsp of Bacon Bits to bottom of each muffin tin.

Evenly distribute spinach mushroom mixture on top of bacon bits. Top each muffin tin with 1 tsp cheese.

Add 1/4 cup egg beaters to each muffin tin.

Sprinkle with 1/4 tsp ground flax seed and run a knife around the edges to mix it in.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until edges start to turn brown and egg is done.

I placed them in a sealed container in the refrigerator and we were able to eat them all week. Substitute the spinach and mushrooms to your liking! Be creative!

Each muffin is

51.5 calories

1.25 grams of fat

0.25 gram of fiber

Pair this with a 100 calorie Thomas' Light Multi-Grain English Muffin topped with a 35 calorie wedge of Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese.

Now you have a breakfast worth talking about! This will keep you going all morning.

Breakfat Total:

Calories 186.5

Fat 3.75 grams

Fiber 8.25 grams

Everytime I think I have something better to do than exercise, I think ahead 4 weeks.  I think about how dissapointed I will be when I get there and say to myself "boy, i wish i would have stuck to my routine, I might be down a size, or actually have arm muscles!" Yep, gets me right back into that routine. There's always something else that needs to be done....do yourself a favor, do IT later, exercise NOW! 4 weeks from now you will be so proud of yourself.

Crazy Good Tacos

Okay Okay...so I know it was Wednesday, not Tuesday....TACO WEDNESDAY just doesn't sound the same as TACO TUESDAY...nope, it just isn't the same!  Well, honestly it may not sound as good, but i can PROMISE you it tasted way better!  It was by far the biggest and best meal I have had while on this new adventure.  I wanted something quick and easy and boy did I hit both in this hearty meal!  

DID SOMEBODY SAY TACO????   

So this was a super easy meal. I happened to have pulled pork tenderloin from another meal in the freezer. (I took a pork tenderloin, put it in a 9X13 added lots of lemon and lime juice, garlic, cumin and roasted it in the oven, covered for about 4 hours at 300 degrees. I then shredded it with a fork, used it for a meal and froze the rest). Bingo...perfect for this recipe. If you don't have pulled pork, or don't want to do it, simply used boiled or rotisserie chicken that you shred, or ground turkey or chicken breast. Anything lean will work.

Place the thawed pulled pork in a glass dish.

Cut up a Lime.

Juice it over the pork.

 Cover it tightly with foil, heat it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile....gather

and...

Any tortilla will work, i used the small fajita size with 90 calories, 2 grams of fat, and 1 gram of fiber.

Rinse and drain the black beans.

That's right folks! Thanks to some good friends (yes you Julie, Sally and Laura!) i have frozen summer corn that we husked in Septmeber.

Heat up the corn if you would like.

Cut up some lettuce.

Slice up some lime!

oops! Everytime i opened the refrigerator, it was there....staring me in the face! Couldn't help myself!

For each serving, take a tortilla, spray both sides with cooking spray. Drape over your oven rack as shown, shape like a taco shell, be sure it doesn't get too close to the heating elements. Bake at 375 degrees until crisp, about 4-5 minutes. They will get more crisp after they cool too. Use tongs!

Stuff each tortilla with...

1/3 cup pulled pork

lettuce

lime juice

3 T shredded cheese

3 T corn

2 T salsa

1/4 cup black beans

1 T fat free sour cream

Ready for this....

290 calories

7.5 grams fat

4 grams fiber

This was so filling.  I wanted to have another one because it was sooooo good, but i was stuffed! Pack it full of the lettuce and you are sure to have a terrific taco!

I thought this would get your attention! 

Feast your eyes on this until Tomorrow!

HEHE!

Mushroom Panini

I promised you the recipe and here it is! DeeeeeeLish!

Grilled Portobello Mushroom Panini
Serves 2
1 Mushroom per Serving
Calories 90  Fat 5 grams  Fiber 2 grams 

2 sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
Boiling water
2 Large Portobello Mushrooms
2 Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese Wedges
    OR 1/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
Cooking Spray
1 Cup Baby Spinach leaves, washed

Place the tomatoes in boiling water to reconstitute them for 10 minutes. Remove, pat dry and dice tomatoes.

Slice the stems off the mushrooms so they lay flat. Scrape gills with spoon to remove, rinse. Slice each cap in half so you have 4 round slices.  Place the sides that had stems on them facing up and top with 1/2 chopped tomatoes, one cheese wedge flattened a bit to fit (or crumble it like i did) or half of the gorgonzola and 1/2 cup of spinach leaves in any order! Top with remaining halves of mushrooms to form a sandwich. 

Preheat a large skillet or grill pan, or feel free to do these on the grill. Make sure the pan is good and hot, spray with cooking spray.  Place the mushroom sandwiches in the pan and cook for 4 minutes. Flip them over and cook for another 4 minutes or until brown and cheese is nice and gooey!

I love to serve this with  french onion soup.  

I also topped mine with a tablespoon of weight watchers shredded monterey jack cheese.

(not added into nutritional info though)

Stuffed Cabbage Casserole

Who doesn't love comfort food?
From the moment the weather man says that ugly word....snow....all i can think about is warm comfort food. Well, it's true, we had snow last night. Dinner was, pure comfort food..... a stuffed cabbage casserole that I saw on SkinnyTaste. She made it healthy....i made it a little different, but healthy. The servings are large and filling. The leftovers are amazing! Here's my version.

Stuffed Cabbage Casserole

Recipe slightly modified from Kalyn's Kitchen and Skinnytaste.com

Servings: 10 • Serving Size: 1/10th

Calories: 300 • Fat: 9 g • Fiber: 6.5 g 
Ingredients:

• 1 lb. lean ground turkey breast
• 1 lb. italian turkey sausage ground or at least removed from casing 
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• 1 tbsp finely minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 2 tsp splenda or truvia (or brown sugar, but it will add calories)
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1 large head savoy cabbage, coarsely chopped  
• 2 cans (15 oz.) tomato sauce
• 1 can (8oz.) tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups cooked organic short grain brown rice
• 2 cups fat free shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 13X10 inch glass casserole dish with non-stick spray.  Heat a very large frying pan on medium heat; add onion, paprika, garlic, thyme, truvia, salt, pepper, ground turkey and sausage and saute until it's browned and cooked through, breaking it apart as it cooks.

After brown, drain meat and then add tomato sauce and water. Cook 15-20 minutes until thick and bubbly. 

Place small amount of water in a large stock pot, add diced cabbage and heat until just wilted.

Add rice to tomato and beef mixture. Stir well.

In casserole dish, layer half of the cabbage and top with half of the meat mixture, repeat ending with meat.

Bake at 350 degrees covered with foil for 25 minutes. Remove foil, top with cheese and bake until cheese is melted. Sice into 10 pieces. Serve! Enjoy! It's even better the second day!

French Onion Soup.....baby it's cold outside!
I made this soup the other night for dinner and paired it with a portabello mushroom panini (i will share that recipe another day!)and some of those yummy peppers from an earlier blog! Out of this world! Serves 2.

In a saucepan combine

1 t butter

2 cups thinly diced sweet organic onions

1 T sugar

cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes until carmelized.

Stir in....

 1/4 cup dry red wine (optional)

1/2 cup water

3 cups fat free less sodium organic beef stock

1/8 t dried or fresh thyme

Bring to a boil....

Cook until reduced to 2.5 cups and dark brown.

While soup is reducing, slice baguette bread into 2 half inch slices. Place on toaster oven rack, or on baking sheet. Top with 2 tablespoons grated swiss cheese. Broil for 2-3 minutes watching carefully.

Divide soup between 2 bowls. Top with cheesey bread. Enjoy!

Calories 170

Fat 4g

Fiber 2g

Here is a photo of our dinner. I posted the pepper recipe already, and will post the panini later! Check back.

 I find that makes it a whole lot easier! 5 lbs is easy! 25 seems like forever!

I want to share my daily meals, calorie counts and exercise routine with you tomorrow. Some of you have asked, and i am happy to tell!

Stay warm and safe! Until tomorrow.........

Pizza

What's for lunch? Did you say.....PIZZA?????
I did! I needed a quick healthy lunch and here's what i came up with! It took me 5 minutes to make!

Take one "Flat-out" brand flatbread any flavor you like and spread it with 2 T fat free ranch dressing. 

Layer it with veggies. I chose 1 cup of baby spinach, 1/4 cup raw mushroom slices, 2 campari tomatoes sliced thin. Then top it with 1/3 cup weight watchers brand mexican shredded cheese.

Now, bake it in the oven at 450 degrees for about 3-4 minutes until cheese melts and bread is crisp.

  Voila! Lunch is served! Yummy! 

270 calories

7 grams fat

4 grams fiber

For a hearty dinner meal, try adding diced cooked chicken, bbq sauce, pineapple and ham, peppers, etc etc.  The toppings are endless! There is a lower calorie version of the flatout, i just could not find it at my store...but i will keep looking! 

A good friend once said...

Team Work Makes the Dream Work....

Team up with a good friend and make that dream of becoming a healthier you come true!