Well, my version of it anyway :)

A coworker brought in some veggies from her garden for the taking the other day and I had 3 Anaheim peppers and 1 green bell pepper to use up before it went bad.

So, I made some hashbrowns (just frozen shredded potatoes cooked in a little spray olive oil, salt & pepper). And I chopped up the peppers along with 3 little slices of canadian bacon and lightly fried them in some spray oil. Then I added in some eggbeaters (about 1/2 cup or 2 eggs each) and a couple tablespoons of salsa (I used a roasted tomatillo salsa).

Scramble the eggs, veggies, ham & salsa together until done and top with a dollop of sour cream. All in all it was just under 500 calories each for brunch for hubs & I today. Not bad and quite tasty! :)

(Also, easy to make all your own!)

A typical summer meal for us is anything on the barbecue.

One of the easiest things are skewers. Just slice up some veggies and marinate some meat, string them up and grill until done. Simple and satisfying.

I usually make my own skewers and either make up a marinade or buy a pre-made one, but this time I saw these yummy sounding ones already done up at the meat counter so I brought them home and paired them up with my own skewered veggies.

I love red onion and mushrooms especially when grilled, the flavors are just wonderful...and I also had a bell pepper on hand. Other things I like are zucchini, yellow squash, plums, nectarines, and eggplant. I usually make some brown rice as a side dish for the meal.

These are before and after pics. The skewers were spicy szechuan chicken and chipotle rosemary pork.





Enjoy!

Last week we picked up some fresh pasta from one of our favorite booths at the farmers market. This was a new one for us: fresh organic spinach angel hair pasta.

The fresh pasta just takes 2 minutes to cook in boiling water and has so much flavor. I tossed it with a bit of olive oil and freshly grated parmesan and a little salt & pepper. Then I topped it with a bit of salmon and some sauteed tomatoes on the side.

The salmon....a friend told me the other day about these little frozen pouches of fish at the grocery store (Albertsons...I don't think they are a national chain, more of a regional I think) that she found in the frozen aisle by the 'healthy stuff' (think veggie burgers, tofu meals, etc). Well the come in little vacuum sealed pouches, single serving size, that are thin pieces meant to be able to thaw quickly and bake for about 10 minutes. That is exactly what I did, baked them at 400F for about 10 minutes with just a bit of salt and pepper on them.

The salmon went perfect with the flavor of the spinach pasta. And a bonus, hubs said he thought it was good and that it didn't taste 'fishy' (can you tell he is not a fan of fish, haha).

Then I sauteed some tomatoes in about a tablespoon of olive oil (spray works just as good too) with some minced garlic, basil (I used dried but fresh is even better) and a bit of salt & pepper.

It was a wonderful meal!

Enjoy!

This is a favorite summertime recipe of mine. It is a cold soup that is totally refreshing and it has that good fat that is in avocado's.

This recipe is from a Rachael Ray Magazine, although I do change up a couple things:

ingredients:
4 cloves of garlic, peeled & halved
1 jalapeno chile, seeded
4 avocados, halved and peeled
grated peel of 1 lime and juice of 3 limes ( I usually don't have limes on hand so I just use lime or lemon juice from the little squeeze bottle you pick up in the produce section)
3/4 cup cilantro leaves
salt & pepper
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups fresh corn kernals (roasted on the grill or in the oven)
dash of hot sauce (my addition)

Using a food processor, finely chop 2 cloves garlic and the jalapeno. Add the avocados, lime peel, lime juice, and 1/2 cup cilantro leaves, season to taste with sale and pepper. Process until just combined. With the machine on, slowly pour in the chicken broth until smooth. If the soup is too thick, slowly add up to 1 cup water.

In a small nonstick skillet, toast the corn kernels over medium heat, stirring until lightly browned. Season with salt and let cool. Stir 1-1/2 cups corn into the soup.
Top the soup with the remaining corn kernals and cilantro.

Enjoy!

Well, it has been a while since I posted some food up here...sorry about that. I have been cooking, just nothing exciting I guess, haha.

Anyways, I have seen a lot of recipes and talk about white chicken chili lately and have been wanting to try it. Hubs on the other hand, who loves regular chili, wasn't looking forward to it. I have a new cookbook I am using for my inspiration...it is the new Cooking Light Cookbook and that is where I got this recipe. The only changes I made was to add some roasted corn to the recipe. If I make it again I would like it to be a bit thicker and spicier so I would double the amount of green chilis and use my regular spice (including a small bit of masa to thicken it up) kit that I get at the store. And maybe a small dollop of fat free sourcream on top.

Overall, I thought it was ok, but too thin and hubs thought it was too much meat and needed something else added into it.

Here goes:

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces ( I used ground turkey)
2 cups finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground coriander
2 (4.5 oz) cans chopped green chilis, undrained
1 cup water
2 (15.5 oz) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14 oz) can fat free, low sodium chicken broth
1/2 tsp hot sauce
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup chopped green onions

1. heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan, cook 10 minutes or until chicken is browned, stirring frequently.

2. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion to pan, saute 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic, saute 2 minutes. Stir in cumin, oregano, and coriander, saute 1 minute. Stir in chilis, reduce heat to low, partially cover, and cook 10 minutes, Add chicken, 1 cup water, beans, and broth, bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in hot sauce. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with the cheese, cilantro, and green onions.

8 servings

Calories: 233
Fat: 5.9g
Protein: 32.7g
Carb;p 11.7g
Fiber: 3.4g

Enjoy :)

Something the hubs and I do regularly on weekends is to go to the local New Seasons grocery store (it is kind of like a Whole Foods, but better, like a local version of a Whole Foods) and get lunch. They have a great deli with made-to-order sandwiches and made from scratch soups.

Well, we went in for sandwiches this weekend and tried a couple of soups too, and decided to share some of the Brazilian Black Bean soup they had out. It was delicious! They list the ingredients (for allergy info) so I copied them down and made my own version tonight.

Warning: it is a bit spicy, if you don't like spice just alter the amount of cayenne to get it where you like it :)

Ingredients:

2 small cans of black beans
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp bay leaves
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper
3 cups vegetable broth
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 cup orange juice
juice of one lime
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, bell pepper, and garlic and saute until tender. Rinse & drain the black beans, then add to the pot. Add the cumin, coriander, bay leaves and cayenne pepper and stir. Add the cider vinegar and stir. Add the orange juice & lime juice and stir. Add the vegetable broth and salt & pepper. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until everything is heated through.

Serves 4. Calories: 247, Carbs: 48, Fat: 1, Protein: 13.

Enjoy :)

Many of you I am sure get the Hungry Girl emails daily....well when I saw the pumpkin cheesecake recipe I knew I was going to have to try it. I usually do the desserts for Thanksgiving and Christmas and if I can do a healthier version of a classic then that is even better :)

Here is a link to the recipe.

I decided to test this out before the big day, so I made it last weekend and hubs and I taste tested it. Personally, we did not like the sourcream topping at all. It made it just too tart. Also, the flavor of the cheesecake tasted a bit off.

Hubs wasn't crazy about the crust. He knew something was different about it - it wasn't graham cracker, that's for sure, haha....so he asked and I told him the truth...it was made of fiber one cereal. Well, he didn't think that sounded good, so he was done with the pie after that. I liked the crust a lot though, so I wasn't making any changes to it.

I knew I was still going to make the cake, so I needed to make some adjustments to get it up to flavor standards. So I took a piece out and scraped off the sour cream topping and the crust, then I took the filling and stirred it up so I could work with it. I added about a tsp of splenda to it...and voila, the flavor was perfect.

So, today I made a new cake to bring over for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, and I skipped the sour cream topping and added 1/2 cup extra splenda to it. I think it will taste 'right' now and we will see what everyone else thinks about the crust and flavor :)

When I saw the cake had 8 slices and was only 160 calories per slice, I knew it was 'the one' for this holiday season :)

Happy Holidays!