While at work yesterday, my mind kept drifting to dinner–but nothing was sounding good to me. Since I have an abundance of tomatoes and basil (thank you backyard garden for your fruitfulness 🙂 ) I decided to do something caprese inspired.
Caprese is one of my all-time favorite Italian dishes, and it typically consists of tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.
Before diving into to the caprese, I got to work on some brussel sprouts. I halved 10 brussel sprouts, trimmed down any rough ends of the stem, and then made a small slit down the core of each sprout half. I read that making this little slit on the rougher part of the sprout helps to ensure even cooking. I put the sprouts on a cookie sheet that was liberally sprayed with cooking spray, then seasoned them with S&P, and gave them a good toss before throwing them into a 415 degree oven for 17 minutes.
Brussel sprouts!
Now onto the caprese! First, I sliced up 1 roma tomato and 1 Sargento light mozzarella string cheese and put them into a bowl:
Then, I drizzled the tomato and mozzarella with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and a 1/2 tsp olive oil and sprinkled with some salt and pepper. Next I added 3 sliced up fresh basil leaves and tossed everything to coat.
Meanwhile, I topped a Mama Lupe’s Low Carb tortilla with some fresh spinach and topped with the tomato mozzarella mixture:
I topped this off with a second Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla, then I popped this baby onto the George foreman grill for about 5 minutes (until the tortilla was crisp and the cheese was melty):
None of these pictures do the quesadilla justice! If you like caprese, you will love this:
I’m hoping I get some tips on taking pictures of food indoors at the Healthy Living Summit! I can never seem to get indoor pictures quite right!
By the way, if you love caprese too check out the recipe I tried for hot caprese! I also added a “rating” scale to my recipe page
Stats on dinner: 325 calories, 43g carbs, 12g fat, 20g protein, 14g fiber
A few hours after dinner, it was time for my night time snack. I was craving a green monster smoothie, so I put the following into the blender:
Green Monster:
This guy was so much GREENER in person than in these photos… my camera was being stubborn last night!
Stats on the green monster: 119 calories, 24g carbs, 2g fat, 8g protein, 6g fiber
Question: what’s your favorite “healthified” Italian dish?
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Here's an awesome recipe for Brussel sprouts cooked in the microwave--just combine the ingredients below, pour over your sprouts after deeply scoring the ends twice (with an "x" or a cross) and removing the old outer leaves. This is great with steamed rice . . .
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs cooking sherry
1 tbs red wine vinegar
1 tsp of lemon juice
1/2 tsp of sesame oil
1/2 tsp of sugar
1/2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbs cold water
That sounds good! Though I don't have any cooking sherry or sesame oil... Might have to stop at the grocery store.
Mmm... caprese has to be one of my favorite combinations - I made a caprese quesadilla just yesterday!! :) I should drag out my old foreman so I can get the grill marks :)
OMG that looks so good!
Mom's recipe for brussel sprouts is the best! I still need to try them roasted though