10 Calorie Iced Mocha (yes, really).

August 8, 2011 7 Comments

The other day, I came home to THIS on my doorstep:

Jealous?!?!

This goodie box was sent to me as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Godiva Coffee.

It’s the simple things in life, I tell ya.

It’s been so stinkin hot, that I figured I could put the Godiva Chocolate Truffle coffee to good use by making some iced coffee. Give me iced coffee and a straw and you’ll have yourself an empty glass in approximately 13 seconds.

Early in the morning, I brewed up a big ole pot of the Chocolate Truffle coffee, and proceed to drink 2 glasses of it hot. I couldn’t get over the strong chocolate smell! I put the rest of the pot into the fridge to chill out, and it made the whole fridge smell like delicious cocoa.

Later that afternoon, I filled a glass halfway with ice:

DSCF7251

Then added 6 ounces of the brewed coffee, plus 1 packet of no-cal sweetener, plus 2 ounces of some fat-free unsweetened vanilla almond milk (the kind I buy is 40 calories a cup).

Isn’t it pretty?

All mixed up:

10 calories to caffeinated joy!

If you are feeling extra sassy, you could even add a squirt of your favorite chocolate syrup to the mix. Your call my friend. Your call. 😉

Recipes

A different kind of taco meat.

August 5, 2011 12 Comments

Mexican food = my fav.

Ok, maybe it’s second fav (right after Italian)… but it’s pretty high on the things I’d like to eat this very moment list, that is fo sure.

Whenever I make tacos at home, I always go with ground turkey or ground beef and a packet of taco seasoning. It’s tasty and super duper easy, of course, but it can get a teensy bit boring week after week.

Then I stumbled across this Cooking Light recipe for Chicken and Black Bean Stuffed Burritos.

Enter totally tasty un-boring taco meat:

This was pretty darn easy to pull together, and the meat is tasty and versatile. Perfect for busy season batch cookin!

All you need to do is combine the following together in a saucepan and bring to a boil:

1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper

Once it boils, stir in 1/4 cup of sliced green onions and 1 pound of shredded chicken – you could use rotisserie chicken, but I just grilled a large chicken breast up on the George and gave it a good shred using two forks.

And just like that, the meat is done!

I planned to make a burrito, but the tortillas I had at home were teeny tiny so I decided a quesadilla was the way to go:

This is 1/4 of the chicken:

A top a Trader Joe’s Low carb tortilla:

Plus 1/4 cup black beans, 1/4 cup fresh salsa, and 2 tbsp fat-free cheddar cheese:

Then I tossed another tortilla on top, and popped that puppy back on the George. I let it hang out on the grill until it was crispy and the cheese was melty, then I sliced the quesadilla up and served it up with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt (FABULOUS sour cream substitute):

So yummy!

Stats on the quesadilla: 350 calories, 36g carbs, 7g fat, 42g protein, 17g fiber

The next night, I decided to use up some of the leftover chicken by making a huge arse salad. I used 4 ounces of the chicken and all the same toppers as I did with the quesadilla and just threw everything a top a bed of mixed greens:

Hello two totally tasty totally healthy dinners that DO NOT taste like cardboard! I truly believe you can throw ANYTHING on top of lettuce and call it a salad 🙂

Stats on one giant salad: 275 calories, 19g carbs, 4g fat, 35g protein, 5 fiber

So in summary, this meat was just as easy to cook up as ground meat, but had a TOTALLY different taste. And it was delish on tacos, quesadillas, salads. Two thumbs up in my book!

Recipes

I say frittata, you say… ?

July 24, 2011 8 Comments

If I ever volunteer to come to your house and make you breakfast, you should consider yourself very lucky. You should also consider yourself forewarned:

For no dish, no matter how simple, will the kitchen be left unscathed. What can I say? I like to become one with my food Winking smile

And yes, that IS a bottle of wine next to the eggs.

I’ve always wanted to make a frittata, and this Sunday morning I was in the mood to get my cook on so I decided to give it a shot. Once I started googling frittata recipes, I realized I was lacking a major piece of equipment: a skillet that could go from stove top to oven without causing a fire. Dangit. That’s going on the T.J. Maxx list.

Since I had my heart set on eggy bliss, I decided to just use a standard glass pie pan. Does that mean it’s not a frittata anymore? Hmmmm what would its proper classification be? I say frittata, you say….. frrrrreggcasserole?

Something to ponder as the man pours your mimosa.

This frittata consisted of:

6 egg whites
3 eggs
2 Hot Chicken sausages (casings removed, cooked and crumbled)
1 large handful chiffonade spinach
S&P, to taste
Frank’s Red Hot, to taste (plus more for garnish )
1/4 cup diced tomato
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tsp minced garlic

While I cooked up the sausage, and sautéed the onion, mushroom, and garlic, I got to egg crackalacking. Once the sausage was cooked and the veggies were soft, I stirred all the goodies into the eggs then poured into a pie pan that I’d coated with cooking spray.

Into the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, and you’ll end up with this beauty:

The frittata set up PERFECTLY. Perfect temperature, perfect cook time:

I started off with just a slice:

But ended up eating precisely half of the frittata…

Good news is the stats on half the frittata: 318 calories, 11g carbs, 11g fat, 41g protein, 3g fiber

Molto bene Red lips

My Favs, Ramblings, Recipes

Recipe: Jambalaya {bad things happen when I don’t eat}

July 19, 2011 11 Comments

Somehow in the past few months I seemed to have forgotten my passion for cooking. Let’s take a moment to ponder how the heck this is even possible. Somewhere between leaving a job of over four years, attempting to sell a house, subsequently becoming a landlord, selling off and donating an insane amount of my possessions, a crazy condo hunt, leaving my family and home state of 26 years, a HORRIBLE moving experience, starting a new job, and immersing myself in the culinary delights of a new city I forgot how much fun and just how darn rewarding a home cooked meal can be.

Blasphemy!

Through these past few whirlwind months I’ve been a little *ahem* emotional. Ok, not just emotional. Let’s also throw in irrational, brash, and downright scary at times. This Saturday I actually cried over burnt pizza. I CRIED, PEOPLE. And then I sat on the living room floor with my knees clenched up to my chest and just stared off into nothingness as my body seethed in furry searching for some sort of carbohydrate to peak my bottomed out blood sugar.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: bad things happen when I don’t eat.

While I was in the midst of nuclear shutdown, the BF came over, sat down beside me, and put his arm around his little sugar feigning zombie. And we sat. And then he did what any good man would do: he didn’t talk, didn’t ask questions, he just got up from the floor sauntered over to the kitchen and made me a snack.

I know, right?

Why can’t I see things so simply? Is it really just a man thing? Are women really just crazy complex, overanalyzing, (often) emotional basket cases? Whatever the case may be (lord knows I don’t have the answers) the BF does a pretty darn good job of reeling me back from Mary’s Land of Anxious Gloom by trying to insert some of the simple things into my life. Sunday morning he convinced me to simply sit on the porch and drink mimosas, and Sunday night we simply made jambalaya for dinner.

This was simply stick to your ribs delicious, guys. I’m serious. It gave the jambalaya we had in New Orleans a run for the money!

Jambalaya

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light’s Jambalaya.

2 links hot chicken or turkey sausage (cooked and sliced)
1 cup white onion (chopped)
1/2 cup celery (chopped)
1/2 cup green pepper (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1.5 cups uncooked long grain brown rice
3 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp paprika (smoked, if you have it)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepepr
16oz cooked chicken breast (cubed)
14.5oz can diced tomatoes with green peppers and onions (undrained)
4oz shrimp (uncooked)
1/2 cup green onions (thinly sliced)

Note: I recommend Uncle Ben’s Fast & Natural Whole Grain Brown Rice and Harris Teeter hot chicken sausage or Jennie-O Turkey Sausage.

Step 1: Coat a large pot with cooking spray then heat over medium-high heat. Add sausage, onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 12 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

Step 2: Stir in uncooked rice and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add broth and all the spices and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

Step 3: Add chicken and tomatoes, half of the green onions, and shrimp. Stir, then cover and cook 8 minutes or until shrimp are done.

Step 4: Remove from heat, sprinkle with remaining green onions, and eat your face off.

Stats on 1 serving: 344 calories, 45g carbs, 6g fat, 33g protein, 4g fiber

Looking for a Jambalaya-for-one recipe? Check out this post.

Looking for a crazy, borderline incoherent, slightly volatile woman? Catch me on a day when I miss my midmorning snack.

Recipes

Spicy black bean burgers two ways

July 7, 2011 7 Comments

ONE:

TWO:

Boom.

Homemade black bean burgers. FINALLY. After all these years I can check you off the Things I’ma Make List. Thank you to this recipe for showing me that homemade black bean burgers are actually super simple to make. Also thank you to Google for always helping me find delicious recipes to try out. I may not be a recipe creator, but I’m one heck of a recipe tryer-outer-and-tweaker if I do say so myself.

Here’s how to make your own black bean burgers in four easy parts.

ONE: Give the following a quick pulse in the blender, then strain out the excess liquids:

1/2 green pepper cut into chunks
1/2 onion cut into chunks
4 large cloves garlic, minced

TWO: Rinse and drain 1 can of black beans and pat those little bean babies dry with a paper towel. Once dry, pour them into a bowl and give them a good mash with a fork. The beans will have a thick and pasty yet slightly chunky (in a good way) consistency.

THREE: Whisk together the following in a small bowl:

1 egg
1 tbsp cayenne pepper (or less if you are a wimp)
1 tbsp cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp Franks Red Hot

FOUR: Combine parts 1, 2, and 3, then sprinkle in 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs and mix until combined. Use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to evenly portion out four burgers. If you’re anal like me, your burgers will have precisely the same circumference. This is optional (though highly recommended).

Cook those burgers up in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes on each side.

*Ding ding ding* Burgers are done!!!

Now it’s time to get creative.

Last night, I had one of the burgers in a big burger salad (just like we had at Pike’s over the weekend)!

I’m fairly certain ketchup and mustard have never looked so good:

Once the leftover burgers were cooled off, I wrapped them in parchment paper and then in a Ziploc baggie, and tossed them in the freezer. Tonight, I heated one of the burgers up in the oven (again, 375 degrees 10 minutes on each side).

I plopped the burger on a Trader Joe’s low carb tortilla along with some tomato, onion, avocado, and dijon mustard:

Coming in for your close up:

I really enjoyed these spicy black bean burgers. The patties held together well even though the middle of the burger had a soft refried bean consistency (which I actually liked). Next time I think I’ll cook them longer in the oven and see if the burger firms up at all. Regardless, I’ll definitely be making these guys again! I think I’ll try swapping out the bread crumbs for oats and egg whites for the egg.

I’m pumped I still have 2 more of these in the freezer Smile

Stats on 1 black bean burger: 182 calories, 30g carbs, 3g fat, 4g protein, 7g fiber

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