Recipes – Page 20 – Fervent Foodie

Mini Cheesy Meatloaves

February 3, 2011 8 Comments

Helloooooo cheesy meaty goodness!

Continuing on with my Cooking Light recipe rampage, the other night I cooked up some of the Cheesy Meat Loaf Minis featured in a recent issue of the magazine.

Super simple to throw together, and really really friggin tasty.

First up, I measured out all my ingredients like the oober organized little cook that I am (see the list at the bottom of the post).

Here are the goods:

I decided to go with New York style white cheddar cheese. I can’t say that I’ve ever tried that type of cheese before, but holy cow (no pun intended) is it delicious!

Cheeeesseeeeeee 🙂

Next up I sautéed the onion and garlic… The recipe called for 1/2 cup onion and 2 cloves garlic. Of course we all know that means you are actually supposed to use 1 whole cup of onion and no less than 3 cloves garlic.

Naturally.

The recipe also called for toasting of the breadcrumbs… Just be careful not to burn them! (AKA I burnt my first.. and second batch… dangit!)

Once the onions were nice and soft and the bread crumbs were toasty, I tossed all the goodies into a bowl along with 11 ounces of 90% ground sirloin.

Why do I always feel the need to include pics of the raw meat on my blog?

Good question…

This batch made 3 mini meatloaves, one of which I had for dinner along with some steamed broccoli with lemon juice:

This picture makes me start salivating uncontrollably….

Apparently, my body has been secretly feigning for a little red meat in its life!

Mmmmmgghhhhhhhhhh……

Meat.

Stats on 1 mini cheesy meatloafy: 350 calories, 19g carbs, 17g fat (red meat, folks), 29g protein, 1g fiber

Mini Cheesy Meatloaves Ingredients List (serves 3)

1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup bread crumbs
11 ounces 90/10 ground sirloin
1.5 ounces New York style white cheddar cheese, cubed
1/4 cup ketchup, divided (2 tbsp mixed in, and 2 tbsp for basting the tops)
1.5 tsp dijon mustard
1.5 tsp prepared horseradish
3/8 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1 large egg

Instructions: Mix all ingredients (except 2 tbsp ketchup) in a large bowl. Divide into 3 equal sized loaves. Place on cookie sheet coated with cooking spray. Baste tops of the loaves with remaining 2tbsp ketchup. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

Speaking of droolworthy, I went to El Jalapenos in Barberton for dinner this evening and got a seriously amazing chicken fajita salad. I literally did not stop to drink, speak, or breathe from the moment it hit the table. Check out the insanely huge burrito my friend Allison got:

Insanity!!!

Can’t believe the weekend is here! Woot!

Recipes

How to make your own ground meat

February 1, 2011 14 Comments

So, did everyone else know how crazy easy it is to make your own ground meats? I had no idea until I saw a blurb in Cooking Light about putting chicken breast in a food processor. Sound odd to anyone else? I was intrigued so I decided to give it a go over the weekend.

Take a looksie at these chicken tacos I made!

I don’t mean to brag, but that may be the most beautiful taco I’ve ever laid eyes on. What’s even more beautful was how super easy it was to make. First I started by tossing 1 jalapeno and 2 tsp minced garlic into a food processor:

I gave that a good pulse:

Then added 8 ounces chopped chicken breast:

And literally 10 seonds later I had my very own homemade (slightly green tinted) ground chicken breast!

Isn’t it funny how something so simple can give you such a great sense of pride and accomplishment? 😀

I threw the ground chicken into a pan and seasoned with S&P and some cayenne pepper:

The meat cooked up in no time!

Next I sliced up some fresh avocado. Delicioussssssssnesssssss:

I used some Tumaro’s Low Carb tortillas (only 60 calories a pop) for my taco base, then added 2 ounces of the chicken, some chopped red onion, tomato, shredded cabbage, chopped cilantro, a little dribble of fat free sour cream, about 2 tbsp of avocado, and a little drizzle o’ lime:

A little overboard on the toppings? Perhaps…

I also added some Frank’s red hot for good measure (its hiding under the veggies)

8 ounces of chicken made me enough for four tacos. I ate two for dinner, and wrapped the remaining two up in plastic wrap for dinner the next night (by the way, the tacos were equally delicious cold 🙂 ).

So tasty and SO colorful!

Stats on 1 taco: 194 calories, 21g carbs, 7g fat, 19g protein, 10g fiber

Stats on dos tacos: 388 calories, 42g carbs, 14g fat, 38g protein, 20g fiber

Recipes

Ahmygawd Breakfast Sandwich

January 31, 2011 12 Comments

Yesterday morning, I was the picture of perfection and actually woke up at the time I had intended and did NOT sleep through my alarm for a solid hour. Let’s hope I can keep this up all week!

I rolled out of bed, and headed straight to the gym for a 30 minute round-and-round on the ~~hamster wheel~~… elliptical. Then, straight from the gym (in all my sweaty glory) to the grocery store to buy all my foods for the week. Silly me forgot to pack a Luna bar or nourishment of any variety for my grocery conquest.

Bad news bears.

Needless to say, I was FAMISHED by the time I got home, and I was unfortunately facing a dilemma. Issue #1: I wanted eggs. Hot and dippy with ooey gooey smooth-as-butter yolk. Issue #2: I was also craving sausage…. as in Mary’s special eggs. I wanted yolk, but I wanted sausage. And I’m not talking sausage on the side. I’m talking sausage all up in my yolk.

It was at this precise moment that I concocted my PERFECT breakfast sandwich. The best of both of my worlds.

The Ahmygawd Breakfast Sandwich.

First, I sautéed half of a Honeysuckle Hot Turkey Sausage link (casing removed) in a pan:

Hello sausage! Ima eat you.

THEN I cracked an egg right on top of this mound of sausage:

The egg white dribbled down around the sausage and formed a glue to hold the whole shebang together. Once the underside was cooked, I flipped her over:

Whattttttt????? Insane.

And once that side was cooked (though not TOO cooked –we’re going for oozy yolk here) I slid the egg/sausage combo onto a toasted whole wheat English muffin:

World = Rocked.

Ah.my.gawd.

Stats on the life changer: 255 calories, 24g carbs, 10g fat, 20g protein, 3g fiber

What you’ll need:

1 link turkey or chicken sausage, casing removed
1 egg
1 English muffin
5 minutes to eat your face off

Recipes

Couscous Crusted Chicken

January 26, 2011 5 Comments

Talk about a happy accident!

Once I got home from the grocery store, I was on a mission: to make the couscous stuffed chicken featured in this month’s Cooking Light. I had even pre-snipped the recipe out and hung it up at the stove:

Hard core.

I was pretty excited to try this recipe for a few reasons. First, I have a giant tub of Rice Select Tri-Color couscous in my cabinet that has been begging to be used. Second, I love any excuse to use my meat mallet.

Let’s be honest… I like any excuse to type “meat mallet” Smile with tongue out

Even though the ingredients list is fairly long the dish came together pretty easy. First, I pounded the chicken breast out to about 1/4 inch thickness and sliced in half. For the couscous mixture, I brought 1/4 cup of fat free low sodium chicken broth to a boil then added 1/4 cup of the couscous. Then you cover the couscous, remove it from the heat, and let it hang out for about 4 minutes.

Then add in the flava:

1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1 tbsp Athenos Feta Cheese
1 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup thinly sliced spinach
1 clove minced garlic

The Cooking Light recipe called for olives (BLEGH!) and olive oil, which I omitted and instead subbed in sundried tomatoes and spinach. Divide the couscous mixture between your chicken breast halves:

And them roll them up jelly roll style…. Easy right?

Ummm not so much. I had a couscous blow out and half of the filling fell out! So, I went with my guts and seared the chicken on all sides, then plopped into a baking dish and kind of mashed the extra couscous mix on top of the chicken.

Then I popped it into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

And VOILA!

Couscous crusted chicken!

The couscous got a little crispy in the oven, and it reminded me a lot of breaded chicken!

Of course I had a salad on the side.

Overall, the couscous crusted chicken idea is AMAZING. Now I just need to come up with some sort of sauce to go along side… Hmmmmm……

Stats on 1/2 of the Couscous Crusted Chicken Recipe: 203 calories, 16g carbs, 4g fat, 26g protein, 1g fiber

Couscous Crusted Chicken Ingredients List (Serves 2)

8 ounces chicken breast
1/4 cup couscous – I use Rice Select Tri Color Couscous
1/4 fat free low sodium chicken broth
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1 tbsp Athenos Feta Cheese
1 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup thinly sliced spinach
Black pepper to taste
1 clove minced garlic

Recipes

Quinoa!

January 25, 2011 5 Comments

I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about quinoa lately (pronounced keen-wah), but not surprisingly MANY people still have never heard of this food. Quinoa has been dubbed a super grain — though I think it’s actually a seed not a grain — because it is high in complete protein (meaning that it includes all nine essential amino acids). In addition to the protein, it’s got a whole list of other benefits–it is rich in magnesium, zinc, vitamin E, and selenium (which help to control weight and reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes) AND quinoa is rich in lignans (found to reduce the risk of heart disease as well as certain types of cancer). (source)

Pretty impressive resume, eh?

Way back in August, I attended the Healthy Living Summit in Chicago and while there I ventured off to Trader Joe’s with Haya. At the time, I was PUMPED to buy my very first box of Quinoa. Fast forward 5 months, and the box of quinoa was still sitting unopened in my cabinet just waiting to be used.

So sad!

I’d only had quinoa once before (at the HLS) so I wasn’t entirely sure how to incorporate the seed into a meal. After months of staring at the box, I finally decided to go with TJ’s recipe printed right on the backside. Why the heck not?

One important thing about quinoa is that you have to soak and rinse it before you use it:

While the Quinoa soaked, I got to chopping some bell peppers. The recipe called for one yellow and one red pepper:

And one medium onion… I threw in some green pepper for good measure.

Ready, set, go!

Once I was done chopping, I cooked up 1 cup of quinoa according to the package instructions (though I subbed fat free low sodium chicken broth for the water). Then I threw the veggies into a saute pan along with 4 minced cloves of garlic and some S&P and let them hang out for a bit.

Meanwhile, I cubed up 8 ounces of grilled chicken:

Gettin their sizzle on:

Once the quinoa cooks through it gets pretty fluffy. It kind of reminds me of fluffier couscous:

Once the quinoa was cooked, I combined it with the veggies and chicken, about 10 leaves of sliced up fresh basil, and 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese:

I topped my plate off with some black pepper and red pepper flakes for good measure:

This specific recipe was a little on the bland side, but despite that I LOVE quinoa. Since we were lacking in the flavor department, I topped myself off with some Frank’s Red Hot to add a little kick.

Now that I’ve broken the quinoa seal, I’m feeling optimistic about trying out some different quinoa recipes. Any of you guys have suggestions?

Stats on 1/4 of the TJ’s Quinoa recipe: 288 calories, 38g carbs, 6g fat, 21g protein, 5g fiber

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