Ever since I saw the recipe for Cajun Jambalaya in the July 2010 issue of Clean Eating magazine, I’ve been dying to try it!
Luckily, I already had some leftover grilled chicken from last week and leftover turkey sausage from the “corn dog” I made over the weekend, so there wasn’t a ton of prep work for me to do. You could definitely use raw meats though–everything is chopped into bite size pieces so it cooks through pretty fast.
I can’t believe how ridiculously easy this was! Basically, I mixed the following list of items together in a bowl:
Sprinkling of S&P, onion powder, red pepper flakes
1/2 cup dry brown rice
1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
Then I layed out a big piece of foil, sprayed it down with olive oil cooking spray, and dumped everything onto the foil:
Then you just wrap it up like a Chipotle burrito — making sure that the edges are sealed tight so the liquid doesn’t leak out. Pop into a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes, and VOILA!
JAMBALAYA!
This was spiiiiiiicy! I loved it! And it made a TON of food. One note for next time — some of the rice that was sitting on the top of the pile got a little crunchy. I think this can be fixed by either soaking the rice in water before putting it in the mix, or by adding more liquid to the pouch.
I’m in love with this foil pouch cooking method!
Stats on the Jambalaya: 384 calories, 46g carbs, 8g fat, 30g protein, 5g fiber
Jarrod and I wanted something delicious for dinner, so we decided to try this recipe for Chicken Fajitas. We followed Skinny Taste’s recipe to a T, except we also made some brown rice to mix in. The recipe doesn’t say how long to marinate the chicken, so we let it go for about 30 minutes.
We both felt what threw this meal over the edge to amazingness was the guacamole we made to go with it.
My recipe for guacamole adapted from my Chipotle days in college:
I think we all know I adore eggs for breakfast. No arguments here. Bad news is I sometimes can’t find the time in the morning to whip them up. I’ve been wanting to try cooking eggs in the oven for a while, so last night I decided to give it a go. I mixed up my typical scrambled egg mixture: 1 egg, 3 egg whites, S&P, Red Pepper Flakes (RPF?), and some Frank’s Red Hot. I poured the mixture into two miniature ramekins, and popped in a 350 degree oven for 26 minutes.
How cute are these lil guys?
They look like little egg muffins! Little eggins! 🙂
This morning, I decided to turn the lil eggins into a wrap. So I pulled a Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla out of the freezer, heated that puppy up, and topped it all off with some ketchup.
That looks like an eggin massacre…
all wrapped up
Portable and delicious!
These eggins are just so cute! What I really like about this cooking method is you could make a whole muffin tin full of lil eggins! If you had friends over for brunch, everyone could toss in their mixins of choice! Love this idea! Who’s ready for a brunch party? 😀
Breakfast #2
Recently, it was brought to my attention that peanut butter may make an amazing mixin for greek yogurt. Today my friends, I put this to the test.
Friggin’ deliciousness! This reminded me of a peanut butter cheese cake for some reason. Some crushed up nilla wafers on top would have been fabulous. Let’s just say I licked the container clean, and it’s not exactly easy to reach the bottom of a yogurt container with your tongue. But I made it happen. 🙂
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Lunch
Alright… Here’s where the just-trust-me factor comes in.
Let me preface what’s about to go down on my blog with the following: I wanted to try something new for lunch today.
Repeat it with me: I wanted to try something new for lunch today.
I’m going walking with my sister after work, and knew I was packing a chicken sandwich for dinner. Soooo, I was leaning toward the other white meat AKA tuna fish for lunch (NOT a fan of pork, and therefore it is NOT the other white meat in my life). You may recall that I have a long jaded relationship with fish (case in point: my fight with fish). Tuna happens to be the only fish I have found to date that I actually enjoy.
So Tuna it was.
I subsequently noticed I had some cottage cheese in the fridge that was nearing the end of its useful life.
I decided to google tuna + cottage cheese + recipe just to see what might turn up.
At this very moment, you are probably disgusted thoroughly intrigued by this concoction.
I added some chopped up tomato, red onion, and banana peppers right before serving. In an effort to keep my carb-tooth (located directly next to the sweet tooth) under wraps, I served the tuna salad up in a red pepper instead of your typical sandwich:
Me and the tuna pepper:
Up close:
I know those cottage cheese chunks look a little funky, but rest assured my friends, it was down right tasty!
Stats on the tuna pepper: 218 calories, 18g carbs, 2g fat, 36g protein, 4g fiber
I’ve been eyeballing this recipe for Shrimp and Zucchini Pasta for over a week, so I decided to make it for dinner tonight. I used the Skinny Taste recipe above as my starting point, and scaled it down to one serving. I also omitted the olive oil and used extra chicken stock in its place.
I haven’t had pasta in a while, and just the thought of eating it made me want a HUGE plate. So I decided to peel the zucchini into thin pasta-like strips (rather than cubing as per the recipe) to really bulk up the pasta feel.
I tasted the veggie/sauce mixture, and decided it needed a little extra oomph. So I added about a tbsp of balsamic vinegar and a liberal dusting of red pepper flakes (I like it hot!).
Shrimpy pastalicious
Take a closer look:
shrimptastic!
My mouth was on fire after finishing this delicious pasta! I had to eat a couple frozen grapes to cool things off 🙂
Stats on the pasta: 342 calories, 49g carbs, 2g fat, 29g protein, 9g fiber
Here’s a few shrimptastic recipes I’ve stumbled upon that look like things I need to try:
I wanted to do something adventurous for dinner tonight — so I decided to make these stuffed eggplant rolls.
Now, this may not sound adventurous to you,but trust me, this is a very out of the ordinary dish for me.
Remember those meals your parents would cook when you were a kid that you absolutely hated? You know, THOSE meals where you were forced to sit at the table until you cleared you plate? Well, eggplant was one of those foods I just hated as a kid. (In addition to kidney beans and fish)
I think the last time my mom had me eat eggplant I was about 7 years old. I can vividly remember my hatred for the weird mushy yet spongy texture.
Anyway, back to the cookin. I followed shape’s recipe except I used some leftover classico sauce instead of their sauce and I didn’t have any pine nuts on hand, so those were omitted. I seasoned it up with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and oregano and served it up with a side of green beans.
eggplant rolls
There were good parts and bad parts to this dinner.
The good:
the ricotta <3 <3 <3
the spinach
the sauce
the seasonings
the green beans
the ice cold glass of water I drank while eating dinner
the fact that my entire dinner was under 200 calories
The bad:
the eggplant. 🙁
So sad! I was hoping my palate had matured enough since the ripe age of 7 that I would enjoy eggplant. Wrong. One of the eggplant rolls was sliced thinner than the others, and I found that particular roll to be quite tasty. If I closed my eyes, I could almost trick myself into thinking I was eating a lasagna noodle 😉
After dinner, I tried to make some healthy carrot cookies, and they were a big flat flop.
Sooooo I decided to make myself a nice shake for my late night snack 😀
Into the blender went:
1 cup ice
1/2 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
