Recipes

Sausage & Caramelized Onion Pita Pizza

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Last weekend, I caught 5 minutes or so of Giada’s cooking show on the Food Network on which she made a sausage and caramelized onion calzone.  Are you drooling yet?  Ever since then, I’ve had this image of sausage and caramelized onions floating around in my head, beckoning to me.  I just so happened to have a leftover sausage from last Sunday’s cookfest, so I decided to put it to use today:

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YUMMMMM…..  I haven’t made a pita pizza in AGES!  Jennie O’s mom and pop would be so darn proud! 😀 

First up, I cranked the heat on the oven to 350 degrees, sprayed a small skillet with cooking spray, and placed it over medium high heat.  Once the skillet was hot, I added:

  • 1/4 cup sliced white onion
  • 1 clove garlic, minced

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Onions & garlic.  Anytime you start a recipe off with these two ingredients, there’s an unwritten guarantee it’s going to be delicious.  Didn’t you know??

I reduced the heat slightly at this point just to make sure I didn’t burn the garlic or onion.  Then I just let the onions do their thing, stirring them occasionally. 

Meanwhile, I topped a Joseph’s low-carb pita with 1/4 cup Classico Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic Sauce and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. 

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Once the onions were soft and a nice light brown color, I added them on top of the pita along with 1/2 a link of pre-cooked & chopped up Jennie O’ Hot Turkey Sausage.

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I cut up a light Sargento Mozzarella string cheese into small sticks and tossed those on top then seasoned with a sprinkle of dried oregano and some black pepper:

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Then I popped this beauty into the oven for 10 minutes, until everything was heated through and the cheese was melty:

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I also fixed up a small side salad, which consisted of romaine lettuce, 1/2 a roma tomato, some chopped red onion, and 2 tbsp Ken’s Steakhouse lite Caesar dressing: DSCF3454

I REALLY like Ken’s Lite Caeser by the way.

Nom nom nom!

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Sometimes the simplest of ingredients combine to make the most amazing meals.  It is the best of both worlds! 

Ingredients List:  Sausage & Caramelized Onion Pita Pizza 

  • 1/4 cup sliced white onion
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 Joseph’s low-carb pita with flax
  • 1/4 cup Classico Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic Sauce
  • Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1/2 link Jennie O’ Hot Turkey Sausage
  • 1 light Sargento Mozzarella string cheese
  • Dried Oregano
  • Black Pepper

 

Stats on my pita pizza:  236 calories, 17g carbs, 11g fat, 22g protein, 6g fiber

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What I ate

Back to the normal routine

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Even with the big tax deadline behind me, my schedule is crazy hectic.  What’s up with that???  Wednesday for instance is a VERY busy day for me because I go straight from the office to the university for the class I teach.  This requires ample food-planning on Tuesday nights because I have to pack 6 meals.  6 meals?!?  Yes 6.  Take today for instance, here’s what I packed last night for the day ahead:

  • B#1:  Scrambled eggs & roasted broccoli
  • B#2:  Overnight oats + chopped strawberries + blueberries
  • Lunch:  Big ole Salad + Jennie O’ Turkey Sausage
  • Snack:  Granny smith apple
  • Dinner:  Chicken & hummus wrap + cucumber salad
  • Snack: 1/2 of an 18 Rabbits granola bar

I like to travel with food apparently 🙂

One thing I’ve been craving the past few weeks is getting back to my normal foods routine! 

You know what that means:

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EGGS for breakfast #1!

Last night, I cooked up a batch of my scrambled eggs:

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I also roasted up some broccoli which I enjoyed at 8am at my desk with a dollop o’ heaven Ketchup:

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Of course, this was followed up 2 hours later by none other than my overnight oats for B#2:

 

Yesssssssss.

My lunch salad consisted of romaine lettuce, 1/2 a large cucumber, 1 baby roma tomato, some red onion, banana pepper and Ken’s steakhouse Lite Italian Romano dressing:

I also had a Jennie O’ turkey sausage on the side…

Is it just me, or does that sausage look really sad?! … A sausage with no bun is like a bird with no wings eggs with no ketchup!  Luckily I had a monster Italian sausage sandwich over the weekend 😀

After the 2PM doldrums pass, it’s time for a snack!  My usual afternoon snack is a granny smith apple:

Usually my snacks go unpictured.  But today, I’m snapping everything that goes into my mouth 🙂 Uh oh. 

Fun fact about me and apples:  I REFUSE to buy an apple unless the stem is still attached.  An apple sans stem is a clear indicator that a worm has crawled inside…. I’m pretty sure my sister told me that as a child, and it has stuck with me through the years.  I may look funny in the produce aisle as I pick up one apple after another to find one that still has the stem attached, but guess who WON’T be looking funny when they bite into a worm?  It won’t be me, that’s for darn sure!  😉

For dinner, I packed some cucumber salad:

And also a La Tortilla low-carb wrap consisting of 2 ounces grilled chicken, onion, and 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s original hummus:

Come to think of it, I probably should have avoided so many onions right before class… Oh well, they don’t call me the Onion Lady for nothin’. :mrgreen:

 

Last my not least, I packed 1/2 of an 18 Rabbits granola bar (thanks Dorry!) for my late-night snack:

Whew!  That’s a lot of food! 

Happy Eating and Happy Hump Day!

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Recipes

Stuffed Cabbage (hold the red sauce)

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When you think of stuffed cabbage, what comes to mind?  I’m guessing you think of ground beef and rice rolled up in cabbage and smothered in red sauce, right?  You probably also think of excessive gas.  Let’s try and relieve ourselves of that thought for now 😉

I’m not entirely sure why, but my mom has always made stuffed cabbage without red sauce.  I can remember going to friend’s houses as a child and getting super excited when I heard we were having stuffed cabbage for dinner.  This ALWAYS ended in disappointment because everyone (other than my mom… and my sister) makes stuffed cabbage with red sauce… and I’m not really a fan.  In my family, we like our stuffed cabbage with a side of cabbage.  And some cabbage broth.  And excessive amounts of sour cream and salt and pepper.

Stuffed cabbages has been one of my all-time favorite home cooked meals for as far back as I can remember, yet I’ve never tried to make them myself.  So what the heck, I decided to give it a shot.  My mom uses ground beef in her stuffed cabbages, but I decided to further health-it-up with 99% fat-free ground turkey and brown rice. 

First up, the cabbage:

 

I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever purchased cabbage.  I have a feeling we are going to be GREAT friends 🙂

(Guess who left her camera at work??? Yes, all photos were taken with the lovely iPhone tonight)

I cut the core out of the cabbage:

 

And dropped it hole-side down in a big ole pot of bowling water. 

While the leaves softened in the boiling water, I combined the following in a bowl:

  • 8 ounces 99% fat free ground turkey
  • 1/2 a chopped white onion
  • 1 glove garlic, minced
  • 1 cup brown rice, rinsed and drained
  • 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

As the leaves began to soften, I pulled off the outer cabbage leaves with a pair of tongs and laid them out while the remaining cabbage kept softening in the pot:

I used an ice cream scooper to evenly distribute the meat and rice mix among 9 cabbage leaves:

Then gave them a roll and lined them up in a baking dish.

Then I gave the remaining cabbage a rough chop and tucked it in between the rolls and threw the rest on top.  I used a ladle to spoon some of the hot cabbage broth onto the rolls until the water level was about half way up the dish.  Then I covered with foil and baked in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour.

When the rolls were done, I topped two of them off with a dollop of sour cream and some black pepper:

 

Andd…….  whelp… it’s wasn’t mom’s.  And it wasn’t my sister’s either.   Have you ever tried to recreate one of your mom’s famous dishes?  If you’re like me, it probably didn’t go so well.  That’s ok, nothing a little hot sauce can’t cure!

All-in-all these were OK– but I think using the ground turkey instead of the ground beef made a HUGE difference (and not for the better).  I think ground beef is the way to go.  That’s what I’ll use next time for sure!

Stuffed Cabbage Ingredients List (serves 4)

  • 8 ounces 99% fat free ground turkey
  • 1/2 a chopped white onion
  • 1 glove garlic, minced
  • 1 cup brown rice, rinsed and drained
  • 1 head cabbage (about 2 lbs)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Fat-free Sour cream (optional in your book, NOT optional in mine)

Stats on 1 serving:  237 calories, 39g carbs, 2g fat, 19g protein, 7g fiber

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What I ate

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

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Holy comfort food!!!!

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Ever since we stopped at Bob Evans last week for breakfast, I’ve been craving a pot pie with a vengeance.  We’ve got a BIG deadline at work this week, so I’ve been working my little hiney off and have had zero time to cook.  Tonight however I made time because I knew my body NEEDED a lil pot pie.  I’ve never made a pot pie before, so I did a little googlin’ and found this recipe for Impossibly Easy Chicken Pot Pie.  Sounded like a good place for me to start learning the art of potpiedom!

This recipe was incredibly simple to throw together, which made it all the more comforting and delicious.  First up, I gathered the mixins.

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And quickly threw a chicken breast seasoned with salt and pepper on the George.

Meanwhile, I threw the following items into a bowl:

  • 1 bag frozen stew vegetables (pearl onions, potatoes, carrots, celery)
  • 2 cups chopped broccoli … because I love broccoli and broccoli loves me!
  • 1 can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom Soup
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1/4 tsp Black pepper

Once the chicken breast was cooked through, I roughly chopped it into cubes, and added to the mix.

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Yes… this is what I called a “cube” 😉

I gave everything a good mix and poured into a pie dish that I had sprayed with some cooking spray. 

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Next up, I mixed the following in a little bowl:

  • 1 cup bisquick
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup almond breeze

If you are smarty pants, you may have noticed Bisquick is NOT the baking mix pictured in my ingredients pic… I had full intentions of using my Bob’s Red Mill Low-carb baking mix… but last minute I got a little nervous thinking the pot pie might be a pot-flop, and I wasn’t about to waste my last bit of low-carb baking mix on that.  So I decided to use Bisquick instead and save the Bob’s Red Mill for pot pie round #2.  (I foresee many pot pies in my future)

Once the batter was all mixed up, I dumped it on top of veggies. 

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Now, I can assure you that even though this looks like I just poured some paper-mache goopy gop concoction on my delicious veggies it did not taste like any sort of glue…  Well at least not any glue I’ve ever tasted.  I popped this pie into a 400 degree oven with apprehension, and let it hang out for 40 minutes until the top was nice and browned.

Voila!  Pot Pie!

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The pot pie was everything I had hoped for!  Creamy, comforting, and oh-so delicious!

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Not to mention this made four servings so now I have food for the rest of the week.  Hooray!

Just a few more days to go folks, then life can return to its “normal” state. 

Easy Chicken Pot Pie Ingredients List (makes 4 servings)

  • 1 bag frozen stew vegetables
  • 2 cups chopped broccoli
  • 1 can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom Soup
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1/4 tsp Black pepper
  • 1 large grilled chicken breast (mine was approx 7 ounces)
  • 1 cup Bisquick
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup Unsweetened Almond Breeze Vanilla Almond Milk

 

Myfitnesspal stats on 1 serving of Easy Chicken Pot Pie:  315 calories, 41g carbs, 7g fat, 19g protein, 4g fiber 

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Recipes

White Chicken Chili & Spaghetti Squash

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I love spaghetti squash.  I mean, what could be better than an all-natural version of one of my FAVORITE foods in the world?  Lately I’ve been in a spaghetti squash rut.  I’ve been searching high and low for something different than my standard Spaghetti Squash with Spicy meat sauce.

Luckily, I stumbled across this post by Green Dog Wine for some white chicken chili she tossed on top of spaghetti squash.  Sounded like an awesome combo to me!

Since Monday was a holiday, my usual Sunday-Cooktacular was pushed back a day.  Here’s a shot of some of my inventory:

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That doesn’t even include the 2 turkey sausages and 1 chicken breast I grilled up along with the 4 servings of White Chicken chili this recipe makes!  I’m a cooking machine!

Alright, on to the main event:  White Chicken Chilli!

First up, I heated up a skillet that I sprayed down with cooking spray.  Once the skillet was hot, I tossed in a cup of a chopped white onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic.

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A few minutes later the onions were looking nice and caramelized, so I plopped three chicken breasts seasoned with S&P into the skillet right on top of the onions and garlic.

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Once the chicken was cooked through, I added the following to the pan:

  • 1 can Navy beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can rotel tomatoes
  • 1 packet McCormick’s White Chicken Chili seasoning
  • 1 cup all-natural free range chicken broth

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I gave everything a good stir, then popped the lid on and reduced the heat to a simmer. 

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Meanwhile, I halved two baby spaghetti squash and tossed them onto a cookie sheet.  Into a 415 degree oven for 25 minutes (since these guys were so tiny, I shortened the cooking time). 

While the squash was cooking, I pulled the chicken breasts out of the chili mix and gave them a rough shred using two forks (just like I do when I make my buffalo chicken dip).  I tossed the shredded chicken back into the chili just in time for the spaghetti squash to be done. 

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I used a fork to scrape out all the squash noodles…  Squadles, perhaps? 😉

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Then, I divided the squash evenly between two containers to take to work for late-night dinners at the office: 

When it was time to eat, I topped one of the containers of squash off with one quarter of the white chicken chili mixture:

 

This is going into my spaghetti squash roatation for sure!  The chili was delicious even without the squash, but I like the extra texture and flavor that the squash adds. 

White Chicken Chili Ingredient List (serves four)

  • 1 cup white onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
  • S&P
  • 1 can Navy beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can rotel tomatoes
  • 1 packet McCormick’s White Chicken Chili seasoning
  • 1 cup all-natural free range chicken broth
  • Spaghetti squash (optional)

Myfitnesspal stats on one serving chili:  293 calories, 39 carbs, 5g fat, 33g protein, 10g fiber

 

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