Easy Peasy Caprese

Both of these are adapted/inspired from my mother -- who is OBSESSED with caprese. It's something she discovered in Italy when she was stationed there and is comfort food for her. So I have maximized my groceries to create a main dish, and a side dish/appetizer that is easy to make and tastes great. For those of you that don't know what caprese is, it's basically tomatoes topped with mozzerella and basil seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper. It's easy Italian goodness.

Below you will see *Chicken Caprese* recipe. It's delicious, filling, low carb and takes less than a half hour. One of my go to meals over the last few years. Thanks, Momma :)

Needs:

1 lean chicken breast

basil leaves

1 roma tomato

2 slices of turkey bacon

1 reduced-fat mozzerella stick

1: Stack each ingredient on top of eachother (hold off on the cheese, that goes in later :) and heat the oven to 375 degrees. So first goes the basil, then the tomatoes, then the turkey bacon.

Cook for 25 minutes. Take pan out of the oven, cut your cheese stick in half and put on top of the turkey bacon. Bake for another 5 minutes and you have a delish little chicken dish.

ApP AtTaCk!
Now for a little caprese appetizer. No bake, all you need is a knife and toothpics, along with you classic caprese ingredients, but using grape (or cherry!) tomatoes, a stick of the reduced mozzerella and basil leaves.

All you do is chop and skew - chop up the tomatoes, cheese stick and basil leaves and then string them along each pick. I recommend going tomato, basil, mozzerella, but no combination is wrong :) add salt & pepper if you wish and dig in. Serves as an appetizer or as a side tomato dish, like the one pictured below:

Hope this brings smiles to your stomach and good smells to your kitchen. Happy cooking!

Why do they call it Chili if you eat it when it's hot?!

Don't know how chili got it's name, but I sure do love it! This is seriously a super easy recipe that will feed you for days and fill you up. I made it this weekend and have had a bowl each day this week. Virtually zero fat and packed with grams on grams on grams of protein.

This started with my GiGi's original recipe and was a staple when we went to visit, but naturally I changed a few things to make it light. Of course it will never be as good as my grandma's, but I always think of her when I make this. :) She always serves it with corn bread which is a very yummy no no...

So like I mentioned, super easy. But I must warn, this is more like tomato soup than chili and is not hot at all, so if you want to spice it up add yo own peppers. I love tomato juice and meat, so it works for me. :)

1 large jug of V8 tomato juice (lower sodium is better for you!)

1 - 1/2 ground turkey meat

10 slices of turkey bacon

1 can of chili beans (I would do 2 next time because I love beans)

 1 garlic clove

dash of salt and pepper

water

Start by cooking the turkey meat in a skillet with minced garlic, salt & peper until it begins to brown. In a separate skillet, cut pieces of bacon and stir around until your own optimal crispy-ness.

In another large pot, empty the jug of V8 juice and simmer on low. Then, take the jug and fill it with water to the top, then pour in with the tomato juice (so there is a 50/50 ratio of V8 and H20). Now, get out your beans and run them through a colander (I try to avoid canned foods, but when you do get them make SURE you run them through the colander to clean them thoroughly. Sometimes there are rocks in those cans...) Once you have clean beans, add them to the pot with your tomato base.

Now combine your meats and add to the tomato broth. Simmer the soup on low for about an hour. Now you have some yummy low fat, high protein chili! This makes a lot of servings, so make sure you have room in the fridge to store if you plan on trying this. Just ask my roomates... ;)

Skinny Chef Salad

I've noticed when I pick up a pre-made salad at the grocery store or at some kiosk at the airport, I am deceived. While I think I am making a smart decision, I look up the calorie count and it is astronomical when you add up the cheese, bacon, eggs, etc... Aka lots more fat and calories than I ever planning on. Not cool.

So I decided to try and skinny up the classic salad by making a few twirks and packing it with tons of lean protein. Pretty simple ingredients. See below :)

1 chicken breast

2 slices of turkey bacon

3 eggs

1/2 cucumber

10 cherry tomatoes

2 cups lettuce 

garlic salt and lemon optional!

First, heat up a skillet and get your chicken going. I marinated mine with lemon and garlic salt. Flip occasionally. Next, get another skillet going for the turkey bacon. I like mine extra crispy (almost burnt...) so I found an awesome way to cook it! Before you cook the bacon, cut it up (with scissors) and heat it on the stove, while mixing every few minutes till it is the optimum crispy-ness for your liking.

In a big pot, boil 4 cups of water and pop 3 eggs in there to make them hard-boiled. Let them cook for about 8 minutes. While the stove's a-cookin, break out your cutting board and veggies. Combine lettuce, cucumbers & tomatoes in a bowl. Once meat is cooked add to the bowl. 

After the eggs are boiled, let sit for 5 minutes then run each one under cold water while de-shelling the egg. Once the shell is off cut each in half and scrape out the yolk (that is where all the calories hid in an egg!) then chop up the whites and add.

And there you go. Simply skinny chef salad :)

Serves 1/About 250 calories/ 6g fat/ SB Diet Phase 1 friendly/ Hard for me to estimate protein but between the eggs and meat I'm guessing upper in the 20gs. Yahoo!

Chicky Chinese Lettuce Wraps

So since my "cooking craze" took over, I have been entertaining a lot more which has been lovely having dinner guests and luncheons. This has also produced many more dirty dishes and heavily increased the use of our dishwasher. Good thing are utilities are covered in our rent! Anyway, I'm just trying to think of it as training for when I get to do this full time one day... ;)

So here's a tried and true meal I've been whipping up when I have company (that are not vegetarians), or for myself and taking the leftovers to work. It's still pretty healthy and lacks carbs, which rocks. It's a little more complicated that most of the things I do in terms of having many ingredients on hand. So once I bought them all, I make sure to use this recipe often so I make the most of that I spent. Most of the time I will try and keep the ingredients simple, but sometimes you gotta spice things up.

I'm obsessed with PF Chang's chicken lettuce wraps. So I did a little digging and found a version of their recipe, took out the things I didn't like and then added a few others.

What you need for the meat:

1 - 1 1/2 pounds of ground chicken (99% fat free!)

2 cloves of garlic

1 inch ginger root

1/2 medium white onion

a dash of salt and pepper

8 oz can of waterchesnuts

3 green onions

1/4 cup of peanuts

What you need for the sauce:

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce (low sodium preferred :)

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon rice vinegar

1/2 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons garlic chili sauce (or more if you like it hot!)

1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

1/2 tablespoon honey

And of course, a large head of romaine lettuce!

To start...

First, cook the meat in a large skillet with the onions, minced garlic and ginger, salt and pepper. Cook until done and continue to break up the meat with a spatula into bit size pieces while the meat darkens.

While the meat is cooking combine everything "for the sauce" in a microwave safe bowl and mix until smooth. This may be a little tough to get smooth at first because of the thickness of the peanut butter, but it will eventually turn into a sauce like mixture. Microwave for 25 seconds.

When the meat is cooked throughout, add the sauce and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add your waterchesnuts and green onions. Cook for another 2 minutes and then you're ready to serve.

Take your head of lettuce and cut down the middle. Then separate the lettuce leaves and serve the meat in one bowl and the lettuce on a plate, allowing guests or yourself to choose how much meat they would like on each wrap. Sprinkle chopped peanuts on the top of the meat and you've got yourself a low-carb, Asian inspired treat :)

~ Veggie Spaghetti ~

Oh the things you can do with Spaghetti Squash...

I've been eating spaghetti squash for about 6 months now and have come to find out it is one of the most versatile, underutilized (and inexpensive!) and easy to cook vegetables out there. It makes a great substitute for spaghetti (which I will make on a later post with veggie meatballs...) but what I have used it for is something I like to call *VegGiE MaSh*

First off, this is super easy and something you can throw together with any vegetables or even meat that you want to add. Think of it as a very healthy, no carb stir fry :)

Here are my staples when making this dish. Keep in mind, there are no wrong ingredients or herbs to include, whatever makes your stomach smile.

What I typically use:

1 spaghetti squash

1/2 lemon

6 basil leaves

1 zucchini

1 cup corn

2 cups broccoli

2 tablespoons garlic salt

The hardest part of this whole recipe is cutting the dang spaghetti squash. It's a rather large veggie, so not all knives will go directly through the center. Do your best to make adjustments and cut it evenly, but it's not the end of the world if you don't because you're going to scoop it out anyway :)

Sprinkle garlic salt on each half and bake for 45 minutes on 375 degrees. While that is baking, prepare the rest of your vegetables - you can microwave, steam, bake, grill, whatevs. Like I said, this is a really easy, flexible recipe. I try to grill as many of the veggies as possible, but of course that adds to the mess.

After you have baked the spaghetti squash, let cool for at least 10 minutes. Once it's had some time sit, take a fork and watch the magic happen! Dig into each half and the squash will come out in small, spaghetti like strips. Keep digging, there's a TON to get out. Be careful of seeds.

Once you have all of your "spaghetti"it one bowl, toss in the rest of the veggies, squeeze a half a lemon on top and add any herb or seasoning (I recommend basil & garlic salt). And now you have healthy, hearty veggie, carb free, low calorie spaghetti :)

Quiche Quicky

~Eggs To Go~

I really do believe that breakfast is the most important part of the day. For me, it helps me set the tone and attitude of how I am going to eat for the day. For example, if I eat a 2 doughnuts in the morning (Dunkin Doughnuts maple glaze is the bomb), I am most likely not going to care about what I'm going to eat the rest of the day since I already killed my calorie count and label it a "bad" day. So I've always strived to start the day with eggs - the health, protein rich breakfast treat.

I've always loved eggs and played around with liquid eggs, cage free, etc. In college, I was lucky enough to have the privillege of having eggs cooked for us in the sorority house (Pi love!). After joining the working world, the chore of preparing, cooking and then cleaning up pans after eggs became a bit of a hassle before running out the door in heels and coffee in hand. This is another "pin-spired" dish that I found, but I changed a bit to make it healthier, different ingredients that I like. Think of these as little carb-less breakfast quiches to go for the week. Great way to portion control and plan ahead!

What you will need:

12 eggs - use 3 whole eggs & 9 egg whites

1/2 medium white or sweet onion

2 cups spinach (or more, Popeye. I <3 spinach)

5 oz. turkey (lunch meat)

Muffin pan

*You really can throw in whatever you love in your eggs. These are just things I enjoy eating that I know are high in protein and vitamins.*

Crack 3 whole eggs with 9 egg whites (you can seperate through the shell or the even make a thing-a-ma-bobber that you pour the egg in and it catches the yolk). Then chop up the onion (I prefer sweet, but white works too), spinach and turkey up and add to the egg mixture. Spray the muffin pan with cooking oil and spread "batter" evenly among the muffin molds (I used one with 6 molds). 

Cook for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Store in a covered dish/tupperware in the fridge. In the mornings, microwave for 45 seconds, grab and go~ 

Serves 6 (1 for each work day and then an extra if you need a snack mid-week!) Each muffin has about 140 calories/ 5 g fat/ 19 g protein/ 3g carbs/ South Beach Diet Phase 1 friendly.

Cheesy Par-lic Chicken

*Cheesy Par-lic Chicken*

I found a recipe on Pinterest that I thought look like a rolled up a cheese stick in a chicken breast that looked delish. After looking at it to replicate, I found out I was completely wrong/blind. In that specific blog, they didn't use a cheese stick, it was actually a stick of butter! And then breaded and fried. Ekkkk not what I was looking for. So here's my stab at what I thought I saw :)

Ingredients:

1.Mozzarella Stick (low-fat)

1 Chicken Breast

1 clove garlic, minced

Parsley (fresh or spiced)

Toothpick (essential!)

Garlic Salt (optional)

Pretty simple recipe. The name "Par-lic" comes from combining garlic and parsley, the two spices I used. I tend to make up names for things. Just go with it.

Start with the chicken breast. Make sure it is completely unthawed and trimmed of any fat. Next, put mozzarella stick in the middle of the chicken breast. Then spread the minced garlic on top. Take your parsley and sprinkle as much as you'd like, it's good for you :)

Roll the chicken breast around the cheese stick so it encloses the cheese and spices. Secure with toothpic. Sprinkle additional parsley on top. Garnish with garlic-salt if you love it as much as I do.

Cook for 25 minutes at 375 degrees and enjoy! Pair with veggies for a filling din din.

Serves 1. About 300 calories/ 4g fat/ 0 carb. South Beach Diet Stage 1 friendly!

Hello health conscious friend! Thank you for checking out my blog. I'm new at this blogging thing so please bear with me! Recently, I've started to cook things from scratch and as healthy as possible, like actually make some of the diet dishes I pin or tear out of magazines :) I 've decided to keep my friends and family in the loop, and hope to pass on some recipes and cooking tips to help other health conscience folks. Think of it as Kathie's virtual cooking show blog! Now I just need to be picked up by a major network ;)

I would consider myself a fad diet-er. South Beach, Cabbage Soup, you name it. And yet, I can never keep a stable weight that I am happy with. I constantly read -- "it's all about moderation" or "healthy eating must be a lifestyle rather than diet". However, I have issues with moderation, but truly believe that learning about food and what it can do for your body can change your lifestyle and eating habits. I don't consider myself overweight, and even if I was 5 or 10 pounds lighter, I could still tell you there parts of my body that I hate... but I am on a journey to get down to a target weight and STAY there. I hope you can find some inspiration in my posts and replicate them in your own kitchen.

Some "house-keeping" notes:
1. I don't really measure or time everything to a T. These are more estimations and can be verified to your liking :)
2. I have a bland-er palate than most, so adding your own condiments may be a must. I consider Ketchup, lemon juice and garlic salt to be my go-tos... (but trying to give up ketchup UGH!)
3. Most all of my recipes are "carb-shy", I don't like the words "carb free" or "carb friendly". This is my happy medium.
4. I believe on treating yourself to one decadent, indulgent dessert once a week. So there will be a few not so light bites.
5. If you ever want me to try and make a recipe, please feel free to email kathleenrmccarthy@gmail.com.

Hugs & noms,
Kath