05.12.11
Lately, I’ve been skipping breakfast. And I don’t mean skipping the big stuff and having a banana. I mean skipping the whole meal and not eating until lunch. I call it the Rachel Zoe breakfast because I just consume about 500 ounces of black coffee. It’s not that I don’t like breakfast (I love me some pancakes and French toast), it’s just I never have to time to make it and grow so tired of cereal. Last night as I was baking, I decided to whip up a make-ahead smoothie so that I would be forced to drink/eat something alongside my buckets of coffee. Which is why this little number was born.
I was SO eager to try this when I found the recipe on Self. I mean, it even looks like apple pie in a cup! On top of being SUPER easy and not time consuming at all, it’s such a unique flavor for a smoothie. I love strawberry-banana, but it’s nice to get a little creative with flavors every once in a while! It may not look filling, but this little smoothie kept me full until about 1:30pm!
Apple Pie Smoothie
What You’ll Need:
- 1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
- 1 medium red apple (sliced)
- 1/2 cup skim milk
- 1 tbsp granola
- 1 tbsp cinnamon and sugar flavored butter (OR almond butter)
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
How to Make It:
- Place all of the ingredients into a food processor.
- Beat until smooth. Add additional sliced apple and a sprinkle of cinnamon and enjoy!
Now when your colleagues ask you what you had for breakfast, you can say with a straight face “Apple pie!” Sure beats bland ol’ corn flakes anyday!
Nutritional information per smoothie: 345 calories, 9 grams fat, 46 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams fiber and 18 grams of protein.
05.11.11
There are a few meals that are as representative to who I am as a person as my green eyes, curly hair and smile. These are the meals I grew up on, the foods that I could always count on during holidays and big family events. These are the meals that, no matter how many times I ate them, they tasted new and exciting each time. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood are gathered around the dinner table, eating these meals.
My grandma Alice’s stuffed peppers is one of those meals, without a doubt. Along with these peppers, her Hungarian stuffed cabbage and lady locks also make the high esteemed list. Since I’m still really missing her, I decided to make some stuffed peppers for dinner last night.
But before I share the recipe for these gorgeous peps, I’m going to share a few things NOT TO DO when making them:
- Don’t cut an onion and garlic and then proceed to touch your eyeballs. This, um, doesn’t feel good.
- Don’t eat all of the caramelized onions before you even add the ground beef, therefore causing you to have to re-cut another onion and, without thinking, TOUCH THE SAME EYE AGAIN.
- Don’t proceed to then eat half of the ground beef mixture before it’s even stuffed in the peppers.
- Pre-heat the oven before you set the peppers in. They are not going to cook with no heat. (Took me 30 minutes to catch that one).
- When staging a photograph, do not put the peppers anywhere a dog could jump up and eat one whole.
Minus those mishaps, they turned out beautifully. They were not as good as hers, but nothing ever will be.
E took one look and said “That is HUGE!” Which then led me to say “That’s what she said.” After I giggled uncontrollably for a few minutes while E didn’t even respond, he told me “there’s no way I can eat that much.” Guess what my response was? “THAT’S WHAT HE SAID!” He just took the pepper and sat down, shaking his head in disapproval. But guess what folks? He did eat the whole thing. There wasn’t a grain of rice left on his plate 🙂
Recipe adapted from All Recipes. Makes 2 peppers.
Stuffed Green Peppers
What You’ll Need:
- 5 ounces ground beef
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup cooked rice (boil in a bag, depends on how much you want)
- 2 medium green bell peppers
- 1/2 can tomato sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons of cheddar cheese
How to Make Them:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet.
- Chop 1 medium onion and 2 garlic cloves.
- In a small sauce pan, boil water and place boil in the bag rice into the water. Boil for 10 minutes or until rice is cooked through. Set aside.
- In a medium skillet, heat oil over low heat; add onion then garlic and cook until just browned. Add ground beef and cook until meat is browned all the way through.
- In a medium bowl, mix ground beef mixture, rice, canned tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings together.
- Cut tops off peppers and discard. (Or give to doggies). Clear out seeds.
- Stuff mixture into peppers until they are full, but not overly stuffed. (You don’t want stuff spilling onto the pan while they cook!)
- Bake for 35 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of cheese to each pepper and bake for an addition 3-4 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Nutritional information per pepper: 300 calories, 14 grams of fat, 28 grams of carbohydrates and 18 grams of protein.
05.09.11
This is what we had in our fridge when we got home yesterday.
- 1 egg
- 2 pounds of butter (clearly, I have a problem)
- Spoiled milk
- A Tupperware emitting a strange odor
- Moldy cheese
- 1 lemon
- and a sh** ton of condiments.
So obviously, we went to the store. Although I did make a menu plan & elaborate grocery list, there was one thing I knew I was going to make as soon as I got home. I’ve had a MEAN craving for blueberry muffins. I’m not sure why, they aren’t all that special, you can get them at any Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. Whatever the reason, I just had to have one. And after the emotional weekend I had, I wasn’t going to deprive myself. Except, by the time I got to the store, I had a eureka moment and decided I was going to make a blueberry loaf instead. Why? Who knows. I was stark mad at this point after being in the car for 7 hours.
Minus the fact that I can’t serve/cut any pastry/bread to save my life, this bread version of my favorite muffin was AMAZING. It tasted just like the muffin. To make it better, I lightened up the recipe so that I wasn’t left with the after muffin, muffin-top. This makes a perfect breakfast…or lunch…or dinner…or dessert. I may, or may not, have eaten it for all of my meals.
Recipe is adapted from All Recipes.
Lemon Blueberry Loaf
What You’ll Need:
- 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup light sour cream
- 1/3 cup 2% milk
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups frozen blueberries
How to Make It:
- Preheat oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan with cooking spray.
- Grate the zest from the lemon into a bowl. Cut the lemon in half, and squeeze the juice from both halves. Make a topping by whisking together 1 teaspoon of the lemon zest, 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice, and the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk together the white sugar, melted butter, eggs, sour cream, the remaining lemon zest, and the remaining lemon juice in a large bowl until evenly blended. Stir in the milk and set aside.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate large bowl. Remove 3 tablespoons of the flour mixture and set aside. Pour the milk mixture in and stir the batter just until combined.
- Fold the frozen blueberries into the reserved 3 tablespoons of the flour mixture, then fold the blueberries into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 60 minutes.
- Drizzle with lemon topping (that you made before the mix) and enjoy!
I ate my bread with a bowl of frozen blueberries. For some reason, they taste better frozen to me. Maybe it’s the tartness? Whether you serve it with fruit, butter, whipped cream or eat it on it’s own, this bread is a fabulous addition to any meal! (Or if you are like me, a fabulous meal by itself!)
Nutritional information per piece: 184 calories, 6 grams of fat, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of protein and 1 gram of fiber.
05.04.11
You honestly can’t wrong with a deviled egg. They are delicious, easy and have less than 80 calories per little devil. Plus being tasty, they are naturally gluten-free and low in calories and fat. On top of that, they are budget friendly and take SUCH little time to prepare. With the week I’ve had (already), the less time I can spend in the kitchen, the more time I have to take a bottle of wine to the face.
Oh wine, the sweet, sweet nectar to my soul.
Now, I’ve always wanted to know why they were called deviled eggs. They aren’t bad for you, aren’t really hard and every time I’ve eaten them, I’ve always been happy I did. So I did a bit of research and found out why. For a food to be considered “deviled” it needs to contain a spicy element, like a kick from dijon mustard or cayenne pepper. I underestimated you, you saucy, spicy little egg! To really bring out the name of this party favorite, I added some crushed red pepper into the mix. Now that was one deviled egg!
Deviled Eggs
What You’ll Need:
- 6 eggs
- 1/4 onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup olive-oil mayonnaise
- salt to taste
- 1 dash crushed red pepper
- paprika, for garnish
How to Make Them:
- Place eggs in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs stand in hot water for 15 minutes. Immediately cool.
- Cut eggs in half. Remove yolks and place in a medium bowl. Mash together with onion, mayonnaise, salt and red pepper.
- Stuff the egg white halves with the egg yolk mixture. Sprinkle eggs with paprika and enjoy!
Some days it’s feels so right to play on the dark side 🙂
Nutritional Information per egg: 70 calories, 4 grams of fat, 1 gram of carbohydrates and 3.5 grams of protein.
05.03.11
I’ve been making (and eating) primarily desserts lately, and I partly blame the extreme stress I’m under. As much as I’d like to, one can not live on tarts, cupcakes and cookies alone. Plus, my husband started complaining that I was “fattening him up” by baking too many tasty sweets.
Blah blah blah.
So, to appease my hungry husband and to keep our waistlines in check, I decided to make something different for dinner that is hearty and metabolism revving; spicy chicken curry!
The spice in this was, for lack of better words, BANANAS. The curry mixed with the crushed red pepper gave this stew a KA-POW element, but the lentils, crushed tomatoes, spinach and chicken evened out the spicey-ness. Plus, even better, the entire meal is gluten-free! I made it for my friend M who is allergic to wheat and she LOVED it.
Whether you are gluten-free or a carbivore, this dish will not disappoint. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a fresh cilatro sprig and you are all set!
GF Spicy Chicken Curry
What You’ll Need:
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
- 2 cups low-salt chicken broth
- 3/4 cup lentils (I used red)
- 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained
- 1 can (16 oz) of spinach, drained
- 1/2 cup diced carrot
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- Cilantro sprigs and dollop of sour cream (optional)
How to Make It:
- Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat until hot. Add onion, celery, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes.
- Add chicken; sauté 5 minutes or until browned. Add curry, cumin, and pepper; stir well to coat.
- Add broth, lentils, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add greens and carrot and simmer 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat, stir in chopped cilantro. Garnish with cilantro sprigs and sour cream!
Another good thing about this stew? You can serve it in trendy, Indian inspired bowls! I know, trend setter over here. You can get these fabulous bowls at Kohls for under $10, too!
This is definitely on my “must make again really soon because it’s really good and makes me feel skinny” list.
Nutritional information per 1 1/4 cup: 250 calories, 6 grams of fat, 34 grams of protein and 5.7 grams of fiber.
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Claire
Categories:Eat Skinny Be Skinny Recipes, Gluten Free, Soups & Stews
Tags:chicken curry, chicken curry with lentils, curry stew, easy chicken dinner, easy gluten free recipes, gluten free chicken recipes, gluten free curry, low calorie stew, low fat chicken, low fat dinner
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