Eat Skinny Be Skinny: Fat Tuesday Dinner
PIN IT!I’m so sad I missed Fat Tuesday yesterday on the blog. My full time job + my wedding took up literally 20 hours of my day so I wasn’t able to blog any delicious recipes! But don’t worry, I still honored the day by enjoying a few glasses of Chardonnay and cooking a LOWfat meal in honor of Mardi Gras!
So what is this pile of creamy, spinachey goodness? Goat cheese, chicken and spinach pasta. As you know, I’m sort of having an affair with goat cheese and I wanted to use it a little differently than I had in the past. After doing a bit of searching, I found a similar recipe that sparked my interest. And it was super easy and only took about 20 minutes. After a long day of working and wedding related stress, that was exactly what I needed.
What’s so great about this dish is that it’s not overly creamy or heavy. The goat cheese provides just the right amount of flavor and coats the pasta and chicken wonderfully. For additional flavor, zest some fresh lemon peel over it and walah!
Goat Cheese, Spinach and Chicken Pasta
What You’ll Need:
- 1 pound of whole wheat shells
- Dash of salt and pepper
- 5 ounces of goat cheese
- 1 can of wilted spinach
- 2 one pound chicken breasts
- 1 cup of dry white wine, like chardonnay
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 4 scallions, chopped up
How to Make It:
- Put 1 tablespoon of the extra virgin olive oil into a skillet over medium heat. Cook scallions until soft. Add wine and cook until sauce is reduced by half, or about 5 minutes. Add goat cheese and stir until soft. Take off heat and set aside.
- While sauce is being prepared, heat additional tablespoon of oil into a pan and add chicken, cooking thoroughly until chicken is browned on both sides, about 10 minutes. Salt chicken and add pepper.
- While chicken is cooking, heat a pot with boiling salt water. Once water is boiling, add pasta and cook until soft.
- Once pasta is drained, coat pasta, chicken and spinach in goat cheese sauce. Add pepper.
I just had a bowl for lunch and it’s just as delicious the next day!
Nutritional Information per 1 cup: 380 calories, 16 grams of fat, 22 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber.
Sweet and Savory Sundays: Whole Wheat Breakfast Sandwich with Maple Bacon
Sweet and savory is the new theme in my cooking. Every dish I make, from breakfast to dessert, has a sweet and salty taste to it. I think E is getting a little tired of my creative culinary concoctions.
“Can’t we just eat something that is JUST sweet or JUST salty?”
He may have gotten his wish because I had a major cooking fail on Sunday morning. I’m talking miserable, gross, had-to-spit-out-because-it-tasted-so-bad fail. I guess that’s what I get for being “too cocky” in the kitchen. Since breakfast #1 failed, I had to think on my feet for another option. Sunday’s are not days you waste with a bowl of cold cereal! So after a bit of sulking and some thinking, I came up with an easy and delicious breakfast sandwich.
It’s a McMuffin, done my way, with a fried egg, a whole grain English muffin and maple-brown sugar bacon. The savory flavor of the muffin and egg perfectly compliments the sweetness of the maple bacon. Sweet, savory and delicious! Better part? It only took 5 minutes to put together so you could enjoy this on a weekday as well! If you’re like E and want one or the other, omit the maple-brown sugar coating on the bacon!
Recipe makes one fabulously delicious ‘McMuffin’. I made two so that’s why the pictures are doubled!
Whole Wheat Breakfast Sandwich with Maple & Brown Sugar Bacon
What You’ll Need:
- 1 egg
- 2 pieces of bacon [or 4 if you want bacon with your sandwich!]
- 1 tablespoon of pure maple sugar
- Sprinkle of brown sugar
- Cooking spray
- 1 whole grain English Muffin
- 1 piece of part-skim cheese [American, pepper jack, Cheddar]
How to Make It:
- Coat a medium skillet with cooking spray. On medium heat, cook bacon. Add maple syrup once bacon is mostly finished and needs just a minute longer. [When it’s still a bit soft on the ends]. Once bacon has absorbed syrup, sprinkle with a little bit of brown sugar.
- While bacon is cooking, spray another small skillet with cooking spray. Crack an egg and cook over easy, careful not to break the yolk [like I did in the second egg here!]
- Toast the english muffin.
- Top muffin with egg, bacon and cheese. Serve with ketchup, maple syrup or enjoy on it’s own!
An easy and satisfying breakfast, plus a much healthier bet than McDonald’s!
Nutritional Information per Sandwich: 300 calories, 12 grams of fat, 2o grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber!
Foodie Friday: Salted Chocolate and Pecan Cake Bars
These delicious cake bars are the ultimate dessert if you’re craving something sweet and salty!
These originally appeared on this site back in 2010, but desperately need a facelift! I know I’m a little late on the whole “salted sweets” craze, but better late than never, right? I’ve been reading blog after blog about salty cupcakes, cookies and cakes and decided it was time to give them a whirl in my own cucina. I found an AMAZING recipe for salted chocolate chip bars from Jessica of How Sweet It Is and decided to whip up a tasty batch for dessert last night. Because I only had one bag of chocolate chips [I realize I just made a very offensive statement to some of you, I hope you’ll still like me] I omitted the chocolate glaze for powder sugar.
I ate, like, 6 of these last night. Plus licked the batter. It’s no big deal though, not like I’m getting married in 3 weeks! But these were just THAT good. What I didn’t realize though was that all of the chocolate chips sunk to the bottom while baking. Normally this would have been a disaster but they formed such a tasty and gooey crust on the bottom. So in each bite, you get chocolate, nutty-ness from the pecans, moist vanilla cake and salt!
This is the love child of vanilla cake, chocolate chip cookies and salty pecans. Three amazing snacks in themselves become the world’s best dessert once combined. It sufficiently blew my mind. So now, I’ll let it blow yours! Oh and they call for NO butter or oil. So they aren’t loaded with extra fats. And have less than 7 grams of fat. You’re welcome.
Salted Pecan and Chocolate Chip Cake Bars
Serves about 12.
Ingredients:
- 1 and 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 2 cups of brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- Sprinkles of powdered sugar
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 inch square baking pan.
- In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a larger bowl, mix eggs, vanilla and brown sugar until lumps are gone.
- Mix flour and sugar/egg mixture together. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Pour batter into greased 8 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until cake is soft. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and extra sea salt and enjoy!
Nutritional Information per bar:
Calories: 150. 2
Fat: 6.2 grams of fat
Protein: 3 grams of protein
Fiber: 1.5 grams
Eat Skinny Be Skinny: Caramelized Shroom n’ Onion Open Faced Burgers
I tweeted about this recipe a few weeks ago and just never got the chance to post it. I blame Vegas, because the week leading up to my bachelorette involved a whole lot of working, working out and packing. Not much time for blogging, unfortunately. Now that I’m back and feeling stellar, it’s time to share the super easy recipe for caramelized onions and spicy open faced turkey burgers!
However, I must tell you, this is not your typical turkey burger. I added some crushed red pepper, garlic and onions into the meat goo blob [as my fiancée calls it] to really give the meat a standout flavor.
I’ll let your mouths water a bit before I continue.
As delicious and spicy as the burger was, the best part, by far, was the addition of the caramelized onions and ‘shrooms. Just the smell alone of these vegetables sauteing in a bit of olive oil makes me salivate. I ate at least half of the caramelized mixture I made specifically for the burgers, leaving both of us just enough to top one burger each. E wasn’t too happy about this but I stick to the “I made it, I get first dibs!” argument. Call me selfish but those who’ve smelled the tantalizing scent of caramelizing vegetables know’s just how hard they are to not gobble up immediately. He should be happy I didn’t eat them all!
There’s not a more beautiful sight, I’ll argue. And there were literally no surrenders left. Not even a small, tiny, little withered up onion. Nada. I cleaned the plate. I was minutes away from licking the bowl until E stopped me. I’m ashamed to admit how close I was. Just utterly embarrased. But just peek at them, you’d do the same right? This is getting inappropriate. Food porn alert!
Once the burgers were stacked, a bun on top become almost impossible. So instead, I enjoyed a lovely open face variety. Not to mention, I shaved off the extra calories and carbs that come with a top bun! To give the burger more of a diner flair as well, we chose to toast whole-grain English muffins instead. What we didn’t eat, we had leftover for breakfast!
Open Face Turkey Burgers with Carmelized Shroom’s and Onions
What You’ll Need:
- 1 pound of 92% fat free ground turkey, defrosted
- 2 cups of chopped mushrooms
- 1 medium onion, chopped [1/4 cup set aside]
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- Whole-grain English muffins
- Dashes of salt and pepper
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
How to Make Them:
- Using your hands, squish meat, 1/4 cup onions, garlic clove, red pepper, bread crumbs, egg, Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix until the ingredients are able to be formed into patties without crumbling. If necessary, add extra bread crumbs to keep the meat dough together.
- Once patties have been formed,set them aside. Heat up your stove top grill [example here] and cook patties until they are cooked through.
- While burgers are grilling, heat a skillet with olive oil. Put onions and mushrooms in and sautee until soft and caramelized. [The smell alone will get you, I promise].
- Toast your English muffin and enjoy!
Just looking at this makes me hungry.
Nutritional Information per burger: 460 calories, 20 grams of fat, 36 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber.
Eat Skinny Be Skinny: Yogurt, Garlic and Spice Pasta
I know, yogurt and garlic don’t seem like two flavors that normally go together. Which is kind of true. I don’t often enjoy my morning cup of yogurt with a side of garlic powder. That would be weird. But I had a craving for a creamy pasta dish AND garlic, so the two polar opposites quickly became one.
So why not just indulge in a light Alfredo sauce? I wanted something different. Something with a spicy yet Meditterrean edge. My mind was on a beach in Santorini, so I was desiring something with a Greek flair. Cold weather makes me day dream, and I daydream in only food. What can I say, I’m a dedicated nut-case/foodie.
So how did this random combination of flavors end up tasting? Pretty good! E wasn’t a fan, but that’s to be expected. Yogurts makes him a bit nervous. What I liked most about the dish was the flavor of the sauce. It wasn’t too garlicy and had just the right amount of Greek seasoning. Another win about this dish is how incredibly versatile it is. You can swap out any of your favorite veggies for the ones I used and spice it up to your hearts content. It’s a definite “what’s in your pantry” meal which is also great for people wanting a home-made meal without a store run!
Note: If you don’t have Greek spice, you can make your own! Just mix together the following: 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, 1 teaspoon dried mint, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder.
Yogurt & Spice Pasta
What You’ll Need:
- 8 ounces of pasta [whole wheat preferred]
- 1 bunch of trimmed asparagus
- 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 cups of mushrooms, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 cup of frozen peas
- 1 and 1/2 cup plain low fat yogurt
- 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon of evoo
- Pinches of sea salt and pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon of Greek spice
How to Make It:
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Once water is boiling, add pasta and a dash of salt. Boil until pasta is al-dente. Rinse and set aside.
- In a separate saucepan, heat oil. Add onion and cook until browned; add mushrooms and cook until slightly tender.
- In a separate pan, cook asparagus until done. I used two pans because asparagus takes much longer to cook than the peas, mushrooms and onions!
- Add peas to the mushroom mixture and cook until vegetables are tender.
- Once asparagus is finished cooking, add to the mushroom, pea and onion mixture.
- Mesh garlic and salt together until garlic has turned into a paste. Mix garlic mixture with yogurt, lemon juice, oil and Greek seasoning. Take off heat and toss with pasta.
Dash with a little dried parsley and you’re good to go! Mmmmm!
Nutritional Information per 1 cup serving: 300 calories, 4 grams of fat, 10 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber.
