Uncategorized

Tonight I made a shrimp and scallops seafood bake.  I put it over a bed of pasta but you could really do it over a bed of veggies, rice, quinoa, or whatever you feel like eating.  This is a really yummy low fat, no junk dinner.  It’s also really easy to make!

Ingredients:

olive oil

2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you like it!)

1/4 tsp sage

1/4 tsp pepper

2 tsp chopped parsley

half of a lemon to squeeze over bake

1/2 cup of whole wheat panko breadcrumbs

1/4 cup of shaved parmesan

2 cloves of garlic minced of diced

shrimp and scallops ( I used a half of the bagged shrimp and a half of the bagged mini scallops form Publix)

Heat your oven to 385-400 degrees

Put spices, breadcrumbs, parsley and cheese in a bowl

In a casserole dish  drizzle olive oil ( I coated the bottom).  Place shrimp in casserole dish,   sprinkle(liberally) the mixture over the shrimp.  Add scallops on top and add the remaining mixture.  Place in over and cook for at least 20 minutes.  Once the shrimp is pink and scallops change in tone you can pull them out. I would cut one open and make sure they are finished before eating them.  I believe mine were in the oven at 400 degrees for around 30 minutes. 

While this is cooking throw whole wheat pasta into a pot and boil it.  Once the seafood is cooked; squeeze lemon all over the seafood and eat!!!

I made up a not so un healthy alfredo sauce the other night.  IT was really good I mean amazing and the fiance loved it as well…which means it was ACTUALLY good and didn’t taste healthy. 

ingredients:

1-3 tablespoons lite cream cheese or fat free or full fat..whichever you prefer

2 teaspoons whole wheat flour or regular

1/2 of a fresh lemon squeezed

3/4 cup  (skim or 1%)

1 box whole wheat spaghetti

1/2 to 1 cup parmesan cheese (I grated my own)

2 teaspoons garlic salt

regular salt

1 tablespoon chopped parsley or bottled

a spalsh of water

2 teaspoons regular pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tsp cayenne pepper

fresh garlic (2 cloves)

chicken breast

broccoli

pour olive oil in pan with garlic and cook for several minutes (1-3). You will start to smell the garlic cooking and that’s how I can tell that I am ready to move on to the next step….you know that awesome aroma that infiltrates your entire kitchen?

Add the whole wheat flour and stir, then add lemon (I just squeezed a half of a lemon into the pan, make sure you forgo the seeds). After the flour is absorbed add in the milk and continue to stir.  After this add the cayenne pepper, garlic salt, salt, regular pepper and continue to stir.  Next step you want to add the cream cheese, start with 1 tablespoon and stir, if it’s thick enough for your liking then don’t add anymore. I added about 1.5 tablespoons and it ended up really thick and I had to thin it out with water. I then added the parmesan, I would also start out with a 1/2 cup shredded and stir in slowly to get the consistency you prefer.  Obviously you want to be cooking the chicken breast, pasta and broccoli simultaneously.  I added olive oil, cayenne pepper, garlic sault and a tiny bit of hot sauce to my chicken and it was very flavorful. 

Continue to stir the sauce while you are cooking the other items because it get’s thick very fast if it is not stirred.  Prior to putting the sauce on the pasta I added about 3 tablespoons of tap water to thin out the sauce as it was pretty thick.

The amount of cheese and cream cheese you add to this is either going to decrease or increase the caloric content…with that said I would add the smallest amount possible for you to get the desired taste and thickness. You can also add a small amount of olive oil to thin out the sauce.

I made spaghetti squash the other night for the first time and it was amazing….here’s how……..

1 spaghetti squash (this makes a lot of food so you may want to use half or be prepared for leftovers)

1 Zucchini

olive oil

garlic salt, cayenne pepper (for spice), sage

cookie sheet

Cut squash in half, pull out soggy seed stuff on the inside….(I didn’t get it all and it proved to be a pain in my you know what….so make sure you get all the seeds and gooky stuff), splash inside with olive oil….don’t use much just a drizzle, place face down on a cookie sheet and put in the oven @400 degrees for about 40 min.  I would check it at 30-35 to make sure it hasn’t burned. 

While this is cooking, cut up Zucchini and saute with olive oil on stovetop. Add 1 tsp of garlic salt and a dash of Cayenne pepper.

When you pull it out of the oven, let it cool for 5 minutes or until you can touch it without burning yourself and then grab and fork and start digging into the squash.  Start at the top and pull down, you will see all the spaghetti squash easily comes out. If it’s still hard then it probably needs more time in the oven. 

I then took the squash and placed it in the pan with the zucchini and sauteed for several minutes. I added another tsp of garlic salt and 1 tsp cayenne pepper, and a dash of sage.  I taste tested this and didn’t need to do any adjustments….you can also add marinara to this and parmesan and eat it like spaghetti!!

i did a huge leg workout today and usually when I do heavy squats, presses and lunges I always try to feed myself really well when I am done.  Leg workouts usually exhaust me and I was craving quesadillas….so here is my alternative…….

1/4-1/2 tomato

1/4-1/8 onion (i used white because it was what I had in the fridge)

whole wheat quesadillas (2) or 1 and make a half of a quesadilla

hot sauce (i use franks)

Olive oil (optional)

shredded cheese, i shred my own in a food processor….i use manchego, cheddar and actually sometimes i throw in some mozzarella (I don’t shred that though)

or you can use one of those 3 cheese blends.

I use a very small amount of cheese on anything like grilled cheese or quesadillas because the more cheese you add the more fattening it is.  I want just enough cheese to flavor and give the appropriate texture.

Dice the tomato and onion, saute in a pan until onion is cooked…I added the onion first and several minutes later added the tomato.  I also added a slight splash of olive oil just to ensure the onions didn’t burn.

After they are both cooked, remove from pan and place in separate bowl or plate to the side

Put the whole wheat tortillas on the pan, add tomatoes and onion, add cheese (a sprinkle of cheese, cover the whole tortilla ((barely)).  Add hot sauce, I cover the whole thing in hot sauce.  Put the other tortilla on top and wait for it to cook.  When the cheese starts melting you can flip it but becareful that everything doesn’t fall out of it.  

When it’s cooked slice with a pizza cutter…….

Here are some more shots of my cupcakes that I made yesterday……still typing with one hand

Tonight I made cupcakes, however instead of adding the usual butter when I plan to give them away, I decided to use greek yogurt and coconut oil in place of the butter. This yielded a much happier cupcake, less greasy and more spongey.  I thought they were really good and I also taste tested them with the fiance to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. I also went to Michael’s today and bought some madagascar vanilla which gave these much more flavor than the usual extract. The frosting is made from candy melts mainly because I ran out of the ingredients I needed for frosting. I will add the recipe late.