Sausage and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Today, I modified an awesome recipe for stuffed peppers. While the recipe called for couscous, chickpeas, and feta cheese, I substituted quinoa and sausage. It was delicious, incredibly healthy, and totally in line with our paleo experiment.

Sausage and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

two red bell peppers
two yellow bell peppers
package of Mediterranean spiced quinoa
pound of ground hot Italian sausage

1. Cut the tops off the bell peppers and remove any and all seeds and white meat along the insides.
2. Place the peppers in a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Boil for 7 minutes or until tender. When done, drain and set the peppers aside.
3. Meanwhile, cook the quinoa according to the package directions (basically bring to a boil for about 15 minutes, then cover, cool, and fluff).
4. Also, meanwhile, brown the ground sausage in a skillet.
5. When everything is done cooking mix the quinoa and sausage together.
6. Fill peppers with sausage and quinoa mix.
7. Enjoy!

I really enjoyed the healthy mix of tastes, but my husband added sriacha sauce to give it a little more kick. If you like, you can add hot pepper flakes to the quinoa and sausage mix to give your meal a little more heat or add hot sauce as needed while eating.

Chicken Stir Fry

After talking to a good friend of ours who has recently embarked on a paleo diet journey, my husband suggested that he and I attempt something similar. I've been pretty bad about my diet lately, defaulting to premade meals or going out to eat or slacking off and eating ramen or cereal or frozen foods. And yet, after going to the doctor for my insurance check-in, I found out I've lost over 20 pounds anyway!

So I'm motivated to try again with some new recipes. Also, I think the stricter ideas behind the paleo diet will help me restrict caloric intake without having to track every single calorie every time. Now, note, the husband and I will not be doing the full paleo. We're hesitant to give up carbs completely now that we're climbing regularly, and I hit the gym about three times a week for cardio. Also, I love cheese. So the thought of completely forsaking cheese is a little blasphemous.

Still, our modified paleo will be more strict than previous incarnations of my diets. We'll be limiting grain and starch as well as dairy intakes to once a day. So if I throw cheese into an omelette for breakfast, there's no more dairy for the day.

With that in mind, I'm embracing a whole bunch of gluten free recipes. Tonight I made a wonderful chicken stir fry that didn't even need rice or noodles. Of course, the husband may eat his leftovers over some ramen for lunch tomorrow, but that's his gluten for the day.

So here it is. Let me know if you like it!

Chicken Stir Fry


1 lb chicken
sesame and ginger marinade (premade, but we had it in the pantry, so I had to use it!)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp grated ginger (I used the powdered ginger, and it worked fine. I imagine fresh would rock though.)
2 large carrots
half pound snap peas
two cups mushrooms
1 cup chicken broth
t tbsp cornstarch

1. Chop up the chicken into bite size pieces, removing any extra skin or tendons.
2. Cover in the marinade and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. The longer you marinate, the stronger the taste, but really I only needed about 30 minutes to have amazing juicy chicken.
3. Chop up veggies. Carrots should be cut up into sections about the length of your smallest finger and then cut lengthwise from there until fairly thin. Snap peas are good just in half, and mushrooms generally sliced.
4. Mix together the soy sauce, garlic and ginger in the bottom of the wok. Heat up to medium heat. My wok heats ridiculously fast, so I just put it up to about 250 and the soy sauce immediately started bubbling.
5. Heat that up for about two minutes.
6. Add chicken and cook thoroughly, mixing in the sauce fully. This takes about five minutes.
7. Add the carrots and mix well.
8. When they start getting a little soft, add the snap peas.
9. When they start getting soft, add the mushrooms.
10. Finally, when the mushrooms start to change their color slightly, add 1/2 cup the chicken broth. Allow this to come to a nice bubbling broth and let some of the broth cook off.
11. Meanwhile mix the remaining broth and cornstarch. Add as the last and let it cook off a bit more of the liquid.
12. Enjoy alone or if you want to put on noodles or rice, feel free. The sauce is pretty amazing and would be great with something to absorb it, but that defeated the gluten-free part of it for us.

You can also add some red pepper flakes in with the soy sauce for a bit more heat.

Tuna Casserole

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day with no rain, 75 degree weather, so no comfort food needed here. I wanted something easy, light and delicious, especially since I was having dinner alone tonight.

Tuna casserole it is!

It's so easy to make this with WAAAY too many calories by adding too much cheese or mayo and milk. So skip all of that. I aimed for an easier method that would contain the calories by using a mixture that premeasures my calories. Cream of something soups!

Achieved a perfect creaminess, added veggies, and had enough room to have seconds. YUM!

Ingredients

12 oz noodles (I actually used a little less as I was combining the leftover noodles from other dishes. I had elbow macaroni and rotini/spiral pasta. Both enriched with nutrients.)

2 cans tuna fish (packed in water, not oil. Oil adds too many calories and makes the fish too fishy tasting.)

2 small cans of peas and carrots

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup (Actually if you want to skip this and do two cans of mushroom soup, you can cut some unnecessary calories without skimping on taste.)

salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Boil the noodles according to the directions on the package.

3. Meanwhile, heat up the cans of condensed soup. Season a bit with salt and pepper. Be careful not to bring to a boil, but just simmer at a low heat while the noodles boil.

4. When the soups begin to bubble, add the peas and carrots and the tuna fish. Stir together.

5. After the noodles finish, drain, rinse, and return to the pot.

6. Add the soup and tuna fish mixture and stir completely.

7. Put the noodle mixture into a glass baking dish and put in the oven. (If you're not worried about calories and want the taste to be a bit richer, you can add cheese on top at this point.)

8. Bake for 30 minutes.

9. Serves 8. Enjoy!

Nutritional Information (8 servings)

Calories: 170

Total Fat: 4.4g

Saturated Fat: 1.2g

Cholesterol: 28mg

Sodium: 623mg

Total Carbs: 19.2g

Dietary Fiber: 2.0g

Sugars: 0.5g

Protein: 13.6g

Vitamin A: 39%

Vitamin C: 4%

Calcium: 2%

Iron: 8%

Healthy Chicken Parmesan

Well, I haven't cooked an original meal in quite a few days. There have been a lot of meals out, scrounging for food, unoriginal salads with added protein, and other excuses not to cook. Today though, was rainy and just begging for a good comfort meal.

I don't know about you, but Italian food just screams comfort food to me. Something about the warm richness, the interplay between cheese and red sauce, it just does something for me. So when I came across this really easy and healthy recipe, I decided to try it out. It's not quite as rich as many chicken parm recipes, but that's probably because it is really straightforward and is so low cal. Try it, because it's surprisingly delicious and filling.

Ingredients

1 pound chicken (about three breasts each cut in half)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

2/3 cup parmesan cheese, divided

1tsp flour

basil

oregano

rosemary

salt

pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. In a shallow baking dish, place chicken breasts in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper followed by a mixture of 1/3 cup parmesan cheese and flour.

3. Bake for about 20 minutes or until they start just getting browned on the top.

4. While the chicken is cooking, mix the tomatoes and herbs in a saucepan. Heat to a boil and then simmer on low heat until slightly reduced. I mixed the herbs until I got a taste I liked. The recipe called for garlic, too, but the garlic I had went bad, so I skipped it.

5. Remove chicken from oven and pour the sauce over it. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Reduce the temperature to 360, and then bake for about 15 more minutes.

6. Serve with veggies of your choice. Also, help yourself to two servings if you're hungry. There's plenty of wiggle room with these!

Nutritional Info (Makes 6 Servings)

Calories: 116

Total Fat: 1.0 g

Cholesterol: 43 mg

Sodium: 83 mg

Total Carbohydrates: 5.5g

Dietary Fiber 2.2g

Sugars: 3.3g

Protein: 17.3g

Vitamin A: 9%

Vitamin C: 9%

Calcium: 1%

Iron: 3%

Chinese Breakfast and Salad Day

After the bottle of wine last night, I woke up a little bit hungover and craving Chinese. Luckily I had an option here in the house and didn't have to order in. Trader Joe's Chicken Gyoza potsickers are easy to make, curb my cravings, and are not an entirely unhealthy option. Granted, I could have made a much healthier decision, but I'd still be craving Chinese, and might cave and order something far less healthy.

So yes, I had potstickers for breakfast. I'm an adult. We can do that!

I went with the full serving size, in part so I didn't have to do any math. (Hangover, remember?) I washed the whole thing down with a sparkling water, so the carbonation could calm my stomach and I didn't incur any more calories.

Breakfast:

Trader Joe's Chicken Gyoza Potstickers (7)

Target Brand Sparkling Water

Nutritional Info on Breakfast:

Calories: 230

Carb: 36g

Protein: 13g

Fat: 3.5g

Saturated Fat: 0.5g

Cholesterol: 30mg

Sodium: 640 mg

Fiber: 2g

Sugars: 2g

Vitamin A: 0 IU

Vitamin C: 9 mg

Calcium: 20 mg

Iron: mg: 2.7 mg

Potassium: 0 mg

Not an awful way to start the day, but certainly not the best choice. Besides, by the time 2 o'clock came around, I was hungry again and dying for some vegetables. Specifically I was craving avocado again. (Ok, so it's technically a fruit. It's still green!) I decided to go out and eat at a place that had outdoor seating and would prepare my food for me.

Taco Mac just opened up the corner, and I remembered they make an amazing Shrimp and Avocado salad. So I grabbed some of my writing, drove up the street, found a nice table on the patio, and ordered a salad. It was so good! Exactly what I wanted. It has blue cheese, black beans, and tomatoes in addition to blackened shrimp and creamy avocado. I ordered honey mustard on the side and used only a tiny portion; the salad didn't need it!

Nutritional Info on Lunch:

Calories: 530

Carb: 40g

Protein: 25g

Fat: 33g

Saturated Fat: 6.5g

Cholesterol: 155mg

Sodium: 1310 mg (Whoops! Too high)

Fiber: 15g

Sugars: 14g

Vitamin A: 16000 IU (Wow. Good on Vitamin A today!)

Vitamin C: 36 mg

Calcium: 250 mg

Iron: 4.5 mg

Potassium: 0 mg

Then I didn't get hungry for dinner until around 8. I had originally planned to make Chicken Pot Pie, but after that salad, I really wasn't wanting anything so heavy. Husband wasn't hungry either and was craving a smoothie. What a great idea!

I whipped up a fruit smoothie with a cup of strawberries, half a cup of mixed berries, and a cup of 2% milk. I forgot to sweeten it, so it could have used some honey. But it was still good.

Smoothie Nutritional Info:

Calories: 173

Carb: 34g

Protein: 5.5g

Fat: 2.9g

Saturated Fat: 1.5g

Cholesterol: 9.8mg

Sodium: 54 mg

Fiber: 7.2g

Sugars: 21g

Vitamin A: 380 IU

Vitamin C: 106 mg

Calcium: 188 mg

Iron: 2mg

Potassium: 510mg

I was a little low on calories by the time I finished, so I made a quick Tuna salad with a touch of mustard and some shredded carrots atop a bed of spinach. Now, I'm ridiculously full and I hit my calorie goals and many of my nutritional goals as well. Yay, healthy day.

Nutritional Info on Dinner:

Calories: 233.9

Carb: 7.2g

Protein: 43.5g

Fat: 1.7g

Saturated Fat: 0.4g

Cholesterol: 50mg

Sodium: 251 mg (not the best)

Fiber: 2.7 g

Sugars: 3.1 g

Vitamin A: 13,597 IU (Damn)

Vitamin C: 12.2 mg

Calcium: 69.2 mg

Iron: 3.5 mg

Potassium: 763 mg

So I did an awesome job on calories, carbs, protein, Vitamins A & C, & even fiber. I feel pretty good about my choices today despite my potsticker breakfast. Even though I didn't spend much time cooking, I had a very healthy day.

Absence Followed by a Good Day

I apologize for disappearing for quite a few days. My life has encountered a few crises/tragedies/events which have prevented me from writing much of anything. I've only just been able to keep up with the writing that pays my bills, so my non-paying/joyful writing in my blogs and novels has taken a bit of a back seat for a bit.

I'm back now, though, and should be for some time.

So, I've received a request from one of my friends. I've managed to drop over 10 but less than 20 pounds in two months. This is a great record, and I'm proud of it. But just sharing my favorite recipes doesn't share much in the way of my mistakes, missteps, failures, and cheats... of which there are many. So, I'm going to start laying it bare. You're going to be able to call me out when I stop at Burger King for a Whopper because I'm lazy or cave and get a 700 calorie chicken quesadilla because I just want it!

So, gods help me, I'm going to attempt to be honest online in front of everyone...

Today's menu:

Lunch:

So, it's the weekend, and breakfast is rarely something I do anyway. At most, I have a glass of water and wait until I'm hungry around noon. Maybe it's not healthy, but I really don't like to eat when I'm not hungry. So I eat when I feel like it. And at 1:45, after waking up at 10:30, I was starving. So I made an epic sandwich.

Turkey Sandwich:

2 slice whole wheat bread

4 slices honey smoked turkey breast

1 slice provolone

1 cup spinach

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp light mayoniase

I toasted the bread to give it better texture. there's nothing I hate more than a mealy, soft sandwich. If I can't get a hard roll of bakery bread, I'm toasting the crap out of my bread to come somewhere near the texture. Adding the spinach gave it a touch more of crunch to my sandwich. I probably could have skipped the cheese, but, um, yum. Screw a few calories. :)

I washed the monstrous thing down with some sparkling and calorie-free flavored water. Perfect.

Nutritional Info on Lunch:

Calories: 315

Carb: 29g

Protein: 22g

Fat: 12g

Saturated Fat: 4.9g

Cholesterol: 30mg

Sodium: 1103 mg (not the best)

Fiber: 4.5g

Sugars: 5.2g

Vitamin A: 3,015 IU

Vitamin C: 8.4 mg

Calcium: 240 mg

Iron: mg: 2.6mg

Potassium: 306mg

Dinner was an extravagant affair, to say the least. Many Sundays (and Saturdays, and Wednesdays), especially ones in which the weather cooperates so incredibly as it did today, my friends and I get together to cook a communal dinner. Oh, who am I kidding? We do it as often as we possibly can. Nothing beats getting together with your favorite people, sharing food and drinks, and generally enjoying a wonderful evening together. Any excuse to get together? We'll take it.

So tonight was one of our "Please let it be officially spring so we can grill out more" dinners. We chose steaks and veggies for dinner, and I was in charge of a healthy dessert. I got about a bite into my own steak before stealing my husband's far bloodier steak (my steak had better be bleeding and mooing to be worth it!), so I only got a small portion of a steak, which was actually perfect for me. Here's my results for the night:

Steak/Top Sirloin (mostly sure that's what we were eating, but cooked rare for me over the grill)

Grilled Thick Stalk Asparagus, marinated in a seasoned salt, olive oil mixture

Full cap mushrooms

Tomatoes

Fresh Basil

Asiago Cheese Loaf in olive oil and pepper (or whatever juices available)

While the nutritional facts differ depending on if you added balsamic vinegar to the tomatoes topped with fresh basil or ate your whole slice of Asiago loaf and dipped it in the olive oil or vinegar, and whether you ate the whole steak or a quarter of a slab like I did, these are the approximations:

Calories: 374 (Again, ate only a little steak. I credited it as half a steak, but I imagine it was a quarter of a serving.)

Carbs: 42g

Protein: 31g
Fat: 11.8g

Saturated Fat: 3.9g

Cholesterol: 61mg

Sodium: 1566mg

Fiber: 6.8g

Sugars: 7g

Vitamin A: 1590 IU

Vitamin C: 56 mg

Calcium: 43mg

Iron: 4.4mg

Potassium: 769mg

On top of all of that, I had dessert and at least 20 fl oz of wine! And I still did fairly okay with my stats.

My desserts were largely fruit based with a little bit of sweets. I gave everyone my favorite dessert of angel food cake with whipped cream and berries. Usually, my mother serves it with ice cream rather than whipped cream, but I chose to substitute a light whipped cream and no one complained! The fact that the berries were amazingly delicious probably helped.

Angel Food cake (divided into 12/ths)

Strawberries (at least 1 cup per person)

Blackberries (about 1/4 cup per person)

Raspberries (about 1/4 cup per person) --in my defense, these berries are off season so they're a bit more expensive than other fruits available right now

Cool Whipped Topping Lite (4Tbsp-1/4cup)

Calories: 192

Carbs: 41g

Protein: 3.6g
Fat: 3.1g

Saturated Fat: 2g

Cholesterol: 0mg

Sodium: 212mg

Fiber: 7.3g

Sugars: 12.6g

Vitamin A: 105 IU

Vitamin C: 105 mg

Calcium: 82 mg

Iron: 1.2 mg

Potassium: 363 mg

In addition to all of this (I know... I'm such a glutton on the weekends!), I had about a bottle of wine across a few bottles in the night. I'm estimating this at about a full bottle of red (One, because it has more calories, so it makes me harsher on myself. Two, because I had one more glass of red than I did of white, and it's too much work to calculate the many different types of wine. If I had to calculate all: riesling, half a glass of cab sav, and two and a half reds.)

Wine:

Calories: 451

Carbs: 13.9 g

Protein: 0.4 g
Fat: 0 g

Saturated Fat: 0 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Sodium: 21 mg

Fiber: 0 g

Sugars: 3.3 g

Vitamin A: 10.6IU

Vitamin C: 0 mg

Calcium: 43mg

Iron: 2.4mg

Potassium: 674mg

At the end of the day, I went a bit overboard with calories (1,333 instead of 1200). If I had cut out the wine, it probably would have been a picture perfect day. I'm a bit too high on the sodium, didn't hit my fiber or iron or potassium goals (though I never do!), and was slightly too high on the calorie count. Frankly, though, I feel it was a perfect nutritional day, despite those lapses. I had a good mix of veggies, protein, carbs, and nutrients. I could have done better on some, and I could have abstained from drinking and done MUCH better on my calorie count.

And yet, these sorts of evenings make everything worthwhile. Eating is not a matter of consuming nutrients or earning energy or making good choices. It's about the experience of being with my friends and really experiencing a wide range of tastes and experiences. Tonight was perfect, and though I went slightly over, no regrets.

More like this, please!

Lasagna Roll Ups

Here's another great recipe for leftovers. I like making dishes in big batches, so I don't have to cook every night if I don't want to, and so that the husband has some healthy lunches for work.

This one I got from Caloriecount.com, but have adapted to add meat for more protein, and expand for more servings.

Ingredients:

12 lasagna noodles

12 oz fat free ricotta cheese (The recipe called for 14, but I actually used closer to 12 oz, mostly because I used the ricotta in another dish a week or two ago.)

three cups spinach (I used fresh spinach and tore the leaves by hand.)

4 oz reduced fat mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 medium egg

14 oz pasta sauce (The recipe called for a full bottle of pasta sauce, but I only ended up using about half that amount. You can add if you like, but I don't like too much sauce on mine.)

1 pound lean ground beef (You can of course skip this for an even healthier version. I'll include the nutrition information for both at the bottom.)

Directions:

1. Cook lasagna noodles according to the package directions. (Basically boil for about 10-12 minutes.)

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. While water is boiling and oven is heating, in a large skillet, brown the ground beef, draining off any excess oil when done.

4. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, spinach, egg, and cooked ground beef.

5. When noodles are done cooking, rinse them with cold water and spread out on a clean towel. You don't want them to stick to each other, and it's much easier to work with cooled noodles.

6. In a glass baking dish or two, pour about 1/2 cup of pasta sauce on the bottom of each, and spread it out so it covers the dish.

7. Spread the cheese and beef mixture on each cooked pasta noodle, like so.

8. Roll the cheesy noodles up into rolls.

9. Set in to the dish, seam side down (This will prevent them from unrolling while they cook.) and top with the rest of the pasta sauce (or with however much you want).

10. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. The cheese will be nice and gooey and melted by then.

11. Enjoy!

Again, these make great lunches and are delicious single serve lasagna treats.

Nutrition Facts: with/without beef

makes 12 servings

Calories: 255/150

Total Fat: 11.6/4.7g

Saturated Fat: 5.1/2.5g

Cholesterol: 64/30mg

Sodium: 237/201mg

Total Carbs: 17.7/17.7g

Dietary Fiber: 1.1/1.1g

Sugars: 1.9/1.9g

Protein: 19.3/9.3g

Vitamin A: 21%

Vitamin C: 4/5%

Calcium: 18/17%

Iron: 13/7%