Enchilada Casser-Ole!

A friend of mine had a baby this last week and I wanted to make them something for dinner during the first few nights they had the baby home so they didn't have to worry about making or buying dinner while getting used to their new addition. I found an enchilada casserole recipe in a Healthy Cooking magazine so thought I'd give it a try. I have to say that it turned out really good and I will definitely be making it for myself soon!

Enchilada Casser-Ole!

1 lb. ground beef (I of course used ground turkey)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups salsa
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and rained
1/4 cup reduced fat Italian salad dressing
2 tbsp. reduced-sodium taco seasoning
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
6 flour tortillas (8 in) (I used whole wheat)
3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 cup shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro

In a large skillet, cook beef (or turkey) and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the salsa, beans, dressing, taco seasoning, and cumin. Place three tortillas in a 2-quart baking dish coated with cooking spray. Layer with half of the meat mixture, sour cream and cheese. Repeat layers.

Cover and bake at 400 for 25 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until heated through. Let stand for 5 minutes before topping with lettuce, tomato and cilantro.

Chicken Salad

I make a pretty good chicken salad. I'm not going to lie, it's often requested, especially on wine tasting trips or Hollywood Bowl nights. It's one of the easiest things I've ever learned how to make and lasts for a while in the fridge so you can make it a day or two ahead of whenever you want to serve it.

Chicken Salad

1 whole store bought roasted chicken (or you can cook your own chicken breasts)
1 1/5 cups red grapes, halved
3/4 - 1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1-2 tbsp. Mrs. Dash Table Blend, use to taste
1/2 - 3/4 cup slivered almonds (optional)

Remove skin from chicken, chop chicken into small bite sized pieces and place in large bowl. Add halved grapes, celery, mayonnaise and Mrs. Dash and mix together. Right before serving stir in slivered almonds. Serve on crusty bread, crackers, a bed of lettuce or inside a cantaloupe ring!

Slow Cooker Lentil Soup

It's Sunday morning and I'm already thinking about lunch tomorrow! I picked up a bag of dried lentils at the store yesterday. I've been wanting to try out a crock pot soup with lentils in it since I saw a recipe for one on a friends blog a month or more ago. I also know that I'm pretty much the only one in my house that will eat lentils, so I decided to throw together the soup today to have for quick lunches this week.

Slow Cooker Lentil Soup

2 carrots, peeled and chopped into lg. chunks
2 celery stalks, chopped into lg. chunks
1 medium onion, chopped into lg. chunks
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups lentils, picked over
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
2 bay leaves
8 cups chicken stock (use vegetable broth or water if making vegetarian)
4 oz. Canadian bacon, cut into small chunks(omit if making vegetarian)
1 can diced tomatoes

Place ingredients in a 4-5 quart crock pot in the following order: carrots, celery, onion, lentils, bay leaves, thyme, salt, pepper and broth. Cook on low for 6 hours. Uncover and add Canadian bacon and diced tomatoes. Continue cooking for 30 minutes. Remove bay leaves and serve.

Turkey & Spinach Meatballs

I bought a spaghetti squash at the store this week, it's one of the first squashes that I ever actually enjoyed eating, but now, really love. I wanted to use it up for one of my dinners this week, but did still want to include some sort of protein so I found this recipe for Turkey and Spinach meatballs. I actually made the meatballs up the night before so all I had to do was heat them up in some sauce and cook the spaghetti squash and my quick dinner was ready to go!

Turkey & Spinach Meatballs

1 lb. ground turkey
2 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup chopped fresh spinach leaves
1 small onion, grated
1 egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs (if I'd had whole wheat, I'd have used that instead of regular)
1/4 cup parmessan cheese
1 splash of milk
non-stick spray

In a large bowl, combine the onion, egg, bread crumbs and parmessan and milk to form a sort of paste. Add the turkey, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and spinach. Gently combine all ingredients together. Roll into 1-2 inch balls, place on a pan sprayed with non-stick spray, spray top of meatballs with non-stick spray as well. Cook 20-25 minutes in a 375 oven. Flip half way through so both sides get slightly brown.

Add to spaghetti sauce and heat through. Serve over your favorite pasta or spaghetti squash.

Salisbury-ish steak

So, I tried out another new recipe last night, I have a few tweaks I'd make to the recipe if I did it again, but I think it still tasted good and was very filling. I'm calling it Salisbury-ish Steak, but really since I'm not sure that I've ever eaten Salisbury Steak I'm not sure how close to the original it tastes!

Salisbury-ish Steak
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup Fiber One cereal (ground up) (I think I might only use 1/4 cup next time)
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 eggs (this is where I'd make a tweak...I'd use at least 3 eggs, or 4 egg whites)
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. dried parsley
3-4 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce (separated)
2 10-oz. cans low fat Cream of Mushroom
6-12 oz. whole wheat egg noodles

Ground up the cereal in a blender or food processor.

Prepare the noodles according to package. (I only used 6 oz. but had more patties left over than noodles so if you want left over noodles make more now, although you may want to wait and make them fresh.)

While boiling the water, combine the beef, ground cereal, quick oats, egg or egg whites, 1 ½ - 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, and dried parsley.

Form the mixture into patties, each a little more than 3 oz.

Brown the patties in a large frying pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray over medium high heat about 3-4 minutes a side.

Whisk the soup, 1 1/2 cans of water (the soup can) and the remaining 1 ½ -2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce. Pour soup mixture over patties. Lower the heat to simmer and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes.

Once the noodles are done, remove the patties from the skillet and set aside. Drain the noodles and add to the skillet. Stir to coat the noodles in the soup mixture.

Sweet & Tangy Salmon

So, this week the grocery store had salmon on sale, so I picked up a medium sized fillet to use sometime during the week. I was perusing my new favorite recipe site and found this recipe for salmon that is low in calories. I have to admit that I liked it ok, I think that I prefer my salmon with more natural flavors of just garlic and lemon, but this was a nice way to change up my usual go to fish recipe. I think I might try this with soy sauce instead of the Worcestershire sauce next time...

Sweet & Tangy Salmon

2 - 4oz. salmon fillets
1 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 -1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (to taste, I like spicy foods, so I used about 1/2 tsp.)
salt and pepper (to taste)

Whisk honey, Worcestershire sauce and pepper flakes in a small bowl. Season salmon with salt and pepper, place in skillet and cook about 3 minutes per side. Before you flip the salmon over, drizzle half of the honey mixture on the salmon. Drizzle remaining honey mixture on second side.

Banana Graham Parfait

So, even though I'm watching what I eat and counting those calories, I found myself with a bit of a sweet tooth tonight and just had to give in to the craving and made myself some dessert! But...I made sure it was a lower calorie option and it was very satisfying and filling. This is not really a recipe, more so a guideline. You could easily substitute different fruit and pudding flavors, but I enjoyed this combination a lot.

Banana Graham Parfait

1 banana
2 low-fat Cinnamon Graham Cracker sheets
1 sugar-free vanilla pudding

Break up part of a graham cracker sheet in bottom of a bowl. Spread a spoonful of pudding over crackers, slice up half of the banana. Repeat layers, topping with the last bits of graham cracker.

That's it! It's super simple and tasty. Enjoy!