Chicken & Cream Cheese Enchiladas

So, I read this book called The Belly Fat Cure and because I'm at a bit of a post-baby weightloss standstill (aka, belly fat) I decided to try it out.  So far, it works! And, the book is very interesting and somewhat enlightening.

Anyway, you can have corn tortillas and enchiladas on the diet, so here they are!  My friend brought me a similar batch of enchiladas when I had the baby and we loved them so I based this batch on her recipe. They were very good!

When I make Enchiladas I usually chop up the tortillas and layer like a casserole instead of rolling the enchiladas, it's probably a personal problem but I can never keep the tortillas from breaking! (If you're wondering, YES I've heated them, dipped them in sauce/stock...doesn't work for me.) So on that tangent, do what you want.

Chicken & Cream Cheese Enchiladas
2 large chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lbs)
Seasoned salt, garlic, cumin (or your choice of seasoning) for chicken
1 packet McCormick Enchilada sauce mix (found by the taco seasoning and gravy mix)
1 small can tomato sauce
1 1/2 c. water
8-9 corn tortillas
4 oz cream cheese, softened and heated until easily spreadable
4 oz can chopped green chiles
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/2 c. cojita cheese, crumbled OR crumbled feta
1 1/2 c. cheddar cheese, grated and divided
1/2 c. green onions, chopped
1/2 c. cilantro, chopped

Start by cooking the chicken.  I seasoned mine well and grilled it.  You can certainly bake or boil it and then season it.  Shred the chicken and set aside.  In a small saucepan mix together the sauce seasoning packet, tomato sauce, and water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes until slightly thickened.  Remove from heat and set aside. 

Preheat oven to 375. Now either layer or roll the enchiladas in a 9x13 pan, tortillas on the bottom, then spread the cream cheese, chicken, onions, green chiles, and 3/4 c. cheddar cheese.   Top with another layer of tortillas and cover with sauce. Sprinkle the top with feta or cojita cheese and bake 15 minutes.  Sprinkle the rest of the cheddar cheese on the top and bake another 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle the green onions and cilantro over the top.  Serve with sour cream.

Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza

So I was watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on Food Network the other day and he visited Capones Pub & Grill in Idaho and ate this amaing looking Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza.  So of course I watched closely how they made it and took a stab at my own version Friday night.  It was SOOO good, usually we have a slice or two of pizza leftover after pizza night but all that was left was a lonely chunk of artichoke heart.

This isn't necessarily a low-fat pizza but it's worth having!  The original pizza came with kalamata olives which I love, but Rob isn't an olive fan so I skipped out on the olives.

As usual I don't like to measure out a bunch of ingredients so I bought a pizza dough ball at Trader Joe's and it worked great.  Making your own pizza crust would be superb I'm sure.  To season my chicken I used garlic pepper, granulated garlic, and a sprinkle of sea salt.  Salt, pepper and garlic would be just fine. I used 10 garlic cloves for this pizza and next time I think I'll do more...but we're crazy about garlic.




Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza

• 1 pizza dough (preferably not a can of dough for this one)
• pizza sauce (I make my own with tomato paste, tomato sauce, garlic and italian seasoning.)
• 1 small jar artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 2-3 Tb julienned sundried tomatoes
• 10 garlic cloves (or more), roasted
• 1 large chicken breast, seasoned, grilled and chopped
• 1 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese
• 2 Tb butter
• 3/4 tsp granulated garlic
• 1Tb grated parmesan cheese

To make the roasted garlic: Peel all the cloves of garlic and put in a piece of foil.  Drizzle with oil or spray with Pam and close the foil around the garlic.  Bake at 375 30-45 minutes, it will be light brown and smell amazing when it's done.  Set aside and chop the garlic when it's cool.

For the Pizza: Preheat the oven to 425 (or suggested oven temperature on the dough).  Roll the pizza crust out on a stone or pan pulling the excess dough out and folding over to create an edge crust.  Bake the empty crust for 5-8 minutes until it's firmed up but not completely cooked.  Pull out the crust and top with sauce, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic, and mozzarella cheese. Put back in the oven for 5-8 more minutes or until the cheese is melted and crust is browning.  In the meantime melt the butter and stir in the parmesan cheese and granulated garlic.  When the pizza comes out brush the crust with garlic butter.  Pour the remaining butter mixture over the cooked, chopped chicken and toss to combine.  Put the chicken over the top of the pizza, slice and eat!


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Pork Fried Rice

I found the basis of this recipe on allrecipes.com which I'm sure I've mentioned before.  I changed it a little bit but it was a great start!  You could easily adapt this recipe to add more vegetables, use brown rice or instant rice instead, substitute chicken or shrimp get creative!

Here's a little tip about sesame oil, it will go rancid quickly so store it in the fridge for long-term use.  This recipe also calls for fresh ginger.  I buy a piece of fresh ginger, peel it and then freeze it so that when I need it I can just cut or grate some off of it.

I like to cook the rice early and let it set a little while because it separates better and fries up well.  Or something like that.

Pork Fried Rice

2 c. cooked white rice
3/4 lb pork loin, diced
2/3 c. chopped carrot
2/3 c. frozen peas
1/2 onion, chopped
1 Tb fresh ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tb vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
3 Tb soy sauce (plus more for serving)
1-2 tsp sesame oil

In a saucepan cook rice as directed.  Once rice is cooked set aside until you're ready for it.  In a large skillet heat oil over medium or medium-high heat and cook the carrots for 2-3 minutes, add onion and pork and cook another 3 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add in peas, sesame oil, ginger, garlic and cook a minute.  Make a hole in the middle of the skillet and pour in the eggs stirring as they cook and combine with the vegetables.   Once the egg is cooked, stir in rice and sprinkle with soy sauce.  Combine well.  Serve with extra soy sauce.

Spaghetti Squash Bake

If you've never tried a spaghetti squash, this recipe would be a great opportunity to try it.  We really like it.  It is not an exact substitution for real pasta, but if you're having a calorie counting fest it works great! I have gotten very serious about my calorie counting lately.  Go here for a step by step on how to cook spaghetti squash!

I lightened up my recipe for baked spaghetti and made this.  All four of us eaters really enjoyed this and then I had enough leftover to eat for lunch the rest of the week!  This recipe would be super simple to make vegetarian.




Spaghetti Squash Bake1 large or 2 small spaghetti squash (you need about 7 c. shredded squash, give or take a cup)
2 Tb margerine, melted ( I used Smart Balance Light, no trans fat and low cal)
1 egg beaten
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp sea salt and 1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp granulated garlic

4 oz light cream cheese, softened (I used neufchatel cheese)
2 c. 2% milk cottage cheese
1/2 c. sour cream
dash of salt, 1/4 tsp pepper
1 c. mozzarella

3 c. marinara sauce (I made my own, a jar would be just fine)
1 lb turkey Italian sausage (I used spicy)

To cook the spaghetti squash there's a couple options.  1. Stab a few holes in it and cook it whole in the microwave 8-10 minutes, or until the skin is soft. Then cut it in half, scoop out seeds and use a fork to collect the "spaghetti." OR 2. Cut it in half (be careful), scoop out the seeds and bake upside down in the oven at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until you can use a fork to get the "spaghetti" to rake up.

Preheat oven to 350.  Let cooked spaghetti squash sit in a colander for a few minutes to get any excess water to drain out.  Mix the squash with the melted spread, parmesan cheese, beaten egg, salt, pepper and granulated garlic. Spread the squash mixture in the bottom of a 9x13' pan.  In a separate bowl mix together the cream cheese cottage cheese, sour cream, salt & pepper.  Spread the cheese mixture over the squash.  Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the top of that.  Then, mix together the marinara sauce and sausage and spread over the top of everything.  Bake the casserole for 30-35 minutes or until it's bubbly and hot.  Remove from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes before cutting.  Serve with garlic bread (You're eating all veggies!  Splurge on the garlic bread.)

* I added up all the calories in the entire thing and 1/9th of this recipe has only 250 calories!

Greek Salsa, Again

I made this for a meeting we had to go to Sunday.  It got rave reviews!  I remembered to take a picture this time and I thought it would be a great Superbowl idea....AND it's very healthy (It's healthy itself, the tortilla or pita chips you dip it with aren't super healthy though.)

Try the Greek Salsa!

*Disclaimer: This is best the day you make it so don't make it too far ahead of when it will be served.

Chicken Stir Fry

I love to make stir fry. If you have veggies around and not enough of one to be a side-dish, throw it all together and make a stir fry. This recipe is just a guideline so adjust with whatever vegetables you have on hand.  I think some asparagus, broccoli, zuchinni, snow peas and bok choy would be great additions or substitutions to this recipe.  You can always add more vegetables to stretch your meat out a little bit.

I had bought some Soyaki sauce at Trader Joes and I wanted to make something to put it on so I made this stir fry and put a soyaki/soy sauce combo on it and it was very good!  It's also super low in calories (depending on how much oil you cook the chicken and veggies in.)

A quick stiry-fry note: please do not overcook your vegetables.  It is so disappointing to chop up a bunch of fresh vegetables only to overcook them and be left with a bowl of mushy brown veggies.  I usually leave my a little crunchy so if they keep cooking a few minutes after I turn the heat off we're still good.

Chicken Stir-Fry

2 tsp oil
1 lb chicken breast or tenders OR thighs, thinly sliced (slice it while it's still frozen, so much easier)
salt, pepper, granulated garlic for seasoning
1 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp oil
1 bell pepper, thinly sliced (I used half a red and half a yellow)
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots, sliced
1 large or 2 small yellow squash, sliced
2 cups (or more) cabbage, shredded
2 cups fresh spinach
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated or minced
salt & pepper

sauce of your choice
cooked rice

*Note: You really want to have all of your vegetables chopped and ready to go because the whole stir-fry process goes fast!

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil.  When its hot add the chicken, seasoning well and drizzling with sesame oil.  Quickly cook the chicken and remove to a plate.  Add more olive oil and heat the pan to medium.  Saute the onion and carrots for a couple minutes then add in the bell pepper and cook a minute more.  Stir in the ginger and garlic, then add in the squash cooking for a minute more.  Season well with salt and pepper and then add in the cabbage cooking until it just starts to soften.  Stir in the spinach, turn off the heat and remove the pan from the burner.  Serve over rice with whatever sauce you like.

Pear Crisp with Caramel Sauce

I got a bag of bosc pears in my basket last weekend and I thought I'd make a dessert with them.  So after much internet research, I decided I'd try the Pioneer Woman's pear crisp.  I mean, time and again and again and again she has proven to be a cooking stud so why not?

I'm happy to report that the pear crisp was awesome!  I went the extra mile and made a batch of caramel sauce and served it at a meeting with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce drizzled over it.  YUM.  I got lots of compliments (for PW).  I made a couple very tiny changes to her original recipe because of what I had and how much I needed to make.

Pear Crisp10 firm, smallish pears.  Peeled, cored & diced.
2 granny smith apples Peeled, cored & diced
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp salt

3 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar
2/3 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. chopped nuts (I used almonds and walnuts, but PW used pecans)
2 sticks butter or margerine, melted

Mix together the fruit with the sugar and salt.  Spread the pear mixture in a 9x13'' pan.  In a separate bowl mix together flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts.  Drizzle the melted butter or margerine into the flour mixture in batches, stirring it together with a fork.  Sprinkle the topping on the pear mixture.  Bake 50 minutes, then move the crisp to the top oven rack and bake another 10 minutes to brown the topping.  Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream and caramel sauce!

Red Beans and Rice

I found this recipe on the Our Best Bites blog.  I love that site.  Seriously.  I have tried many of their recipes and they are all fantastic.  I love that one of the writers of the blog does Weight Watchers and she posts nutrition facts and/or points values on lots of her recipes.  This was one of those recipes.  However, I did add more meat than the original recipe called for so my recipe will be more calories than hers.  I  mean, why add 1/4 lb of smoked sausage when you could add 3/4 pound?  I have made this once before using turkey kielbasa which would help with reducing calories for sure!


Red Beans and Rice
recipe slightly adapted from Our Best Bites

1 lb red beans, rinsed
6 c. water
5 chicken boullion cubes
3/4 lb smoked sausage, chopped (I used jalapeno cheddar sausages I got super cheap on sale with a coupon)
1 onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
5 cloves garlic
1 tsp Tony's (or other creole seasoning or even seasoned salt)
3/4 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp coriander
3/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Cooked white rice
4 green onions, thinly sliced

Put everything in the crockpot and stir it up.  Cook on low all day or high 5-6 hours.  At the end mash up some of the beans using a potato masher or a fork.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  I added more Tony's and some sea salt.  Serve beans in a bowl with beans on the bottom and rice on top, sprinkle with green onions. YUM.

Apricot Pork (or Chicken)

This tastes SO much better than it looks.  Seriously.  We love this stuff, it's Asian-y tasting and I love that you can throw it together in two minutes in the morning, boil some rice and you  have dinner.  I use pork quite a bit with this recipe but chicken thighs or breasts are great too.

I found this recipe on the crockpot lady's blog.  I spent three whole days once last year reading her entire blog and looooove her ideas.  She's gluten free too so if you're looking for those kinds of recipes, s he has loads of them.


Apricot Chicken or Pork11 oz jar apricot jam
1 T. onion flakes
1 T dijon or spicy mustard
1 T. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. dried ginger
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 1/2 lb chicken or pork loin

Put the meat in the slow cooker and mix together the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl.  Pour the sauce over the meat (frozen chicken is fine) and cook on low 6-8 hours or high 4-6 hours.

Mongolian Beef

This is SO good.  I mean, really really good.  Rob did the "What About Bob" interpretation at the table while eating it.  I will make this over and over again and I think it would be great with pork loin or chicken thighs or breast too.

I found this recipe here.  Before I had my third child I had plenty of time and energy to read food blogs at night and this is one I look at fro time to time.  Now, I think about reading food blogs and then go to bed.  I will do it again...hopefully. The only thing I changed from the original recipe is I made more sauce.  I like sauce.
Mongolian Beef

Sauce:
1 Tb vegetable oil
3/4 tsp ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic minced
3/4 c. soy sauce (regular or low-sodium depending on your preference.)
3/4 c. water
1 c. plus 2 Tb brown sugar
1 Tb corn starch

Beef:
Vegetable oil for frying (2-3 Tb will do it if you're watching calories, or more if you're not)
1 1/2 lb flank steak
1/4 c. cornstarch
4 green onions
1 lb mushrooms, quartered

cooked rice

For the sauce, heat the oil over medium-low in a medium sauce pan. Add in the garlic and ginger and cook for just a minute and then add in soy sauce, water and brown sugar.  Raise the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, stirring continuously.  Let it boil 2-3 minutes.  Then, mix together 1 Tb. water and 1 Tb cornstarch together in a small bowl and stir it into the sauce.  It should thicken up quickly.  Turn off the heat and set the sauce aside.

Slice the flank steak into thin slices and dip them into the cornstarch.  Set aside.  Put 2 tsp vegetable oil in a frying pan or skillet and heat to medium.  Add in the mushrooms and saute a few minutes until they are getting brown and soft.  Remove the mushrooms and add 2-3 Tb more vegetable oil to the pan.  Cook steak over medium-high heat a minute or two on each side, until browned.  (It won't take long if it's cut thinly)  Remove steak to a paper towel-lined plate.  Wipe the skillet clean of the oil and add steak, mushrooms, green onions and sauce back into the pan and simmer a few minutes over medium heat.  Serve over rice.  YUM.