Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa

I made a new salsa and it's really good if I do say so myself.  I was making this casserole and the recipe was so involved and time consuming and I ended up making this salsa as a result to save time.  It's my new favorite.  I'll post my version of the casserole tomorrow!

I used a couple poblano peppers (they are dark green peppers about the same size of bell peppers) in the salsa but you could just skip those and add a 7 oz can of chopped green chiles instead.




Fire Roasted Tomato Sasa

3 14.5 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
2 poblano peppers cut into big chunks
6-10 garlic cloves, peeled
3 jalapenos halved, ribs & seeds removed (I reserved the ribs and seeds from one of the jalapenos because we like spicy)
1 onion cut into big chunks
3/4-1 c. cilantro
juice of a lime
salt to taste

Turn on the broiler to 500.  Place the peppers, garlic cloves, jalapenos and onion on a baking sheet and spray them with cooking spray.  Roast about 20 minutes, shaking the pan after 10 minutes.  You want the garlic to be browned and the other vegetables may have some black spots but not be completely charred.  Remove the veggies from the oven and let cool a few minutes.  In a food processer or blender combine cans of tomatoes, roasted vegetables, lime juice, salt and cilantro.  Pulse until chopped and combined.  Enjoy!!

Herbed Potato Salad

I happened to have a 3 pound bag of Yukon Gold potatoes and wanted to make a potato salad so I went to my second favorite recipe site and found this recipe.  It is a hit.  I love it because it's different and it comes together really quickly with few ingredients.  I've caught Rob standing in front of the fridge eating this out of a tupperware a couple times.  He likes it.

The second time I made this I had red potatoes on hand and they worked well and I microwaved the potatoes, which is super classy, but it worked out well and didn't dirty a pot. 

This salad would be good warm or room temperature or even cold if you want to make it a day ahead of time.  We had it with burgers the first time I made it and flank steak and grilled asparagus yesterday I think it would go well with any summer meal.


Herbed Potato Salad

3 lbs Yukon Gold OR red potatoes
1 c. white wine
3 Tb white wine vinegar or white vinegar
2 Tb olive oil
1 Tb honey dijon or dijon mustard
3/4 tsp salt (I used sea salt)
3/4 tsp pepper
2 (or 5) garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c. chives or green onions, chopped
1/4 c. parsley, chopped

Scrub the potatoes and boil them until just fork tender.  Drain and let cool a few minutes.  While the potatoes are cooking, bring the wine to a boil in a small saucepan and let it cook until it it reduced by half.  Once the wine is reduced mix together the wine, vinegar, olive oil, mustard, salt, pepper, and garlic and set aside.  Slice the potatoes in thin slices and toss together the potatoes, dressing mixture, chives and parsley. 

Speedy Spinach Lasagna

My cousin is an English/Grammar genious and told me that you're only supposed to use one space after a period!! What?? So sorry that I've been failing you in my writing.  Then again, I just used a double exclamation point/question mark combo which I'm pretty sure isn't grammatically correct either so probably the double spacing is the least of my worries.  I digress. Onto the food!

My mom has been making this recipe a long time.  It is so easy, fast, and doesn't take any expensive ingredients.  You can really throw it together in 10 minutes plus baking time. It also happens to be low calorie/low fat so I'm always up for that.  Rob's been out of town a couple weeks so I made this on Sunday and have eaten it all week, needless to say I made my kids a quesadilla tonight because they're over it! I forgot to take a picture, but I think you all know what lasagna looks like. Just imagine this lasagna with no meat (unless you add some) and the cheese filling with a green tint...and then you've got the picture!

Rob is not exactly a fan of the meat-free meal so sometimes I throw in some turkey sausage or chicken. Do as you wish.  I had homemade marinara sauce in the freezer but jarred sauce works great.  It's hard to mess this recipe up.

Speedy Spinach Lasagna

4 c marinara (more or less depending on your preference)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed & squeezed dry
2-4 Tb parsley
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
2 Tb sour cream
16 oz cottage cheese
1 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded
8-10 lasagna noodles, broken in half (oven ready noodles OR regular noodles both work.  This also works with brown rice lasagna noodles)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Make the cheese sauce by combining eggs, salt, spinach, parsley, parmesan cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese in the food processer and pulsing until combined.  If you don't have a food processer just chop the parsley and stir everything together, that's how my mom makes it and it's great.  I just like it smooth.  Pour a little sauce on the bottom of a 9x13'' pan.  Layer half the broken noodles, half the cheese sauce, half the mozzarella cheese, half the sauce.  Repeat. Cover with foil and bake for 60-90 minutes.  You'll know it's done when it's heated through, bubbly and a fork goes into the noodles easily.  Let stand 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

1/8th of this recipe is 281 calories.

Cheater's General Tso Chicken

I saw an old friend this weekend and she said she was loving this blog but had noticed my blog-slacking.  It's true.  Life has been crazy around here which has adversely affected my blog updating. The upside to that is that I have still been cooking which means that I have a notebook full of recipes to post. This one's for you Brianne!

This may come as a shock, but I'm a sucker for a deal. So when the Sun-Bird Asian mixes were on sale aaaaand I had a coupon I had to get some.  I'm so happy I did.  This stuff is so good and I threw it together really fast and my son's comments (again) were, "Wow Mom, I love Pei Wei."  I love this because it's so quick it works well for an evening when we have something going on.

Cheater's General Tso Chicken

cooked rice
1 lb chicken thighs, chunked
1/4 c. flour
2 Tb vegetable oil
2 c. fresh broccoli, chopped
1 packet SunBird General Tso mix
2 Tb soy sauce
1/4 c. sugar (I used a bit less)
pinch of crushed red pepper (optional, we like spice)
1/2 c. water

While the rice is cooking chunk the chicken and toss it and the flour in a ziploc bag to coat.

In a bowl combine the seasoning mix, soy sauce, sugar, red pepper and water.  Whisk the sauce ingredients well and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the chicken and saute until brown tossing in the broccoli for the last minute of cooking.  Lower heat to medium and pour in the sauce.  Bring the sauce to a boil and cook until thickened.  (If the sauce thickens too quickly pour in a little extra water.) Serve over steamed white or brown rice.

Sweet & Tangy Slaw

Cabbage is super cheap right now, so what better time to make some coleslaw?  I am extremely motivated to save money and I almost always plan my meals around what's on sale that week and what I have in my pantry/freezer already.  Slaw it is.

This is a very good, simple, quick recipe.  I've found that people who "don't like coleslaw", like this. I first had this when a friend at work made it for our team.  Yummy.  It goes great with burgers, grilled chicken or steak.



Sweet & Tangy Slaw

8 c. shredded cabbage
2 carrots, shredded
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 Tb sesame seeds
2 pkg Ramen noodles, seasoning packet reserved (I prefer beef but chicken would do)

Dressing:
2 ramen seasoning packets
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. vegetable or canola oil
1/2 tsp pepper

Toss together all veggies, seeds and ramen noodles (crushed).  In a separate bowl mix together the dressing ingredients and wisk until incorporated.  Pour the dressing over the cabbage mixture and toss to coat.  Chill 2-4 hours.

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!


http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcrackedupkitchen.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F02%2Froasted-garlic-chicken-pizza.html&media=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-QlViCkVkw0k%2FUIQ6rOPGh8I%2FAAAAAAAAAKg%2Fu4h4gIcjRGY%2Fs1600%2Froasted%2Bgaric%2Bchick%2Bpizza.JPG&description=Roasted%20Garlic%20Chicken%20Pizza

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.