Cookies!!

I have been thinking about my last post all day--as I cleaned my house and did my laundry, as I made lunch for my family, as I took my kids on a nine mile bike ride to a nearby reservoir to play and as I made dinner. My blood was really boiling over this issue. I don't know who I was mad at--I was just mad! But I have since come to the conclusion: SCREW IT. We eat healthy foods in moderation. I am not cutting whole wheat bread or yogurt out of my diet. I may consider trying to cut back on the bread a bit and trying to get some more lean protein in, but that is it. Well, and I have given up Diet Coke again! I don't care what the "experts" of the minute say, because they are all just going to change their minds. I just want to do what is good for me and my family. And what is reasonable. That being said...

I made these awesome cookies the other day!!!!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (MY version)

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp. baking powder

10 TBSP applesauce

12 TBSP cocoa powder

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

powdered sugar (to roll cookies in)

Mix together flours and baking powder. Add applesauce, cocoa powder, honey, sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Add eggs and mix in. (It is really thick dough--beware!) Refrigerate for at least a few hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make small balls of the dough (it is very sticky and you will have chocolate hands by the end!) and roll them in powdered sugar. Place sugar coated balls on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Enjoy!

My kids (and I) love these things! They are soft and chocolatey and taste like little brownie bites!!

NO WAY I'm giving that up. (So there. I'm sticking it to the man.)

Confessions, thoughts and a yummy breakfast

One of the reasons I took a big break from this blog was because I realized that I had gained weight because of reading other food blogs!! I mean, obviously it was still my fault--reading doesn't make you gain weight, shoving food in your mouth does. But I would get all these food ideas from other healthy bloggers that would sound so good. I wasn't realizing, though, that many of these healthy bloggers also happen to be 23 and have never had children. I may feel like I am 23, but my metabolism doesn't. Bummer.

So I'm trying to be really careful about what I put on here now. I have to be VERY careful with what I eat these days. I really try to keep my daily calorie intake low. I have many strategies for doing this--mainly myfitnesspal.com!! Usually I make separate meals for my family and myself for breakfast and dinner. That is my reality. I am almost 36 and things have changed.

Confession: my freshman year in college I ate an entire box of Little Debbie Nutty Bars in one sitting. By myself. I weighed 115 lbs at the time! I NEVER, ever worked out. I probably couldn't even have run for 30 seconds straight. Yes, things have changed.

Here is an awesome breakfast recipe for the whole family (like, I get to eat it, too!!!)

Baked Oatmeal with Bananas and Blueberries--adapted from Skinnytaste.com

Ingredients:

2 medium ripe bananas, (the riper the better) sliced into 1/2" pieces
1 1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup honey (or agave)
1 cup uncooked quick oats
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 cup fat free milk (or Almond Milk--less calories!)
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Lightly spray a 8 x 8" or 9 x 9" ceramic baking dish with cooking spray; set aside.
Arrange the banana slices in a single layer on the bottom of the ceramic dish. Sprinkle half of the blueberries over the bananas, 1/4 tsp of the cinnamon, 1 tbsp of the honey and cover with foil. Bake 15 minutes, until the bananas get soft.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the oats, half of nuts, baking powder, remaining cinnamon, and salt; stir together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining honey, milk, egg, and vanilla extract.
Remove the bananas from the oven, then pour the oat mixture over the bananas and blueberries.

Pour the milk mixture over the oats, making sure to distribute the mixture as evenly as possible over the oats. Sprinkle the remaining blueberries and walnuts over the the top.

(I do all this the night before and stick it in the fridge. Then the next morning...)

Bake the oatmeal for about 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the oatmeal has set. Serve warm from the oven.
I always double this--those warm bananas...ahhh, heaven in the morning!!!

making yogurt

It's actually not nearly as intimidating as it sounds! (Soap is much harder.) All you need are a few key ingredients and supplies and a sense of adventure and you end up with creamy, fresh, homemade yogurt. (Not only tasty, but MUCH cheaper than buying it!!)

I don't really follow an exact recipe, so bear with me.

Pour a bunch of milk in a pot. I use organic milk from our local dairy, but any milk will do, I think. Have fun and experiment! Let us know how it goes! (Unless you use breastmilk. We don't want to know about that.)

Heat the milk to 180 degrees. Here it is very helpful to have a candy thermometer. The milk will be almost boiling--with little bubbles around the edges. But I find it much easier to ignore the bubbles and just look at the thermometer.

Next cool the milk down to 112 degrees. You can place your entire pot in an ice bath. Or put your pot in the fridge. Or just leave it out. Whatever floats your boat. Again, though, it is nice to have a candy thermometer here. ($3 at Wal-mart.)

While you are waiting for your milk to cool, heat up your containers. For one pot of milk, I used three big yogurt containers. I just put them in the sink in hot water.

Now add your starter. WHAT STARTER?! you ask. Never fear. Just add some yogurt to your milk (a little store-bought container will do--you just need to make sure it has "live and active cultures".) Mix it up. You can also add a little sugar at this point to "speed up the bacteria growth." That's right folks, we are growing bacteria!

Pour the milk into the containers. Put the lids on. You now get to incubate your yogurt. There are many methods to this madness, but my favorite is the heating pad method, so that is what I will show you. You are welcome to research others...

I put a cutting board down to protect the counters, then place the heating pad on top and cover it with a towel. Put your yogurts on top of this and wrap them all up in another towel. Put the heating pad on medium heat and let the yogurt incubate for about 8 hours or so.

Warning! You kind of need to babysit your yogurt. It's not like babysitting an infant or anything, more like a 10 year old girl. Just a little bit of supervision here and there. The first time I tried to make yogurt I let it incubate overnight. Fail. The heating pad has an automatic shut off feature!!! The yogurt needs to stay between 90 and 120 degrees the whole time. So I ended up with weird milk stuff. Now I just do it during the day, so I can periodically make sure that the heating pad is still on.

That's it!!! We like thick yogurt, so at this stage I start the process for making Greek yogurt--see my previous post. It's super yummy and creamy and not as tart as store bought stuff.

Oh, I should mention, this is plain, unsweetened yogurt. Add fruit or honey if you don't want to feel like you are eating straight up sour cream. :)

So I know that seems like a lot of steps and somewhat daunting, but it is really easy! Give it a try!!!

All you need:

milk

pot

candy thermometer

a small thing of store-bought yogurt (with live and active cultures)

a little sugar (if desired)

old yogurt containers

a heating pad

towels

a sense of adventure :)

Crackers

I tackled Cheez-its/Goldfish and Saltines today. We still have a good supply of Ritz and grahams, so I will have to save those for another day. Which is probably a good thing, because although both of these recipes were decidedly easy, they were also somewhat time consuming, to put it mildly. Now that I've got the hang of it, I'm sure it will go quicker next time. A lot of work, though. The kids LOVE the Cheez-its!!! Apparently that real cheese and real butter is much better than the fake stuff. They begged for more and I had to turn them down. Those babies took me like 6 hours to make--I have to ration them out!! :) Kidding!!

Sort of.

Here is the scoop:

Homemade Saltines (my version)--I doubled it to get the above amount.

1 cup white flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

5 TBSP cold butter, cut up

1/2 to 3/4 cup ice water

1 + tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flours, baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt in a bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter until mixture resembles small crumbs. Add ice water and stir gently to incorporate. When mixture will clump together, roll out onto a floured surface. Cut into squares (or any other shape, I guess!) Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Arrange on 2 sprayed baking sheets and put in oven. Cook for 9 minutes, then rotate sheets and cook 9 more minutes. Let cool and enjoy a nice, REAL snack!!

I started off my Cheez-its with the idea of making them cute and little (more like goldfish.) HA. HA. HA. I took the original recipe's suggestion of using baking tips to cut out little circles.

And soon realized that although these might be somewhat cute and charming, it was going to take me until the middle of next week to cut them all out. So I did about 7 like that, then switched to a quicker, easier method. Next time I will probably just use a pizza cutter, because really, they just go straight into your mouth, so who cares what they look like!!

You could also make these bigger, which would speed up the process as well!

Homemade Cheese crackers (a la Lindsay)

8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

4 TBSP cold butter, cut up

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup steel cut oats

3/4 tsp. salt

2+ TBSP cold water

Pulse everything except water in a food processor until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add water, 1 TBSP at a time. Test to make sure dough will clump together--add more water if necessary. Remove dough from processor and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. (Try not to go longer than that--or else you will get quite a work out rolling out the dough. Take my word for it.) Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes. Place on sprayed cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Yummy!!

Next time I do these, I want to experiment with using less butter.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Valentine's Day = Chocolate!!

Instant gratification is even better.

Especially when it is low in calories and fat...

All you need is...love. And...

3 TBSP cocoa powder
2-3 TBSP sugar (I used Truvia. *I am on the fence about sugar vs. calorie-free sweeteners.)
1 TBSP flour
3 TBSP unsweetened almond milk
3 TBSP applesauce
1/2 egg white (make two recipes! One for you, one for your sweetheart!)
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in a microwave-safe mug. Add in the wet and stir it all up. Stick it in the microwave for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Dollop of bit of whipped cream or ice cream on top, if desired!

*I want to cut processed foods out of our diet as much as I can, but at the same time, I am trying to keep my calories low (in accordance to my endocrinologist's advice.) I should probably figure something out!

Breakfast of Champions

Long-time readers will know that I am a big fan of a nice, home-baked breakfast for my kids every morning. But because I have three kids in elementary school and one in preschool, mornings tend to be a bit chaotic at our house. So I usually end up making breakfast the day before. I came across this recipe on Pinterest--it is originally from Everyday Food magazine, but it had been altered and then I altered it even more. My kids loved these muffins and I have been making a batch a week to just have on hand for a quick go-to breakfast for myself and Ryan. Cause let's face it--by the time I have all four kids bathed, fed, dressed, teeth-brushed, hair-done, backpacks packed, bundled up and out the door as well as having the kitchen clean and hopefully a load of laundry started--I need a quick, easy breakfast! I'll usually just have one or two with a mug of sugar-free hot chocolate! Perfect way to start my day!

Healthy Morning Muffins

adapted from Everyday Food magazine

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2-3 Tbsp ground flax seed

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup steel cut oats

1/2 cup raisins

3 Tbsp applesauce

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg white

1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk

4 medium carrots, shredded (I use my food processor and then chop them even smaller so I don't have long strands of carrots sticking out of the muffins.)

1 medium ripe banana, mashed

1) Preheat oven to 400*. Coat a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, ground flax seed, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg and salt until there are no lumps. Stir in oats and raisins. Add oil, egg, milk, carrots and mashed banana and stir until blended.

2) Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Serve muffins warm or at room temperature. (To store, keep in an airtight container up to three days--or longer in the fridge!)

Where have I been?

I was just looking for a recipe on this old blog of mine and I realized, Hey, this was a dang good blog. Why did I stop? This last year was so busy for me--we pretty much remodeled and redecorated the whole house and the blog got put on the back burner. I also really started relying on myfitnesspal.com to help keep me accountable. But now that the house is complete, I think I will start back up! How about a recipe??

THIS BREAD IS DIVINE!!! No, really, you probably shouldn't make it because you might not be able to stop eating it!!!! Not only is it fabulous, it is 100% whole wheat, has no fat and my kids love it too!!!

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons yeast

4 cups really warm water

1/2-3/4 cup honey

10-11 1/2 cups whole grain wheat flour (freshly ground if possible)

3 teaspoons sea salt

1/4-1 cup anything else you would like: I add 2/3 cup steel cut oats and 1/4 cup flaxseed

cooking spray

Directions:

1. Grind wheat.

2. Mix yeast, water, and honey in a bowl.

3. Let rest for 5 minutes until yeast foams.

4. Then add flour, I just add all the flour at once then gently mix with my paddle attachment.

5. Then add salt and anything else, if you choose to.

6. Then gently mix again just until the salt or other ingredients are mixed in.

7. Knead for 4-6 minutes. Now this dough is really sticky and you are going to think that you need to add more flour. Sometimes I have had to add the entire 11 1/2 cups but sometimes I am fine with just 10, however just know that the dough will be very sticky and you only want to add enough flour that the dough barely pulls away from the bowl.

8. Let dough rise for 15 minutes.

9. Spray the back of your hands with cooking spray and punch down the dough.

10. Form into loafs, this will make 3 smaller sized loafs. Put into greased loaf pans.

11. Let rise in pans for 30 minutes.

12.Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. I like to put a large glass baking dish filled with water on the lower rack.

14. Remove from pans immediately and let cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!! And don't say I didn't warn you....

Halloween Soup

Um, so should I address the fact that I haven't posted on this blog in like months, or just ignore that and share this awesome recipe with all of you?? I do have my reasons...maybe I'll get to those on another post. But for now...here is the recipe! My friend Heidi made this for a get-together we were both at recently and everyone there requested the recipe. She shared it with all of us, so I'm sure she won't mind me sharing it with all of you. Imagine my delight when I made it tonight and discovered that it's not only tasty and filling but it's only about 75 calories per cup (give or take--this is not an exact science!!) For someone who tries to stay around 1200 calories a day that is AWESOME!! And it's awesome for the rest of you, too!

So chop up and bake those Jack O Lanterns before they rot and make yourself some...

Black Bean and Pumpkin Soup

3 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1 TBSP butter

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. cumin

2 cans chicken broth

1/2 cup water

1 can pumpkin puree--I used about 3 cups fresh pumpkin puree

In a blender puree beans and tomatoes with a bit of the broth in several batches. In a large pot, melt butter on medium heat. (I cut the butter in half and used Pam instead.) Add onions, garlic, salt, pepper and cumin. Cook 6 minutes until onions are soft. Stir in beans and tomato puree. Add broth and pumpkin. Mix well; simmer for about 30 minutes. Makes about 13 cups of soup--or more depending on how liberal you are with the pumpkin.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt.

Yes, my friends, you can go from this...

to this...

Yummy!!

Chili-ghetti

Last night I modified a version of a recipe I've never tried before and it was a HIT. Everyone LOVED it--and it made a lot. So here is my version of Chili-ghetti (Adapted from a recipe from the cookbook Favorites, which is also one of my favorite cookbooks.)

1 lb. lean ground beef or turkey
3/4 cup onion, chopped
1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1 (32 oz.) can chili (I used Hormel 98% fat free turkey chili)
1 cup veggie puree (optional)
1 package whole wheat spaghetti noodles
2 cups grated reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Brown meat and onion; drain off fat. Stir in tomatoes, chili and puree. Simmer 45 minutes. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti; drain and set aside. Remove skillet from heat. Stir in grated cheddar until melted. Fold in sour cream. Mix with cooked spaghetti. Spoon into a 9x13 inch dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Rainbow Caterpillar Pancakes

I posted a picture of these on Facebook and got multiple requests for the recipe, so here it is. I used Swedish Pancake batter because it is a bit thinner and easier to "form" into the caterpillars. The pumpkin puree is optional or you could use another veggie puree. You also don't have to use any whole wheat flour--that is just important to me (for those of you new to the blog that don't already know that.)

4 eggs
4 egg whites
2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
2 TBSP vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup white flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
food coloring

Mix eggs, milk, salt, vanilla and pumpkin puree with an electric mixer. Add the sugar and flour. Mix well. Divide batter into multiple bowls and add food coloring to make as many colors as you want. Carefully pour batter onto electric skillet making the pancakes touch. Flip very carefully when bubbles form.

Waffles!

We had a waffle party Friday night. I have the best. waffle. recipe. ever. Just sayin'. It might not be the most healthy recipe on the planet, but it is still so good. The secret is the yeast....

1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/4 cup butter (that's the not so healthy part--I should try to use a puree instead.)
1/4 cup honey
2 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
3 eggs
1 TBSP yeast
1/2 tsp. salt

Heat the milk, water, butter and honey to 120 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, eggs, yeast, salt and warm milk mixture. Mix at low speed to moisten, then at medium-high for 1 minute. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Prepare in a waffle iron. We typically serve them with applesauce and cinnamon sugar--you don't want to cover up the yummy yeasty, whole wheat goodness. But, since this was a party, we went all out with Reddi-whip and fresh strawberries!

Good foods

I've decided to get away from blogging about what I eat and how I work out every day (because really, HOW BORING) and focus more on what healthy things I make for the family and our family activities that lend themselves to a healthy lifestyle for all.

So this morning I made pancakes for the kids. After one bite, Isaac asked, "What did you do to these?!" Yes, they were that good. So here is my secret...I used the Bisquick Healthy Heart Mix and just mixed up the recipe on the box. But then I added pumpkin puree and used Vanilla almond milk for half of the milk and added 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder. They tasted like white cake! Seriously. Yum.
Tonight's dinner was spaghetti pie, which I have already posted a recipe for, but I have improved it a bit, so I wanted to post this new one (complete with a picture this time.) This is a HUGE hit at our house.
New and Improved Spaghetti Pie

1 box whole wheat spaghetti noodles
2 cage free eggs
1 24 oz. fat free cottage cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan/Romano blend
2 cups marinara
1/2 cup veggie puree
3/4 cup shredded mozarella
1/2 cup Italian style bread crumbs

1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions.
2. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 casserole dish. Sprinkle half of the breadcrumbs on the bottom of the dish. In a large bowl, beat eggs, then add cottage cheese, Parmesan and veggie puree. Mix until blended.
3. Add spaghetti to cottage cheese mixture and stir until well coated. Transfer spaghetti mixture to prepared pie plate; top with marinara sauce. Sprinkle with mozarella, extra Parmesan and the other half of the bread crumbs.
4. Bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

p.s. For those of you who don't know me, I should say that I don't keep my spending habits a secret from my husband! My "p.s." from yesterday was just a joke to see if he actually reads my blog...which he does! This morning he asked me what kind of swimsuit I bought. :)

Grilled Polenta

It's been a while since I made this and I thought for sure I had posted the recipe on here, but I went to search for it today and I couldn't find it. It's really yummy!!! I top it with sauteed veggies and marinara. I discovered it during my vegetarian phase--you could certainly add some grilled chicken or Italian sausage or even ground turkey into the mix for a delicious meal!

3 1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. rosemary
1 cup cornmeal
2 TBSP butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup grated Mozzarella cheese
2 TBSP olive oil

Set aside a shallow baking dish. Bring the vegetable stock, salt and rosemary to a boil in a medium-size saucepan. Reduce the heat to a simmer, then gradually sprinkle in the cornmeal, whisking constantly. Cook the polenta, whisking all the while, until it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 7 minutes. Whisk in butter, Parmesan and mozzarella.

Scrape the polenta into the reserved baking dish and smooth over the top. Let cool for 10 minutes, then cover and chill at least one hour. (I just stick it in the freezer to speed up this process.) When you are ready to begin cooking, cut the polenta into 12 squares. Lightly brush each side with the olive oil and place the squares on a baking sheet. Grill the polenta on hot grill until golden brown on each side, about 10 minutes total. (You can also broil it in the oven if you want.) Serve with sauce.

Island Pork Tenderloin Salad Recipe

Yay!!! Ryan's cousin's wife (also known as Casey--cook, crafter, sewer and mom extraordinaire) told me I could just link to her blog for the Pork Tenderloin recipe. Much easier than typing it out and I think her pictures are better anyway. Click here for the recipe. I am going to try that coconut bread again, but trying making it healthier because it was like dessert and my kids all loved it too. Happy cooking!!

Back to school!

The kids are back to school tomorrow!! Woo-hoo! We had a good three week vacation, but I always look forward to them being in school so I get a little bit of time to myself. Not much, since Lincoln is still with me, but it is certainly easier to get my work outs in when I only have one kid at home all day.

Today we continued our gardening adventures by thinning our cold-weather veggies and starting our warm-weather seedlings indoors. Hopefully all of our hard work will pay off with tons of fresh, healthy, home-grown vegetables this summer!!

Breakfast was another egg and veggie scramble. I think it's easiest to stick to this meal if I'm trying to avoid carbs. I'm not totally sure that's the way I want to go--it hasn't really worked out well, but I guess I can continue to give it a try.
Lunch was leftovers from last night. I had made a recipe that I have been wanting to try for months. I read about it on Ryan's cousin's wife's blog (got that?) It's called Island Pork Tenderloin Salad with Coconut Bread. It was so good!!! I'll have to post the recipe...
I saved up my carbs to have that bread. I need to find a way to make it healthier--soooooooo yummy!!! The salad is full of tasty tidbits--avocadoes, red peppers, golden raisins, spinach. Yum!

For dinner I made the family fajitas--
on whole wheat tortillas, of course. I just had mine on top of salad.
I just marinate my chicken and beef in lime juice, garlic and a spice blend (pick any one that sounds good.) Then I saute the meat in the marinade with onions and peppers and serve with fat free sour cream and salsa.

Today's work out was 30 minutes on the elliptical and a nice upper body work strength session, followed by some Pilates.

Back to carbs...

Eggs (with mushrooms and onions) and (Canadian) Bacon. This might be the last day of this particular meal...according to South Beach I'm allowed to start adding carbs back into my life as of today. French toast, anyone? I don't know--according to South Beach I also should have lost 8 to 14 pounds by now. Um, nope.
Lunch was leftover grilled tilapia and sauteed veggies.
I had some cabbage still left from St. Patrick's day, so for dinner I made Kraut burgers. Easy and yummy.

First, make up some quick bread dough.

Brown 1 lb. lean ground turkey (or beef) with chopped onions. Add a liberal amount of nutmeg, some salt and pepper and chopped cabbage.
Cook for a while.

Divide dough into balls and add some beef/cabbage mixture to each.
Roll 'em up and put them on a cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for a while (about 20 minutes.) Serve and enjoy!
I just ate the filling, and then, since I was allowed some carbs today, I finished a small piece of Lincoln's burger.

Today was a rest day for strength training. I did about 30 minutes of Pilates and 40 minutes on the elliptical.

Grilled Tilapia with Avocado Salsa

This makes divine fish tacos, but to avoid carbs, I had mine on salad.

1 TBSP olive oil
4 limes, halved
5 cloves garlic
2 tsp. ground cumin
4-6 portions tilapia
2 ripe avocados, chopped
1/4 red onion, minced
2 TBSP fresh cilantro, chopped

Combine olive oil, juice from 3 limes, garlic and cumin in a ziplock bag. Add fish to marinade and let it sit for about 15 minutes or so.

While fish is marinating, mix together avocados, onion, cilantro and juice from remaining lime.

Place marinated fish on hot grill and cook for about 5 minutes. Flip and cook five more minutes.

Serve with avocado salsa.

DELISH!!

Catching up

I've had a couple e-mail requests for recipes in the past few weeks and I am just now getting them up here! :( Sorry!! And no pictures, either, but I'll have you know that the people requesting these recipes were asking for them because they tasted them and know how dang good they are. So that has got to count for something!!

Spaghetti Pie
1 pkg. whole wheat spaghetti noodles
1 15 oz. container fat free cottage cheese (or Ricotta)
1 egg
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (the fresh stuff)
1 cup grated Mozarella
1 TBSP basil
2 tsp. oregano
1 jar spaghetti sauce

Cook noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, mix together cheeses, spices and egg. Combine with cooked noodles. Place in a casserole dish. Top with sauce and additional cheeses, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Let sit 10 minutes before cutting.

(I've also considered creating a sort of "crust" layer out of Italian-style bread crumbs, but have yet to try it. I'll let you know when I do!)

Ham Roll-ups
**the original of this recipe is loaded with fat, fat, fat--here is my lightened up version!!

12 slices thin cut, fat free ham (like cold cuts)
12 slices low-fat swiss cheese
cornbread stuffing (below)
Apricot sauce (below)

Lay out ham slices and top with slice of cheese. Spoon about 1/3 cup cornbread stuffing in the center of each ham/cheese slice. Roll up and secure with a toothpick. Place in a shallow baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Spoon 2 to 3 TBSP sauce over each roll-up at serving time. Makes 12 servings.

Cornbread stuffing
1 cup finely chopped celery
4 TBSP finely chopped onion
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup apricot preserves (get the kind that is just the fruit with no added sugar)
1/4 cup water
1 pan cornbread, any favorite recipe--make it a healthy one--add some whole wheat and flaxseed!!

Cook celery and onions in butter until soft. Stir in preserves and water. Toss mixture with lightly crumbled cornbread. Add more water, if desired, for a moister stuffing.

Apricot Sauce
1 TBSP cornstarch
2 TBSP brown sugar
1 cup water
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 TBSP butter
1/4 cup (Simply Fruit) apricot preserves

In a small saucepan, mix cornstarch and brown sugar. Add water and pineapple juice; stir over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens. Stir in butter and preserves.

Enjoy!!!