Shrimp & Bean Tostado

YOWZA!  Delicious dinner alert!  In my continued effort to use of more of the leftovers from last night’s dinner, I decided to make a tostado for dinner.  A Tostado is an “open-face” enchilada that you can order at pretty much any Mexican restaurant.  The base for the tostado is a flat hard-shelled taco shell, and it is topped with a variety amazing traditional mexican ingredients. 

First thing first, I need to crisp up my tortilla.  I sprayed a little cake pan with some cooking spray, and then tossed a Mama Lupe low carb tortilla into the pan.  I rubbed the tortilla around in the cooking spray on both sides, then popped into a 415 degree oven.  I cooked the tortilla for about 6 minutes, flipping halfway through. 

Mama Lupe gone crispy:

Meanwhile, I got to work on the shrimpies.  I sprayed a saute pan with cooking spray, seasoned both sides of the shrimp with McCormick’s Mexican blend seasoning, Cayenne pepper, and some black pepper.  Then I tossed them into the pan with a few drizzles of lime juice, and cooked them until opaque.

Next I heated up a 1/4 cup of Old El Paso Fat-Free Refried Beans in the microwave and smeared them on top of the crispy tortilla. 

Come to mama… Mama Lupe that is 😉

I also heated up some of the leftover grilled veggies from last night’s dinner (this was approximately 1/4 cup red onion, 1/4 of a green pepper, and 1/4 cup zucchini).  Once heated, I added the chopped up shrimp and about 1 tbsp of chopped fresh cilantro and gave it a good mix. 

Poured the veggies and shrimp onto the bean loaded tortilla and topped with 1 Sargento Light Mozzarella string cheese that I had cut into sticks:

Into a 415 degree oven for 5 minutes until the cheese was nice and melty… Try not to drool on your keyboard 😉

Ohhhhh yes.

But that’s not all! 

I topped the tostado off with some shredded lettuce, 1/4 chopped red onion, 1/2 a plum tomato, a few banana peppers, and 2 tbsp fat-free breakstones sour cream

Yeah that’s right.

Check me out:

Soooooo f.r.i.g.g.i.n. delicious…

The entire time I was eating this I kept thinking “why does this taste SOOOO good?”  

A.)  Cilantro

B.)  Spicy Shrimp

C.)  Beans?? 

D.) VEGGIES GALORE??!?!?

Nope.. It’s actually E.)  All of the above! 😀

Stats on dinner:  323 calories, 36g carbs, 6g fat, 29g protein, 10g fiber

  

Time to get my pack on for the HLS!!!  Anyone have tips for packing light??  I’m trying to avoid checked luggage fees at ALL costs…

 

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Shrimp & Bean Tostado

YOWZA!  Delicious dinner alert!  In my continued effort to use of more of the leftovers from last night’s dinner, I decided to make a tostado for dinner.  A Tostado is an “open-face” enchilada that you can order at pretty much any Mexican restaurant.  The base for the tostado is a flat hard-shelled taco shell, and it is topped with a variety amazing traditional mexican ingredients. 

First thing first, I need to crisp up my tortilla.  I sprayed a little cake pan with some cooking spray, and then tossed a Mama Lupe low carb tortilla into the pan.  I rubbed the tortilla around in the cooking spray on both sides, then popped into a 415 degree oven.  I cooked the tortilla for about 6 minutes, flipping halfway through. 

Mama Lupe gone crispy:

Meanwhile, I got to work on the shrimpies.  I sprayed a saute pan with cooking spray, seasoned both sides of the shrimp with McCormick’s Mexican blend seasoning, Cayenne pepper, and some black pepper.  Then I tossed them into the pan with a few drizzles of lime juice, and cooked them until opaque.

Next I heated up a 1/4 cup of Old El Paso Fat-Free Refried Beans in the microwave and smeared them on top of the crispy tortilla. 

Come to mama… Mama Lupe that is 😉

I also heated up some of the leftover grilled veggies from last night’s dinner (this was approximately 1/4 cup red onion, 1/4 of a green pepper, and 1/4 cup zucchini).  Once heated, I added the chopped up shrimp and about 1 tbsp of chopped fresh cilantro and gave it a good mix. 

Poured the veggies and shrimp onto the bean loaded tortilla and topped with 1 Sargento Light Mozzarella string cheese that I had cut into sticks:

Into a 415 degree oven for 5 minutes until the cheese was nice and melty… Try not to drool on your keyboard 😉

Ohhhhh yes.

But that’s not all! 

I topped the tostado off with some shredded lettuce, 1/4 chopped red onion, 1/2 a plum tomato, a few banana peppers, and 2 tbsp fat-free breakstones sour cream

Yeah that’s right.

Check me out:

Soooooo f.r.i.g.g.i.n. delicious…

The entire time I was eating this I kept thinking “why does this taste SOOOO good?”  

A.)  Cilantro

B.)  Spicy Shrimp

C.)  Beans?? 

D.) VEGGIES GALORE??!?!?

Nope.. It’s actually E.)  All of the above! 😀

Stats on dinner:  323 calories, 36g carbs, 6g fat, 29g protein, 10g fiber

  

Time to get my pack on for the HLS!!!  Anyone have tips for packing light??  I’m trying to avoid checked luggage fees at ALL costs…

 

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Dinner with the Ladies & Yogurt Cheese

Tonight my friends Kelsey and Tracy stopped over for dinner.  I’ve been so busy this summer, I think this is only the second time I’m used my grill this year!  Sad!

I LOVE to cook, and I LOOOVVVEE to eat, but sometimes it’s just easier to take a little help from the store.  I’m a big fan of McCormick’s seasonings and marinade packets.  Yes, I could probably make something similar myself, but why put all that effort into such things when it’s ready and waiting for me in a convenient little packet?  I went with the southwest dry rub on chicken breasts tonight:

I also grilled up some red onion, green pepper, and zucchini that I drizzled with a tad of EVOO, S&P, onion powder, and garlic powder. 

TON of food:

Tracy made a delicious tomato mozzarella salad:

Delicious dinner… and lots of leftovers.  You know what that means. Quesadillas for dinner tomororw 😀

Since I knew I was having two key guinea pig candidates over for dinner tonight, I decided I’d finally try out yogurt cheese.  That’s right.  Yogurt cheese.

Last night,  I put some Stonyfield Fat-Free Vanilla yogurt into a strainer that I lined with a couple paper towels:

I covered the strainer with plastic wrap and left it to hang out in the fridge over night.  This evening I pulled the yogurt out to find super thick yogurt cheese!  I pulled a variety of mixins out for us to experiment with, and told the girls to make something pretty for the blog:

Here’s what Kelsey made:

And here’s what Tracy came up with:

I attribute the similarities in these two creations to the fact that both Kelsey and Tracy have full-time careers in the art field… 

Here’s my beauty:

Tracy was super excited by the way:

I think we all agreed that the  yogurt cheese was pretty tasty!  It was SUPER thick–so next time, I’ll definitely make up some sort of fruit “sauce” or chocolate sauce to go on top.  You could definitely used the yogurt cheese for the base of a cheesecake.  It has the creamy consistency of cream cheese but is slightly thicker.. My brain is churning full of future yogurt cheese concoctions!

Continue Reading

Dinner with the Ladies & Yogurt Cheese

Tonight my friends Kelsey and Tracy stopped over for dinner.  I’ve been so busy this summer, I think this is only the second time I’m used my grill this year!  Sad!

I LOVE to cook, and I LOOOVVVEE to eat, but sometimes it’s just easier to take a little help from the store.  I’m a big fan of McCormick’s seasonings and marinade packets.  Yes, I could probably make something similar myself, but why put all that effort into such things when it’s ready and waiting for me in a convenient little packet?  I went with the southwest dry rub on chicken breasts tonight:

I also grilled up some red onion, green pepper, and zucchini that I drizzled with a tad of EVOO, S&P, onion powder, and garlic powder. 

TON of food:

Tracy made a delicious tomato mozzarella salad:

Delicious dinner… and lots of leftovers.  You know what that means. Quesadillas for dinner tomororw 😀

Since I knew I was having two key guinea pig candidates over for dinner tonight, I decided I’d finally try out yogurt cheese.  That’s right.  Yogurt cheese.

Last night,  I put some Stonyfield Fat-Free Vanilla yogurt into a strainer that I lined with a couple paper towels:

I covered the strainer with plastic wrap and left it to hang out in the fridge over night.  This evening I pulled the yogurt out to find super thick yogurt cheese!  I pulled a variety of mixins out for us to experiment with, and told the girls to make something pretty for the blog:

Here’s what Kelsey made:

And here’s what Tracy came up with:

I attribute the similarities in these two creations to the fact that both Kelsey and Tracy have full-time careers in the art field… 

Here’s my beauty:

Tracy was super excited by the way:

I think we all agreed that the  yogurt cheese was pretty tasty!  It was SUPER thick–so next time, I’ll definitely make up some sort of fruit “sauce” or chocolate sauce to go on top.  You could definitely used the yogurt cheese for the base of a cheesecake.  It has the creamy consistency of cream cheese but is slightly thicker.. My brain is churning full of future yogurt cheese concoctions!

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Stonyfield Smoothie Contest take #2

Last week I posted my smoothie submission for the HLS Stonyfield Smoothie Contest.  Turns out they’ve extended the deadline and we can post more than one smoothie!  So this time around, I’m posting one of my favorite go-to smoothie nightcaps (non-alcoholic, but I usually drink it to “cap off” my night 😀 )

Very Berry Smoothie mixins:

  • 1 cup Oikos nonfat plain yogurt
  • 1 packet Truvia (Stevia all natural sweetener)
  • 1/2 cup each of frozen fresh blueberries, strawberries, and black raspberries

Into the blender: 

Into my glass:

Perfect cap to my night 😀

Disclosure: This entry is for the Healthy Living Summit Stonyfield Smoothie Contest.  Stonyfield is a sponsor of the Summit, but not this contest.

 

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