Fervent Foodie

Shrimp & Bean Tostado

August 11, 2010 2 Comments

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…

What I ate

Leftovers for hump day

August 11, 2010 8 Comments

Earlier this morning, I came across a post by with a Side of Sneakers on the topic of getting good pictures without having a fancy camera. I bought a new camera a couple months ago, and am STILL learning how to use it. It’s not even a dSLR! I’m camera inept I guess. The post had some really cool ideas that I’m looking forward to trying out. Also there’s a photography session at the Healthy Living Summit this weekend (which I’m pumped to attend)… So look out blog readers–better photos will be appearing on the blog very soon!

Breakfast #1

8AM breakfast time… and I was STARVING. Today’s B#1 was a repeat of yesterday’s egg white scramble with roasted broccoli:

You know what I love about this breakfast (besides the fact that I’m obsessed with eggs.. and roasted broccoli… and ketchup for that matter)? It took ZERO effort since I had cooked a double batch Monday night. Love that.

Stats on B#1: 163 calories, 12g carbs, 5g fat, 19g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

I had about 2/3 of a cup of Stonyfield Vanilla Fat-free yogurt leftover from yesterday’s yogurt cheese parfait, so I brought that to work for B#2 along with a few sliced up strawberries, 1/3 cup blueberries, and 1/2 a bag of mashed up 100 calories oreos (also leftover from the yogurt cheese experiment):

I took these pics using tips from the article (well as best I could at work anyway):

YUM.

This tasted like dessert to me — must have been the oreo crumbles!

Stats on B#2: 202 calories, 42g carbs, 1g fat, 7g protein, 3g fiber

Lunch

Keeping on my use-up-all-the-leftovers roll, I brought some leftovers from last night’s dinner to work today for lunch. I topped a Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla with 2 ounces of the grilled chicken, added the grilled peppers, onions, and zucchini and then topped with a little fat-free Breakstone’s sour cream (about 1 tbsp).

Lunch-time fajita!

I also had some grapes on the side:

And a pickle spear:

Somebody needs to work on her plating skills…. Just sayin.

This is the kind of lunch I LOVE.. delicious, satisfying, AND healthy 🙂

Stats on Lunch: 257 calories, 33g carbs, 5g fat, 24g protein, 7g fiber

Ramblings, Recipes, What I ate

Dinner with the Ladies & Yogurt Cheese

August 10, 2010 7 Comments

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!

Ramblings, Recipes, What I ate

Dinner with the Ladies & Yogurt Cheese

August 10, 2010 8 Comments

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!

What I ate

Breakfast, breakfast, blunch

August 10, 2010 6 Comments

2 more work days til the Healthy Living Summit! I can barely contain myself 🙂 I think I might actually be able to get my business cards after all!!! I’ll post pictures when I actually have them in my possession.

Breakfast #1

Last night, I made up a double batch of scrambled eggs. These consisted of:

2 large eggs
6 egg whites
S&P
Red Pepper Flakes
a splash of water

When the eggs were almost finished cooking, I tossed a little Frank’s Red Hot on top:

I also roasted up 2 cups of broccoli. I had half of this for breakfast this morning with a dollop of Heinz ketchup:

Stats on B#1: 163 calories, 12g carbs, 5g fat, 19g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

Overnight oats!!! How many times can I photograph the same exact bowl of overnight oats?? Geesh.

I wonder if overnight oats are considered a “liquid.” Would like to take some of these guys with me to the airport 🙂

Stats on B#2: 229 calories, 42g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

Last night I mixed up chicken salad consisting of:

2.5 ounces grilled chicken breast
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 Stonyfield Farms plain fat-free yogurt
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 cup red grapes, halved

I made a similar chicken salad a while back, and really liked it. Today’s was just ehhh ok though. I think it was the addition of the celery.

I served it on top of a bed of romaine lettuce:

I also had two pickle spears, and part of a Joseph’s low carb pita… Anyone else ever experience “low-carb” headaches? I’ve heard about it before, and a little while ago I started noticing the correlation between headaches and the Joseph’s low-carb pitas! Today I had half of the pita before I started to notice a headache coming on. So odd… but I think I’m done with these pitas… Hopefully Mama Lupe comes out with a low carb pita soon 🙂

Stats on Blunch (blah-lunch): 231 calories, 27g carbs, 2g fat, 30g protein, 7g fiber

Plans for dinner: Having two of my lovely friends over for dinner tonight 🙂 I have a special dessert project for them… hope they’re ready to be guinea pigs!