Recipes

Turkey Meatball Sub

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The other day I made some jokes about how crazy people get about the meat sale in my hometown.  But this really is no laughing matter.  It’s a serious matter, well a matter of serious savings that is!  Check out this post from my friend Allison–make that posts.  One post was not enough for the meat sale 🙂

 

I was thinking about the meat sale last night when I pulled the frozen ground turkey out of the freezer to defrost.  I had bought it at the LAST meat sale (was that back in tax season??), and conveniently froze up individual servings of the ground turkey for future  use.  I’m so dang smart sometimes 😉

I decided to make a meatball sub for dinner.  I didn’t have a recipe in mind, I just sort of started adding things to a bowl.  Here’s what I ended up with:

  • 1/4 package of 99% lean ground turkey breast (about 5 ounces)
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/4 cup chopped white onion
  • S&P
  • 1 sprig fresh oregano (shout-out to the backyard garden 🙂 )
  • 1 sprig fresh rosemary
  • Sprinkling of marjoram
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 tbsp quick oats

Meatball mixins:

 

I mixed everything together, then used a small cookie dough scooper to scoop out 6 meatballs.  I placed the meatballs on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray, and popped them into a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Then I flipped the meatballs over and cooked for an additional 5 minutes.

Meat-a-ball-ay:

Next, I cranked the oven up to 415 degrees, and prepped some brussel sprouts for roasting.  I swear I must have bought the never-ending basket of brussel sprouts last weekend.  I feel like I’ve eaten them every night, yet haven’t made a dent in the basket!  Check out this post for how I roast brussel sprouts. 

While the brussel sprouts were cooking, I stacked up the turkey meatballs on a Joseph’s Low Carb pita, topped them with 1/4 cup Classico Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic sauce, and sprinkled with S&P and Red Pepper Flakes. 

Then I wrapped it all up in some foil, and tossed into the ovenfor the last 5 minutes or so of the brussel sprouts cooking time.  Anytime I’m trying to make a healthified sub, I make sure to do this step.  It gives all the flavors a chance to marry and the pita gets nice and warm and soft.

Brussel sprouts make a comeback:

Altogether now:

Delish!  I love when I can make a healthier version of a food that’s typically on the do-not-eat list!

Stats on dinner:  369 calories, 36g carbs, 6g fat, 51g protein, 14g fiber

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Recipes

Spinach Caprese Quesadilla

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While at work yesterday, my mind kept drifting to dinner–but nothing was sounding good to me.  Since I have an abundance of tomatoes and basil (thank you backyard garden for your fruitfulness 🙂 ) I decided to do something caprese inspired. 

Caprese is one of my all-time favorite Italian dishes, and it typically consists of tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.

Before diving into to the caprese, I got to work on some brussel sprouts.  I halved 10 brussel sprouts, trimmed down any rough ends of the stem, and then made a small slit down the core of each sprout half.  I read that making this little slit on the rougher part of the sprout helps to ensure even cooking.  I put the sprouts on a cookie sheet that was liberally sprayed with cooking spray, then seasoned them with S&P, and gave them a good toss before throwing them into a 415 degree oven for 17 minutes.

Brussel sprouts!

Now onto the caprese!  First, I sliced up 1 roma tomato and 1 Sargento light mozzarella string cheese and put them into a bowl:

Then, I drizzled the tomato and mozzarella with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and a 1/2 tsp olive oil and sprinkled with some salt and pepper.  Next I added 3 sliced up fresh basil leaves and tossed everything to coat.

Meanwhile, I topped a Mama Lupe’s Low Carb tortilla with some fresh spinach and topped with the tomato mozzarella mixture:

I topped this off with a second Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla, then I popped this baby onto the George foreman grill for about 5 minutes (until the tortilla was crisp and the cheese was melty):

None of these pictures do the quesadilla justice!  If you like caprese, you will love this:

I’m hoping I get some tips on taking pictures of food indoors at the Healthy Living Summit!  I can never seem to get indoor pictures quite right!

By the way, if you love caprese too check out the recipe I tried for hot caprese! I also added a “rating” scale to my recipe page :mrgreen:

Stats on dinner:  325 calories, 43g carbs, 12g fat, 20g protein, 14g fiber

 

A few hours after dinner, it was time for my night time snack.  I was craving a green monster smoothie, so I put the following into the blender:

  • 1/4 cup Stonyfield Farms Fat Free Yogurt
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 2 cups spinach
  • 1/2 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/2 cup fresh frozen blueberries
  • 1 packet Truvia
  • 1 ice cube

Green Monster:

This guy was so much GREENER in person than in these photos… my camera was being stubborn last night!

Stats on the green monster:  119 calories, 24g carbs, 2g fat, 8g protein, 6g fiber

 

Question:  what’s your favorite “healthified” Italian dish?

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Recipes

Turkey Meat Muffins

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Tonight for dinner I made some Turkey Meat Muffins! 😯

Alright, alright, that just sounds gross… I really made turkey meatloaf in a jumbo muffin tin 🙂

I had the full intention of following Gina’s Skinny Taste recipe to a T, but impatience got the best of me and I messed a few things up. Woopsie!

First I mixed up the following in a bowl:

  • 1/2 package Nature’s Valley 99% Fat Free Ground Turkey Breast (leftover from the stuffed zucchini I made Sunday)
  • 1/2 tsp olive oil
  • 1/4 of a white onion, chopped (per Gina’s recipe, these were supposed to be sautéed.. but I missed that step)
  • 1/4 cup quick oats
  • 2 tbsp ketchup 😀
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2 tsp Marjoram
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1/4 tsp Black pepper
  • 1 tsp worcesterchire (this was supposed to go on TOP of the meatloaves.. oops again)

Into the tub:

Once combined, I evenly distributed the mix into two jumbo meat muffins (I don’t know why, but “meat muffin” makes me giggle 😉 )

Then I basted the top with about a tbsp of ketchup mixed up with a dash of worcesterchire:

These cooked in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, I put a cup each of cauliflower and broccoli into the oven to roast. I usually roast my veggies at 415 degrees for 15 minutes, so I put these veggies in for an extra 5 minutes since the oven was at a cooler temp.

I seasoned the broccoli with S&P and garlic powder and the cauliflower with S&P, garlic powder, onion powder, and red pepper flakes.

When I opened the oven to put the veggies in, it smelled EXACTLY like my mom’s meatloaf (must be the smell of baking ketchup 😆 ) I got pretty excited at this point, and was glad I made 2 meat muffins so I’ll have some leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Woo hoo!

All baked up:

I served this meat muffin up with some Heinz 57, because that’s what any self-respecting meatloaf eater should do:

All together:

Two thumbs up!!! All of my mistakes made for one TASTY dinner 🙂

Stats on 1 turkey meat muffin: 235 calories, 15g carbs, 4g fat, 36g protein, 1g fiber

Stats on the whole shebang: 305 calories, 30g carbs, 4g fat, 40g protein, 6g fiber

 

Off to mow the lawn…..

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Recipes

Zucchini Pancakes

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Sometimes life is just about compromises.  Tonight, I had a serious craving for some french fries… a big ole mound of french fries and some ketchup.. mmmmm….

In lieu of this, I opted for a big ole salad…  hmm big ole salad vs. big ole mound of french fries?  That’s not exactly a fair fight…

My salad consisted of:

  • 1/2 bag fresh express romaine
  • 2.5 ounces grilled chicken breast
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/4 cup red onion
  • 1/4 cup white mushrooms
  • 2 tbsp Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Italian Romano dressing

 

Not exactly a french-fry-craving cure… but darn tasty in its own right. 

Stats on the salad:  204 calories, 18g carbs, 6g fat, 17g protein, 5g fiber

To help curb my desire for some grease, I decided to try out this recipe I found for Zucchini Pancakes on Gina’s Skinny Taste blog. 

Here’s what went in to my zucchini pancakes:

  • 1 medium zucchini, shredded
  • 1 shallot, chopped
  • 2 tbsp chopped chives (holler at you, backyard garden 😉 )
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 large egg white
  • 2 tsp DiGiorno Grated Parmesan Cheese
  • 1 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp each S&P
  • Sprinkling of red pepper flakes

I combined everything up, then heated up a skillet I had sprayed with some cooking spray.  Using a small cookie dough scooper, I dropped 3 pancakes into the pan.

One by one:

Batch #1 Finished Products:

These tasted AWESOME.  They really spoke to the onion-lover in me.  Only problem was they didn’t get crispy like a traditional potato pancake.  I tried several different methods, including flattening them out til they were very thin–but they just wouldn’t crisp up!  Maybe it’s the whole egg that helps to get them crispy–but regardless of the texture issues the taste was yum-o.

I tried one bite with some ketchup of course:

And I tried one bite with some Frank’s red hot:

(I preferred the ketchup in this case)

The zucchini pancake “batter” made 9 of these little fritters.  I ate 7 of them (I had to try one for each cooking method…. haha), and I saved two of them for breakfast tomorrow so I can see how well they heat up in the microwave.

Stats on 9 Zucchini Fritters (entire batter):  159 calories, 27g carbs, 2g fat, 11g protein, 2g fiber

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Recipes

Stuffed Zucchini

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I saw this recipe for Turkey Stuffed Zucchini on the Skinny Taste website a while back, and have been wanting to try it out since then.  Tonight was the night!

First, I sliced 2 large zucchini in half lengthwise, and then scooped out most of the innards (I hate the word “flesh” in reference to foods, so I choose “innards” instead 😉 ):

Then I chopped up the zucchini bits I had scooped out and set them aside. 

Meanwhile I sprayed a pan with cooking spray, and once the pan was warm I added:

  • 1/2 white onion, chopped
  • 3 gloves garlic, minced
  • 10 sprays parkay butter spray (yes, I actually counted them out 😉 )

When the onions were translucent, I added the chopped up zucchini bits, seasoned everything with some salt, and cooked about 3 more minutes.

Next, I added a splash of white wine .  I’m not a white wine drinker, so I went with the only white I had on hand —   charles shaw chardonnay — AKA two-buck-chuck 🙂

When the wine was mostly evaporated, I added:

  • 1/2 a package (about 10 ounces) of 99% fat free ground turkey breast
  • a healthy sprinklin of Red Pepper Flake & S
  • a light sprinklin of cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 tsp each of garlic powder, paprika, and marjoram

After the turkey was cooked through, I put the mixture into a bowl and added:

  • 2 tbsp grated parmesan
  • 1 egg white
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
  • 4 fresh basil leaves, chopped

The rosemary and basil were from my backyard garden 😀

I don’t know why it makes me so happy when I use fresh herbs from my garden… It’s not like I put any effort into their growth and prosperity.. other than dropping them in the dirt, I just leave them to flourish on their own 🙂 

I stuffed the zucchini halves with the turkey mix, then sprinkled with 2 tbsp Progreso Plain bread crumbs.  Put everything onto a cookie sheet that I sprayed with cooking spray:

Next, I carefully poured 1/2 a cup of free range chicken stock into the pan and covered tightly with foil.  These baked at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.  Then I removed the foil and cooked for an additional 5 minutes.

These were yummy!  Next time, I think I’ll cook up some spicy red sauce to go on top of the zucchinis.  Also, I like my veggies on the crunchy side, so I will use less chicken stock in the pan and probably cook them less time.  Definitely gonna make these again and tweak things up a bit.

On the side, we had a salad consisting of romaine lettuce, red onion, green pepper, and a couple generous handfuls of cherry tomatoes that I also grew in my backyard garden 😀 

I had some Ken’s Steakhouse dressing on top, of course.  Ken’s my homeboy 🙂

Stats on 2 stuffed zucchini halves:  286 calories, 24g carbs, 4g fat, 39g protein, 4g fiber

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