Recipes

Shrimp & Bean Tostado

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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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Recipes

Shrimp & Bean Tostado

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…

 

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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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What I ate

I put ketchup on my ketchup

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While on vacation in Charleston, we came across several touristy shops selling t-shirts with funny sayings.  Jarrod seriously contemplated buying me this T-shirt:

Hahaha… I do use ketchup quite frequently.  I’m just a class act like that 😉

Breakfast #1

Last in the trio of eggwhite/turkey sausage scrambles I made Sunday night… Served up with a dollop of you-know-what 😉

Stats on Scramble, Broccoli, & Ketchup:  180 calories, 10g carbs, 5g fat, 24g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

I started breakfast #2 off with some Blueberry Cho-cho-chobani:

Then I added some strawberries (in my hunger-tinged excitement, I forgot to use my flash…)

MMMMMMMM…. Come clooosssseeerrr:

So darn good.

Stats on B#2:  157 calories, 24g carbs, 0g fat, 14g protein, 1g fiber

Lunch

 The turkey meatloaf I made last night was so yummy, I immediately had a craving for a meatloaf sandwich!  Needless to say, I was SUPER excited about my lunch today.  

I sliced up one of the turkey meat muffins:

I placed the cold slices of meatloaf on a Pepperidge Farm 7 Grain Deli Flat, and then added the star of the show:  KETCHUP.

That’s what actually made me think of the ketchup on ketchup T-shirt.  Even though my turkey meatloaf had ketchup mixed in and was thoroughly basted with ketchup before baking, I still needed to put some ketchup on my leftover meatloaf sandwich 😀

Match made in heaven:

Heinz — if you’re looking for a new “face” for your ketchup, have your people contact my people.  ferventfoodie@gmail.com 😉

On the side, I also had a cup each of roasted cauliflower and broccoli:

One AMAZING lunch:

Makes me feel like a kid again 🙂

Side note

Over the weekend I made the BF a beautiful banana granola parfait.  Apparently he liked it so much, he decided to recreate it in my workweek absence:

I love that he even went the extra mile and put it in a pretty glass.  Sometimes ya just gotta treat yourself, am I right? 

QUESTION:  What is your FAVORITE condiment?  OR do you like ketchup on your ketchup? :mrgreen:

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