Pasta Dinner

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with spicy Chicken Sausage and sautéed bell pepper, eggplant and mushrooms with some fresh spinach leaves thrown in at the end until just wilted.  A quick one-pot dinner. ...click here for the recipe!

Chicken Taquitos

Chicken taquitos, stuffed with Crockpot Chicken and a sprinkle of cheese, rolled and sprayed with cooking spray and baked at 425'F for about 15-20 minutes until crisp and golden brown.  Dip in homemade guacamole.  My hubby whipped up some tasty cabbage slaw on the side!

*edited to add: Another method is to mix the re-fried beans with the chicken mixture and wrap it all inside your tortilla.  Mmmm  This works great with corn tortillas as well.  We warm them on a flat grill pan with a spot of oil in it to soften them before rolling. ...click here for the recipe!

Parmesan roasted asparagus

We had turkey burgers tonight with fresh organic corn, green salad and roasted asparagus.  The corn was amazingly sweet and buttery.  We simply sprayed it with some olive oil spray and some fresh pepper, wrapped it in aluminum foil and threw on the grill.  Organic corn tastes so great!  The asparagus was roasted in the oven with a little salt, pepper, olive oil and Parmesan cheese.  It would have been great on the grill too. ...click here for the recipe!

Grilled vegetable ciabatta sandwiches

A mix of seasonal veggies including, eggplant, zucchini, cremini mushrooms, red onions and red bell pepper sautéed with olive oil, garlic and herbs until tender. Then layered on fresh ciabatta rolls with mustard and pepper jack cheese. Place open-faced in the broiler until cheese is melted. Yummy!

Recipe:
Ingredients (serves 4-5)
4-5 ciabatta bread rolls, sliced in half (sandwich rolls)
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
2 medium portobello mushrooms, sliced (or 1 cup sliced cremini mushrooms)
1/2 small red onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup yellow summer squash, sliced
1/2 cup zucchini, sliced
1/2 cup eggplant, thinly sliced
olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
fresh black pepper
plain yellow mustard
pepper jack cheese, 4 slices

1. Chop the veggies in long skinny strips (all in equal sizes).  Feel free to substitute in or out whatever veggies you have on hand and use your family's favorites.

2. Add all veggies to a sauté pan over medium-high heat with 2-3 Tablespoons olive oil, add garlic, garlic powder, Italian Seasoning, and fresh ground pepper to taste. Sauté for ~5-10 minutes or until just before al dente
3. Slice ciabatta rolls in half (horizontally) and spray or brush with olive oil put in broiler to toast until lightly browned but still soft. Spread a light amount of mustard on each side of bread. To the bottom slice of bread for each sandwich put a pile of veggies and cover with a thin slice of pepper jack cheese place back under the broiler to melt the cheese, then remove from the oven.

4. Assemble the sandwich immediately and let sit for a minute then cut in half and serve. ...click here for the recipe!

{MYOTO} Chicken Burritos

In a bind for time...instead of stopping for take out we grilled up some chicken, got some rice steaming and had our own homemade chicken burritos.  It's Make your own take out {MYOTO}.  They were delish.  Grilled chicken, black beans, rice, cilantro, diced red onion, cheddar cheese, J's spicy salsa and a twist of lime juice all wrapped in some soft flour tortillas and dry grilled on the stove top until they're nice and toasty! ...click here for the recipe!

Turkey Chili and Cornbread Muffins

It's a blustery, cool, rainy afternoon at our house so I decided to make something warm and hearty.  My absolute favorite thing to cook is soups and stews, which are usually reserved for fall & winter days, so it was fun for me to make this at the end of May!  This is a quick recipe, made hearty with lean ground turkey and kidney beans.  We topped it with freshly grated cheddar and fresh chopped cilantro to brighten it up.  To speed things up I made cornbread muffins rather than a loaf of cornbread.

Recipe (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 - 1 1/4 pounds lean ground turkey

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon Chili Powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon dry Italian Seasoning

1 15-ounce can Organic Chopped Tomatoes

1 6-ounce can Tomato Paste

1 15-ounce can Kidney Beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup chopped, fresh cilantro

1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese

1. Add ground turkey and onions to large stock pot, cook thoroughly, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until cooked through and the meat is no longer pink and onions are opaque.  

2. Add garlic and red bell pepper, cook 1-2 minutes.  Add chili powder, cumin, and Italian seasoning to meat mixture, toss to coat and toast spices (~1 minute). 3. Add canned tomatoes, tomato paste and 2-3 cups of water to pot.  Cover and simmer 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, (May add more water as needed to desired thickness).

4. Add beans to the pot, cook for 5 more minutes until beans are heated through.  Turn off heat and add chopped cilantro.  Sprinkle grated cheese on top and serve.

Cornbread muffins:  I use a boxed mix from Trader Joe's, although I modify the recipe.  Instead of oil I add alittle extra Non-fat milk and water to reach the same volume or slightly less as I also add in a 4-ounce can of diced green chilies, which contribute more liquid.  I bake them as muffins or in a baking dish.  ...click here for the recipe!

{MYOTO} Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps

We got some iceberg in our box this week.  The first thing I think of when I see iceberg lettuce is chicken lettuce wraps from one of our favorite Asian restaurants, so that's what we had tonight.  It was a fun interactive, make-your-own dinner or make your own take out {MYOTO}.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps Recipe:  (serves 2-3)
olive oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (or 4-5 chicken tenders)
1 cup water chestnuts
2/3 cup mushrooms, diced
2/3 cup zucchini, diced
1/4 cup onions, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
head of iceberg lettuce, separated into leaves to use as cups

Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water plus 2 tablespoons
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons Sriracha sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot & sweet mustard


cooking sauce
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar

1. Start with your dipping sauce, mix sugar and water in a bowl.  Add the rest of the ingredients, whisk together and store in fridge until ready to eat.
2. Cook chicken over medium hight heat, about 4 minutes per side or until it reaches an internal temperature of 165'F internal temp, pull off the heat and set aside to cool.
3. Dice the water chestnuts and vegetables so they are about equal in size and sauté over medium high heat until tender.  Dice the chicken finely as well and add the cooked chicken to the vegetables and stir to combine.
4. Prepare the cooking sauce and add to the pan, stirring to coat.  Once everything is heated through, turn off the heat and serve mixture in lettuce cups drizzled with dipping sauce.  Add some crispy rice noodles for garnish and crunch. ...click here for the recipe!

Banana Bread

I've been attempting to post at least one recipe here everyday since we started this blog and I realized today that we have had something different every night for the last 3 weeks! Wow, this blog IS helping us be more creative and saving us money, since we haven't eaten out! Tonight we re-visited the Balsamic Mushroom Chicken and it was still good.

So I leave you with another yummy item I made today with the help of my 3 year old son...Banana Bread. My little guy had a fun time smashin' up all the ripe bananas too! Here's my Vegan, very low sugar banana bread recipe too if you're feeling adventurous.

Banana Bread recipe: (yields 10-12 slices)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup no sugar added applesauce
1/2 cup Egg Beaters (or 2 whole eggs)
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (~3 medium)
1/2 cup fat free milk (or low-fat buttermilk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1+ cup chopped nuts, optional

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350'F and spray a loaf pan with cooking spray (or not if you're using a stoneware loaf pan like me)
2. in a large bowl or stand mixer, mix sugar, butter and applesauce, add Egg Beater's (or eggs) stir until blended. Mix in mashed bananas, milk and vanilla; beat until smooth, about 1 minute. Add in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened, don't over mix. Finally, mix the nuts in stirring gently by hand to combine.
3. Bake for about 60-75 minutes, or until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool about 10 minutes then carefully remove loaf and let it continue to cool on a wire rack.

**Edited to add: I also like to bake this recipe off in 4 mini loaf pans; perfect for gifting.  Bake at 350'F for 30-35 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let cool, remove from pans and once completely cool, wrap in parchment paper and secure with baker's twine for an adorable and tasty gift. ...click here for the recipe!