We all know that planning meals and eating less processed food is the way for us to attain our newly minted health goals for 2011. I love taking classic comfort foods and making them healthier. One of my favorite makeovers was macaroni and cheese. I actually had the best macaroni and cheese at a work pot luck several years ago. I probably had the equivalent of three cups I just couldn’t stay away from it.
I asked the woman who brought it for the recipe and was shocked that her recipe called for a dozen eggs, and four cups of cheese! No wonder it tasted so good! 😀
I’ve made Clean Eating’s Mac N Cheese and its as close to the real deal as you can get. And look at the difference in the stats!
So I was thrilled when the publishers of Rocco DiSpirito’s new cookbook, Now Eat This! offered me the opportunity for two of my readers to win this cookbook – and I know most of you are cookbook whores like me – but get this – they are giving me two autographed copies of the cook book to give away!
One of Hannah’s favorite dishes is coconut shrimp – I had no idea that a typical serving is over 1000 calories! Rocco revamps this dish for a mere 178 calories. And every recipe in the book is under 350 calories:
- gooey jalapeno poppers (um, yes please!)
- crab cakes with red pepper sauce
- buffalo and blue chicken tenders
- crispy mozzarella sticks fra diavolo (um, spicy cheese – that screams me!)
- lobster bisque
- spaghetti carbonara
- deep dish pizza
- loaded nachos
- and for the rest of the world that loves onions: leek and sweet onion quiche! 😀
So by now you are wondering how you are going to get your pretty little hands on the two autographed cookbooks that are up for grabs? It’s easy. Give me your best lightened up recipe. It doesn’t even have to be your recipe, you can leave a link from recipezaar, or maybe its a Cooking Light recipe that’s in your stack of recipes to make and you just haven’t done it yet.
Clarification: Your can type in a recipe in the comment section, or leave the link in the comments below. You can submit more than one recipe, but it has to be a separate comment – you can better your chances with more recipe submissions! This contest will run for 1 week, and two winners will be randomly picked on Friday, January 14. (Unfortunately, its for U.S. Residents only) The best part? I plan on making a healthy eCookbook with all the recipes and you’ll get a copy if you leave a comment.
Rocco’s cookbook is a great way to enjoy the foods we love without the guilt. And as an added bonus, the cookbook also includes healthy tips and ingredients substitutions that can help keep you on track to your healthy living goals.
And if you aren’t lucky enough to win a cookbook, you can still follow Rocco on Twitter @RoccoDiSpirito and on his Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/roccodispirito). Do you remember all the cool things he cooked on previous episodes of Biggest Loser? I seriously can’t wait to make the spicy mozzarella sticks! 😀
Now on with my day from yesterday 😀 I got up early and got to the gym. Two swim lanes were open – sweet! I picked the middle one, and about 15 minutes into the swim, a woman stands at the end of my lane and as I get closer she asks “can I share your lane?” I look over to the last lane on the right, its still empty, I look at her and say “I am kind of slow” to which she replied “then you should be in the slow lane” and pointed to that last lane. I’ve never heard of such a thing! So I asked her if she could move my stuff to the end of that lane and she did. Have you ever heard of such a thing? It’s not like its the expressway! I swam 35 minutes without stopping 😀
I was hangry when I got to work. When I was at Whole Foods I got these multi-grain pita breads – 3 points each. I made a pita pizza – 1 pita, 1/4 cup pizza sauce, baby spinach, red pepper and an ounce of goat cheese. I put it in my office’s toaster oven – 15 minutes baked at 350, then a few minutes under the broiler.
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/1-6-11-027.jpg)
At lunch I did 30 minutes of strength training, and then ran a mile. Sadly though my blood sugar was falling and I couldn’t push myself that hard – I ran the mile in 13:25. When I got back to work, my blood sugar was 38 🙁 So I had two clementines and a banana – still loving that fruit is free!
Lunch was tomato soup and grilled cheese. I love Campbell’s tomato soup, but its so high in sodium. This tomato soup could not be simpler to make – and I love how the fire roasted tomatoes give the soup some smokiness.
Simple Tomato Soup
Course: main meals
PointsPlus™ Value: 4
Servings: 4 Preparation Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 15 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Course: main meals PointsPlus™ Value: 4 Servings: 4 Preparation Time: 5 min Cooking Time: 15 min Level of Difficulty: Easy |
Ingredients
28 oz canned tomatoes, one diced tomato, one fire roasted tomato | |
1 Tbsp olive oil | |
3 cup(s) chicken stock | |
1/3 cup(s) heavy whipping cream | |
1 Tbsp parsley, freshly chopped | |
1 serving(s) Hot Sauce, Tabasco | |
1 clove(s) garlic clove(s) (medium) |
Instructions
Gently heat the olive oil over medium heat and add garlic, taking care not to brown the garlic.
Stir in the canned tomatoes and chicken stock. Bring to a boil.
Remove from stove, let cool slightly. Using a stick blender puree soup. Add in cream and hot pepper sauce, and adding salt and pepper to taste.
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/1-6-11-034.jpg)
And I had a pepper jack cheese and deli ham sandwich on pumpkin seed bread.
Here is a picture of the bread I’ve been using:
If I hadn’t opened this package, it’s good until November 2011!
When I was at Whole Foods I wanted to pick up some tuna steaks – Tony loves them and I always say we’ll eat more fish/seafood dishes, but I am kinda picky about it. They didn’t have any fresh, so I picked up this package for $8.99 for two steaks.
They defrosted in our refrigerator all day. I just rolled the sides in sesame seeds. Tony likes his really rare, I like mine more medium (although I did end up over cooking mine a tad). I made a brown rice fried rice on the side, however Tony didn’t approve of my lack of butter and skimpy 1 tsp. of oil.
![1.6.11 023](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/1-6-11-023.jpg)
Stats for Thursday:
- 36 Points (7 Flex Remaining, 42 Activity points not used)
- 35 minute swim
- 30 minutes strength training
- 13:35 mile
- average blood sugar 91
Can’t wait to see all the healthy recipes! Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Monday. 😀
Lightened Tater Tot Casserole! It’s so very good.
http://happytexans.blogspot.com/2010/04/tater-tot-casserole.html
AWESOME giveaway! Going to look for a recipe to share. Must.have.coookbook.
I got this meatloaf muffin recipe from a Weight Watchers leader. Not only is it lightened up meatloaf, but it’s also individually portioned out! The recipe says 3 points per muffin but I still need to recalculate points using the new system. This is a staple in the house…we’ve made it with beef, turkey and bison!
Weight Watchers’ Tried & True Meatloaf Muffins
1 Pound Extra Lean Ground Beef
4 oz. Zucchini, unpeeled and shredded
1 Egg
1 Cup Ore Ida Shredded Hash Browns, frozen
1/2 Cup Fat Free Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1/2 Package (3 oz.) Kraft Stove Top Seasoned Stuffing Mix
1/4 Cup Reduced Fat Parmesan Cheese
1/2 teaspoon Minced Garlic
1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 Cup Ketchup
1/4 Cup Onion, chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients.
Divide evenly into 12 muffin tins (I used a 1/3 measuring cup to divide the mixture)
Bake 30-40 minutes or until done.
Each meatloaf muffin=3 points
Healthy Turkey Stroganoff
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
Mushrooms (amount & variety depends on your taste, I used Baby Portobellos)
6 oz plain Greek Yogurt
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
Extra Lean Ground Turkey
Noodle Substitute: Spaghetti Squash or Shirataki
Heat soup in a saucepan. Saute Mushrooms in a medium skillet, when finished, mix in with Soup. While stirring constantly, mix in Greek Yogurt and Xanthan Gum. In a large skillet cook Ground Turkey over medium heat. Pour Soup mixture over Turkey and mix together. Eat plain or mix with your favorite low-carb/calorie noodles.
http://www.nourishedfitness.com/2010/05/09/tasty-procrastinating/
Got it! Buttermilk Baked Chicken and Honey Dijon Spiced Coleslaw. Made this for a dinner party as significantly lighter versions of Southern faves. http://www.duodishes.com/2009/08/10/trimming-the-fat/
This isn’t really a recipe, more of an idea. Like a tasting plate of wonderfully yummy things!
http://www.familycircle.com/recipe/salads/composed-tuna-salad/
and lastly, a pretty darn good make over of Ina Garten’s mac and cheese….
http://mykitchenadventures1.blogspot.com/2010/12/make-over-mac-and-cheese.html
and here is a lighter version of chick pot pie…still using some convenience items such as pie crust and campbells soup….
http://mykitchenadventures1.blogspot.com/2011/01/make-over-chicken-pot-pie.html
Pretty darn cool about the cookbook giveaways! I already have the book ( not autographed though! ) so I am going to submit a recipe so I can get the complied recipes in the ecookbook. And yes…I am a terrible cookbook whore! No doubt about it! lol
http://mykitchenadventures1.blogspot.com/2010/12/chicken-n-dumplings.html
this one is my favorite. Can’t even tell its lightened up.
Recipe time…I have to say I am a HUGE Roni Fan and her Greenlite Bites.
All of her recipes encourage me to eat healthy. I tried lentils for the first time because of her lentil soup
This is SPOT ON! Copy cat Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/03/chipotle-cilantro-lime-rice-4-pts.html
Maggie really wants to win up there! I love her enthusiasm!
This is one for carnitas. Ryan and I LOVE them!
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/03/mexican-slow-cooked-pork-carnitas.html
That pita pizza looks awesome!!
I love beef stroganoff, but it is so not healthy! This version is not quite the same, but it is similar enough that if you kind of mix the greek yogurt in your bowl you can get a fair, and yummy, approximation. Personally, I skip the dill and add some garlic to the seasoning, along with a little Worcestershire sauce.
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/beef-stroganoff-yogurt-dill-00000000008037/index.html
hope no one posted this yet. it is the eating well magazine version of hamburger helper, “hamburger buddy” http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/hamburger_buddy.html
this is a staple recipe in my house, i make it all the time. add extra mushrooms – they make the texture perfect!
Apple Cinnnamon Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowl
1/2 cup Cottage Cheese
1 Gala Apple ( diced)
59 g. Bite Size Shredded Wheat
Cinnamon and Splenda Mix
Add all ingredients to large cereal bowl and mix. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and Splenda Mix to taste. Filling and yummy!!
Cinnamon and Splenda Mix:
4 T. Splenda or sweetner of your choice
1 t. cinnamon
(or use the proportions cinnamon to sweetner you like best)
Super Hash Brown Potato Soup
1 pkg frozen or fresh shred hashbrowns
(Simply Potatoes™ –Shredded Hasbrowns )
1 pkg. country Gravy Mix
(Pioneer Country Gravy Mix)
1 small onion (browned under broiler) 0/0/0
2 small cloves of garlic (browed under broiler with skins on) 0/0/0
2 quarts chicken broth or stock
4 slices of fully cooked bacon diced
Add browned onion and garlic to a stock pot. Add chicken stockand bring to a boil.
Add Gravy mix. Stir together. Let simmer for about 10-15 min. Add hash browns. Cook for as long as you for 1 hour or more.
Yes, I, too, am a cookbook whore…wow, I can’t believe I admitted that. And mac and cheese is the ultimate comfort food…and yes I like the fatty version as I’ve never tried a healthy version-gee, I don’t know if I can try a good for you one! However, that tomato soup is to die for…I’m going to try it and yes, I’m going to have a grilled cheese sandwich with it!
Crock pot BBQ chicken form Dana Carpenter-here’s the link (the recipe is towards the bottom of her post)
http://holdthetoast.com/content/column-reprint-low-carbing-budget
This is one of my favorites-
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001973626
That tomato soup sounds fantastic. I am a huge fan. That and a little bread or a grilled cheese? Epic meal. This is an awesomeeeeeeeee giveaway. I’d so love to win a copy of this. My favorite lightened up recipe…I have two: Broccoli & Cheddar soup: http://www.itzyskitchen.com/2010/03/success-winners-lighter-broccoli-and.html or spinach and artichoke dip: http://www.itzyskitchen.com/2008/07/random-food-day.html