Quesadillas

Quesadillas have to be one of my favorite go-to meals.  You can leave them plain or dress them up for an adult taste.

Large tortilla (you can also use small, we like burrito size tortillas)
handful of favorite cheese
butter for the outside of the quesadilla

*** add chicken, veggies, beans, etc with cheese for a more gourmet quesadilla***

**top with sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes, jalapeños, salsa, shredded lettuce, etc**

*easily reheated as a leftover meal*

Heat pan on medium heat.  Butter 1 side of the tortilla and then lay butter-side down onto hot pan.  Sprinkle cheese on 1 half of the tortilla and fold over. Cook each side until lightly brown and cheese is melted. We like to cut it into triangles.

Berried up to Here- my version of a Blendtec Smoothie

We bought a Blendtec Blender with a WildSide Jar.  It is incredible!  I am trying to have at least one smoothie a day, so hopefully I will come across some awesome smoothie recipes.  Today I tried

Berried Up To Here-by Blendtec
I will post the Original recipe and then say how I altered it in parenthesis.
 1-1/4 cup Apple Juice (I had a capri sun apple juice 3/4 cup and 1/2 milk)
1 cup Frozen Strawberries
1/2 cup Frozen Raspberries (I didn't have any so I used 1/2 cup frozen berry medley)
1/2 cup Frozen Blueberries

Pouring it into my cup reminded me of watching the smoothies pour out at Jamba Juice. It was so pretty;)  Best part is Lucy tried it (my sensory picky eater) and LOVED it and Evan raved about it too..

Makes 2 servings (Lucy had a little and I finished it-so really 1 serving if it is taking place of a meal)
about 150 cal per servings

We LOVED this recipe.  Definitely will make this many more times.

Thanks Kim Barlow for motivating me to post to my blog again:)

And I'm back...

I haven't recorded a bunch of my recipes for a long time.  A friend mentioned my food blog when I was asking about smoothie recipes, so I decided to start adding to my blog again:)  YAY

Low Calorie Lettuce Wraps

Lettuce Wraps

So if you didn't know this about me I LOVE LOVE LOVE lettuce wraps. My first experience with lettuce wraps was at PF Chang's with Evan. I order them every time we go(cheaper during happy hour). I don't need anything else.

I love them so much I found a copycat recipe for them online and make them a lot.
They are TASTY!!!

6 years ago I really had worked hard on getting in shape etc. After I started my venture on that I happened to meet Evan. A year later we got married, and through the course of five years I have had different things affect me causing me to gain weight and my body shut down a little.

I would REALLY love to have more children, and if you already know how hard we tried for Lucy and Peter and how the pregnancies and births went, then you understand how crucial it is for my body to be in better shape. I have let what people suggest to me and say to me about health and what I need to do crush my self esteem, but I am done with that. I REALLY want to get my body into birthing shape again, so I am working really hard. I am working with a nutritionist and we bought an elliptical and I am training for a 5K, 10K, bike race and 1/2 marathon. I just bought new shoes making me even more excited that it actually could happen and family bike rides outside. I even have some friends that encourage me to go to the gym with them.

I have slowly been losing weight in a healthy and slow way, but under doctors orders, this is what needs to happen.

Anyway. I am trying to eat 6 times a day, low cal meals to fit in my allotted amount. So if you have any 300, 200 or 100 or less calorie meal options I would love to try them.

Back to the lettuce wraps. I looked up a fast easy way to make wraps. The copcat version of PF Chang's is higher in calories because of all the oil and sauces that go in, but this new version was quick, yummy and low cal. I found it on Rachael Ray's site. I will still make the other wraps other times but for now this is what I will try.

They called for Teriyaki sauce, I didn't have any so I substituted A Thai Peanut Sauce that we had-higher calories, but yummy. Next time I will make sure I have Teriyaki sauce to try as I am sure it is equally yummy.
Here is the recipe I followed and changed a little. My changes are in blue

TERIYAKI TURKEY LETTUCE WRAPS Burcu Avsar By: Noemi Costanzo From: Dinner

About 12 wraps from this. About 90 calories a wrap(without brown rice) but using peanut sauce. If you stick to the Teriyaki 45 calories a wrap without rice. Amazing eh! I love it. Evan said I could make these each week. They are a keeper. I am sure if we wanted a little more, then scallions, water chesnuts, mushrooms etc would add more flavor. This recipe takes only five ingredients to make! INGREDIENTS: 1 pound ground turkey
1 10-ounce bag shredded carrots -I used pre-made cabbage/carrot coleslaw-mostly cabbage from Target
4 to 5 scallions, thinly sliced -I didn't have any
1/4 cup to 1/3 cup store-bought teriyaki sauce -I used Peanut Sauce
1 head iceberg lettuce, leaves separated
I had brown rice on the side-Evan ate that, I didn't to conserve calories since I used peanut sauce instead of Teriyaki. I used the frozen brown rice from Costco. It just needs to be microwaved for 3 minutes and then it is good to go. I want to learn to freeze rice myself. My sister said she heard it could happen so I googled and found this.

My Dipping Sauce: soy sauce/chili/hot mustard equal parts for dipping sauce. You can change the portions to fit the consistency you like.


DIRECTIONS: In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil over high heat.-I didn't use oil, just threw the frozen but defrosted turkey roll into the pan. Add the turkey and cook, breaking up the meat with a spoon, until browned, about 4 minutes. Stir in the carrots, scallions and 1/4 cup water; lower the heat to medium-low. Cover loosely with foil and cook until the water is absorbed and the veggies are soft, about 4 minutes. Stir in the teriyaki sauce to taste and cook until heated through, about 4 minutes. Divide the mixture among the lettuce leaves, about 1/4 cup for each; roll up and serve immediately.

Yes, paper plates. We are having dishwasher issues!

My Southwestern Burger Meal

This is what we had for dinner tonight. Yummy!

I was going to make this but we didn't have lettuce so I made what I could:) I'm calling it my southwestern burger meal We both Loved it and it goes well with Weight Watchers!

SANDWICH:
Bun
bbq chicken
cilantro
shredded cheese

SALAD:
equal parts:
corn, avocado, black beans

to taste:
sprinkle on green onions-I like a lot of them
cilantro
garlic salt

Chicken Cacciatore

We had this for dinner tonight. My new favorite!!!!! Recipe is from my friend Rachelle Milligan


2 1/2 -3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken, cut into serving piece
(4 nice sized chicken breasts ought to do it)
1 stick butter(you can do less)
2 T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp basil
3 regular cans of diced tomatoes, petite diced is best
1/2 cup chicken broth
hot cooked rice or pasta-I liked wild rice
Brown chicken in melted butter and oil. When golden, add onion, garlic,
salt, pepper, basil. Cook until onion is tender but not brown, about 5
minutes. Add undrained tomatoes and simmer. Cover, reduce heat, simmer for 20 mins., stirring occasionally. Add broth and simmer again for 10 mins. Serve with cooked rice or pasta.

You can add diced bell pepper if you want. This freezes well and will feed you for a week. All
that butter will probably kill you but it makes it taste oh so good. ENJOY!!

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

So making enchiladas out of random ingredients, here we go:

Combine:
2 cups sour cream
1 can cream of celery soup
2 small cans of green chilies
1/4 cup sharp cheddar
2 cans costco chicken(the ones that look like tuna)

Saute:
1 large onion
3/4 cup slivered almonds
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder(about)
1 tsp cumin(about)
salt and pepper to taste

Add cream mixture to frying pan once the onions look clear and the almonds are toasted a little.

I used 5 LARGE tortillas for about half of the cream, and froze the second half for later.

Assemble:
place tortilla flat on cookie sheet
spread a good amount of sauce in the middle of tortilla.
sprinkle cheese over the filling
roll tortilla
and continue until you have made the amount you desire
spread a little sauce over the top of the tortillas to they don't burn
sprinkle more cheese


cook 375 for 20-30 minutes or until they look good to you(i like to see a little browning)

we topped with sliced olives and green onions


I was hurting, so Evan pulled them out, he was so excited and so cute helping:)



YAY, my green onions, white onion, and sour cream didn't go bad thanks to this meal:)