Monthly Archives: January 2012

Breakfast

Simple peanut-butter-banana breakfast muffin

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This is one of my favorite 2-minute breakfasts. It has grains, fruit, protein and great flavor. Plus I think it’s only 350 calories.
Ingredients:
1 Whole grain English muffin
1/2 banana, sliced
1 tbsp. Jif peanut butter
Step 1:Toast the muffin (you don’t have to) and slice up the banana.
Step 2: Put 1/2 tbsp. of peanut butter on each half. Then arrange the banana on top. Enjoy with your breakfast beverage of choice.
Slow cooker

Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff

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I got the basic idea for this creamy delight from Sparkpeople.com and tweaked it to what I had in my house. It’s like beef stroganoff, just healthier because you use boneless skinless chicken breast. And it’s made in a slow cooker, which is frankly the greatest kitchen invention ever, because you just add all the ingredients, leave it go all day, and come home to a hot-and-ready meal.

Ingredients:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 bag frozen veggies
1/2 pack of cream cheese

Step 1: Dice the chicken into cubes. Mix the soups and cream cheese in a crock pot, add the chicken. Cook on high 2 hours or low for 4.

Step 2: Add the vegetables and cook another half hour. It really is that simple! Served it over tri-color pasta for myself, and poured over some leftover biscuits from KFC. Both great options.

Chicken stroganoff over pasta.

Chicken stroganoff over biscuits.

Fish

Tilapia with rice & mixed veggies

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Since I have resolved to eat healthier and exercise regularly this year, I will be adding many healthier recipes (I hope). I have been doing well so far, working out 5 days every week. By working out I mean go to our rec center and do 20-30 minutes on the elliptical, or run a mile on the track. Plus weight training 3-4 days a week.
So, as fish and vegetables happen to be two of the best foods for you, I decided to whip up one of my favorites, tilapia. As a side dish, a mixture of every vegetable I had in the house. It turned out delicious, and made enough of the rice & veggie mix to last 2 more lunches.
Ingredients:
1 tilapia fillet
Juice of 1 lemon or 4 tbsp lemon juice
Salt & pepper
Nature’s seasoning
1 large carrot
2 celery sticks
1 spear broccoli
1/2 onion
1 pint mushrooms
1 can black beans
1/2 cup brown rice
To cook the tilapia, I took it straight out of the freezer and put it in a frying pan with about 2 tbsp. olive oil and the lemon juice. Cover with a lid, and simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes. While cooking, I diced all the vegetables into small bite-sized pieces and boiled 1 cup of water.
Once boiling, I added the 1/2 cup rice and let simmer 20 minutes. In a second frying pan I added the carrots first to cook in about 1/2 cup water for 3 minutes. Then in order of hardness: the celery, broccoli, onion and mushroom. Covered that with a lid and let steam.
By this time I was ready to flip the tilapia to cook the other side. I sprinkled on some pepper and seasonings and a bit more lemon juice. Let cook for 5 minutes or so until done. Then flipped it back over for a minute and moved to serving dish.
In the pot which I was steaming the rice, I added all the cooked veggies and let steam another 3 minutes, then served 1 portion of it with the fish.

The fish was lemony and peppery, white and flaky. The vegetables were a good mixture of tastes and textures, and the beans add extra fiber and protein. Little to no fat overall.

Nutritional Info – Rice & veggie mix
  • Servings Per Recipe: 4
  • Amount Per Serving
  • Calories: 125.6
  • Total Fat: 0.8 g
  • Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
  • Sodium: 63.6 mg
  • Total Carbs: 24.3 g
  • Dietary Fiber: 7.4 g
  • Protein: 7.3 g
Main Dishes, Pasta

Goat cheese lasagna

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Well, as December is chock-full of holidays and I spend half of it at home, I did not do much cooking past the 20th. It’s nice to be at home where someone else cooks for me and does the dishes. Like a restaurant, but with more love and fighting.

Anyhow, it’s 2012 now, time for some more creative kitchen adventures. I’m sure I will have plenty of old standbys like tacos and ramen noodles, but there are also some recipes on my mind I’d like to try soon. Plus, I’ve resolved to eat healthier and exercise more because the holiday weight gain really snuck up on me this year. So hopefully you will see lots of salads, soups and veggies.

Since I have not yet made anything spectacular, today I will post the last meal of 2011 that I made, goat cheese lasagna! This stuff is amazingly delicious, and terribly detrimental to the health of anyone kidney-stone-prone. But I had goat cheese and I love the stuff, so I went ahead and made it anyways as an end-of-the-year treat.

Ingredients:
Lasagna noodles
Pasta sauce
Ground beef
Goat cheese
Ricotta or cottage cheese

Step 1: Boil a large pot of water. Add the noodles once fully boiling and boil for 7-9 minutes. Once al dente, drain.

Step 2: While water is boiling, brown about 1 pound ground beef and drain excess grease. If you want, you can combine the meat and sauce in a bowl.

Step 3: Mix the cheeses together well in a separate bowl.

Step 4: In a baking pan or crock pot, layer the noodles, cheese, sauce and meat. Bake at 375 for 1 hour, or on high for 4-5 hours. You can also sprinkle some mozarella on top.

Then just sit back and enjoy! The salty tang of the goat cheese is phenomenal. I’d recommend adding a layer of spinach in there to healthify it and add extra nutrients.