Lindsay's Breakfast Casserole

This is an excellent casserole, I actually like it better the next day cold from the fridge.  This will definitely go into rotation, still on the fence with the salsa.  I wasn't a fan of the vinegar flavor when it was hot, but the flavors blended perfectly when cold.

7 eggs

1 can Rotel Tomatoes with Chiles, Original

1 can diced green chiles

6 Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Links

1 green or red Pepper

1 Onion

1/4 cup salsa (optional)

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. garlic salt

1 tsp. onion granules

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

Cut onion, pepper in small dice.  Cut sausage links into rounds, then each cut each round into 4 pieces, a serrated knife works best

Saute above ingredients in skillet sprayed with cooking spray

Mix together spices and salt and set aside

Whip 7 eggs together with 1/4 cup salsa and add spices.

The salsa gave it a bit of a vinegar, sour flavor, omit if you don't care for the taste

Spray 8x12 casserole with cooking spray.  Don't use 9x13, it's too large.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

If you cut it in 9 large pieces and only count calories for sausage and eggs, it comes to 83 calories per slice and it's a very big piece.

Never Fail Quinoa

This works every time.  A cup of Quinoa cooked has 27 carbs, 6 grams of sugar and 222 calories

I’ve made it successfully in the Instant Pot using half a recipe and 3/4 cup water

Egg Quinoa Muffins

I always have cooked quinoa in the fridge, and this morning I stirred up a batch of quinoa egg muffins and they were a big hit with the hubs.  It was fast, easy and since I’m lucky enough to have a steady weekly supply of farm eggs, they were extra good.

3 eggs
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 can chopped mushrooms
1 small onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 tsp. onion powder 
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup grated cheese, I use Velveeta shreds because they’re so low in calories, compared to regular or reduced fat cheese

Stir all together and put in muffin tins sprayed with Pam.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, let cool slightly and serve.

This makes 6-7 muffins and the calorie count is really low:

I don’t count veggie calories, Weight Watcher mentality from years ago 😳 it’s embedded in my brain - 

3 eggs @78 calories each - 234
Quinoa, 1 cup, cooked  -  222
Velveeta shreds, 1/2 cup - 120 calories

That’s 576 for entire batch, I divided it into 7 muffins, that’s only 82 calories per muffin.  Works for me 😋

I might add some shredded zucchini next time, bulk up the veggies for more muffins at even less calories...

Chile Lime Cod, where have you been my whole life?

 

I’ve recently been eating more fish, a lot more fish.  I have hubby onboard, too, so that makes it easier.  We were eating Tilipia until I realized that it was imported from China and that they often feed animal feces to the Tilipia.  Now we’re checking country of origin before we buy any type of fish.  Here is an article if you want to inform yourself about fish from China.

I’ve always loved Cod, it’s my favorite and after a recent trip to Trader Joe’s I bought their Chile Lime Seasoning.  TJ’s always has something new to try, and I came home, brushed my Cod with butter, seasoned it first with lemon pepper, and then sprinkled on quite a bit of the chile lime seasoning.  Oh my, is it ever yummy!  I still need to tweak it a bit though, I need to buy lime pepper and a fresh lime to squeeze on it after it’s baked, that will take it to still another level.  I cook it on parchment paper for 20-22 minutes at 400 degrees and it’s perfect.  my friend Nisha grills fresh pineapple and sprinkles this seasoning on it when it’s cooking.  They suggest on the bottle to put it on pineapple and mango, I’m going to try that next!

If you’re lamenting the fact that you don’t have a Trader Joe’s in your area, no worries, you can get it on Amazon.  Here’s your link.

And while we’re talking about Trader Joe’s Seasoning, I have another favorite, it’s their Everything But the Bagel Seasoning.  It’s absolutely delicious, too.  Refinery29.com has some great suggestions for using this seasoning, here’s the link to their slideshow.

You can buy this on Amazon as well, in fact, here is a link for both seasonings bundled together.  Or you can buy it separately here.  It’s a much better deal when you bundle, though.  

And I have one more Trader Joe’s find for you.  It’s their 21 Seasoning Salute.  My son, Ryan, introduced this to me, he is a huge fan and puts it on everything.  I love it, too.  It’s great on meat, veggies, salad, it has so many spices, onion, black pepper, celery seed, cayenne pepper, parsley, basil, marjoram, bay leaf, oregano, thyme, savory, rosemary, cumin, mustard, coriander, garlic, carrot, orange peel, tomato, lemon juice and lemon oil - it’s just a great blend.  

It’s on Amazon as well, everything is on Amazon.  You can buy it here. 

If you’re lucky enough to have a Trader Joe’s in your town, grab these spices, they’re all good, and especially the Chile Lime.  Oh wow, it just bursts with intense lime flavor.  And if you don’t have a TJ’s, just scoop it up on Amazon.  Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner on all of these spices.  ~ Jan

Merridee's Breadbasket Swedish Coleslaw

Merridee’s Breadbasket is this quaint little lunch place in Historic Franklin, TN.  Their food is wonderful and they sell their cookbook. This is so good I could eat it every day.   Mother made this for me as a child and we always called it refrigerator slaw, because it keeps for days in the fridge.

I adapted their recipe from the cookbook, adding a red pepper and substituting Splenda for the sugar.  There is no oil in this, just water, so it’s very low calorie.  This is so good, I won’t ever try another coleslaw recipe again.  But I’m a vinegar girl, I’ve never been a fan of mayo coleslaw.  Hubby's the mayo guy, he doesn’t even like vinegar slaw, but he loves this.

Here’s my modified recipe:

1 head of cabbage, or 2 packages of coleslaw mix

1 onion
1 red bell pepper

Chop all in the food processor

1.25 cups of Splenda
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. pepper 

Place cabbage, onion and pepper in a brine of :

3 cups water
4 teaspoons of salt

Let soak for 30 minutes and rinse well.

Combine the rest of the ingredients, since you are using Splenda, it dissolves and you don’t need to heat this on the stove.

Add to drained cabbage, taste to see if it needs more salt or Splenda, put it in jars and it keeps for days in the fridge.  This makes 2 quarts.

__________________________________________________________________

This is Merridee’s original recipe:

1 quart shredded cabbage

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 cp cider vinegar

1 teaspoon celery seed

Place cabbage and onions in a brine of:

2 cups water

4 teaspoons salt

Let soak for 30 minutes and rinse well.

Combine sugar, water, cider vinegar ad celery seed and cook until sugar dissolves.  Allow to cool and add to drained cabbage and store in the refrigerator.

 

 

 

Skinny Orange Chicken

 

This was awesome.  I made it with Polaners Sugar Free Orange Marmalade and added an extra tablespoon of cornstarch, used the 1/4 tsp. of red pepper flakes, gave it just the right amount of kick, and served it over Uncle Bens Flavor Infusions Roasted Chicken Rice.  Definitely a keeper recipe.  ~ Jan 2.28.18 

INGREDIENTS 

Orange Sauce:

 

½ cup Smucker's Sugar Free Orange Preserves (now that's unexpected!)

Zest and juice of one large orange (about ⅓ cup juice)

¼ cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

¼ teaspoon black pepper 

Stir Fry: 

1 pound boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 tablespoon cornstarch - i used 2 - i used one to coat the chicken in a ziplock, and when I simmered it, I  thought it was too runny, so I added another tablespoon to just a little bit of chicken broth to make a slurry and added it to the sauce and it was perfect

1 tablespoon olive oil

1) Whisk together the preserves, orange zest & juice, broth, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and pepper flakes in a small bowl and set aside.

2) Heat the olive oil in a non stick skillet or wok. Season the chicken with a little bit of salt and black pepper and toss with the cornstarch. Stir fry until browned and nearly cooked through. Add the orange sauce and stir to combine scraping up the browned bits from pan bottom. Let the sauce come to a boil, and cook for until thickened, 60 to 90 seconds.

3) Serve with fresh broccoli - cut off florets and steam in 1 inch water with ½ teaspoon salt in covered pot until tender when stem is poked with sharp knife tip. Drain very well on paper towels.

Note:  You could make this with sugar free peach or apricot preserves as well.

 

Yummy fish in 10 minutes

Crispy, easy, flaky flavorful fish.  Here’s how you make it..

4 filets, I used flounder, and they were very thin

1 cup Panko crumbs

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

2 tablespoons melted butter, I used 35 calorie I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Light

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Put fish on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and pat dry with paper towel.  Then brush each piece with melted butter and press Panko topping over entire surface of the fish.  Since my pieces were thin I baked it for 10 minutes.  Just bake it until it flakes easily with a fork.  If you want the topping browner turn on the broiler and broil for a few minutes.  I didn’t need to do this, mine was brown enough without broiling.

Don’t add additional salt, the Parmesan cheese makes this salty enough.  

Note:  My favorite fish is cod, it takes 20 minutes in the oven and it’s flaky and perfect.

You can also do this with chicken breasts, if you use tenderloins, or butterfly breasts, dip them in a beaten egg, then shake in a bag with the seasoning, spray a rack with Pam and sit the chicken on it on a cookie sheet.  I makes this in the air fryer, if you have convection oven, use that setting to cook it.

It takes 20-25 minutes for the to cook as well at 400 degrees.  

Excellent recipe!

Sharin' the Good Stuff, Copy Me That!

 

Who doesn’t save recipes from the Internet?  We all do it, I have a tons of bookmarks and a badzillion Pinterest boards and it’s a pain in the patootie to find something.  But recently I found a site called Copy Me That, and it’s fantastic.   If you’re on a desktop or laptop, you download a button that you add to the top of your browser and it’s so simple to use.  You can also use this on your mobile phone or your tablet.

First, you go to copymethat.com and create an account and make sure you sign in.  Then if you’re on a computer, you download the button, it’s a two spoons icon and drag it up on your browser, and you’re good to go.  When you find a recipe you want to save, just click on that button and you get a popup on the top right corner of your page that says Copy Me That, and there is a link to View Recipe.

When you click the link it takes you to your main page, and this is the important part, you want to Create a Tag.  In the picture above, my first recipe is Instant Pot Chicken and Rice, so I created three tags for this, Chicken, Grains and Instant Pot.  I clicked on the “Add Tag” bar and created those three tags.  You’re doing this, so that in the future, you can easily find recipes in a category you are looking for.  And once you create a tag, it’s always there, you just Click the Add Tag bar and you will see the ones you’ve already created or you can add new ones.  You can make your settings private or you can share with the public.  Mine is public, anybody can view it.

I’ve explained what I do, but the ladies in the video below will show you what to do.  This is fantastic, the best organizer I’ve found and it’s free. ~ Jan

 

Shredded Salsa Chicken Burrito

I made Shredded Chicken Burritos for lunch today, it was so easy and they were absolutely delicious.

Using an Instant Pot recipe from Skinnytaste I did the following:

4 boneless large chicken tenders, frozen, no need to thaw them
 1 cup chunky salsa
large pinch of oregano
3/4 tsp. of cumin

Update:  I used fresh chicken breast and I used 1 cup of salsa and half a cup of water because I was afraid that I would get the dreaded BURN function because the liquid was too thick.  I cooked it for 13 minutes, the liquid was a little thin when I lifted the lid because of the added water, so I just used the Saute feature to reduce the liquid, it worked perfectly and in a couple of minutes the sauce was very thick.

Sprinkle spices on chicken, put in Instant Pot, add salsa, and using the Manual Setting, set it for 20 minutes, then let steam release naturally.

I shred cooked chicken with an electric, mixer, it’s really fast, or two forks work equally well.

Now for the build:

So simple, refried beans on the bottom, then add your Shredded Salsa Chicken and cheese on top.

Fold over, I never seem to do envelope style, I just fold, add shredded cheese to the top (spray the cheese with Pam, it melts really fast that way and microwave it for 2-3 minutes.

Top with light sour cream and additional salsa, it’s really delicious.

Calories per burrito - I used low carb tortillas, 120 calories, probably 100 calories in chicken, another 60-70 in the refried beans.  This picture is hubby’s plate, I didn’t add sour cream and left the cheese out of mine, so I’m guestimating 300 calories per burrito.

The additional cheese and sour cream would bump his up another 150 calories, because I was generous with the toppings.

Did I miss the cheese and the sour cream?  Nope I just added salsa to the top of mine instead and it was great!

 

Low Calorie Buttermilk Dressing

 

 

This is an easy ranch dressing, just takes a few minutes to whisk together and it’s so much better than bottled.

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

2/3 cup low-fat mayonnaise - Hellman’s Olive Oil Mayo

2/3 cup low-fat sour cream

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives - I substituted a chopped green onion

1 teaspoon dried dill

2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley - I omitted this

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Whisk all ingredients, and store in pint Ball jar.

 

Notes:  The original recipe from AllRecipes called for 1-1/3 cup buttermilk, but I scaled it back so it’s thicker.  They also called for `1 tsp. of salt, but other reviewers said it was too salty, so I changed it to 1/2 tsp. and its just right.  Other suggestions were a pinch of sugar and a chopped garlic clove, but I made it just like the recipe above.  ~ jan

The Best, Healthiest Minestrone, EVER!

I adapted this recipe from Giada Delaurentis at FoodTV.  It’s great soup, very satisfying, and I leave out the hamburger to lower the calories even further.  You can add Italian seasoning, but it doesn’t really need it.  A little ditalini pasta goes a long way if you want to add that, I just usually make it exactly like the recipe below, omitting the meat.

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 rib celery, trimmed and diced into 1/4-inch pieces
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 8 ounces lean (8 percent fat) ground beef - I omit this
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 4 cups low-sodium beef broth
• One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• One 15-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained, Great Northern Beans work well
  One 15-ounce can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, optional 
  In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, add the oil and heat over medium heat. Stir in the onion, carrot and celery and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Increase the heat to high and add the ground beef and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until the beef is browned and cooked through, about 6 to 7 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and mix to combine. Add the broth, tomatoes, beans, and bay leaf. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the liquid has reduced by half, about 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and discard. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with Parmesan.