Currently Browsing: recipe make over
Feb 17, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Feb 17, 2011 in breakfast, dieting, eggs, recipe make over, Side dish, stir fry, vegetables | 8 comments
Thanks to those of you who left comments the last two days for a chance to win a prize from Mom’s Best Natural Cereals.
The winner is…..Dave from Year on the Grill!!!
I’ll e-mail you Dave to get your address!
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Ok, I made this kind of crazy breakfast the last 2 days, but I loved it and it involved…pearl barley! I just posted about how I had never tried it before and I’ve had it 4 days in a row.
Here is what I made:
This version had 1 cup of cooked barley, 1 carrot, a tablespoon of diced poblano pepper, and chopped garlic. Then I cooked 1 egg + 1 egg white like a fried egg, cut that into strips, and added few shavings of fresh parmesan cheese.
I seasoned it with salt and pepper. I didn’t even need to put a sauce on it. It was creamy and amazing. This huge bowl is only 365 calories too!
Since I liked it so much, here is version #2:
This version again started with 1 cup cooked barley, 1 carrot, 1 parsnip, 1/2 jalapeno, diced, 2 cloves of garlic, chopped, 1 green onion, chopped, 2 slices deli salami + .25 oz. fresh parmesan cheese + 1 fried egg, chopped.
It took me like an hour to eat this! Do you think that’s a weird breakfast?
Hope everyone had a great day, I’m off to read a gift I got in the mail today:
My Bon Appetit!
Also, I’d like to share some new blogs to me which I really like:
Strawberries in Paris
The Chubby Cook
Cupcakes and Crablegs
Cooking for One
Feb 10, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Feb 10, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, dieting, Dinner Idea, recipe make over, salad | 5 comments
Salad club was spectacular this week! I had spinach, carrots, edamame, black beans, sunflower seeds, grapes, peppers, onion, some croutons, red and green cabbage. It took me almost my whole lunch to eat this!
For those of you who don’t know, I started a salad club at my office. Anyone who wants to come brings a green (spinach, romaine, etc.) and a veggie or fruit to share. We lay it all out, and you can build it however you want.
I brought in some salad dressings I bought a few weeks ago at Caputo’s store in Elmwood Park, IL. There was a whole bin of the same brand of dressings.. all for only a dollar. Of course I had to check out the nutritional info and guess what? All of them are between 20 and 40 calories for TWO tablespoons! I bought 3. Ranch, thousand island and italian and I really liked all three!
This is the brand and what the bottle looks like. Check out their website HERE
So I’m eating stir fries again! I go through a bout where I make them all the time for lunches, and then I’ll go months without making it. This is what I had for lunch today:
It was leftovers from dinner the night before. I started out with frozen green beans from Trader Joe’s, frozen fried rice from Trader Joe’s, and frozen edamame from Trader Joe’s. The only thing I did was add more veggies (carrots, onion, water chestnuts, etc..). And since the one bag of fried rice from Trader Joe’s wouldn’t feed my whole family, I made brown rice to mix in with it. AND, I only added one large chicken breast for the whole stir fry (I just cut it into small pieces!). I also added a tablespoon of peanuts and what a nice addition that was! And I added House of Tsang brand Thai peanut sauce. It’s SO good!
I haven’t talked about Biggest Loser yet! How about Moses losing 100 pounds in 6 weeks?!?!?!?! Isn’t that insane? I don’t know how that is possible.
I want Courtney to win. She’s the daughter (team AQUA) who lost 100 pounds before she even got on the show. Once she got below 300 pounds, Allison asked her when was the last time she weighed that little and she said 6th grade! Can you imagine being over 300 pounds in 6th grade. My son is in 7th grade and weighs 85 pounds! How would she find a desk to fit into? She has the drive to go all the way and I totally would love to see her win!
I also have a few new food blogs I am reading:
One is Vegan for $3.33 a day. After losing her job and living on unemployment, her food budget was $100.00 per month, or $3.33 a day. She is a trained chef and has some great ideas! Check out her site.
The other blog I am loving right now is Skinny Kitchen. Nancy Fox owns Mrs. Beasley’s gift baskets, she opened Nancy’s Healthy Kitchen Restaurant in 1994 in California which became a destination for Hollywood Stars. 2 recipes I want to try: Skinnier California Pizza Kitchen Chopped salad and her skinnier homemade ranch dressing.
Have a great day everyone! 
Feb 6, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Feb 6, 2011 in lunch, recipe make over | 4 comments
Jenn's fast food lunch
Usually on Friday’s a lot of people in my office get take out. I would LOVE to join in getting a nice burger and fries, but thinking of eating 1000+ calories to do so while I am trying to lose weight won’t get me to where I want to be.
So, I decided to make my own fast food. I used the pretzel roll I made last week as my bun. I made a 4 oz. ground sirloin burger mixed with roasted garlic and very finely diced red onion.
I cooked the burger on a non stick skillet until it was medium. I wrapped it in foil to assemble once it was lunch time at work.
For the fries. I took 1 baked potato and while I was cooking the burger, I cooked the potato in the microwave on the baked potato setting.
I cut the potato into 4 nice big wedges, added them to the same skillet I cooked the burger in and added about 1 tablespoon of chipolte mustard to flavor it up.
Awesome mustard!
If you haven’t tried this mustard, its available at most supermarkets in the condiment aisle. You can also check here if its available at a store near you.
So my fast food lunch was less than 400 calories and really hit the spot!
Is there any favorite fast food re-make you do to make it healthier at home?
Dec 12, 2010
Posted by Jennifer on Dec 12, 2010 in breakfast, eggs, Food Finds, product review, recipe make over | 5 comments
I didn’t do a full grocery shop last week, so I was faced with running to the store last Thursday to pick up dinner. And believe it or not, I did NOT feel like cooking! So, into the frozen food section I went. I ended up getting Gordon’s fish fillets and a new kind of frozen potato product I hadn’t seen before.
It’s from McCain’s brand foods and they were called baby cakes, like miniature potato pancakes with a wonderful seasoning on them. I checked the label, 4 were only 170 calories, so into my cart it went. It was a super easy dinner, just throw everything in the oven.
My whole family loved the potato pancakes, so that got me to thinking about my breakfast the next day…
I cooked these in a skillet for about 5 minutes per side and set aside.
Meanwhile, I took 1 egg, 2 egg whites, 1 oz. of turkey deli meat and 1/2 oz. of cheddar cheese and scrambled that altogether until cooked.
Then I just started stacking the egg mixture between the potato pancakes.
This huge breakfast was 410 calories, it kept me full all morning!
Have you tried those potato pancakes before?
Nov 18, 2010
Posted by Jennifer on Nov 18, 2010 in dessert, general ideas, Muffin of the Week, recipe make over, special treats | 8 comments
I have a blogger friend Celine who has a gorgeous Vegan recipe site. (Have cake will travel). She made these amazing looking blondies using of all things, chickpeas! I have no fear using strange ingredients to make things. I’ve added tofu to muffins I’ve made; I’ve used black beans to make brownies, etc…
I wanted to try to make them, but I didn’t have a square pan for baking them in, so I decided to make them into mini muffins. I adapted her recipe just a tad because she used brown rice flour, whereas I used all purpose flour. When I told my kids the ingredients, they were pretty skeptical. I said, “They have a can of chick peas, peanut butter and jelly!” They weren’t excited! Either way they turned out great. And, of course I had to add a few chocolate chips to each one before baking!
1 can (15 oz.) cooked garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup raw sugar ( I just used regular sugar)
1/2 cup strawberry all fruit spread
1/4 cup crunchy natural peanut butter
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 2TB. flax meal
2 TB. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly coat an 8 inch square baking pan with spray. (or mini muffin tin) In a food processor, combine all the ingredients and blend until perfectly smooth, scraping sides often. (I don’t have a food processor, so I used my blender).Pour the batter into the prepared pan. (Or Mini Muffin tin). Cook for 12-15 minutes (for mini muffins) OR 26 minutes into an 8 inch pan coated with cooking spray. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before attempting to remove them from the pan. I chose not to use paper muffin liners, because I hate when muffins stick to the paper. They didn’t stick to the muffin tin at all. The inside is all gooey and yummy. Just the few chocolate chips gave it another level of yumminess.
Each mini muffin is 72 calories, .25 grams of fat and .25 grams of fiber.
If your kids are younger, just call them “chocolate chip muffins” and they will never know there are garbanzo beans and other healthy stuff in it!
Here is the link to Celine’s original recipe And…of course, her photography is awesome! Here are her blondies if you make them in a pan instead of muffins.
Photo by Celine from Have Cake Will Travel
