Chicken or Pork Tamale Casserole...Ole!

My husband loves mexican, so any time I can find a recipe that can be adapted to a lower carb than what we would find in a restaurant, I do.  It always helps to cook at home, that why I can manage his carbs!  This is actually from Cooking Light. Thanks to Hope from the CL for posting this!

Ingredients

1 cup (4 ounces) preshredded low fat 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided
1/3 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup egg substitute
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
1 (8.5-ounce) box corn muffin mix (such as Martha White)
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
Cooking spray
1 (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients (through chiles) in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.
3. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until set. Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces; top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream.

It's a great day for Grilling...

I love when the weather is nice, not too hot, and you can grill your dinner.  When I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner tonight, he mentioned bbq chicken and I kind of went, eh...because it seemed so ordinary and as you know, I don't like to cook "ordinary" so I decided I would make my own barbecue sauce. It rocked...so here is how to turn the ordinary into anything but....

Zesty Barbecue Chicken
Serves 4

4 boneless chicken breasts
2 1/2 cups Ketchup
1/4 cup of Splenda brown sugar
1/4 cup of chopped onion
2 TBS Worschetshire sauce
1 teaspoon of garlic paste (or garlic powder)
1 teaspoon of hot pepper sauce
1/8 teaspoon of red pepper
1/8 teaspoon of black pepper
2 teaspoons of liquid smoke

Mix altogether in a saucepan.  Cook for at least an hour. Season chicken with McCormicks Montreal Chicken Seasoning and grill until cooked through. Baste the chicken with barbecue sauce and continue heating on grill, flip chicken and baste other side with sauce and heat.  Remove and serve.

If you want to keep this a really low carb meal, I would recommend making some Asparagus on the grill.
Grilled Asparagus
Serves 4

1 bunch of thin green asparagus
2 TBS of olive oil
2 Garlic Cloves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Place asparagus on grate or foil boat, drizzle olive oil over asparagus, press garlic over asparagus, and season with salt and pepper.  Cook asparagus until tender 10-15 minutes.

Yum...Biscuits and Gravy...and yes low carb!

So if you are like my husband and I, we love Biscuits and Gravy, but lord knows every restaurant uses a heavy biscuit, thick gravy and I'm sure is not low in carbs.  So I have started to make it at home for us to enjoy on a weekend morning!

8 Biscuits from Carbquik Bake Mix (available through Netrition.com)
1 package of Jimmy Deans crumbled turkey sausage
2 cups of Skim Milk
2 Tbs I Can't Believe it's Not Butter
Red and black pepper to taste
Flour to thicken

1. Make biscuits using recipe on box of Carbquik Bake Mix
2. Heat up the butter in small saucepan, and turkey to heat.
3. Sprinkle flour over turkey sausage and mix.
4. Add Milk and pepper, and cook on medium heat until sauce starts to thicken, if after 5 minutes, sauce still does not thicken, slowly add flour and stir until gravy thickens.
5. Pour over biscuits and serve.
6. Enjoy!

Total carbs per serving: 10 net carbs

It's been awhile....and hard to be here but I'm back

As many of you know, I started this blog in honor of my dad and husband who are diabetics.  After my last post, my dad passed away after many years of fighting diabetes, heart disease, and COPD.  This had been a happy place, where I wrote about food and cooking, but I haven't felt like doing much of either until recently.  So I promise I will try to get back in the swing, pick myself up, start cooking and blogging....Won't you raise your glass of whatever you are drinking and toast my dad, a man who made an impression on everyone he met...Love you and miss you dad!

This weekend, we had an impromptu barbeque with friends.  I made a pork roast marinated in caribeean jerk seasonings and even though everyone had seconds I still had quite a bit of pork leftover.  Yesterday I put some of the pork in my mini crockpot and made a very nice pulled pork.  Tonight I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner and he said "not pork", and laughed.  I, not wanting to be wasteful  thought I will get him to eat pork, and decided to make "pork fried rice".  After we finished, my husband said, that was great and forgot all about the fact this was day 3 of pork....So enjoy!

Serves 4
8 oz of leftover cooked pork (chop, tenderloin, roast)
2 cups of cooked brown rice
1 cup of green peas
1 can of sliced water chestnuts
1/2 lb of green beans
1/2 cup of green onions
Egg beaters scrambled (equivelant of 1 egg)
2 TBS of sesame or vegetable oil
2 TBS of low sodium soy sauce
Fresh basil to taste
Pepper to taste

1. Cook rice according to directions and in a small saute pan, scramble egg beaters.
2. Heat oil in saute pan or wok
3. Add onions, water chestnuts, and green beans to oil.  Saute until soft.
4. Add cooked rice, pork, scrambled egg, peas, and soy sauce.  Saute for 3-5 minutes until pork is heated through, add basil and pepper, saute until basil is wilted.
5. Enjoy!

If you're like me, then you have become a fan of The Biggest Loser...

I wish I could spend 6 months doing nothing but devoting time to weight loss but since I can't, I will have to continue to get healthy the old fashioned way, one day at a time approach.  I love the recipes that are in the Biggest Loser cookbook, again a reason to show that being healthy doesn't mean you can't eat flavorful good food.  Enjoy this recipe from their cookbook:

1 pound 96% lean ground beef, preferably grass fed
1 teaspoon freshly minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
2 teaspoons finely chopped whole scallions
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon all-natural low-sodium soy sauce
Sea salt, to taste

Soak 8 (6") wooden skewers in water for at least 30 minutes (or have metal skewers ready). Preheat a grill to high.

Add the beef, garlic, ginger, scallions, and soy sauce to a medium bowl. Mix well to combine. Season with salt.

Divide the mixture into 8 equal portions. Take 1 portion and shape it around a skewer, flattening the meat so it's about 1 1/2" wide and covers about 5" of the skewer's length. Place the finished skewer on a dinner plate. Repeat with the remaining meat mixture and skewers. Transfer the plate to the freezer and let the skewers sit about 10 minutes.

Grill the skewers for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until the meat is cooked through and no longer pink. Divide the yakitori among 4 serving plates, and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

Per serving (2 skewers): 135 calories, 23 g protein, <1 g carbohydrates (trace sugar), 5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 60 mg cholesterol, trace fiber, 196 mg sodium

Buffalo chicken....yummm

I love Chicken wings but hate the mess and the fat!  Here is a great way to enjoy the flavor minus the fat, low carbs, and no mess.

Buffalo Chicken Burgers with blue cheese sauce

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup light sour cream
• 1/4 cup reduced fat blue cheese crumbles
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

• 1 1/2 pounds ground chicken
• 1/4 cup hot pepper sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
• Healthy Life hamburger buns

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat, and lightly oil the grate. Stir the sour cream, blue cheese, and Worcestershire sauce together in a small bowl; set aside.
1. Mix the ground chicken, 1/4 cup hot sauce, celery salt, poultry seasoning, paprika, and cayenne pepper together in a mixing bowl until evenly blended. Form into four 3/4-inch-thick patties.
2. Cook the chicken burgers on the preheated grill 6 to 7 minutes until well marked. Spray the uncooked top of the burger with cooking spray, and flip the burgers over. Brush the cooked side with 1 tablespoon hot sauce, and continue cooking until no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear, about 5 minutes more. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).
3. Top burgers with blue cheese sauce made in step 1.

Buffalo Chicken Burgers with Blue Cheese Dressing

Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 374

• Total Fat: 8.8g
• Cholesterol: 111mg
• Sodium: 1111mg
• Total Carbs: 25.3g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.7g

Pizza, Pizza.....

How can we be expected to give up pizza? I could eat this pizza everyday with a salad, light yet filling and you can change up the ingredients on top depending on your mood.  Today I thought I would share my version of "pizza margherita".

P.S. I sometimes make several of these, cut into fours and serve as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

1 Flatout light bread (4 forks)
1 Roma tomato
Kraft Shredded Low Moisture Skim Mozzarella
Fresh basil
1 Tbs olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Spread olive oil on flatout bread with pastry brush. Bake for 3-5 minutes so flatbread starts to crisp.
3. Remove flatbread from oven, sprinkle cheese on flatbread. Slice tomato into round pieces and place on top of cheese. Sprinkle tomatoes and cheese with fresh basil, salt and pepper (to taste)
4. Drizzle balsamic vinegar on top of pizza.
5. Bake for another 5-7 minutes until cheese is melted and bread is toasted.
6. Serve warm and Enjoy!!