Chicken and Squash

This was today's lunch. It was one chicken breast and 1 large summer squash both seasoned with Mrs. Dash. It's high protein, low carb, and I love the squash because I consider it a "free" food. I can eat it to my hearts content because its low cal, low carb and full of nutrients!

Low Cal, Low Carb Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

2 Cups Chopped Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

1/3 cup Halved Red Seedless Grapes

1/3 cup Craisins (or raisins)

1 tbsp Lemon Juice

1 tsp Curry Powder

2 tbsp ground Flax Seed

1/4 cup Greek Yogurt

1/4 cup Light Mayo

Directions:

Mix it all together and let chill for a few hours so the flavors can love on each other. Serve on a rommaine lettuce leaf.

You can sprinkle feta on if you wish.

Nutrion (according to http://www.thedailyplate.com/)

Serving Size: 1/2 cup

Calories: 83

Fat: 3.7

Sodium: 145

Carbs: 5.6

Sugar: 3.5

Protein: 6.6

Kale Crisps

Kale Crisps

Ingredients:

2 Bunches of Kale

2 cups 2% Shredded Cheddar (or other cheese of choice)

Red Pepper Flakes or Tobasco (to taste)

Directions:

*Cut your kale into thin ribbons (remove stems).

*grease a couple cookie sheets

*spread out kale on cookie sheets and sprinkle cheese evenly over them. I personally like LOTS of cheese so I almost double my cheese.

*Place into a preheated oven 425, and cook for 15 min checking often. You want to remove when the cheese is a good golden brown. Then let it sit for 10 min to harden. Then just break up with pizza cutter:)

***I like this recipe and enjoy it frequently. Its got a great protein and IRON content. Iron is very important to me right now because of my anemia. This makes an easy to grab iron source for snacking and is WAY healthier than chips.

I got the recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/ and then slightly altered it to my own tastes.

Apple Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is soooooo yummy! I made it yesterday but am just now getting around to posting - and Ill try to get a pic tongiht before I polish it off! LOL!

Ingredients


2 (18.3-ounce) boxes butternut squash soup (recommended: Campbell's Select)
1 cup cinnamon applesauce (I use 1.5 cups!)
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Plain FAGE yogurt

Directions

In a medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, stir together all ingredients except yogurt or sour cream. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Serve hot with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Greek Pasta the Healthy(ish) way!

Late Night Snacking....

Are you one of those people who can never make it between meals - or you find that you are in the fridge after 8pm just wanting something but can't really pinpoint what it is?
I know that I personally like to eat right before bed...around 10pm. I know - everyone says nothing after 6 but you know what - Im not gonna sit there miserable and starving!
So I have my fail safe snack of Cottage Cheese on hand. Cottage cheese is not only filling - but one cup also boasts 15gr protein (in the fat free), only 80 calories! I sweeten mine lightly with Honey and then sprinkle cinnamon on top (cinnamon is something I sprinkle on a lot of things because it has a way of leveling out blood sugars and keeping you full longer). You can also throw some fruit in there if you like. But next time you find yourself reaching for the chips, or junk - try a bowl of this first - then if you must have just a small amount of the other stuff!:)

Greek - It's What's For Dinner...

Ingredients:

1lb Chicken Thighs (or breast if you prefer) Boneless and Skinless

1cup Whole Wheat Cous Cous

1cup Water

Salt (optional)

1tbsp Butter

Garlic Oil (to make pan non stick with chicken and to taste on the cous cous)

Lemon Juice (to taste)

Basil (to taste)

Salt Free Greek Seasoning...about 1-2 tsp on chicken only

1 pint grape tomatos halved.

1 container Feta Cheese

Directions:

*Cube your chicken of choice and toss with greek seasoning. Put garlic oil (olive oil infused with garlic) into hot pan and add chicken to stir fry.

*Set aside when chicken is finished.

*In a sauce pan, 1cup water and tbsp butter to a boil and add cous cous stir quickly and remove from heat and cover (NO PEEKING) for 4min. Fluff with fork

*While cous cous is steaming - halve tomatos.

*Add cous cous, tomatoes and chicken and feta to bowl. Now - use the remaining ingredients to taste and toss till coated.

***Kalamata olives would be FANTASTIC in this dish - I didn't use them this time around because hubs dislikes olives, and because of my recent plastics I cannot have the added sodium, lest I swell!

Homemade California Rolls....

You will need:

Sticky Rice

Sea Weed Papers

(I get these in a kit for $3)

Imitation Crab (Or Real if you Can!)

Directions:

Nuke your pre-made sticky rice for 60 seconds. If you are making the rice yourself - then just cook it and let it cool a little bit before handleing. Just remember - regular rice will NOT work. Must be the sticky stuff!

Get out some crab and cut into 1.5 inch strips about the width of pencil. Place crab stick, and half spoonful of rice in seaweed paper, roll and repeat!

This is higher on carbs than I typically like - but I keep these in the fridge for my "grazing" because it DOES have crab meat  which is protein for me!:) And it's fairly filling on just a couple.

S.O.S - Cheap and EASY!

Firstly - forgive the paper plate. I try to do better in my photos - but Mama's very tired tonight and feeling too lazy to do the dishes!

Ingredients:

Bread (pictured is White but this is excellent for your dryer Wheats and Ezekial loaves)

white country gravy mix (with water or half water substituted with high protein milk)

2 pkgs Budding Honey Turkey

Directions:

1. Prepare gravy according to package directions.

2. Cut up Turkey into ribbons and put into gravy and stir

3. Slop it onto a slice or two of bread and serve warm

It's what I grew up calling S.O.S - as my mom always said. But it's also known as "Shit on a Shingle" which means you can literally put any "shit" you want to into it and call it a meal. However, as I learned tonight - Dont refer to it as "Shit on a Shingle" to a 6yr old as they will absolutely REFUSE to go near it then! LOL!

Garage Sale Find!

Found this awesome cast iron pre-divided cornbread pan today! I got it for like... $1! Too cool!!! Now I gotta think up some recipes to share with it!