Birthday cake

I love the 80's Cake Set

Chicken & dumplings~

Asian style spicy shrimp & vegetables over Chinese vermicelli

Spicy chicken sausage meatballs in a light ricotta & spinach cream sauce with diced carrots over vegetable rotini

Tilapia Tacos

This served 2 but with easily 2 servings leftover



2 large pieces of tilapia

1 small yellow onion

1 small tomato diced (or 2 plum tomatoes diced)

½ cup fat free or light sour cream

½ cup shredded or chopped lettuce

½-1 cup salsa

2-3 tablespoons of cilantro (optional)

¼ cup fat free shredded cheese (or lowfat or regular whatever you like)

1 cup brown rice (instant)or white is fine

½ cup black beans (canned is fine)

1 packet taco seasoning

½ cup water

1 pack of fat free flour tortillas (or any flavor you like)



In a large non stick skillet add one table spoon of olive oil, in addition spray pan with cooking spray (unless you want to use more olive oil)

Dice yellow onion and cook the onion until translucent (add salt and pepper to taste-not too much as the taco season will give good flavor)

Add tilapia-cook on medium heat for 3-5 minutes on each side

Once fish has cooked color on both side start to break up into chunks in the pan and add taco season and mix gently- Reserve ¼ taco seasoning for rice…

In a separate saucepan add ½ brown rice with ½ water, once water begins to boil turn off heat but leave pot on stove and put the lid on for 15 minutes.

After rice has absorbed all the liquid add black beans add remainder of the taco season then mix and cover for 5 more minutes (I added a little extra salt and pepper too)

You can pre-load your tacos or put all the ‘trimmings’ in side dishes if you are serving guests-I put sour, salsa, cheese, lettuce on the side if it’s for company so they can dress the taco as they wish. Or if not serving right away you don’t want tacos to get soggy so put all the trimmings on side…

*The cilantro was to add to the salsa if desired

Lasagna Rolls (with lean sirloin)

I used:

1 box lasagna noodles boiled (I actually used no bake and soaked them in water to make them soft again

1 pound ground lean sirloin (or ground turkey or chicken)

1 jar tomato sauce (or homemde if you have it)

1 small white/yellow onion diced

1 clove garlic diced

1 cup low fat skim ricotta

2 cup thawed chopped spinach

salt, pepper

Cook and season meat in a non stick skillet with one tablespoon of olive oil or cooking spray.Cook until meat is browned. Set aside to cool

Mix ricotta, spinach and meat in a bowl

Take softened noodles and lay flat add a spoonful of meat mixture onto noodles and roll up. , lay seam side down.

Place in baking dish and cover with tomato sauce and warm in oven on 350 for 10-15 minutes.
*If you use the no bake noodles*
Follow same instructions but instead of warming in over put under broiler on baking sheet for 3-4 minutes until cheese melts on top.

Egg muffins~different versions posted with the basic outline for recipe and instructions...

Above: Fresh spinach, lean ham, goat cheese,

tomato and bacon bits

I used:

1 container of egg beaters

1/4 cup low fat shredded cheddar cheese

1 small tomato diced

diced turkey

diced lean ham

Spray muffin tins with cooking spray and add diced veggies and meat even distributed into tins.

Add egg mixture over top and add salt and pepper to taste

Bake on at 350 for 25-30minutes (tops wi,l begin to brown when they are baked)

* Muffins will drop once they are tsaken out of the oven

**I added a few extra pictures of different types of egg muffins i have made...

Turkey and peppers

Ham & cheese

Tomato, green onion, turkey, cheese

Mexican with black beans

Black bean cakes

You will need

1 small onion (diced)
2 tablespoons of olive oil (one for mix and one for pan)
1 large finely chopped garlic clove (or 1 tablespoon minced garlic)
2 tablespoons (up to ¼ cup) chopped cilantro (we love it so I add a bunch)
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 tablespoon adobo season (salt , cumin, garlic, black pepper, oregano, turmeric *if you don’t have these seasonings just add salt and pepper to taste (about ½ teaspoon each)
½ -1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ all purpose flour
2 (15oz) cans black beans (they will be drained so don’t worry if they are seasoned or not)
½ cup sour cream
1 plum tomato
1 avocado (optional)
1 glass of hot water

These can be cooked stove top or baked in the oven…if bakes they will be a little more dry and a little harder to remove from baking sheet. You can add more olive oil to the mix for moisture help the patties to stick less if using more oil is not a concern.

In a large non stick pan add one table spoon of olive oil and turn on medium heat (if baking preheat oven to 350)

Dice onion and garlic and cook until onions are translucent, add garlic after onions start to cook, take off heat a let cool slightly

Drain and rinse beans well

Place into a large mixing bowl and mash with a fork (I find it easier to use my hands and just mush the beans!)

Add beaten egg, cooled onions and garlic, cilantro, 1 tablespoon olive oil (if baking), almost all the flour( reserving a little for dusting cakes if making them stove top) , add adobo seasonings, and mix until ingredients are well incorporated.

If using stove top to cook cakes, add one tablespoon of olive oil to a non stick pan and additional cooking spray to coat the entire pan

Have your glass of warm/hot water ready

Start forming cakes and place them in the pan, if baking place on baking sheet with foil and or cooking spray to help from sticking

If pan cooking cakes use remaining flour to dust cakes lightly to help give cakes a flavor crust. You may want to add additional salt and pepper or adobo to dusting flour for additional flavor.

Cook patties on each side until you see a light brown crust on both sides.
If baking place cakes onto baking sheet and dip fingers or spoon into warm water to help you form the cakes , they will be sticky and hard to get off your fingers.

Bake for 20-25 minutes flipping cakes after 10-15 minutes until hot all the way through center…pull one cake out close to 20 minute mark to taste.

Slice tomato and avocado to serve on or with bean cakes.

*Optional- Add a pinch of cumin and adobo to sour cream and use for topping or dip for cakes

My Baked Lean sirloin & zucchini meatballs~

 

What I used:
1.25 pound of 7% Lean ground sirloin
1/4 italian bread crumbs
3 medium to large zucchini
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (or cooking spray)
1 small white or yellow onion
1 large garlic clove
1 egg
salt and pepper (and other seasons of your taste)
1 cup of your favorite or jarred tomato sauce
melon baller (baby spoon)
Pre heat oven to 350

Gently rinse zucchini
cut 1/3 of the zucchini off and reserve. If the zucchini won't sit upright by itself the slice a bit off the opposite side to make it stand firmly so you can place it baking pan without it rolling.
Gently scoop out the insides of the zucchini
*be carful not to scoop too deep to keep from breaking through the skin
Reserve the zucchini that you have scooped out to use in meatball mixture.
Drizzle olive oil (or sparay with cooking spray) and place on baking sheet. Bake in oven for 9-12 mintues.( I checked around the 9 minute mark and they needed a few more minutes to reach the softness that I desired.)

For the meatballs:
In a non stick skillet with one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil on medium heat add diced onion and garlic and cook for 10 minutes until onions become translucent. Remove from heat let cool.
In a large mixing bowl add meat, egg, breadcrumbs, onions, garlic and reserved zucchini (diced).
Mix together and form into balls (roll into balls a little smaller than a golf ball in order to fit balls into zucchini boats)
Bake meatballs for 25 mintues (on 350, same temp as the zucchini)

when zucchini and meatballs are done fill boats with red sauce and fill with meatballs.
Enjoy!

Poached Mahi over wasabi & cauliflower mashed with a creamed bell pepper coulis

I used:

2 4-5 ounce pices of Mahi

1 large bell pepper or 4-5 small sweet yellow peppers

1/4 cup low fat ricotta

salt & pepper

About 2 cups of cauliflower (you can use fresh or frozen)

4 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup instant potatoes (or 4-6 small red potatoes peeled and boiled)

1/4 cup fat free sour cream

1 teaspoon wasabi powder (or more/less depending on how much kick you like)



For cauliflower mashed potatoes:

In a sauce pan add 2 cups chicken of chicken broth and half the head of cleaned and roughly chopped cauliflower and bring to a boil cook for 15 minutes or until fork tender/soft enough to mash

Drain cauliflower and set into a bowl, reserve chicken broth for instant mash potatoes

In the same pot start boiling quarter cup of broth then add to instant potatoes, turn off heat immediately…mix and add broth until desired consistency(not pasty)

Press the cauliflower with a fork until it mostly smooth then add mashed potatoes. With a hand mixer on low start mix the potatoes and cauliflower. Add ¼ fat free sour cream while mixing…add chicken broth slowly until potatoes are smooth and creamy.

For Mahi:
Place mahi in a sautee pan and cover fish with chcken broth until just the top of the fish. The fish does not have to be entirely submerged.
Bring to a simmer and let cook for 12-15 minutes depending on how thick your cut of fish is.

For Bell pepper puree:
slice peppers and place in a sautee pan with one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Cook for 8-10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

remove from heat and place into food processor and blend until smooth. Add ricotta and salt and pepper to taste.

Place puree back into pan and low heat let puree warm through for 5 minutes.

Place puree in botton of dish, then scoop or pipe mashed poatoes into center of bowl with mahi on top.