Pizza-tilla Tort-izza

Let’s face it, sometimes we all crave a little pizza. I’ve created this recipe as a pizza craving solution that won’t throw you off track of your healthy lifestyle path. I’ve found that when I don’t give in to my specific craving, I end up overeating other foods because I’m simply left unsatisfied! Try this next time you are craving pizza and pair it with a healthy green salad and I’m certain you will feel satiated and elated.

Serves: 1  Serving Size: 1 pizza-tilla tort-izza   Prep Time: 5 minutes   Cook Time: 5 minutes  

Ingredients:

Directions: 

Prepare the basil, tomatoes and cheese

Place the tortilla on a nonstick pan with a little bit of non-stick spray. Arrange the cheese on the tortilla so that every bite has a bit of cheese and keep the flame on medium until the cheese has completely melted.

 Carefully put the cheesy tortilla on a plate and assemble the tomatoes, basil and seasonings of your choice so that it looks like a beautifully loaded pizza. Enjoy!!

Nutrition Breakdown*: per 1 pizza-tilla torti-zza

190-210 calories, 9 g fat, 4.5g fiber, 11g protein

*varies based on tortilla and cheese you use

The Ultimate Lemon-Garlic Grilled Chicken

This dish is precisely what the title says it is- “The Ultimate Lemon-Garlic Grilled Chicken.” Don’t fuss over what chicken dish to make to complete your meal. This is it. You can serve this platter of juicy chicken goodness with a nice tossed salad, few pieces of whole wheat pita bread, and some yummy low-cal condiments, and you got yourself a meal buddy!

Note: The above picture is larger than usual to zoom in on the flavor.

Serves: 6*  Serving Size: apx. 3 pieces   Prep Time: 10 minutes +1 day in advance    Cook Time: 25 minutes  

*Very easy to adjust the recipe size. Approximate 1 chicken breast for every 1 guest.

Next, get out a large nonstick grill pan and lightly spray with additional non-stick spray.  Turn the flame to medium heat and wait for it to get nice and hot. Now lay the chicken on the pan one-by-one.

Let the chicken sit for 4-5 minutes without touching it before turning it over. It should look like this.

Let it sit for another 4-5 minutes on this side and you’re done!

Nutrition Breakdown: Per 3 pieces, about 6 oz. 

170 calories, 3 g fat, 34.5 g protein, 0 g carbs

Piece-of- Cake, Peppered Steak

Perfectly tender and savory, this dish is an ideal dinner choice!  It is so colorful, flavorful and  easy to make (hence the title in case you were  thinking that this recipe called for cake), that you would be insane to pass it up. So get your grocery list and get going!

Serves: 4-6 people   Serving Size: about 1 cup     Prep Time: 8 minutes    Cook Time: 15 minutes  

Directions:

Set 2 large pans (preferably a large wok) on the stove top. 

To the larger pan (hopefully a nonstick wok), add your garlic, peppers and onions and stir occasionally for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Sprinkle the chicken soup consume over the vegetables. No oil is necessary for this step.

Once the vegetables are slightly tender, spray the bottom of the second pan with non-stick spray and add the meat to the pan over medium heat. Coat the meat with the paprika, black pepper and a little bit of salt to flavor and tenderize the meat.

Stir occasionally until the meat is 80% cooked through, about 5-7 minutes, and then pour the meat over the vegetables.

Add the teriyaki sauce and simmer on low-medium heat for another 5 or so minutes.

Serve over brown rice or quinoa and enjoy! It is also incredibly delectable without the carbs if you’re watching them  

Perky Turkey l’Orange

3 Words: Make. This. Recipe. It’s simple to make, super healthy, looks beautiful, tastes incredible, and best of all, tastes even better as leftovers! Plus, as you can tell by the title, this recipe is both fun and fancy

Now, turn the turkey over, cavity side down. Remove the leaves of the remaining rosemary and sage sprigs and rub them all over the turkey, along with the remaining orange slices.

Now, just take that bottle of awesome sauce and douse the turkey in it, all over.

Time to seal up that bag with a big knot! Make sure to pierce two 1″ slits in the bag so that the steam can let out and stick the turkey in the oven.

Cook the turkey at 375° F for 2 hours and then turn the oven to 300° F for a third hour. Remove the turkey from the bag and carve the turkey similar to Bobby Flay in this tutorial. Serve with the Orange slices and Enjoy!!! Let me know what you think!!

Tips:

1. If time permits, try to periodically (maybe twice or three times) move around the bag and sauces to baste the turkey. Don’t worry if you forget, cooking the turkey in the bag ensures that the turkey will be nice and moist.

2. Serve with gravy on top of the turkey and also leave extra gravy on the table in case somebody wants more or wants to use it to coat a side dish such as some roasted vegetables or brown rice.

3. When storing the leftovers, let the turkey sit in its gravy to continue to soak up the yummy gravy.

Nutrition Breakdown: per 4 ounces of turkey, apx. 2  slices 

195 calories, 7.5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 5 g carbs, 23 g protein*

*Note: this is calculated with the skin, if you remove the skin, the calories drop down to 150 and the fat content drops down to approximately 2.5 g fat.

Cost: $$$   The ingredients may be on the more expensive side but, considering that there are so few ingredients and that it feeds well over 8 people, this recipe is extremely reasonable. 

Pretty Perky if you ask me!!

Grilled Chicken Salad and Birthday Cupcakes!

Bake in the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes, then take out and add a thin slice of banana to each one. I only used 1 banana so I had about 7 cupcakes that didn’t get one. Then, put back in the oven for a remaining 20 or so minutes (until you can place a tooth pick to the side of a banana slice and take it out clean). Now, arrange into a birthday number and Ta Da…Birthday Cupcakes!- no yucky frosting needed! 
Nutrition Breakdown: per 1 cupcake when the recipe makes 27 cupcakes
95 calories, 1.8 g fat, less than 1 g fiber,  1.5 g protein

Hot ‘n’ Spicy Thai Peanut Stir-Fry

Serving Size: apx. 1 1/2 cups or 1/2 the recipe      Serves: 2
Prep Time: 12 minutes       Cook Time: 15-20 minutes 


Ingredients:
1 14 oz Bag of Frozen Peppers (or you can slice a fresh green, red and yellow pepper)
1 medium-sized Onion, chopped into big pieces (see picture for reference)
1 14 oz Package of Extra Firm Tofu
1 Tbsp. of Reduced-Fat Creamy Peanut Butter
4 Tbsp. Sesame Teriyaki Sauce
2 tsp. Light Soy Sauce
2 tsp. Chopped Red Chili Peppers- can also use the frozen cubes (1 for mild, but I highly recommend using 2)
3 Cloves of Garlic, smashed and chopped

Directions:
First, put the chopped onions in the wok and let them heat up and soften on medium-high heat for about 3-5 minutes. Then throw in the frozen or fresh peppers. If using frozen, take 1 square of a paper towel, fold it up and try soaking up some of the water at the bottom of the wok. No need to clear all of it.

Lower the flame to medium heat and then add chili paste and garlic cloves. While that is cooking, quickly open your tofu package, drain out the water, cut width-wise (by putting the knife on its side and easily sliding it from right to left). Then make 4-5 slices in the block from the top and 3 across and throw the tofu in the wok. Mix around with a rubber spatula (protects the wok). Let the whole mixture cook by stirring around occasionally.

When everything looks good and ready, add the peanut butter (takes a couple of seconds to melt a bit) and stir around so its evenly distributed. Now you can add 3 Tbsp. of teriyaki sauce and the soy sauce (if you add them too soon, they will cook through too quickly and force you to use more which means more calories!) At this point, you can turn off the flame and let it sit for a minute or two. Lastly, add the remaining tablespoon of teriyaki sauce and stir (this way the flavor doesn’t get lost in the cooking).

Plate with 1/2 cup of brown rice or have it plain and Enjoy!

Nutrition Breakdown:
372 calories, 15g fat (healthy from the tofu mainly), 6g fiber, 25.5g protein (right on!)

Trim the Fat: Use 5 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of tofu and save about 50 calories and 8 grams of fat.

Note: I would suggest trying this recipe with broccoli as well. I only thought of it afterwards but I’m sure it would be delicious! 

Easy, Shmeasy Cholent (Yiddish Stew)

Semi-Homemade Tortellini’s & “Meat” Sauce!

Directions:
Boil the box of tortellini according to the box directions. It is super easy, prepare as you would pasta.

Next, take out a sauce pan and combine all ingredients for the meat sauce aside from the Morningstar Meat Crumbles (if you followed my suggestion above, you would just be adding the jarred tomato sauce to the pan- Now, that was easy!!!). After 2-3 minutes on sim to low heat, add the meat crumbles and stir. 
Tip: feel free to throw in meat crumbles straight from the freezer. 

Now just make sure you count out exactly 20 tortellini’s so you don’t overdue it (or take more, just keep track of it!) and add your yummy meat sauce! Bon Apetite!

Tip: Grab a grater and grate a folded slice of low fat swiss cheese for a nice kick! 

Serve With: 
I steamed up some giant artichokes (my favorite at just 70 calories a piece) and made Tabachniks 100 calorie Cabbage Soup! 

Nutrition Breakdown: For the Tortellini & “Meat” Sauce, per serving: 

361 calories, 4.5g fat, 11g fiber, 20g protein

Add Soup and Artichoke: 531 calories, 5.5g fat, 22g fiber, 25 g protein

Cost: $$ 

About $5.50 per serving (including side dishes) 

Note: Tabatchnick soup was on sale for $1.99 and includes 2 servings. Artichokes were priced per item instead of per pound, so I took the largest ones they had! SCORE!

I’m-a-Fraud-Spaghetti-&-Meatballs & Stir Fry for Later! 

Directions:
Microwave the whole squash for about 5 minutes until it’s soft enough to cut in half, lengthwise. Next, place both sides (you might as well cook both sides right away.. the other half refrigerates great once its cooked) in baking pans and cook at 375 F for about an hour (might even take longer!!) until the squash falls apart easily using a fork.

P.S. Don’t listen to cooking sites that say you have to boil the squash in water or anything like that. I experimented with that and it took away the flavor of the squash and tasted bland.. Yuck!

While the squash is baking, cut up your Tofurky Sausages into chucks aka Meatballs!

Then throw into a sauce pan with Your Favorite Marinara Sauce! Here is your chance to add additional spices, garlic, mushroom and onions if you like.

When the squash is ready, use a fork (use metal, plastic will melt!) to pull apart the meat of the squash (no! not literal meat, silly!) and scoop about 2 cups worth on to each dinner plate. Then pile the “Meatballs” and Sauce right on top! Garnish with Parsley if you like (I’m not that fancy for a Tuesday night dinner) and Voila! You got Ilana’s take on “Spaghetti & Meatballs”

Tip: Mix it all together before you take that first bite, you want the sauce to coat all of the spaghetti.

Nutrition Breakdown:

489 cal, 19 g fat (not terribly low so eat lower fat foods the rest of the day, it’ll be worth it!), 14g Fiber (wowza!), 45 g Protein (woohoo!)

Trim the Fat:  Use 5 ounces of 96% or more fat free lean ground turkey and mix with the spices of your choice, 2 Tbsp. of egg whites and 2 Tbsp. of seasons bread crumbs. Mix all together, form into balls and bake in the oven at 350 for 30 or so minutes. You will save about 170 calories and 13 grams of fat.

Note: Its a massive portion, so if you eat less, it will be less!

Cost: $

The spaghetti squash was $5.67 for the whole thing.. meaning just $1.42 per huge serving. The Tofurky Sausages are $5-6 for the pack of 4… just $2.10 per serving. And the sauce is up to you but, you will probably use about $1 per serving.
Total: $4.52 for a bangin’ dinner!! Me likey!!

What To Do With The Leftovers You Ask??
I threw the spaghetti into a delicious stir-fry with boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut up veggies! Perfection!

Although I don’t love to endorse any deli meats, once in awhile isn’t going to kill you. Please make sure to ask your butcher repeatedly for the leanest, cleanest, healthiest turkey breast he has and then ask for extra thin slices. This dinner or lunch option is so good and easy to make, I like to treat myself to it every month or so. Try it and let me know what you think!