Turkey Taco Salad. Enough Said.

Sam and I adore mexican food. Tonight was Taco Salad night. OMG. We're so doing this again. It's also really simple to prepare. And it's low cal, when done properly.

We used these low cal taco shells made from corn and whole wheat at 180 calories. They were pretty cool. But I think the taco salad would be just as good without them and with a few baked tortilla chips. Sam disagrees and says that the taco shell is a must.

Anyway, the Taco Salads were f-ing delicious!! And so easy. It's just taking the following ingredients and making a salad with em. You can add or delete as it suits you. This is what I made our Taco Salads with tonight:

• Ground Turkey. We browned some ground turkey breast (1 lb serves 4), then added Lawry's Hot Taco Seasoning, 2/3 cup liquid (some water and some tomato juice from Muir Glen Organic Diced Tomatoes), and some Muir Glen Organic Diced Tomatoes, then simmered. You can also substitute veggie meat for the turkey of course!
• "Refried" Black Beans I took one can of reduced sodium black beans, drained most of the liquid, heated it in a saucepan, added chili powder and cumin and salt. Then I refried `em buy taking our immersion blender to the beans! You can add some liquid from the Muir Glen Diced Tomatoes if you need to.
• Shredded Romaine Lettuce
• 1/4 cup of grated Reduced Fat Jack Cheese (we both thought it wasn't actually much of a value add and should go without)
• Avocado (be careful, use sparingly, though good for you avocados are high in calories)
• Muir Glen Diced Tomatoes (drained)
• Non-Fat Sour Cream
• Cilantro
• Frontera Salsa (being a fan of Top Chef I had to try Rick Bayless' salsa.)
• Chili-Lime Vinagrette. (Not necessary but really yummy, discard if needed to eat low calorie.)
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • Whisk together lime juice, cilantro, sugar, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper, then add oil in a stream, whisking until emulsified. Serves 6.
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Preparing for the last few days of the year...

Today we did our menu planning and food shopping for the last few days of 2009. Our grocery bill was very high but our fridge is stocked and we have some new staples like canola oil, capers, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, sugar, etc.

Tonight we didn't feel like cooking a huge meal, so we opted for healthy mexican take out. Grilled Mahi Mahi Soft Tacos with cabbage and lime and salsa verde. There was no cheese, no sour cream, no guacamole, nothing fried. And yet much flavor! This is one of the reasons why we adore mexican food.

We did do a little bit of cooking. We cooked up some left over chicken breast for Sam's lunch to make a low-cal, low-fat Chicken Cheesesteak Wrap (~265 calories) from The Biggest Loser Cookbook. 4 oz of chicken sliced thin, sauteed with onions, then put in a low carb whole wheat wrap with 1 laughing cow cheese, a few pickled peppers, some ketchup. Mmm.

I also made some apple sauce. This is a great way to flavor oatmeal. It's so super easy to make too. Here's the recipe. I added cinammon. We frakkin' love cinammon. You will need a food mill for this. I really like my food mill. I love that it's powered by me.

Our meals for the last week of 2009:

Mon 12/28: Taco Salad w. lean ground turkey, beans, lettuce, salsa, nonfat sour cream, avocado, tomato, and reduced fat jack (just a little)

Tues 12/29: Panko-crusted Trout Fingers with low-fat tartar sauce, vinegar coleslaw, and beet chips (I am so excited to make these beet chips - they're baked not fried and sound so delicious)

Wed 12/30: Carrot Soup, Indian Spiced Lentils, w. date-orange chutney (not low cal, use sparingly), Raita (using organic nonfat yogurt), Steamed Brown Rice

Thurs 12/31: New Years Eve!! We are going out to dinner.

First Dinner of 2010:

Fri 1/1: Five C's n' Black Eyed Peas

Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish w. Creole Mustard Vinaigrette, Collard Greens, Black Eyed Peas & Cornbread w. honey butter.

This New Years Day meal is inspired by my desire to eat black eyed peas on new years for good luck and prosperity. It is not necessarily a low cal meal, but it's not ridiculous either. And it's chock full of healthy vegetables and not very much fat. The cornbread and honey butter can be dangerous to have around. Watch out. And enjoy!

A very delicious mistake.

So tonight we made one of Sam's favorites: Panko-Crusted Chicken with Mustard-Maple Pan Sauce from Bon Appetit. This main dish is so good it would easily work for company. Plus it's incredibly simple to make. And it's only 390 calories per serving (4 oz. of chicken with sauce).

You have to flatten the chicken breast with a meat mallet or rolling pin. Beware: it's a very loud process. Then you dip it in egg, parsley, and Dijon mustard. Then you dip the breast in the panko breadcrumbs and cook it in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. It comes out so crispy and good. Now, if you haven't cooked with panko, I suggest you start. These japanese breadcrumbs are so incredibly light and crispy you can get the feel of fried chicken without deep frying.

Tonight we made a very delicious mistake with the panko. (Tee hee.) The recipe serves 4. We were only making 2 servings of the dish, but we accidentally coated our chicken in 4 servings worth of panko: 1 full cup (220 calories). But man, it just made the chicken crispier and yummier. For company you might want to make this mistake. If you want to keep the calories down, stick with 1/4 cup of panko per serving of chicken.

But maybe the best part of the dish is the maple mustard pan sauce. For two people the sauce uses 1.5 teaspoons of butter (50 cals) and 1.5 tablespoons of maple syrup (75 cals) and then dijon and whole grain mustard and low sodium chicken broth, reduced. Oh man, it's good. And when the sweetness of the maple mustard pan sauce pairs with the crispy, crunchy chicken and the tangy, spicy collard greens all the elements fall into place into delicious harmony. Did I just say that? You know what I mean. It's good.

He called my (almost) vegan meal "Hearty" and "Delicious"

Sam loves meat. I do not. And tonight I was determined to cook vegetarian. Healthy vegetarian to boot. I had an interesting recipe for White Bean Chili with Jalapeno Bulgur and I thought a cool and crisp chopped vegetable salad would pair well with the warm, spicy chili.

Turns out I was right.

I was just finishing the salad dressing (a creamy dijon vinaigrette - made creamy through the use of a little non-fat sour cream at only 10 cals. a tablespoon - my only non-vegan ingredient) when Sam came home from Boot Camp with the bulgur wheat. (I could have sworn we had some!) The moment Sam walked into the house he started talking about how delicious it smelled -- in our apartment and outside our door. He made "mmm" sounds when he grabbed a bite of the chili. "Woohoo!" I thought, this vegetarian chili is a success. Now onto the jalapeno bulgur.

Turns out Sam brought me 100% whole grain bulgur wheat, which is a little different from the regular bulgur and, as such, it cooked a little differently.

Yeah. I burned the first batch.

But after following the directions on the package, we successfully cooked up another batch. It turned out great -- and felt heartier and healthier than regular bulgur. The addition of lemon juice, a little olive oil, sliced scallions, salt, pepper and chopped jalapeno made the bulgur sing and it worked so nicely with the White Bean Chili, especially stirred right into the chili.

My chopped vegetable salad consisted of fresh corn, diced green beans, diced yellow pepper, diced red onion (chopped very small), diced avocado and chopped garbanzos. Delicious! (Sam is making me mention that he preferred the garbanzos whole and not chopped.) So crunchy and fresh! And you can really use any combination of vegetables you like. Personally, I like the salad evenly diced so you can easily get a bit of every vegetable in each bite. Who needs lettuce?

When we finally sat down to dinner Sam oohed and ahhed about how our meal was so hearty and delicious. He eventually demanded I give him the leftovers for lunch. (Me: "Are you sure? You might get sick of it." Sam: "Why are you questioning me?")

Wow. My basically vegan dinner was good enough (vegan except for the use of sour cream in the creamy dijon dressing, which can easily be substituted with a regular dijon vinaigrette) to satisfy my meat loving husband. I will definitely make this again. It feels so good to eat like this.

Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some

So last night I made Hazelnut and Panko crusted Trout baked in the oven with steamed broccolini with lemon and a microwaved sweet potato (I wanted to bake the sweet potato in the oven but I did not have time).

I had an inspiration and made wasabi sour cream using fat free sour cream, wasabi paste, rice vinegar and lime juice for the sweet potato. It wasn't that great. It didn't suck, but Sam preferred the sweet potato with a dollop (or 2 or 3) of fat free sour cream. (20 calories per 2 tablespoons) Ahhh, ya win some, ya lose some. All in all the meal was still good.

Tonight I make a vegetarian dinner: White Bean Chili with Jalapeno Bulgur. I'm also gonna make a chopped salad of fresh green beans, avocado, celery, red onion, fresh corn, yellow pepper and garbanzos and toss it with a dijon vinagrette. YUM!

I am really trying to make at least one vegetarian dinner a week. I prefer to eat vegetarian and only started eating chicken again in 2008 (hadn't eaten it since 1991). I will never go back to eating red meat. Ever.

One day you must all eat or make Sweet Potato Latkes with wasabi creme fraiche. So amazingly delicious. (And NOT low calorie, these are more for celebrations, not regular consumption!) Sam and I are going to be making them for New Years Day, along with homemade Bloody Mary's that I have a great recipe for from the NYC restaurant The Spotted Pig. (Sounds like a nice way to ring in the new year, no?). I'll also try and make some black eyed peas too, for good luck in 2010. Maybe a nice black eyed pea salad...

Dinner Menu for the week

Today is Sunday, also known as Chores Day. Sam and I went grocery shopping for the week. Sam wasn't feeling so great, but he pushed through so we could go grocery shopping together. We bought a lot of stuff, though our cart was mostly produce.

(That is how it always should be! You should eat more servings of produce than anything else each day. But try not to eat more servings of fruit than vegetables.)

Here's the dinner menu for the week:
MON: Hazelnut-Panko Trout with Steamed Broccolini & Mashed Sweet Potato
TUES: White Bean Chili and Jalapeno Bulgur & a Chopped Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette
WED: Panko Chicken with Maple Mustard Pan Sauce & Braised Collard Greens
THURS: Christmas Eve - Dinner at a friend's house
FRI: Christmas Day - except for breakfast, we're going out to eat!
SAT: Jerk Chicken (breast with a Jerk Rub) & Asian Slaw

Once we got home from the market I did chores: four loads of laundry, reorganized|cleaned the refrigerator, cleaned up the house, put away the groceries. About 5 hours of work. It felt really good to be moving.

During this time I also whipped up a batch of Curry Chicken Salad with Apple, Celery and Shallot for Sam's lunch and then packed the rest of the lunch, along with his snacks.

Sam usually does Boot Camp in the morning as well as Ju-Jitsu on Mondays (and Wednesdays & Saturdays) for about 2 hours during mid-day. So I want to make sure he has enough fuel for the day for his body weight, taking into account his exercise level and goal weight.

Of course, if you lead a more sedentary life your daily caloric intake should be less. Here's a tool available on the interweb for calculating caloric intake: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm. The Biggest Loser diet recommends your current weight x 7 as your daily caloric intake. I've read the formula as your goal weight x 12 if you exercise or goal weight x 10 if you don't.

I am ordering the book Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Loss. I'll review it when I read it.

Figure out what makes the most sense for you. Or consult a nutritionist.

Sam's Lunch & Snacks for the Day
2-low cal yogurts @ 80 cals each (160 cals.)
1-med. green apple (80 cals.)
1-reduced fat laughing cow cheese (french onion) (35 cals.)
1-small can of low sodium V8 (30 cals.)
2-oz. roasted garlic hummus (70 cals.)
1-stalk celery (10 cals.)
1-cucumber, sliced (20 cals.)
1-low carb whole wheat tortilla (80 cals.)
Curry Chicken Salad (~ 360 cals.)

Quickest Supper in the West

As it was chores day today, and I had been going non-stop for about 4 hours, I did not want to cook an elaborate dinner. I wanted the quickest meal that still felt like a tasty reward for all the work of the day.

So I made a healthier version of Franks & Beans & potato chips! It was yummy.

Healthier Franks & Beans:
Turkey Hot Dogs (1 dog = 100 cals.)
Sauerkraut
Mustard
All Natural Pickle
Whole Wheat Hot Dog Buns (1 = 170 cals. each!)
Vegetarian Baked Beans (228 cals in half a can)
1/2 single serving bag of BBQ Pop Chips (50 cals.)


The last thing I did before closing up the kitchen was cook up some cinammon apples with a teaspoon of sugar till soft (it tasted like apple pie filling) for Sam's morning oatmeal.