Greek Orzo Summer Salad! 259 Calories Per Serving!

I made this recipe for a family get together on the beach. It was so refreshing and delicious! Everyone went back for seconds and some even went back for thirds! You could eat this as with a meal or a side. This was so pleasing that I made it twice in one week!

Ingredients:

- 1 box of orzo pasta
- 1/2 container of red cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 container of yellow cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 purple onion
- fresh basil leafs
- 1 cup of pesto
- 1/2 cup of corn relish (sometimes this is hard to find - check near the regular relish. Stonewall kitchen has their own brand as well.)
- 1 cup of frozen peas (or pigeon peas)
- 6 oz of crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

Cook the orzo pasta as instructed on box. While the pasta is cooking, begin to chop up the tomatoes (yellow and red), onion and basil leafs. Once pasta is finished cooking, drain and place in a mixing bowl. Add the pesto and corn relish and mix well. Add the chopped up tomatoes, onion, basil leafs and frozen peas. Mix well. Let this sit in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Once you are ready to serve, mix up the mixture and garnish with the crumbled feta cheese. Yummmy!

Nutritional Information - (This recipe makes 10 servings. Nutrition information is for 1 cup)

Calories- 259

Carbs -  42

Fat - 5

Protein - 9 

Sodium - 201

Fiber - 4

***If you are making this recpie and adding it to your My Fitness Pal food diary, I have added it to the food database under "lowcalcook Greek Orzo Summer Salad" to make it easier to add!

Summer Shrimp Salad - 286 Calories

This recipe is great for summer! It cool, refreshing and chilling! I love how easy it is to make, just chop and mix! It leaves more time for laying by the pool and getting together with old friends! This would be perfect for a backyard cook out, because let’s be honest, who wants to slave over an oven all day? Not me!

Ingredients:

-          Shrimp Cocktail (18 Medium Shrimp)

-         ¼ of a white Vidalia onion

-         ¼ cup of garbanzo beans rinsed

-        1.5 oz of light Italian salad dressing

-        ¼ of a medium avocado cubed

-        8 cherry tomatoes

-        Sprinkle of cracked pepper and sea salt

Directions:

Chop up the shrimp cocktail and onion. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Rinse the garbanzo beans. Mix together the cut up shrimp, onion, tomatoes, beans. Add in the salad dressing and sprinkle the cracked pepper and sea salt. Mix well and serve! So easy! Now go enjoy your Summer Shrimp Salad out by the pool!

Nutrition Information (This recipe only makes 1 serving. If you want to make more, just modify the recipe!)

Calories – 286

Carbs – 17

Fat – 4

Protein – 5

Sodium – 160

Fiber - 4

Taco Chicken Salad - 227 Calories!

I am finally back! Since graduating I haven't been able to find the time to update my blog, but I have been doing a lot of cooking so there are lots of recipes to be added! I made this meal as a post workout meal and it was delicious!

Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup of chopped fresh tomatoes
- 1/4 cup of canned corn (rinsed)
- 1/4 cup of black beans (rinsed)
- 1/2 cup of shredded lettuce
- 3 slices of avocado
- 2 teaspoons of low sodium taco seasoning
- 2 tablespoons of light mayonnaise
- (2) 4oz chicken breasts
- 1/4 cup of fat free shredded cheese for topping

Directions:

Cook up the chicken and chop up into bite sized pieces. In a small mixing bowl, mix the mayonnaise and taco seasoning until smooth. In a larger mixing bowl, add the chicken, tomatoes, corn, beans and mayonnaise mixture and mix well. ***If you are making this and will be eating it right away, add the lettuce and avocado and sprinkle the cheese on top. ***If you are making this for the future, hold off on adding the lettuce avocado and cheese and don't add until you are ready to eat it.

Nutrition Facts - (This makes 2 servings. Nutrition information is for 1/2 of the recipe - 1 serving)

Calories - 227
Carbs - 11
Fat - 9
Protein - 27
Sodium - 579
Fiber - 4

Caprese Salad

As simple as it is, there are probably over 100 different ways to make and present a caprese salad. I figured I'd make a blog post for one of my never forgotten favorite Low Calorie Italian foods. Made as a lower calorie version with all natural ingredients, you can't go wrong!


Ingredients

- 8 Cherry tomatoes
- 1 oz fresh mozzarella cheese
- 1 basil leaf
- 1 tablespoon of balsamic dressing (I used Newman's Own Light Roasted Garlic Balsamic)

Directions

Slice up the tomatoes into quarters. Dice up the mozzarella into even small cubes. Shred the basil leaf into small pieces. Add the 1 tablespoon of dressing. Mix all of the ingredients together and serve! What an easy lunch!

Nutrition Facts (For 1 serving - This recipe makes 1 serving)

Calories - 160
Carbs - 8
Fat - 7
Protein - 6
Sodium - 255
Fiber - 2

160 calorie BLT!

My BLT - 160 Calories & 5 grams of fat

 Sonic's BLT - 500 calories and 29 grams of fat

I just love BLT's! The thing I hate about them is that they're usually high in fat because of the bacon and mayonnaise. Sonic's BLT has 500 calories and 29 grams of fat! To be honest, BLT's aren't even that filling, I sometimes even have them as a snack, so there's no reason why they should be so high in calories and fat! This sandwich is one of my favorite modifications because it tastes so much like the real thing!

Ingredients:

- 2 slices of Pepperidge Farm Light Oatmeal bread
- 1/2 tomato sliced
- Enough lettuce for one sandwich
- 2 slices of turkey bacon (I use butterball turkey bacon because it's the lowest in fat and calories)
- 1/2 tbsp of light mayonnaise (I used Cain's brand for this)

Directions:

Cook the turkey bacon as instructed on the package (it only took mine about 1 minute.) Toast the bread. Once the bread is toasted, apply the mayonnaise evenly. Add the bacon, lettuce and tomato. Easy and delicious!

Nutrition for 1 sandwich:

Calories - 160
Carbs - 23
Fat - 5
Protein - 8
Sodium - 417
Fiber - 3

Baked Potato and Chicken Soup for a rainy cold day!

On this cold rainy night, I've been craving a nice big bowl of some creamy soup, but there's a catch : I'm on a diet. Or shall we say a "lifestyle change?" To be quite honest, I was craving a bowl of Panera Breads baked potato soup, but at 350 calories and 21 grams of fat for just one bowl (not including the bread), I would have to be crazy! Not to mention, it's not even that filling, which means I would end up splurging for a big brownie or baked good of some sort. So I decided to be good and headed to the grocery store to buy low calorie ingredients (we're not going to mention that I'm a 22 year old single female and spent my Saturday night cooking and watching lifetime movie network.) Now you might be thinking "How can you make a soup creamy and still taste good?" Just take my word for it and you will not be disappointed. Did I also mention that this recipe is a crockpot recipe which means practically no work? So here goes...

Ingredients:


- 8-16 oz of chicken uncooked and diced (you can use either chicken breast meat or thigh. Thigh will give it more flavor)
-4 Potatoes (I used Idaho)
-1 medium sized onion diced
- 2-3 carrots sliced thin
- 2 stalks of celery diced small
- 3 chicken bullion cubes
- 1 can of 98% fat free cream of chicken soup
- 4 cups of water
- 1 8oz block of fat free cream cheese
- 1/4 cup of low fat or fat free sour cream
- 1 tsp of garlic powder
- 1 tsp of salt
-1/2 tsp of pepper
- A sprinkle of fat free shredded cheese if desired for topping (I used Kraft fat free cheddar)
Directions: 


Take all of the ingredients and place them in the crockpot and put it on high for about 5 hours, stirring in-between. Once you portion out, you can top with fat free shredded cheese. That's about it! Easy right? This recipe makes about 10 servings per batch at 1 cup per serving.

Nutrition Facts: (Per 1 serving or 1 cup)

Calories - 139
Carbs - 17
Fat - 5
Protein - 7
Sodium - 600
Fiber - 1