Thai Lettuce Wraps - 317 Calories

This is a favorite in my household. We make this at least every other week because its so delicious and so easy to make!

Ingredients:

- 1 Lb ground turkey
- 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup of roasted peanuts (you can also substitute with cashews)
- 2 tablespoons of peanut sauce
- 1/2 cup of shredded carrots
- 1/4 cup of shredded chives
- 4 Large lettuce leaves for wrapping

Directions:

Cook up the ground beef until cooked through. Chop up the chives and carrots and mix together with the peanut butter, peanuts and peanut sauce. Once it is well mixed, add to the frying pan with the ground turkey. Stir well and cook on low for 1 minute. Distribute mixture evenly throughout the 4 lettuce wraps. And that's it! Easy huh?

Nutrition Information - This recipe makes 4 servings, nutrition information is for 1 serving

Calories - 317
Carbs - 9
Fat - 20
Protein - 27
Sodium - 287
Fiber - 2

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

Healthy Eggplant Parm! - 371 Calories per serving!

Who doesn't love a nice filling Italian meal? Well I know that the scale doesn't! I created a roasted and baked Eggplant Parm recipe that will feed your craving for Italian food, but won’t leave you feeling guilty after! Feel free to add other veggies to make it more filling!

Ingredients:

2 Eggplants

2 cups of sauce (I used Bertoli Olive oil and garlic)

1 cup of panko breadcrumbs

2 eggs

1 cup of low fat shredded mozzarella

2 Tablespoons of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

1 teaspoon of sea salt

Directions:

*Before you begin, first note that the size of the eggplants determines how much egg and panko mix you will need. This is based off of 2 regular sized eggplants. If you use 2 larger eggplants, you may need more egg and breadcrumbs.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the eggplants horizontally, about ½ inch in thickness (you can either peel off the skin or leave it on, I leave it on for a little crunch.) Once all of your eggplant is sliced, lay them out on a casserole dish that is sprayed with non-stick spray. Drizzle EVOO and sprinkle the sea salt over the eggplant. Place in the oven and flip after 10 minutes. After 20 minutes or until roasted, take them out of the oven and let them cool. Lower the oven to 350. Whisk together your 2 eggs in a bowl and place the 1 cup of panko break crumbs in another bowl. Drench each slice of eggplant in the egg mix, and then coat in the panko breadcrumbs. Do this for all of the slices and place on a non-stick sprayed casserole dish when complete. Sprinkle ½ of your shredded cheese on top. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until crispy. Serve on top of sauce (you can also pour the sauce over the eggplant if you want.) Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and serve. To get fancy, you can use asparagus to garnish like I did!

Nutrition Information for 1 serving (this recipe makes 4 servings)

Calories: 371

Carbs : 53

Fat: 12

Protein: 17

Sodium: 1262

Fiber: 11

Cheeseburger Soup - 194 Calories a serving!

I found a new healthy addiction: Cheeseburger Soup. Cheeseburgers are one of the things that I crave most on this diet... or "lifestyle change." Since they are pretty much terrible for you and so high in calories, I absolutely had to find an alternative. This soup is awesome, and even better the next day! This recipe makes 12 servings and will last all week... if you don't eat it all on the first night that is!

Ingredients: 

- 8oz Block of Kraft Velveta Cheese (cut into cubes)
- 1 lb of ground hamburg
- 1 white onion
- 1 stalk of celery
- 1 cup of carrots
- 1 can of Campbell's cheddar cheese soup
- 1 can of Campbell's 98% fat free cream of chicken soup
- 2 tablespoons of low fat sour cream
- 1.5 cups of skim milk
- 2 tablespoons of light butter (I used smart balance)
- 3 cups of water

Directions:

In a medium sized frying pan, add the hamburg. Cook on medium heat until there is no more red. Put aside. While the meat is cooking, chop up the onion, celery and carrots to desired size. Add the chopped up vegetables and 2 tablespoons of butter to another medium sized frying pan on medium heat. Cook until the onions are transparent. Chop up the Velveta cheese into small cubes.Once the vegetables are cooked, combine in a large sized pot with the cooked hamburg, cubed Velveta, both cans of soup, sour cream, milk and water. Stir well and place on medium heat, stirring occasionally. Continue to let this cook until it starts to bubble. All done :) Yummmm!

Nutrition Facts (for 1 cup. This recipe should make 12 servings.)

Calories - 194
Carbs - 11
Fat - 9
Protein - 17
Sodium - 568
Fiber - 1

Harvestland Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs

I literally just finished eating a serving of these and was so impressed that I had to write a blog post about them ASAP. I crave salty / Chinese type food on a daily basis. These are full of flavor and surprisingly filling. I just ate 4 of them as a snack and am full. If you were eating this as a meal, I would suggest stir-frying up some veggies (like in the picture) and maybe adding some white rice. Yum. Be careful about eating more than 1 serving though, because 1 serving has 600 grams of sodium. 

Nutrition Facts (For 1 serving. 1 serving = 4 meatballs)

Calories - 140

Carbs - 7

Fat - 7

Protein - 12

Sodium - 600

Fiber - 0

Vegetable & Shrimp Fried Rice

Trader Joe's helped me out with this dish. It is great if you are in a rush and don't have a lot of time to cook dinner. Warning: the rice is addictive, so just make what you can eat! Left overs can be tempting!

Ingredients:

- Trader Joe's vegetable fried rice (1 cup per serving - pictured below)
- 4 oz shrimp (I used shrimp cocktail since it cooks faster)
- .5 tablespoon of EVOO

Directions:

In a medium frying pan, add the EVOO and 1 cup of rice and place on medium heat. Cook until the rice is fully cooked (about 5 minutes). Push the rice to the side of the frying pan. Chop up the shrimp into bite sized pieces. Add the shrimp the the frying pan and cook for about 1 minute. Since I used shrimp cocktail, it is already pre-cooked and doesn't take long to warm up. Mix the shrimp and rice together and serve!

Nutrition Facts (for 1 cup of rice and 4 oz of shrimp)

Calories - 255
Carbs - 35
Fat - 9
Protein - 6
Sodium - 688
Fiber - 1

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