Chicken and Summer Vegetable Tostadas

I really enjoyed this recipe. Ok, I loved it. I think it would work better as a quesadilla. I topped it with tomatoes, avocado and sour cream. It was stellar! Actually, it was like eating at a restaurant. I used frozen corn and left over chicken. I peeled the zucchini, and diced it really small since I was a little freaked out about having it in a Mexican dish. I didn't taste it a bit. The Cilantro, which I have realized only recently that I absolutely love, is the star of this dish, so don't skip it. This is also a huge portion! MAN! It was incredible!! Let me know if you try it, and let me know what you made for a side. I just ate two for a dinner and didn't worry about making a side.

4 servings

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons canola oil
12 ounces chicken breast tenders
1 cup chopped red onion (about 1)
1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears)
1 cup chopped zucchini (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup green salsa
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, divided
4 (8-inch) fat-free flour tortillas
Cooking spray
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Preparation:

Preheat broiler.
Combine first 3 ingredients, stirring well. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over chicken. Add chicken to pan; sauté for 3 minutes. Add onion, corn, and zucchini to pan; sauté for 2 minutes or until chicken is done. Stir in salsa and 2 tablespoons cilantro. Cook 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring frequently.

Working with 2 tortillas at a time, arrange tortillas in a single layer on a baking sheet; lightly coat tortillas with cooking spray. Broil 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Spoon about 3/4 cup chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla; sprinkle each serving with 1/4 cup cheese. Broil an additional 2 minutes or until cheese melts. Repeat procedure with remaining tortillas, chicken mixture, and cheese. Sprinkle each serving with about 3/4 teaspoon of remaining cilantro. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 398 (30% from fat)
Fat: 13.1g (sat 5.9g,mono 4.1g,poly 1.2g)
Protein: 32.5g
Carbohydrate: 36.7g
Fiber: 3.1g
Cholesterol: 75mg
Iron: 1.4mg
Sodium: 799mg
Calcium: 236mg


Melanie Barnard, Cooking Light, AUGUST 2006

A Great Recipe Website

I love recipe's. I think I've stated that already. You'll soon realize I repeat myself quite often. Anyhow, I was looking up digital versions of some recipe's I found in my Cooking Light Magazine (because I hate paper!) online and found that CookingLight.com now has their recipe's hosted on a new website. I didn't really care, so I just registered on the new site and went about my search. I love these sites that have online recipe boxes. Anyhow, I realized that this new website (www.myrecipes.com) host recipes from all over the place, and not just Cooking Light. And, they let you make your own recipe "boxes", as many as you like so that you can organize. I like organization! They also let you creat menu's and shopping lists, which I like too. Anyhow, I really enjoyed the website and thought I would pass it along.

A few blueberry recipe links

Chunky Blueberry Sauce. This is a great sauce for pancakes or waffles or crepes. It's super high in antioxidants, lo-cal, fat free and d e l i c i o u s!! I use it instead of syrup. It also tastes supreme-o on their Blueberry-Ricotta Pancakes. Don't knock it till you try it! Man these are awesome pancakes! You don't taste or feel the Ricotta at all!! I'm big on texture, so this was a bonus for me. The Ricotta makes the pancakes very moist and fluffy. It truly is worth giving it a try! I also love Eating Well's Blueberry-Coconut-Macadamia Muffins. They are best hot and fresh the first day, and adding honey to them just puts them over the top! I also really like to eat their Blueberry Crumble for breakfast. It's a comfort food. It's like having pie or cobbler for breakfast. I make a giant batch of the crumble mixture and keep it in the freezer. Then when I want a nice breakfast fast I just throw the crumble mixture on top of the fruit and pop it in the oven. It's also great tasting with Vanilla yogurt on top or whip cream. I just love blueberries. I always have a huge bag in the freezer. I like to use them as ice cubes in my drinks, I use them in smoothies, in my pancakes and waffles. I love that they are such little powerhouses of nutrition. You can click on the links in this post and be taken directly to the recipe's on Eating Well's website.

Ham and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ham-&-Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Makes 4 servings
Ingredients
¼ cup grated Swiss, Monterey Jack or part-skim mozzarella cheese 2 tablespoons chopped ham2 teaspoons Dijon mustardFreshly ground pepper to taste4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1-1 ¼ pounds total)1 egg white½ cup plain dry breadcrumbs2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Ham-&-Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts Ingredients Cont.

Ham-&-Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Use a baking sheet with sides and lightly coat it with cooking spray.2. Mix cheese, ham, mustard and pepper in a small bowl.3. Cut a horizontal slit along the thin, long edge of a chicken breast half, nearly through to the opposite side. Open up the breast and place one-fourth of the filling in the center. Close the breast over the filling, pressing the edges firmly together to seal. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts and filling. 4. Lightly beat egg white with a fork in a medium bowl. Place breadcrumbs in a shallow glass dish. Hold each chicken breast half together and dip in egg white, then dredge in breadcrumbs. (Discard leftovers.) 5. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts; cook until browned on one side, about 2 minutes. Place the chicken, browned-side up, on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the chicken is no longer pink in the center or until an instant-read thermometer registers 170°F, about 20 minutes.
Ham-&-Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts Instructions Cont.

Ham-&-Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts Nutrition Information
Per serving: 236 calories; 7 g fat (2 g sat, 3 g mono); 74 mg cholesterol; 10 g carbohydrate; 31 g protein; 1 g fiber; 287 mg sodium; 347 mg potassium.Nutrition Bonus: Selenium 38% daily value).1/2 Carbohydrate Serving
Ham-&-Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts Nutrition Information Cont.

Spinach and Turkey Lasagna

This recipe is a great, healthy low calorie (fat) Lasagna. It's a favorite in our house. I do have to admit though, it doesn't get made often, because it does take some time to put together. Sometimes I will use the no cook lasagna noodles to avoid a step. That helps!

Spinach and Turkey Lasagna

Prep: 1 hour
Bake: 55 min + standing
Yield: 12 servings

3 tbsp butter
1/3 C flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
3 C fat free milk
3 Ounces reduced Fat cream cheese, cubed
¾ C Parmesan Cheese
1 Pd Italian turkey sausage links, casings removed and crumbled
1 med onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried marjoram
½ tsp fennel seed, crushed
1 jar roasted sweet red peppers, drained and chopped (7 ¼ oz)
½ C white wine, or chicken broth
2 packages (10 oz each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
¾ C small curd cottage cheese
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
9 lasagna noodles, cooked, rinsed and drained
½ C shredded part skim mozzarella cheese


In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until smooth. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to boil; cook and stir for 1 – 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cream cheese until melted. Stir in Parmesan cheese just until melted. Remove from heat; set aside.

In a large nonstick skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray, cook sausage, onion and garlic over medium heat until sausage is no longer pink; drain. Stir in oregano, marjoram and fennel; cook for 1 minute.

Add roasted peppers and wine or broth. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 3-5 minutes or until liquid is reduced to 3 tbsp. Remove from heat; set aside.

In a small bowl combine spinach, cottage cheese and nutmeg; set aside.

Spread ½ C reserved cheese sauce in a 13 in. x 9 in. x 2 in. baking dish coated with non-stick cooking spray. Top with three noodles, half the sausage mixture, half the spinach mixture and 1 cup sauce; repeat layers. Top with remaining noodles and sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Cover and bake at 375* for 40 minutes. Uncover, bake at 15-20 minutes longer or until heated through and top is lightly browned. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Nutrition facts: 1 piece equals 279 calories, 11 g fat, (6 g saturated fat) 43 mg cholesterol, 664 mg sodium, 27 g carbs, 3 g fiber, 19 g protein.

Chicken Wraps

I make these for dinner all the time. My husband just loves them.

Leftover Cooked Chicken (I like using the Rotisserie ones from the store)
Lettuce, Tomato, red onion, Avocado and/or any other veggie you like.
Bacon (the Ready bacon is lower cal because they're so thin)
Tortilla's (go ahead, try the whole wheat ones!)
Light Mayo, ranch or other dressing

Warm or cold these are good. The calories vary greatly depending on what you use, but it's easy to keep these suckers lo-cal and still have two. I like to heat up the wrap first so that it rolls better. I've also done this with leftover roast.

Mushroom Barley Soup

I found this recipe years ago on Food Fit. I changed it and prefer my way. This is my all time favorite soup. It's fast to make, increadibly filling and low cal!

Heather’s Way

It’s faster and tastes the same! Let’s not make it harder than it is. Sometimes I add more veggies (like they really count for calories, and even if they did they’re VEGETABLES!!) Sometimes I add more broth, or less. I vary the amount of barley too depending on the day. I use what I have. The flavor never really changes. Sometimes I even throw in left over roast meat. That’s yummy too. Using the quick barley makes this ready in about 20 min. I prefer the beef broth because it is easier to find, and I like the beef flavor. At the end I sprinkle on fresh grated Parmesan Cheese (Grate it Fresh from Kraft) and eat it with really crusty grain bread or croutons. This freeze’s very nicely. My nutri info is a tad less (other than sodium) then stated below becaues I omit the oil (since the veggies are frozen) and I use far less mushrooms.

Ingredients:

1c “Recipe Starters” Frozen Chopped Onions, Celery & Carrot mix (Kroger)

Salt & Pepper (this is to your taste)
1 bay leaf and liberal sprinkle of Thyme & Parsley

1/2 cup quick cooking barley (it’s in a box, Quaker and by the rice)
A giant can (32oz) of beef broth (or two, if you want it soupier or for a snack)
1 or 2 containers of sliced fresh mushrooms (2 containers is a LOT of mushrooms)

Put the veggies, spices and broth in a pot, boil. Add Barley and boil per directions (like 15 minutes or something). In the last few minutes put in the mushroom slices. I break mine into smaller pieces for ease when eating.



The "Real Way"

Ingredients:
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped carrots
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
1 large onion, chopped
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup pearl barley
6 cups low-sodium mushroom broth or vegetable broth
2 pounds mushrooms, sliced (I thought this was WAY too much!)
1/4 cup chopped parsley

1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over low-medium heat. Add the carrots, celery and onion, season lightly with salt and pepper, and cook for 10 minutes. 2. Add the bay leaf, thyme, barley and stock and bring to a boil quickly over high heat. 3. Lower the heat and simmer until the barley is completely tender, about 30 to 40 minutes. 4. Add the mushrooms and simmer until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. 5. Remove the bay leaf and adjust the salt and pepper. Serve the soup in bowls and garnish with parsley.

Serving Size: about 1 1/2 cups
Number of Servings: 6

Nutrition Info Per Serving :
Calories 122
Carbohydrate 23 g
Fiber 5 g
Fat 2 g
Saturated Fat 0 g
Protein 4 g
Sodium 367 mg

Prep Time:1 hour