Category Archives: Recipe Diaries Original

A Little Bit Healthier Chili…

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Chili has been one of those foods that I never used to like as a kid. My Mom and Dad would make it all the time and I was never a fan of it until now. Your taste buds really change overtime I’ve found out. I’ve made a lot of chili recipes lately and have finally found out one that Ben and I both  like to eat by combining other recipes together. I don’t like chili with really chunky tomatoes, onions, and peppers. I prefer just the meat, beans, sauce, and a lot of chili powder!  The other stuff can be added on top of the chile for the toppings.  Chili is great on almost everything like Nachos, hot dogs, and on top of spaghetti. I like to double the turkey just for that reason, to put it on top of those things.

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Servings: 6

Healthier Chili

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Ingredients

  • 2 pounds ground turkey (lean)
  • 1 can chili beans (drained)
  • 15oz cans tomato sauce
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayanne pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 cup water

Directions

Step 1
Brown the ground turkey with no oil. After the turkey is brown, add in the rest of the
ingredients. Let the chile simmer for 30 to 60 minutes.
Step 2
Extra Toppings:

Chopped Cilantro
Chopped Onions
Cheddar Cheese
Sour Cream
Green Onions

 

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Buffalo Chicken Casserole

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What should you make on Thanksgiving this year? Why not a turkey wrapped in bacon that has been marinaded with Buffalo chicken sauce? Or, you could make this buffalo chicken casserole with leftover turkey. Just kidding. I think this is one of the best ideas I’ve had in awhile. The only thing that could have made it even better would be bacon. I had a lot of leftover Slow Cooker buffalo chicken and was trying to think of what else I could make with it. I had made Buffalo Chicken dip yesterday and thought this would all be good just mixed with some pasta baked in the oven. I’ve got Buffalo Chicken casserole to have during the week for lunch and now all my Buffalo Chicken has been used up. :(

I also made Buffalo Chicken grilled cheese for dinner one time this week, and also a buffalo chicken. This recipe is so versatile you can do pretty much anything with it, and I just love recipes like that.

Servings: 8

Recipe inspired from Buffalo Chicken Dip

Buffalo Chicken Casserole

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Ingredients

  • 2 cups leftover Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
  • 1 8oz package light cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup light ranch
  • 1 1/2 cups dry pasta
  • 1/2 cup pepper jack cheese
  • 1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Directions

Step 1
Boil noodles until al dente.
Step 2
While the Pasta is cooking, heat up leftover buffalo chicken in a non stick skillet. Add the cream cheese and stir until melted.
Step 3
Add in 1/2 cup of ranch and stir. Dump the noodles into the casserole and stir.
Step 4
In a 9X13 in casserole dish, pour the noodles and chicken into dish. Top with remaining cheeses and bake in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes.
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Chipotle inspired Rice Bowls

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I was finally able to make it to Chipotle after I’ve heard my brother talking about it for years. After I told him that I went there, he said to me “Welcome to the real world.” The real world is obviously a restaurant where you stuff your face with burritos about the side of your head. It was really good and everything, but I didn’t care for the portion sizes. I liked the flavor combinations of everything, it was just too much for me to eat.

I made my own Chipotle inspired meal and it turned out pretty good. There’s a lot of food to prep if you do everything yourself, but there are some short cuts that you can take. Like for instance… you can use a bottle of store bought marinade from Lawry’s or Mrs. Dash. The grocery store has pico de gallo at your convenience too. All I did was make the corn salsa, rice, and chicken and I made the corn salsa and rice all while the chicken was cooking. Too change it up a bit, I used orzo instead of rice and I really liked that. I put everything into a bowl and it was very filling. I’ve got one extra serving to have and it will be all gone. It would be nice to see my town get a Chipotle, and a Panera, and a Trader Joe’s… but we will see if that ever happens.

Also, Mrs. Dash has a salt free chipotle marinade which I like to use. There’s a lot of sodium in one burrito at Chipotle around 1500 mg! Crazy. I’m pretty proud of myself for getting this down to 10 points per serving, considering the fact that a whole burrito there is 32 points. Yikes.

Chicken and Rice:

Points Plus: 10

Servings: 5

Nutrition Info (without salsas and extra ingredients on top)

Calories 377 | Fat 11.65g | Carbohydrate 39.2g | Fiber 1.6g | Protein 28.77g

Corn Salsa:

Points Plus 1

Servings: 10 (1 to 2 tablespoons)

Calories 36 | Fat 0.98g | Carbohydrate 7.13g | Fiber 1g | Protein 0.92g

Southwest Rice Bowl

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Ingredients

  • 2-3 large chicken breasts (without skin or bone)
  • 1 cup Southwest Chipotle Marinade (Mrs Dash)
  • 1 cup orzo
  • 1 lime
  • 1 tablespoon butter ((light) if desired )
  • 1 bag frozen corn
  • 1/2 small red onion
  • 1 small jalepeno
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • Pico de gallo
  • cheddar cheese (light )
  • sour cream (light )
  • 1 can black beans (drained)

Directions

Step 1
Marinade chicken for an hour or over night in the fridge. When chicken is ready cook on grill until done. Cut up into bite size pieces.
Step 2
While chicken is cooking. Boil the orzo. About 8 minutes. In a bowl add the orzo, butter, 3 tablespoons of cilantro, half of a lime: juiced, salt and pepper (to taste).
Step 3
While the the orzo is cooking, make the corn salsa. Mix together defrosted corn, 3 tablespoons cilantro, onion, jalapeno, lime juice (the other half) in a bowl.
Step 4
Once everything is made and ready, place about 1/2 cup of orzo, some chicken, beans, corn salsa, and pico de gallo into a small bowl and top with whatever other Mexican ingredients you like.
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Bacon Bits

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Homemade bacon bits are so easy to make, if you have certain kitchen tools to make it with. A knife just takes to long to cut up into smaller pieces.  I think every home by now has a  food processor. If you don’t, go out and buy one. The nicer ones run anywhere from 100 to 150.00 for good brands. I’ve seen them at Wal-Mart for about $20.00 a food processor. The one I have is a 9 quart food processor from Cuisan Art, and I love it. In fact, it just happens to be my favorite tool in the kitchen.

Making your own bacon bits, only works with crispy bacon. If you’re one of those people that don’t like crispy bacon, then I guess you’re out of luck. All you do is cook the bacon until it’s very crispy. Place the bacon, preferably grease drained, in the food processor, and pulse it until the bacon is the size of sea salt. It’s that easy!  Store the bacon bits somewhere in your fridge.

 

 

Homemade Bacon Bits

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Serves 5
Prep time 20 minutes
Meal type Side Dish

Ingredients

  • 10 pieces bacon (finally chopped)

Directions

Step 1
Cook bacon until Crisp
Step 2
Place bacon in a food processor, and pulse until the bacon is the size of sea salt.

Recipe Diaries Original

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Bacon Taco Pizza

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Bacon Taco Pizza. It’s a BLT and Taco  combined together in pizza form.  I made Taco Pasta Bake earlier this week and Taco Pizza today, so I thought I’d continue the Mexican theme for the rest of the week. Who doesn’t like Mexican food?!  I was going to use ranch seasoning instead of Taco seasoning, but my husband doesn’t like ranch flavoring at all (weird huh?).  You could almost use whatever kind of seasoning packet you like for this pizza. It’s a pretty versatile recipe.

Recipe Diaries Original

Nutrition Info: Calories: 181, Fat: 7.48g, Carbs: 21.45g, Fiber: 1g, Protein: 7.11g

Servings: 10

Points Plus: 6

Bacon Taco Pizza

1 store bought pizza dough (I used the PIllsbury Artisan can)

1 8 oz package of cream cheese

1 package of taco seasoning or whatever flavor you prefer

1/2 cup of cheddar cheese

1/2 head of lettuce, shredded

1 whole tomato, diced

6 strips of bacon

Directions:

1. Bake the pizza crust according to package directions.

2. In a bowl combine the cream cheese and taco seasoning and spread that over the cooled pizza crust.

3. Top with remaining taco ingredients. Add whatever other taco ingredients you like on your pizza. I added lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese.

 

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Mango Chile Lime Ice Pops

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My new ice pop mold finally came in on Monday morning and it’s great. I’m glad I bought the thing. The mold is very sturdy and to get the ice pops out all you need to do is submerge the mold in some hot water for awhile. I bought this one here, it was only 15.00 on amazon.com.

I found some really ripe, and I mean really ripe mangos at the grocery store. In order to find a ripe mango, I look for ones that are orange and even have a little bit of yellow on the skin. One of the chefs on food network once said that they would get a mango on a stick with a little bit of chile powder on it. That gave me the idea to put in a little bit of chile powder in the mango puree.. That combo sounds weird, I know… but trust me. These are pretty darn good.

Servings: 6

Points Plus: 3

Calories 103, Fat 0.3g, Sodium 2mg,  Carbohydrate 27.1g ,  Fiber 2.2g, Protein 0.61g

 

Ingredients:

3 ripe mangoes

1/2 teasspoon of chile powder

juice of half a lime

1/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of water.

Directions:

1. In a medium sauce pan, boil the sugar and water together until the sugar has evaporated. Let Cool. While the sugar water is cooling puree the mango in a food processor and add in the chile and lime. Once the sugar water is cool add that into the mango mix.

2. Use one of those measuring cups that have an angle to it, so that you can pour it into the ice molds easier. Freeze and enjoy.

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Bacon Pancake Donuts

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In a quest to make maple bacon donuts I didn’t really succeed. The maple flavor just wasn’t really strong enough. These donuts tasted more like a pancake to me and that’s why I decided to call them Bacon Pancake Donuts. The donut texture is a lot like pancakes and what do pancakes get on top of them? Syrup. Really good pure maple syrup. Only one donut is 4 points and that even includes the bacon on top. I love it how you can still have bacon and be on a diet at the same time. Isn’t that awesome?

Servings: 10
Points Plus: 4

Calories 144, Fat 2.15g, Carbohydrate 26.94g, Fiber 0.5g Protein 4.16g

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
4 tablespoons of maple syrup
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1 egg

Frosting:
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of 1% milk

Topping:
4 slices of bacon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

In a medium, combine flour, baking sodar, salt, and brown sugar. Stir together. Form a whole in the
middle of the flour mixture and add the maaple syrup, buttermilk, and egg.

Spoon two tablespoons of the donut mixture into the donut pan (hole). Makes about 10 donuts.
Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

While the donuts are baking cook the bacon over the stove top until crispy. I cut mine into
chunks. Make the frosting: in a small bowl combine the powdered sugar, maple syrup, and milk.

Let the donuts cool once they are done baking in the oven. Dip the donut in the frosting mixture
and sprinkle the bacon on top. Enjoy

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Healthier Shamrock Shake

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I like how thick and creamy the shamrock shake at Mcdonald’s is. I think it’d be kind of complicated to make it at home since Mcdonald’s uses soft serve ice cream that comes right out of their machine. Usually when we buy it in the stores it’s hard so , that is the main reason why I think it’d be difficult to make it that way. Store bought works just as good though. I think if you really wanted to you could go to an ice cream store  that sells just ice cream and ask for some soft serve. Or, if you have an ice cream machine at home you could make it yourself. Gotta to try that one time. ;)

Here’s my recipe for a shamrock shake that’s healthier. I added a scoop of protein powder to it this time and thought that made it a lot creamier. Very good. All you need is a blender to make this too. Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

Ingredients

Servings: 2

Points Plus: 6

2 cups of fat free vanilla yogurt
1 1/2 cups of 1% milk
4 drops of green food coloring
1/4 tsp of mint extract
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
Extra toppings
Cool Whip Light
Green sprinkles
etc…

Directions

In a blender add all the four ingredients. Puree until smooth. Pour into two glasses and enjoy.

 

 

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Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

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In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, I made you a red velvet whoopie pie. I know what you’re thinking…. shouldn’t it be green? Well… a whoopie pie really isn’t Irish now is it? ;)   Ha, just kidding.

I managed to make a whoopie pie for only 5 points a pie. I tried making it lighter but I couldn’t think of what else to change.  Some muffins are around 5 points a piece  so I thought this was ok. If you really want to, you could have a whoopie pie in place of your muffin for breakfast. It wouldn’t be a very healthy breakfast but oh well, right? ;) I also think I found a new favorite frosting. I used some marshmallow fluff in place of all the butter that goes into frosting and it turned out pretty good.

Servings: 22
Points Plus: 5 (1 whoopie pie)

Ingredients

1 box of Red Velvet Cake Mix (18.25oz)
3 eggs
1/8 cup of canola oil
3/4 cup of water

Frosting:
2 cups of powdered sugar
4 tablespoons of light butter
1 cup of marshmallow creme/fluff
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

In a bowl combine the cake mix, 3 eggs, 1/8 cup of oil, and 3/4 cup of water. Stir until well combine. Drop the batter in tablespoons
onto a cookie sheet tray. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, while the whoopie pies are cooking… Mix together in another bowl 2 cups of powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons of light butter,
1 cup of marshmallow fluff, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

I used a piping bag to frost the whoopie pies. Makes 22 servings.

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Chicken Fajita Rollup

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I think I found my new favorite lunch! The pico de gallo and lettuce you can have already in your fridge. You can buy one of those rotisserie chickens and have that already diced up to. Once it’s lunch time, lay out your flour tortilla, add the cheese, chicken, and some seasoning, and before you’ll know it you’ll have a tasty wrap for lunch. I’ve been in a lunch rut lately as one of my previous posts stated, but now I think I won’t be any more. This is so delicious and I love to dip it in some low fat ranch.

This is my version of the Chicken Fajita Rollups at Applebee’s, my favorite thing to get there. They serve it with some fries and chipotle dipping sauce on the side.  My Mom and I ate lunch there awhile ago and she had a Cheeseburger Quesadilla. Might have to try making that one myself too. ;)

I think I’m going to start taking a screen capture of the Nutrition info that I find and posting the label on my blog instead in image format. What do you all think of it this way instead of just typing it all out?

Had to re-calculate points since WW wasn’t matching up with my Nutrition info.

1 wrap = 9 points

Ingredients

1/3 cup of chopped shredded lettuce
2 oz reduced fat cheddar cheese (1/3 cup)
2 oz cooked boneless skinless chicken breast (1/3 cup
1 low carb, high fiber tortilla – such as Smart and Delicious

Pico de Gallo

1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/2 small onion
1/2 green bell pepper
1 bunch of cilantro
salt
pepper

Instructions

1. Combine all the veggies in a food processor and pulse until chunky. I only pulsed mine about 4 times. You don’t want it to end up looking like salsa.

2. Combine cooked chicken, cheese and fajita seasoning. Layer onto a tortilla and cook in microwave until cheese is melted.  I used about a 1/3  cup of cheddar cheese, 2 ounces of cooked chicken and a dash of fajita seasoning.

3. Spread some lettuce about 1/3 cup onto your tortilla and some pico de gallo. Roll up the tortilla into a wrap. Enjoy!

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