Swiss and Avocado Lamb Burger

J picks me up from work on his way home, and every once in a while he will stay later than expected, and later than I want to stay.  So yesterday I knew he was going to be late but I was ready to go so I just left at my quitting time and started walking around downtown and I decided I would go to the specialty grocery store downtown and go ahead and get groceries to make dinner.  As I walked past the meat counter it was very evident that it was all way over priced, except for the lamb, which was expensive but not any more so than the supermarket.  So I thought, lamb it is.

¾ lb ground lamb
¼ tsp ground thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
A few dashes of hot sauce
½ avocado
2 slices swiss cheese
2 tbs mustard
2 hamburger buns

Mix the lamb, seasonings and hot sauce in a bowl until well mixed.  Divide the meat and make two patties.

Lamb is very greasy so I use one of those cast iron skillets with the ridges in it so the burger doesn’t sit in the grease and fry.

Heat the skillet to medium heat then put the burgers on.  Cook for 8 minutes on each side for a medium burger.  A couple times while the burgers were cooking I soaked up some of the excess oil with a paper towel to keep from frying the meat.
With about 1 minute left to cook, add the slices of cheese to the burgers so that it melts a little.

Slather the mustard on each bun and assemble the burger with sliced avocados.

Serves 2, 675 calories, 33 g fat

The lamb was front and center here, so if you don’t like the strong flavor of lamb, I recommend using beef or turkey because you probably won’t like this.

Lamb isn’t really the best meat for you, it’s pretty high in calories and fat, but if you plan your day accordingly there is no reason to splurge every once in a while on a dinner that is a little bit higher in calories than normal.

Turkey Lasagna

The other day I was in the grocery store and walked through the cheese section, I’m always looking for samples of cheese, and that day I really lucked out.  They had 2 samples that were really good.  One was a cheddar with a jalapeno apricot jelly that was very good, and the other was a mozzarella with a roasted red pepper spread.  Both were very good but the mozzarella was on sale so that inspired me to make an impulse decision on my next meal, which normally the only time I do that is when J vetoes my plan and so I end up making tacos.

2 lbs ground turkey, 99/1
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp olive oil
3 cans diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, pureed
1 ½ cups parmesan cheese, divided
8 oz mozzarella cheese
15 oz ricotta cheese, fat free
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
2 tsp oregano
¾ tsp garlic powder
12 sheets No-Boil Lasagna noodles

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
In a large skillet heat the olive oil to medium-high heat.  Add the onion and cook until softened and transparent.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.  Add the mushrooms and cook until browned, stirring often.  Once mushrooms are browned add the turkey and add some of the seasoning and cook until no longer pink.  Add the tomato sauce and rest of the seasoning, season to taste if needed.
In another bowl mix the ricotta cheese, eggs, and ¾ cup parmesan cheese.

In a baking dish spoon some of the sauce on the bottom just to coat the dish so the pasta won’t stick.  Layer 4 sheets of pasta followed by the ricotta mixture then sauce.  Repeat 2 more times using up all of the ricotta and sauce.  Top with the rest of the parmesan cheese and slices of mozzarella.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.  Let rest for 5 minutes before serving because it will be hot.

I usually put a large cookie sheet or a piece of foil on the wrack below the dish because sometimes my baking dish is so full some sauce will bubble over and it’s a lot easier to clean a cookie sheet or throw away a piece of foil than it is to scrub the bottom of the oven.

Serves 8

With all this cheese this is very rich and satisfying, especially if you use fresh mozzarella, but I guarantee you will be surprised by the amount of calories.

550 calories, 16 g fat

The gooey fresh mozzarella on top of this to me is perfect and you don’t have to sacrifice on the size of your piece to get a reasonable amount of calories.  You can serve yourself a nice large piece of lasagna without feeling awful about it.  What helps is making smart choices in the things that don’t matter.  By using fat free ricotta you save 30 calories/serving without losing any flavor, and by using 99/1 turkey you save a whole 120 calories/serving and you definitely don’t need fat from meat in a lasagna, that definitely will not add anything to the meal.

The star ingredient in this to me is the mozzarella, go with a good quality fresh mozzarella and it will make all the difference in the world versus the pre-shredded fat free Kraft that tastes more like plastic than cheese.
I also use the No-Boil lasagna noodles because I have tried fresh pasta in this and you cannot taste the difference at all, there is just too much other stuff going on so don’t waste your time.

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

I bought myself a few pie pumpkins before Thanksgiving, so inspired to make a fresh pumpkin pie, and I just never got around to it.  I actually cooked the pumpkins and scooped out all the meat, put it in the refrigerator and still didn’t make the dang pie. I did the hard part and then never followed through.  So for a week or so I had this fresh pumpkin puree that I knew I had to use up quick and pumpkin pie just never sounded good again.  So one day I made pumpkin pancakes, which were a little more boring than I was anticipating so I haven’t even bothered writing it up, but a few days after that I made pumpkin creme brulee which I thoroughly enjoyed.  They actually tasted more like mini crustless pumpkin pies than they did creme brulee, but were very easy to make.  Actually it may have been easier than making the pie, which is why I was ok with making it, because I didn’t have to make a crust.  I don’t want to hear it about frozen crusts, it’s not the same I’m sorry.

8 oz pumpkin puree, or can pumpkin (not pie filling)
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup packed golden brown sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
4 tbs golden brown sugar


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Whisk pumpkin, ¼ cup sugar and ¼ cup brown sugar in a bowl.  Whisk in egg yolks and vanilla, then spices and salt, set aside.  Bring cream just to a boil in a saucepan.  Gradually whisk hot cream into pumpkin mixture.
Divide mixture between 4 ramekins.  Place ramekins in a roasting pan and add enough hot water to pans to come halfway up sides of ramekins.  Bake until custards are just set in center, about 35 minutes for 5x1 inch ramekins or 50 minutes for 3x1 ¼ inch ramekins.

You can make this 2 hours ahead of time and stop here, cover them and keep in refrigerator.   When you are ready to eat, sprinkle 1 tbs brown sugar on each one and melt with a kitchen torch or put in the oven under the broiler until the sugar is a deep amber.

Some people like their creme brulee cold, and if you do, put it back in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill and let the sugar harden, but I like it hot, so I just try to let it sit for a few minutes to allow the sugar to harden and keep it from scalding my tongue because I have a hard time controlling myself.

This was super simple, well if you already had the pumpkin puree or if you used a can, but was very flavorful and had a nice thick and creamy consistency.  I made 4 and we had 2 one night and then the other 2 the next, but you could easily double this recipe for a dinner party and use 1 15-oz can pumpkin puree and I think I would use 5 egg yolks but double everything else.  That would be really easy to throw together without much time or effort, and you could do it ahead of time before you even start cooking so you don’t occupy the oven.

Chicken Tacos with Peppers and Onions

J’s favorite meal is tacos.  Any time I can’t come up with something to make or when all my ideas get vetoed, I default to tacos.  After lots of meals of ground turkey with rice and beans where the closest I might get to a vegetable was the occasional avocado, I decided to change it up and add something that is a little more vegetablish.

2 ½ lbs chicken breast, cut into thin slices
2 yellow onions, sliced
2 green bell peppers, sliced
1 tsp chicken fajita seasoning
8 corn tortillas
1 tsp olive oil
Salt to taste

In a large skillet add the olive oil and heat to medium-low heat.  Once hot add the onions and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once the onions have softened and started to turn a golden color, add the bell peppers and cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The onions should be a golden brown color, not fried.  The key here is low heat for a long time to get the onions caramelizing instead of frying. Season to taste with salt.

Meanwhile, season the chicken with the fajita seasoning and cook in a skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink.

Serve the chicken, peppers, and onions in a warmed corn tortilla. Super simple, but more interesting than ground turkey.



4 Servings, 620 calories, 12 g fat
75% of the calories come from the chicken, so if you need to you cut back on the chicken in favor of another pepper, feel free to try other colors.

Roast Duck Breast With Red Wine Pan Sauce

Monday was my birthday and it turned out that we had 2 shows we wanted to see that fell on that weekend.  Going to the theater always requires good food beforehand, either at a nice restaurant or cooked by me.  One of the 2 dinners I prepared I was, and still am, pretty darn impressed with myself.  When I think of having a nice dinner duck is always the first thing that comes to mind because I really like it and it’s too expensive to buy very often, so for my birthday dinner before our first show I splurged and bought a duck.  I was originally considering roasting it but as the day sped by I started to panic and thought I wouldn’t have enough time to get it cooked, be able to eat, and get dressed to be downtown by 7:30.  So I swallowed my fear, put aside the intimidation, watched a couple videos on You-Tube and deboned my first duck, yup you read that right.

Once I saw a couple other people do it and found out how to get started, it really wasn’t that bad.  I saw one guy do it in 18 seconds, no lie, crazy, it took me closer to probably 10 minutes but I did it.  I was planning on taking a picture of my beautifully dismantled bird but of course forgot and remembered after I had already cleaned up.

Since I now had manageable duck parts I decided to roast just the duck breasts and save the rest for later and served with a red wine pan sauce and holy cow every bite was unbelievable, I can’t tell you how proud of myself I was with this one.

2 Duck Breasts
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Red Wine Pan Sauce

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In an oven-safe skillet, heat one turn of olive oil to medium heat.  Season the duck breast with salt and pepper then add them skin side down to sear the skin.  Duck is very oily so quite a bit of oil is going to cook out and fry the duck, but you want a little bit of oil in the pan to start with so it doesn’t stick to the pan when you first put it in. Sear for 6 minutes.  Flip the duck breast over and place the pan in the oven.  Roast the breast for 8 to 10 minutes for medium rare.  Remove the pan from the oven and let rest while making the pan sauce.  I poured out nearly all of the oil from the skillet and used this to make the sauce then spooned it over the duck. My sauce was a little bit thinner than I anticipated, I was just so excited to taste the duck I couldn't wait long enough.

This came out amazing.  The duck was cooked perfect with a crispy skin and tender inside, just barely pink and not at all tough or chewy. Big pat on back for this one.

Jalapeno Turkey Burgers

I made another Paleo attempt this week.  J loves peppers and hot food so when I saw this recipe I knew I there was no way I would get a veto on it.

1 lb ground turkey, 99/1
½ cup raw almonds
1 egg, beaten
4 jalapenos, rough chopped, as much of the ribs and seeds removed as preferred
3 cloves garlic, rough chopped
Salt and pepper to taste


You can cook these on the grill or in a skillet, so prepare your desired cooking mechanism.

Grind the almonds in a food processer to very small chunks, doesn’t have to quite be a powder.   Add the jalapenos and garlic to the food processer and pulse to further chop up the peppers and garlic.  If you remove all of the seeds from the jalapenos this won’t be hot at all, just have the jalapeno flavor, so you can adjust the heat according to your taste.  Add the almond meal to a bowl with the ground meat, add the egg and season.  Mix well with your hands to get everything well incorporated.  Form into 4 patties.

Cook the burgers on your grill or stove top, about 8 minutes per side.

Serves 2-4, 210 calories, 8 g fat per patty

I thought these turned out pretty decent.  They had a nice jalapeno flavor but I was helping J put up our new mail box while these were cooking and I overcooked them a little so they were kind of dry.  So don’t help your husband while you are cooking, the results are rarely positive.

Sweet potatoes seem to be acceptable according to the Paleo cook books I’ve looked through but not an everyday food, but they seem like a very obvious and easy substitute for grains so that’s been my go to for Side 1.  I made chipotle sweet potato fries with this, which are exactly like they sound.  Sliced sweet potatoes drizzled in olive oil and seasoned with chipotle powder and baked.  I guess I am kind of easing into this Paleo thing, haven’t really jumped all in but making small attempts at every meal.  It isn’t really that different from how I eat now, just a change of mindset to have more calories from fruits, vegetables, or meats on my plate rather than compensating with rice or pasta to make up the calorie deficit.

Chicken with Mushroom Sherry Sauce

I really want to try to eat Paleo but I’m having a hard time coming up with things to make.  A lot of the recipes I see are some cut of meat with this sauce, or some other meat with another sauce, that to me seems like it would get old quick, and what do you eat with it? I always feel like my plate looks empty unless I have some kind of meat, side, and vegetable.  Besides, I don’t think I can eat enough meat not to still be hungry or need more calories if I don’t have any sides.  So for my first week’s attempt I basically just went to the grocery store and bought a ton of different fruits and vegetables and thought, I’ll just figure out what to do with all this later.  In spite of my lack of planning, last night’s meal I think turned out pretty well, I was pleased with it.

3 chicken breasts
8 oz sliced mushrooms
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
¼ tsp paprika
¼ tsp marjoram
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½-3/4 cup sherry
Salt and pepper to taste for chicken


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and bake on a broiler pan for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt 1 tbs butter in a skillet over medium-low heat.  Add the rough chopped onions and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened and browning but not frying.  If your pan is too hot the onions will fry and we want them to caramelize.  Add the mushrooms and allow to cook for another ~10 minutes until browned.  Once the mushrooms are cooked remove the mixture to a plate.  Add the remaining butter to the skillet with the flour and seasonings, stir and cook for one minute.  Don’t let them burn.  Increase the heat to medium, add ½ cup sherry, stir and cook for one minute to cook off the alcohol.  I use Tio Pepe and I think it’s pretty good, but it is the only brand of sherry I’ve ever cooked with, so there may be something better, I don’t know.  If you are clueless about what to buy that is what I recommend.  Return the mushroom mixture to the skillet and stir to coat well.  If the sauce has thickened up and you want it a little runnier add some more sherry a couple tbs at a time and allow it to cook off the alcohol and thicken a little before you decide to add some more, do this until it gets to the desired consistency.

Top the chicken with the sauce and serve.  I had this with peas, carrots, and broccoli and cinnamon apples.

Chicken and mushroom sauce serves 3, 430 calories, 19 g fat
All in all I was pretty pleased with this.  I liked the flavor of the sauce quite a bit and will definitely make this again.  This was one of those dishes that wasn’t terribly complicated but tasted like it.  I have noticed pan sauces are like that, they seem to add a lot to a piece of meat without being as complicated as you’d expect.

Thanksgiving Inspired Baked Sweet Potatoes

We are finally in the new house and I’m exhausted.  We have had people at the house working which has made it very difficult for me to finish putting the house together and making time to cook has been near impossible.  I am struggling to get back into a routine but now that all the contractors are gone I’m hoping I can get back to normal.  I have only cooked a couple times and nothing ground breaking but I did make this recipe and thought it was decent, a simple meal for a week night.

2 sweet potatoes
0.75 lbs ground turkey (99/1)
½ tsp dried rosemary
½ tsp dried thyme
1 carrot, diced
¼ cup frozen green peas
1 tbs butter, divided
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Pierce the sweet potatoes all over then microwave for about 10 minutes or until just beginning to soften.  Remove the potatoes from the microwave and wrap in foil then cook in the oven for another ~20 minutes or until completely softened.  If I’m in a hurry I will start the potatoes in the microwave as it goes much quicker, but I try to minimize the amount of microwave time as it dries them out.  The microwave will boil the water in the potatoes which gets steamed out, but when in the oven wrapped in foil, you won’t lose as much water.

Meanwhile, season the ground turkey with rosemary and thyme and brown until no longer pink.  Cook the peas and carrots in a pot with a little water until the carrots are softened.

Once everything is cooked, cut open your potatoes, add ½ tbs butter to each potato (if desired) and top with turkey, peas and carrots.  Season with salt and pepper.

I am very intrigued by the Paleo diet and this was one of my attempts.  I made this with a boat load of steamed vegetables and as a result of being stuffed with broccoli this recipe turned into 4 servings at 300 calories and 4 g fat each.  If you didn’t have a side that was as much volume as what I did and made this into 2 servings it would still have only been 600 calories and 8 g fat, still not bad at all.

Moving has been pretty stressful and I have been trying to cook and eat healthy even though I have had no time to plan anything and it has been a real struggle.  Since Thanksgiving is approaching I was in the mood for a simple and quick Thanksgiving inspired meal, and this is what I came up with.  I am not going to tell you it was spectacular, but it was really easy and I did enjoy it, so there you go.

Bad Day

So the closing on our house was supposed to be three weeks ago. It was pushed back two weeks and we found out the day before we were planning on moving out, so we were able to stay in the house for the two weeks then moved out. Since we weren't able to move into our new house for another three weeks we moved in with my aunt. The day before closing attempt two, the lending company asked for another week extension, which I was pissed about but granted. Now it's the day before closing attempt three and after I denied a third extension the lending company decided to tell us that the loan had actually been denied. What? The house was under contract for two months and the day before closing, after three weeks of extensions, you realize their preapproved loan was not actually approved?

So because of all the moving and now staying with my aunt I haven't really been cooking much, definitely nothing worth writing about, and it was all for no reason. To top it all off I've gained two lbs, and I do not know that I will be able to resist eating an entire cake tonight.

Red Wine Pan Sauce

Saturday night we went to the ballet, I know I have the greatest husband in the whole world, and instead of going out to an expensive restaurant that makes food only marginally better than what I can do if I put my mind to it, I decided to cook instead.  I decided to make venison with a red wine pan sauce and potatoes with caramelized onions and holy cow I was pretty dang impressed with how this turned out.  This wasn’t that much work and it definitely tasted as good as any restaurant we would have gone to, and for a fraction of the cost.  This pan sauce recipe is a slight adaptation from Cooks Illustrated and of course you can serve this over beef.



1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp yellow onion, minced
1 bay leaf
½ cup dry red wine
½ cup chicken stock
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
½ tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp thyme
1 ½ tbs butter
Salt and pepper to taste

In the skillet that you cooked your steaks in, with it still hot, remove it from the heat and add the sugar and onion to the empty skillet.  Using the pan’s residual heat, cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is slightly softened and browned and sugar is melted, about 45 seconds.
Return the skillet to medium heat, add the wine, broth, and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil and scrape up the browned bits in the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.  Boil until the liquid is reduced to about ¼ cup, about 4 minutes.  Stir in vinegar and mustard and cook at medium heat to blend the flavors, about 1 minute.
Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the butter until melted and sauce is thickened and glossy.  Add thyme and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Remove bay leaf and spoon sauce over steaks.  Serve immediately.

If you cook your sauce down too far and end up with nothing you can add more liquid to it before the butter step, just let that cook down to get the volume you need and to give it time to meld the flavors.
This sauce I thought was absolutely amazing; it completely transformed my venison steaks into a restaurant quality main dish in my opinion.  My husband suggested that we try to bottle it.
All of these steps did go by really quickly and pretty much all involved me being over the pan, so I had to have my husband read off the steps as I got to them, and I recommend you do the same if you can, otherwise I can see how you could panic and screw up pretty easily if you have to run to your recipe to read the next step every time.

Chicken Biryani

This recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and I am sad to admit I was a little disappointed with it.  I think the dish tasted good, and like normal, this was quite a bit better for lunch the next day, but it did not taste much like biryani that I have had in restaurants.  Now that could be because the Indian restaurants I go to may not be as authentic as I think, but all I know is is this recipe did not taste like what I had anticipated.  There are quite a few Indian restaurants in Houston, and we have found a couple that we go to that we think are really good, but the Indian people we know tell us “they are crap”, so I will give Cooks Illustrated the benefit of the doubt and assume this is what biryani tastes like, and I just haven’t actually had real biryani before.  I do not want to discourage anyone from trying this dish as it was really pretty good, and not really that difficult, just be warned that if you have had biryani before this may not taste the same.  I also want to warn you that this will stink up your house.  I made this for dinner on Friday and I think by late Saturday afternoon the smell was finally gone, so I wouldn’t make this if I was having anyone over the next day.

15 cardamom pods, preferably green, smashed with a chef’s knife
2 cinnamon sticks
3 inch piece fresh ginger, cut into ½ inch thick coins and smashed with a chef’s knife
1 tsp cumin seed
5 quarts water
3 bone-in chicken breasts
6 tbs butter
4 small yellow onions, sliced thin
2 jalapenos, chopped fine with seeds and ribs
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 ½ cups basmati rice
1 tsp saffron threads, lightly crumbled
½ cup dried currants or raisins
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Put all of the seasonings in a cheesecloth and secure with twine.  Put the cheesecloth in a large pot of water with 2 tsp salt and bring to a boil.  Allow the water to simmer for 30 minutes, the water should turn red and be fragrant.
Meanwhile, season both sides of chicken breasts with salt and pepper and set aside.  Heat 3 tbs butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat until foaming subsides; add half of the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and dark brown about edges, 8-10 minutes.  Add half of the jalapenos and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Transfer onion mixture to a bowl and wipe skillet clean with paper towels and repeat with second batch of onions, jalapenos, and garlic.  Transfer to bowl with rest of onion mixture, season lightly with salt and set aside.  Wipe out skillet with paper towels, return heat to medium high, and place chicken breasts, skin side down in skillet, one at a time.  Cook without moving chicken until well browned, about 8 minutes, then flip chicken and brown second side, about 8 minutes longer.  Transfer chicken to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm while the remaining breasts are being cooked.
If necessary return the water to a boil and stir in the rice and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Drain the rice through a strainer.  Transfer the rice to a medium bowl and stir in safforon and currants/rainsins and season with ¼ tsp salt.  Reserve the spiced water and discard the spice bundle.  Spread half of rice in the bottom of a Dutch oven, topped with half of the onion mixture then the chicken, skin side down.  Evenly sprinkle with cilantro over the chicken then top with the remaining onion mixture and cover with the remaining rice.  Pour 1 ½ cups of the reserved cooking liquid evenly over the rice.
Cover the Dutch oven and cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Uncover and check the bottom of the pan, if dry, add up to 1 cup of the reserved cooking liquid and cook for an additional 20-30 minutes or until the rice is tender and chicken is cooked through.
Remove chicken to a plate and debone.  Stir the rice and spoon biryani into individual bowls and top with chicken.

Serves 8, 450 calories, 14 g fat

I served this with naan bread which the one I bought was about 85 calories for half of a piece.  I think if I was having this as my whole meal and not having bread with it I would have made this into 6 servings and split each chicken breast into 2 servings.  That would have made this closer to 600 calories per serving, but a large portion of rice.
I think I started cooking at 5:00 and we were eating dinner before 7:30, so quite a bit of time, but I think it’s worth it every once in a while to try something totally different and practice new techniques in the kitchen.
I also buy my spices at an Indian grocery store; they have tons of whole spices for a fraction of the price.  I buy a small(ish) bag of whatever I need and store it in the freezer.  Since I don’t cook Indian food all that often it takes me a while to get through a whole bag of spices.

German Pancakes

My husband, J, usually works on Saturdays so when I happen to have eggs in the refrigerator I like to make breakfast before he leaves.  This morning he requested German pancakes.  I have no idea if they are actually German or what it is that makes them German, I just know that they are super easy and really good.  I actually like these more than regular American cake for breakfast type pancakes, sorry mom; those are one of her specialties. 

3 tbs unsalted butter

2 eggs, beaten

½ cup flour

½ cup milk

1 tbs sugar

¼ tsp salt

Pinch of seasoning like nutmeg or cinnamon if you like

Preheat the oven to 425.  Put the butter in a 9 or 10 inch pie plate or cast iron skillet and put in the oven while it’s preheating.  Meanwhile, whisk the remainder of the ingredients in a medium bowl until all of the flour is evenly distributed and there are no clumps.

Once the butter is melted remove the skillet from the oven.  Once the oven has reached temperature pour the batter into the hot skillet and immediately return it to the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes till it is puffy and browned on the outside.

Remove the pancake from the skillet and sprinkle with lemon juice and/or powdered sugar (both are optional).  Slice and serve.

Serves 2, 384 calories, 23 g fat

No-Rise Bread

I have discovered the absolute most dangerous recipe ever.  I absolutely love bread, so I have to limit myself because it is just so calorie dense.  Since I found this recipe a few weeks ago I will admit I have made it quite a few times.  It is just so easy to make and you can cut it back to make just a few rolls so you don’t actually have to have a ton of bread lying around the house all week.  That is a big reason why I usually don’t buy bread.  I usually just want one piece of bread to go with one meal for the week, but when I have to buy a whole loaf I end up eating a piece of bread every night until it’s gone.  But with this recipe you can really easily scale it back so you don’t have that problem.  I have cut it down to 4 rolls but I haven’t tried 2 yet so I cannot verify if they will still turn out the same for that small of a batch, I don't really think it would work but I could be wrong, let me know if you try it.

2 ½ cup warm water (105-115 degrees)

6 Tbs sugar

3 Tbs yeast

2 Tbs oil

6 cup flour

2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Stir together water, sugar, yeast, and oil.  Allow to sit for about 5 minutes or until it is frothy on the top  Add flour, salt and baking powder and mix well.  Once you stir in the dry ingredients and they are pretty well incorporated, turn it out onto a clean work surface and start to knead.  Knead the dough, it should still be a little sticky but well mixed.  This can be made into rolls, a bread loaf, or even a pizza crust, so roll out or drop onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes. 

Serves 16, 210 calories, 2 g fat

I have cut this in half for 8 rolls and by 4 for 4 rolls and both turned out fine.  This bread is super simple, very fluffy and has a nice yeasty flavor.  How can you beat homemade bread that you can have mixed and baked in under 30 minutes?

Green Pea Basil Pesto

Pesto is such a nice alternative pasta sauce when you are tired  of tomato based sauces.  I tend to stay away from Alfredo sauce, not only because it's more fattening  but its not really one of my favorites.  This pesto uses green peas to thicken the consistency a little and to add some volume with out spending a fortune on basil, but feel free to leave it out if you are totally anti pea. Just be sure you cut way back on the olive oil and garlic.

1/2 cup fresh basil
3 cloves garlic
1 tbs pine nuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup green peas
1 tbs parmesan cheese
salt to taste

In a blender pulse the basil, garlic, and pine nuts until coarsely chopped.  Add  the olive oil and peas and puree into a thick paste. Add  the cheese and salt and pulse to mix.

Yields about 1cup. The entire cup is 590 calories and 58 g fat. I recommend about 1 tbs per serving which would be about 40 calories and 4 g fat.

You could put this on pasta or for a new chicken recipe you could bake some chicken breasts then spoon a little of this on top and trick your family onto thinking you made something totally new that was super complicated, even though it took less than 5 minutes to mix all this in the blender. What you have left over can go right into the freezer in an air tight bag/container. Another cool trick I learned is to spoon the pesto into an ice cube tray and freeze it then once the cubes are frozen pop them out and store  them in a Ziploc bag. Then when you need a couple tbs worth you can get what you need easily and just stir them into your dish.

Pesto Chicken Pasta

Every once in a while I actually impress myself and this dish did just that.  Since we are moving this weekend I am trying to use all the food that I have and buy as little as possible.  Last week I had bought some basil  to make the Thai basil  stir fry and never did so I thought I would make a pesto to use the basil  and the last of my pasta in the freezer. That turned out to be a really good decision because this turned out really well.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 oz asparagus, chopped to bite sized pieces
3 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp cavenders Greek seasoning
5 oz spaghetti
3 tbs pesto
2 tbs sun dried tomatoes
1 tbs parmesan cheese
1 tbs pine nuts

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and asparagus and cook until the mushrooms are browned.  Slice the chicken into strips and season with the Greek  seasoning then add to the vegetables and cook until the chicken is no longer pink.  Stir in the cheese, nuts, tomatoes, and pesto.

Cook the pasta to al dente and serve with the chicken.

Serves 3, 500 calories, 24 g fat

I felt like a pretty good wife making this meal, especially on a week day.  Homemade pasta that I pulled out of the freezer, homemade pesto that took less than 10 minutes and awesome homemade rolls that took so little time it is very tempting not to make these every day.  I know home life is crazier when you have kids so I do have some extra time but I don't get home until 5-5:30 every day and rarely have trouble getting dinner on the table by 7:30, so just stop being intimidated and make a nice meal.

Lemon Garlic Chicken and Potatoes

After nearly 3 years of trying to sell one of our two houses, we finally sold one, thank goodness! We are moving out next weekend so now starts the packing.  This meal worked out pretty well on a night when I wanted something that didn’t taste like minimal effort but was.  I had a few vegetables to chop and a marinade to make and that was basically it, I just had to let it bake while I sorted through cobweb covered stuff in the back of a closet in a room that I never even go into.  Why oh why do I have so much junk?  What’s weird is about 90% of the extra stuff that we have are books.  Classic literature, the entire set of Harry Potter, How To books on every random thing J ever once had an inclination to try to make himself and never has, and text books like you wouldn’t believe.  Our closet could probably serve as a library for a small University.

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 Yukon gold potatoes
½ lb green beans
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
¼ cup olive oil
3 tbs lemon juice
1 lemon
4 cloves garlic
1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Stir together the oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl.  Slice the squash into strips then toss the green beans and squash in the marinade then remove to a baking dish using tongs.  Chop the potatoes into ½” pieces and stir in the marinade.  Remove and spread on top of the vegetables.  Bake the vegetables for 25 minutes to give the potatoes enough time to cook.  Meanwhile, let the chicken sit in the marinade.
After 25 minutes place the chicken on top of the vegetables and return to the oven for an additional 30-35 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  Remove from the oven and allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving to keep it moist and tender.

Serves 4, 580 Calories, 23 g fat

Sweet Cornbread

This cornbread is more like corncake.  O will admit the day after I made this we actually ate it for dessert.  It has a really light and fluffy crumb and is very sweet.  This was probably the best cornbread I have ever had, definitely the best I’ve ever made.  It’s very quick and easy to make and for a low cal main dish like chili you can easily include these calories, especially if you make this 12 servings.  Just be careful, it’s so good you will have a hard time not eating a second piece!

1 cup corn meal
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbs and ½ tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Soak the cornmeal in the milk for 10 minutes.  Mix in the remaining ingredients then pour into a cast iron skillet or a greased muffin tin.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

If you bake this in a muffin tin you can easily make it 12 servings, but if it’s baked in a cake pan or cast iron skillet I have a much easier time cutting 8 servings than I do 12 and calorie wise you really should strive for 12.

12 Servings, 182 calories, 6 g fat
8 Servings, 272 calories, 10 g fat

Turkey Chili

This is one of those meals that I throw together when I don’t have a lot of time.  I think chili is one of those dishes that everyone has a very specific flavor they have in mind, and none are wrong.  You can easily change the meat, the types of beans, and adjust the seasonings to get a variety of different flavors.  This is a real good dish to find a base recipe then experiment and season to taste to get the flavor you want.

1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
1 lb ground turkey, 99/1
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
6 oz amber beer
1 tbs hot sauce
1 tbs cocoa powder
15 oz can black beans
15 oz can butter beans
15 oz can kidney beans
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 avocado
5 tbs shredded cheddar cheese
3 tbs cilantro

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat.  Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are beginning to brown.  Add the meat and break up into small chunks as it browns.  Add the salt, pepper, paprika, and chili powder and finish browning the meat.  Once the meat is cooked through pour in the beer and let it cook down and boil off the alcohol.  Add the cocoa powder, hot sauce, beans and tomatoes.  Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for as long as you can wait to eat, preferably about an hour, but you can eat it right away if you are in a hurry.  Ladle chili into bowls and top with shredded cheese, cilantro, and avocado.

5 Servings, 470 calories, 12 g fatIf you don’t normally buy beer you could cut it out.  I think it changes the flavor a little but not so much that you would really miss it if it was gone and it would save you about 15 calories.  The cocoa is the dominant flavor for me in this recipe.

Homemade Spaghetti, Pasta and Sauce

Last week we went on vacation to see the MIL.  It was a much needed break from work but it is good to get home and back into our routine.  J had to work on Sunday so I decided to make a somewhat time consuming dinner to occupy myself during the day.  I find if I just sit at home with no pressing work to do I just end up watching TV, and if there is food in the house, eating.  Since we don’t have cable, watching TV for a good part of the day is actually pretty boring, but I somehow turn super lazy when I am home alone, not really sure why.  So I decided to make homemade pasta, spaghetti sauce, and rolls, which all turned out fantastic.  I also got quite a bit of housework done, and also watched some TV, so this didn’t take quite as long as I had thought it would.  I still wouldn't recommend this much work for a weeknight though.

Fresh Pasta Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
½ tsp garlic powder
Corn meal for dusting

Make a well with the flour on a clean work surface (optimally a warm countertop or cutting board, not stainless steel).  Crack the eggs in the well, add the salt and garlic powder, and gently whisk the eggs.  With your hands bring up the flour on the outside of the well into the egg, trying not to break the wall and letting the eggs spill everywhere.  Continue to incorporate all of the flour until it forms a ball.  Knead the dough until it becomes elastic and smooth.  If it doesn’t seem to be holding together well, add water to it, 1 tsp at a time, and continue to knead.  It should take about 10 minutes to knead it to the desired texture.  Flatten the dough into a disc, dust with corn meal and wrap in plastic wrap to rest for 30 minutes.  

Cut off the desired amount and wrap the rest up and store in a Ziploc bag, trying to evacuate as much air out as possible, and store in the freezer.  Work with about 2 oz at a time; flatten a piece out with your hands or rolling pin so the pasta will fit through the roller.  On the largest setting, roll the pasta.  Fold the pasta in thirds then roll again, repeat one more time.  Begin lowering the setting by one and rolling the pasta until desired thickness (for spaghetti roll to 2).  Set the rolled pasta sheet aside and continue to roll out the desired number of sheets for your recipe (1 oz of pasta is 1 serving).  Do not put the pasta sheets on top of each other or they will stick together.  When you have all your sheets rolled out, roll them through the cutter to make your noodles.  Set the noodles aside in mounds while you cut the remaining sheets and dust each mound with flour to keep the noodles from sticking together.
When ready to cook, put in boiling water and cook until the pasta is al dente, 3-5 minutes.

Yields about 15 oz (15 servings), 75 calories, 1 g fat


Spaghetti Sauce

6 lbs tomatoes, chopped
1 cup onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp crushed red pepper (if desired)
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbs fresh basil
1 lb ground turkey, 99/1
1 cup mushrooms, sliced

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Put the tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt, and peppers in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil.  Cover the dish and bake for 45 minutes.  Remove the dish from the oven and mash the tomatoes to break them down.  Return the sauce to the oven uncovered and cook for another 45 minutes.  Remove the sauce from the oven, season with oregano, basil, and salt and pepper to taste.

Brown the turkey and mushrooms in a large skillet over medium heat.  Once the turkey is no longer pink, add the sauce and heat through.  Make sure both the turkey and mushrooms are cooked before adding the sauce, you don’t want to boil them.  Season with oregano, basil, salt, and pepper to taste if needed.

6 Servings, 200 calories, 5 g fat

I sort of forgot about pictures while I was making all this, so I failed you on that one, but I was very pleased with the meal.  It may be more time consuming than Ragu and store bought pasta, but there us a significant difference, well worth the effort.

Banana Nut Bread French Toast

I saw this idea on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives the other day and thought it was the most brilliant thing I had ever seen, so of course I made it as soon as I had a chance.  In the restaurant he made banana bread French toast bananas foster as a dessert, and that does sound pretty outstanding, but the idea of banana bread French toast really excited me.  I am embarrassed I hadn’t thought of it before myself.

2 slices Banana Nut Bread
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
½ tsp cinnamon
2 tbs butter, divided

Slice bread and place in refrigerator overnight to firm it up and dry it out some.  This will help keep it from crumbling when you soak it in the milk/egg mixture.
Beat eggs, milk and cinnamon in a bowl and soak the bread on both sides.  Melt 1 tbs butter in a skillet over medium heat and add the bread, one slice at a time.  Once the egg has cooked and browned some, flip the bread over and cook the other side.  Remove to a plate and repeat with the rest of the butter and other piece of bread.  Dust with powdered sugar and serve with maple syrup, or just eat without either, you can’t really go wrong.

The amount of calories in this is of course going to be determined by how large of a slice of banana bread you use.  If you do large slices (1/8 of a loaf) this will be about 550 calories and 32 g fat.  This is rather high in fat for a breakfast but it’s ok to allow yourself to indulge every so often, just don’t make it a habit.

Banana Nut Bread

When I was in college I experimented with a number of different banana bread recipes, looking for my favorite.  This recipe to me is the one and I have stopped my search.  For me the texture is key for these types of breads.  I want a large crumb, something fluffy but moist, not like a muffin or a bread crumb.  The way to create the crumb you want is through the creaming style, and the moistness is dictated by the fat and the sugar.  To me the combination of all of it is perfect, but you may like a different crumb and that’s ok.

2 ½ cups sugar
1 cup shortening
3 eggs
1 ½ cup mashed bananas
3 cups flour
1 ¼ cup buttermilk
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Cream the sugar and shortening until the shortening is no longer in chunks.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.   Mix in the bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Mix in flour, baking powder, and baking soda and mix until just combined.  Stir in the nuts if desired.  Pour batter into 2 greased 9x5 loaf pans and bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Banana bread is another one of my weaknesses, so I will give you some ideas of calories and you decide on portion sizes, I’m not telling you how much I ate.


1 loaf, 3195 calories, 151 g fat
8 servings/loaf, 400 calories, 19 g fat
12 servings/loaf, 266 calories, 13 g fat

I usually end up making the 2 loaves and taking one to work because I cannot have 2 loaves of banana bread in the house, I must get rid of that temptation pretty quickly.  Most everyone likes banana bread so it is always appreciated when you show up with some.
I typically stay away from shortening, but I have tried banana bread with different types of fats, and this produces by far my favorite.  Since I make this only once or twice a year I feel that it’s ok to splurge.  Just make sure you aren’t splurging more often than not, we are trying to keep trim here!

Sweet Potato Macaroni and Cheese

I found this recipe on Delish.com and really liked the concept, but I had to adjust it to decrease the probability of giving my husband a heart attack.  I was very pleased with how this turned out, I do not think my adjustments resulted in anything lacking at all.  It was rich, creamy, cheesy and full of flavor, and saved a ton of calories and fat.  I think the type of cheese you use will definitely make or break this dish.  I suggest going for a semi-hard cheese with a strong flavor.  I found a chipotle Gouda that was very good.  I have tried making macaroni and cheese before with various types of cheeses and have found on occasion it turns out gritty like the cheese didn’t get creamy or melt fully or something.  This cheese turned out really creamy and the flavor was strong enough to add taste but wasn’t overwhelming at all.

5 cloves garlic

1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced into ½” rounds

1 tbs olive oil

1 cup elbow macaroni

1 tbs butter

2 tbs flour

1 ½ cup skim milk

4 oz cheese, like Gouda, cubed

1 tsp rosemary

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tsp bread crumbs

Boil a pot of water big enough for the sweet potatoes.  Once the water is boiling add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes.  Remove the garlic and blanch in ice water.  Return the water to a boil and add the sweet potatoes, cook for 5 minutes to soften.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat then add the softened sweet potatoes.  Stir and turn regularly to prevent sticking.  Cook the sweet potatoes until they are caramelized and seared on both sides.  Remove from the skillet, dice and set aside.

Cook the macaroni to al dente and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the flour and stir frequently, cook for 3 minutes.  If you don’t cook the flour long enough your sauce will taste like flour, but be careful not to let it burn either, that also won’t taste good.  Slowly add the milk to the flour while stirring continuously.  You are now stuck at your stove, don’t stop stirring.  Stir the milk to dissolve the flour in the milk and keep the milk from burning on the bottom of your pot.  After some time the mixture will start to thicken then boil, once it boils reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 2 minutes.  Add the cheese and stir to melt it.  Mince the blanched garlic and add to the cheese mixture.  Add the seasonings, diced sweet potatoes, and the pasta and stir to combine.  Dish the macaroni and cheese out into a small greased baking dish or 4 ramekins and top with the bread crumbs.

Broil in the oven to brown the bread crumbs and heat everything through. Enjoy a rich, cheesy, flavorful macaroni and cheese without the guilt.

Servings, 4 sides, 370 calories, 15 g fat