Thai Basil Chicken Stir Fry

Last night I made Thai basil chicken stir fry.  The star of the dish is of course basil, and what did I do, I forgot to buy basil.  Brilliant.  Usually on Sundays we end up running around town because we don’t want to just sit at home on our last day of freedom.  For me every Friday feels like the last day of school and Sunday is the last day of summer vacation so we always try to do as much as we can on Sundays.  I already had my grocery list done and had it with me so we could stop at the grocery store on the way back from whatever random thing we ended up doing.  By the time we got to the grocery store and finished with the shopping it was already 7:15.  That is a little late for me, I like to start dinner closer to 6 or 6:30 and so of course J tried to convince me that it was way too late to cook so we should just go ahead and order pizza.  But I stood my ground, I knew I was making a stir fry and I can have it done in 30-45 minutes. So don’t let those voices distract you from your goal, making the stir fry didn’t take too much longer than having a pizza delivered and I saved at least 500 calories.

2 large chicken breasts, cut into ½” strips (Mine were 1 ½ lbs total)

1 tsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups mushrooms, sliced

2 carrots, chopped

2 cups sugar snap peas

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1 ½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves

3 tbs soy sauce (low sodium)

1 ½ tbs fish sauce

3 tbs rice vinegar

2 cups jasmine rice

Boil 3 cups of water.  Add the rice and stir to keep it from initially sticking to the bottom of the pot.  Return the water to a boil, cover and turn off the heat.  By the time the stir fry is ready the rice will be perfectly fluffy and all the water absorbed.

Heat the olive oil to medium high-heat and cook the onion and garlic until lightly browned.  Add the chicken and cook until browned.  Add the mushrooms and cook until browned.  Add the vegetables and cook until crisp tender.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir to coat well.  Serve over the rice.

6 Servings, 450 calories, 5 g fat

Pasta Primavera

I like to try to make one vegetarian meal a week and this one is my go to.  It’s super simple and very filling.  I use mushrooms and then pretty much whatever vegetables I happen to have.  Today the only vegetable I had with color was carrots so the nearly monochromaticness of the dish didn’t look too pretty, but was still good. 

6 oz whole wheat penne pasta

1 tbs olive oil

½ cup red pepper, diced

1 clove garlic

2 cups cauliflower, chopped

2 large carrots, chopped

2 cups baby bella mushrooms, sliced

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

½ tsp basil

½ tsp oregano

½ tsp crushed red pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet with a lid, heat the olive oil over medium heat then cook the onion and garlic until tender, do not brown.  Add the mushrooms and cook until soft.  Add the vegetables and cover.  The water in the vegetables will cook out and steam them, but stir periodically to make sure they don’t stick.  I have a Teflon skillet so my vegetables don’t ever stick, but I am not sure what would happen in a non non-stick pan.  If they do start to stick you could add a little chicken stock or water to generate some steam and lubrication between the vegetables and the pan, but don’t add too much because you don’t want to boil your mushrooms. 

Cook until crisp tender then add the basil, oregano, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper.  Stir in the cooked pasta and parmesan cheese. Easy Schmeesy.

Serves 2, 500 calories, 14 g fat

This is also good to double and have for lunch.  Of course the highest contributor to the calories in this is the pasta (280 calories/serving), so if you want to have this with some bread or a salad and 500 calories is close to your meal limit you can always cut back on how much pasta you add.  Some other vegetable combinations that I might do are carrots, spinach, broccoli or red/orange bell pepper, asparagus, cauliflower and I usually add green peas no matter what I do but I forgot to buy some this week.  Feel free to experiment with this, you can’t screw it up.

Balsamic Glazed Meatloaf and Smashed Cauliflower

Last night turned out to be a Food Network inspired meal, even though I make both of these so frequently I feel like they are my own, but honestly I stole them.  There really are few recipes that after making a few times I don’t change at all, but Bobby Flay’s balsamic meatloaf needs no alterations from me.  Ok I take that back, he uses meats that I can’t eat so I have changed it to turkey and chicken, but other than that it’s the same.  This is one of our big meals that will be lunch for a few days, but you could cut this in half pretty easily for 4 servings.

1 zucchini, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 yellow squash, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

¾  tsp red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbs olive oil

2 eggs, beaten

1 tbs thyme

¼ cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 lb ground turkey

1 lb ground chicken

1 cup bread crumbs

½ cup parmesan

1 cup ketchup, divided

¼ cup plus 2 tbs balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat.  Add the zucchini, squash, bell pepper, garlic, ½ tsp red pepper flakes,  and salt and pepper, to taste, and cook until almost soft, about 5 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Whisk together the eggs and herbs in a large bowl.  Add the meat, bread crumbs, cheese, ½ cup ketchup, 2 tbs balsamic vinegar, and the cooled vegetables and mix until just combined. 

Mold the meatloaf on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Whisk together the remaining ketchup, balsamic vinegar and ¼ tsp red pepper flakes in a small bowl.  Brush the mixture over the entire loaf.  Bake the meatloaf for 1-1 ¼ hours.  Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Serves 8, 400 calories, 14 g fat 

I used 99/1 turkey and chicken breast that I ground myself to keep it lower in fat. 

With this I made a smashed cauliflower inspired by Rachael Ray.  This is a delicious way to trick your husband/kids into eating vegetables.  Really I guess that’s kind of the theme of this whole meal, cauliflower covered in cheese and meatloaf stuffed with vegetables, sneaky.

½ head cauliflower

3 tbs boursin garlic and herb cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Steam the cauliflower until it is tender. Mash the cauliflower with a fork or a hand mixer and stir in the cheese, salt and pepper.

Serves 2, 100 calories, 10 g fat