Lemon orzo salad with chicken, feta, and snap peas on arugula

I planned on using whole wheat orzo but couldn’t find it; I’m not sure if it exists but I will keep looking! I did this dish at room temperature; you could do it cold but cold chicken freaks me out a little.


You’ll need:

• 2-3 lemons
• 1 lb orzo
• 5 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 1.5 lbs)
• 1.5 pints of cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 lb of snap peas, cut in half
• 1 block low-fat feta (Trader Joe’s is my fav)
• 1 cup loosely packed basil
• 10 oz arugula 
• Kosher salt and olive oil

Cook the orzo according to package directions, drizzle with olive oil and the juice from half of a lemon and stir. Also, if you don’t have one of these citrus squeezers, get one because it’s awesome. Boil the chicken thighs and cut up roughly with a chef’s knife, add to the orzo, drizzle with lemon, stir, and set aside to cool.

Crumble the feta and set aside. Roughly chop the basil (or if you’re lazy like me, put it in the mini chopper and pulse it a couple of times), quarter the tomatoes and cut the snap peas in half.

Once the orzo and chicken has cooled, add the veggies, basil, feta and the juice from the second lemon, gradually stirring. Serve on a bed of arugula.

This makes a huge amount; it’s great leftover. If you divide it into about 8 servings and serve over a couple cups of arugula it works out to about 440 calories per serving. It would be less if you used chicken breasts instead of thighs, but I think white meat chicken is gross.

This has nothing to do with food, but I was fixing some tile in the shower of my little townhouse that I rent out and needed shims to level the hardy board before I retiled the window sill in the shower. I had nothing with me that would work, found this awesome thing in a cabinet in the laundry room and used it for a shim:

Beef enchiladas with easy homemade sauce

I made roasted broccoli for the side; it
isn’t exactly a Mexican side but it’s easy
and I needed a veggie.

These are really simple beef and cheese enchiladas; you could add beans, onions, peppers, chilis, etc — I was just going for simple.

I made my own sauce for the first time; you can use the sauce in the can but it’s super easy to make and there is not a bunch of preservatives and fillers this way. This is also thicker than the canned sauce, which I like.

For the sauce:

• 15 oz can of tomato sauce
• 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes 
• 2 TBS chili powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp chipotle chili pepper (if you don’t already have this, you can leave it out, but it adds a really good smokey flavor)

Whisk all ingredients and cook on very low heat for about 15 minutes, whisking every so often so it doesn’t stick. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the enchiladas:

• 6 soft taco tortillas
• 1 lb 96% lean ground beef, browned
• 1 cup low fat shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese
• 2 cups low fat mexican blend shredded cheese
• Fat free Greek yogurt for topping

This is what the beef looked like
after I ground it in the mini chopper

About how much filling to use

I browned the beef and then pulsed it in my mini chopper in two batches to get it much finer than I can ever get it by breaking it up in the pan. Blend the meat in a mixing bowl with the mozzarella, cottage cheese, and one cup of the sauce.

Spray a 9x13 pan with olive oil. Divide the meat mixture into 6 equal parts, lay on half of the tortilla, carefully roll, and place seam-side down in the pan.

Leave a little bit of space between them when you place them in the pan. Cover with as much of the sauce as you want; I use a lot but save some for topping later. Top with the 2 cups of Mexican cheese, cover and bake on 350 for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes if you want to brown the cheese on top. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before eating.

I use La Banderita soft taco low carb tortillas, which only have 81 calories each. A lot of the brands have a ton of calories (even the whole wheat) so I always buy these. I also bought tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes that had the least number of ingredients (no added sugar) as possible. I was able to get each enchilada down to 390 calories total, probably a little less because I don’t use all of the sauce. Amazingly, I only ate one plus the broccoli, so my dinner was still under 500 calories.

Cheesy Polenta Chorizo Casserole

I love one dish meals! Not that it only takes one dish to make them, but you don’t have to time three or four different items to be done at the same time. This dish is spicy, but you could use a mild sausage and skip the jalapeño and red pepper flakes if you want a milder version.

You will need:

Yummy polenta crust on the bottom!

• 1 1/2 c dry polenta (I use Bob’s Mill)
• 2 summer squash, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 1 red pepper, cut into small pieces but not diced
• 2 jalapeño peppers, finely chopped
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 15oz jar of tomato sauce
• 6 links Logan’s Mexican Chorizo sausage, casings removed 
• 2 c low fat shredded mozzarella cheese
• Olive oil

Cook the polenta according to package directions and let cool a bit. Spoon about half into the bottom of an oiled 13x9 pan and pack down. It’s sticky and actually works best to use your hands to smash it down once it’s cool enough. Bake on 400 for 10 minutes, remove from oven and set aside.

Sautée veggies with a swirl of olive oil in a large skillet until soft but still a little crunchy on the inside. Add tomato sauce and red pepper flakes and simmer on low for 10 minutes.

Once the casings are removed from the sausage, cook on the grill for about 10 minutes on each side, remove and roughly chop with a large knife. Alternatively, you could just brown them in a skillet, but I like the charred grill flavor. (I also like to think that grilling it lets some of the fat drip out, but it’s probably not enough to actually make a difference.) Add to the sauce mixture and simmer for another 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, so that the flavors have time to mix.

Spoon half of the tomato sauce mixture onto the cooked layer of polenta. Drop half of the remaining polenta by bits over the sauce layer, and cover with about 3/4 cup of the mozzarella. It works best again to use your hands for the polenta. Spoon the rest of the sauce mix on top, followed by the rest of the polenta. Cover with the remaining mozzarella cheese and bake on 400 for 20 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

If you use the Logan’s sausage (very low cal for sausage) and a low calorie tomato sauce (RAO’s Homemade tomato basil) this ends up being a very low calorie but filling and delicious meal, coming in at only about 450 calories per serving if you cut into 6 servings. And they are really big servings!

Just out of the oven, I forgot to take photos of it half put
together, but the yellow bits on top are polenta

Marinated Flank Steak, Asparagus, and Mini Potatoes

This is a well-rounded, easy weeknight dinner. I only let the steak marinate for about an hour before I cooked it. If you can marinate the steak before you leave for work, even better. I used flank steak because it’s lean and it holds marinade well.

Don’t you want to eat this right now?

For the marinade:

• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1 shallot
• 3/4 c balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 c red wine vinegar
• 1/3 c loosely packed fresh basil
• Pinch of salt

Roughly cut the shallot into a few pieces, and put all ingredients mini chopper or food processor and grind until well blended. If you don’t have a mini chopper, you should get one because they are awesome. But if you don’t have one right now, you could finely chop all of the ingredients and whisk them together in a small bowl.

Spoon leftover marinade onto the steak

Lay the flank steak flat on a cutting board and pound it with a meat tenderizer on both sides. You don’t want to pulverize it, just break up the fibers a little bit. Put it in a baking pan or a plastic bag, pour the marinade so that it fully covers the steak, and let it set at room temperature for about an hour. Grill on high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side. I like my steak bloody so I was closer to 3. Let it sit for 5 minutes before carving it against the grain.

All I did to the asparagus and potatoes was drizzle some olive oil and kosher salt on each and shake them around so they were covered. I did the asparagus on the grill for about 8 minutes on medium-high heat, placed right on the grates and turned them a couple of times. I cooked the potatoes in the oven on 350 for about 45 minutes, then broiled them for a couple of minutes at the end to make them crispy. They were like little round french fries! I even dipped them in ketchup. Yum!

There is varying information on the interwebs about the calories in flank steak, I was finding anywhere from 150 to 200 calories per 1/4 pound. The entire container of marinade is only 110 calories so spread over a 1.75 pound steak, it only adds a few! 1/4 pound of the potatoes is 120 calories and a serving of the asparagus is 40-50 (which I think must be offset by chewing it, right?), plus a little olive oil makes this whole meal way less than 500 calories!

White Lasagna Dinner with Chicken and Veggies

I love cream sauce, and this lasagna uses a much more healthy cream sauce than you’d find in a restaurant; it’s made with a lot less butter and more chicken broth. I also use two layers of eggplant instead of two layers of what would normally be lasagna noodles. Between the eggplant, spinach, and broccoli, you get a full serving of veggies. Bonus!

White sauce:

• 1  1/2 TBS butter 
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1/3-1/2 c flour 
• 1 c skim milk 
• 2 1/2 c chicken broth 
• 1/4 c grated Asiago 

Melt butter and add crushed garlic, cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Add 1/3 c flour and whisk; it won’t all dissolve. Slowly add milk and whisk all lumps out. It will become the consistency of very thick gravy. Add broth and whisk; bring to a simmer and cook whisking constantly until thickened - about 10 minutes. It should be about the consistency of béchamel. If it looks too thin, add a little more flour, or cornstarch will work also. Remove from stove, add Asiago and whisk well. Set aside.

After adding flour to the butter and garlic

Lasagna:

• 6 no-boil lasagna noodles 
• 1 large eggplant, sliced into about 1/4 inch slices, grilled or roasted
• 2 medium broccoli bunches cut into small pieces, sautéed 
• 1 9oz bag spinach, sautéed and drained well
• 3/4 lb shredded chicken 
• 2 c fat free cottage cheese 
• 2 eggs 
• 4 c shredded low fat mozzarella 
• Grated Asiago or Parmesan for the top

I use leftover rotisserie chicken and shred it, which cuts out the extra step of cooking the chicken first. Add some of the sauce to the chicken — just enough so that it’s wet, and set aside. In a small bowl, beat 2 eggs and add the cottage cheese, mix well and set aside.

Pour a little of the white sauce on the bottom of a greased lasagna pan. You just want a thin layer, don’t use a ton. Put three lasagna noodles in the bottom of the pan.

Spread the broccoli over the noodles. Spread a third of the cottage cheese mix by spoonfuls as evenly as you can over the broccoli, about a cup of the mozzarella, and a little less than a cup of the white sauce.

First layer of noodles, broccoli, cheeses,
and half of the first eggplant layer

Use half of the grilled eggplant to create another layer. Distribute the chicken mix evenly over the eggplant, followed by half of the remaining cottage cheese mix, a layer of mozzarella and white sauce.

Cover with three remaining lasagna noodles. Distribute the spinach evenly over the noodles, followed by the rest of the cottage cheese mix, a layer of mozzarella and more of the sauce. Distribute the last of the eggplant on top, pour the rest of the sauce evenly, and cover with a layer of mozzarella. I grated some Asiago on the top too for an added flavor.

Cook covered with foil for 30 minutes on 350, then uncovered for another 10. Let rest for 10 after you take it out of the oven.

Cut into 8 servings (one of which is plenty, even for me) this comes out to 425-450 calories per serving.  It makes great leftovers reheated for lunch!

You should probably let your dog lick
every single bowl you’ve used

Super Easy Grilled Eggplant Parmesan

This is a really easy, healthy meal. I also did a side of sautéed spinach with a little olive oil and garlic. Love sautéed spinach.

One large eggplant made enough for two people, plus a few leftover slices.

Cut the eggplant into a little less than half-inch slices. Cook on the grill on medium high, turning as they brown on each side and show grill marks; somewhere between 6 and 8 minutes on each side depending on how hot your grill is. You want them fairly crispy so the marinara sauce doesn’t make them mushy.

Put the eggplant slices on a cookie sheet, drop one to two tablespoons of marinara sauce on top depending on how big the slice is, and top with part skim/low fat shredded mozzarella.

Slide back onto the grill (you might want to spray the grates with olive oil; a couple of mine stuck a little bit) on medium for about 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. They look like mini pizzas! Mmmmmmm pizza.

An entire eggplant only has something like 130 calories, and I probably used about 1 1/4 cups of mozzarella, plus the tomato sauce... so you could eat half of these slices (which I definitely did - when I said there were leftovers those were David’s leftovers) and it’s only about 310 calories.

Healthy Feta Veggie Frittata – Eggs aren’t just for breakfast!

A finished slice! (Or two)

First, if you don’t use Trader Joe’s low fat feta, get on board. There are only 320 calories in the whole block so you can load it on! I love this frittata because it only requires dirtying one pan and a cutting board, and you get protein from the eggs and a lot of your veggie servings for the day.

You will need:

• 1 block of TJ’s low fat feta
• 12 eggs - 6 whole and 6 whites
• 1 bag of 9 or 10 oz baby spinach
• Quart of cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half or quarters
• One medium head of broccoli, cut into small bite-sized pieces
• One summer squash, sliced into rounds and cut into quarters
• 2/3 cup fat free or 1% low fat cottage cheese
• Olive oil, salt, and pepper
• Oven at 350

I like to do the frittata in a cast iron pan, because it goes right from the stove to the oven and makes a crisp crust.

Whisk together the 6 whole eggs and 6 whites with a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside. Crumble the block of feta and set aside.

Tomatoes, squash and broccoli

Heat the cast iron on medium heat. Swirl a little bit of olive oil in the pan and add spinach. Cook, turning constantly until wilted, remove into a colander, and use a paper towel to press out excess water. You might want to wait until it cools a little or risk burning your hands. Unless you’re a mom, in which case you almost certainly have a superhuman ability to handle hot things.

Add tomatoes to the cast iron. Add broccoli and squash and stir well. Add another drizzle of olive oil if the veggies are sticking to the pan. Cook until the tomatoes and squash have lost most of their water and the broccoli is soft on the outside but still a little crunchy when you bite into it.

Evenly distribute the spinach over the tomatoes and broccoli, followed by the feta. Pour the egg mixture slowly into the cast iron. Not because it matters for the recipe, but because it’ll splash out if you pour it too quickly. You’ll also want to pour it in a kind of circular motion all over the pan, so the egg gets evenly in between the veggies. Add the cottage cheese in teaspoon full dollops. Leave it cooking on the stove, without stirring, on medium-low for 5-7 minutes, until the egg starts to get firm around the edges of the pan. Transfer to the oven for 15-20 minutes; until you can shake the pan and it wobbles but the eggs are not still gooey.

I cut the frittata into 6 slices, and each slice has about 220 calories. Obviously, I ate 2 slices.

Left: just before it goes in the oven. Right: after it comes out! Yum melty cheese.