Veggie Tuna Salad

I usually make my tuna salad a different way, and the next time I make it, I will definitely post my recipe for it.  The reason I had to make it differently, is because my boyfriend does not like onion, and constantly tells me that I overuse onions!  Making two different tuna salads seemed like a ridiculous notion to me, so I just made this onion-free tuna salad instead!  To give it the desired crunchiness, I added finely chopped carrot, another tricky way of sneaking in more veggies!  You could also substitute the carrot and add red or green peppers, onion, or any other crunchy veggie.  I made this for this week's lunches, so I made a large portion, you can certainly reduce the amount to suit your needs.

Yields 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 4 cans (5 ounces each) of solid white tuna in water, drained and flaked
• 1 cup of Mayonnaise with Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 TBS of finely chopped fresh dill (I highly recommend going fresh, if you have extra, put in a plastic sandwich bag and freeze.  Add to sauces and recipes while still frozen, using kitchen shears.  DO NOT use previously frozen dill as a garnish!)
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped celery
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped carrot (I bought a container of celery and carrot sticks, as to not have unnecessary waste)
• 2 tsp lime juice 
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.  Spoon out onto desired bread (our choices were whole wheat pitas and white bread).  Garnish with lettuce of tomatoes if desired.  Enjoy!

Slow-Cooked Mac 'n' Cheese

My son absolutely LOVES mac 'n' cheese, as does his father.  I have made "home-made" mac 'n' cheese before, you know, from the recipe off the inside of the Velveeta box!  Actually I made that as one of the dishes at my son's 1st Birthday Party, and suffice it to say, it was a HUGE hit!  I do love that recipe, but I don't love making it!  I'm always on the hunt for making my family's favorites easier on me!  I found this recipe in Taste of Home: Comfort Food Diet Cookbook.  This recipe is slightly different, I didn't even know you could make mac 'n' cheese in the slow-cooker!  It actually came out very well!  To make it slightly healthier, I mixed half regular elbow macaroni and half whole wheat elbow macaroni.  I could have went the extra step and added broccoli to it, but as I was already making the Tomato Casserole to go with it, and I felt the broccoli would take away from the dish.  Next time, if I plan on just having the mac and maybe a meat, I'll add the broccoli so I don't have to worry about making another side.  This is perfect to use for lunches, my son is always excited to get mac 'n' cheese for lunch!

This past Monday, I spent my entire day cooking!  Cooking around breakfast, lunch and naptime, so I could be there for my son when he needed me.  It actually worked out very well, considering it was a miserable day anyway, and now I don't have to cook until Friday!  Having one of the dishes being a slow-cooker meal, helped me out a huge deal, it was one less thing I had to constantly watch!  If you have the time to set aside a few hours to cook, I highly recommend getting it all out of the way in one day!  Anything to make life a little bit easier!

Yields 9 Servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (I used half reg and half whole wheat)
• 1 can (12 ounces) reduced-fat evaporated milk
• 1-1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 1/3 cup egg substitute
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 8 ounces reduced-fat process cheese (Velveeta), cubed
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided

 

Directions:

1. Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water.  In a large bowl, combine the evaporated milk, milk, egg substitute and butter.  Stir in the process cheese, 1-1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese and macaroni.
2. Transfer to a 3-qt slow cooker coated with cooking spray.  Cover and cook on low for 2-3/4 to 3 hours or until center is set, stirring once.  Sprinkle with remaining sharp cheddar cheese.

Tomato Casserole

There's just something about the summer, when fresh juicy tomatoes are abundant, that just makes my mouth water.  Granted, it's not summer...YET...but I've seen tomatoes in the grocery store, and at the market around the block, and needless to say, I've been tempted!  I initially bought the tomatoes for salad, and of course I bought way too many.  So I was looking through my cookbooks and found a recipe for grape tomatoes, changed a few things, a Viola!, Tomato Casserole was born!  This side dish satisfied my quest for branching out from the "same old stuff."  It has a terrific light and flavorful taste, and Bill and I loved it!  I plan on making this dish for barbecues over the summer, and I suspect it will be a welcome hit!  I served this on the side of Slow-Cooked Mac 'n' Cheese, and it actually reminded me of one of my brothers' favorite dishes, grilled cheese with tomato soup!  It really was a pleasant flavor combo!  Although Eoin hasn't had tomatoes yet, I keep putting them on his plate, hoping one day he'll take the bait! 

Yields 4 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• 2 TBS minced garlic
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp olive oil, divided
• 1/4 cup Italian-Style bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola, Feta or Blue Cheese, whatever your preference

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.  Spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. Combine tomatoes, garlic, basil and garlic powder with half of the olive oil in a small bowl; toss to coat.  Transfer to prepared casserole dish.
3. Bake for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, mix breadcrumbs with the rest of the olive oil. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture and crumbled cheese over the top, and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Chicken Taco-Burrito-Fajitas

I honestly don't know what to call this recipe!  It's not quite a taco, burrito or fajita, and to be honest, it was just thrown together for a fast meal.  I've decided to share because it came out great!  I said earlier this week that I love Latin American and Tex-Mex food, and I think I took that idea and just ran with it this week!  I decided cooking with salsa is fun, and just came up with more and more ideas of things I could make using salsa!  I probably should have spaced out these recipes a little more, although I'm sure that Bill doesn't mind.  We have a "list" of what I can and cannot make again.  Recently, when I asked if the dish we had that night for dinner could go on the list, he retorted, "It really doesn't matter if I say yes or no, we rarely have the same dish twice!"  With the exception of left overs, this is true.  Since the arrival of my little angel, I've been a cooking machine!  It's funny because you would think I'd have LESS time, and would be LESS inclined to do all this cooking!  But especially since he's been able to eat, I've only wanted him to put the best homemade meals into his belly.  This recipe is really so simple, and honestly it's surprisingly healthy!  I just can't figure out what to call it...

Yields 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 to 1-1/2 lbs of chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 medium onion, julienned
• 1 can of sweet corn, drained
• 1/2 bag of dried black beans, cooked
• 1/2 cup of medium salsa
• 1 package of fajita size tortillas
• shredded cheddar, or your favorite mexican cheese blend (optional)
• sour cream (optional)

Directions:

1.  Coat a large skillet with a tiny amount of oil and heat up.
2. Cook chicken and onions, until chicken is cooked thoroughly and onion is almost translucent.
3. Add corn, salsa and black beans and mix in thoroughly.  Heat entire mixture thoroughly.
4. Put some of the mixture into each heated tortilla and top with cheese and sour cream, if desired.

Savory Brussels Sprouts

I like to cook in bulk.  If I cook 3 days a week, I love for those meals to last 2 days each, so we still get home-cooked goodness without me having to cook.  I don't like to come home from work, get Eoin settled, and then cook dinner.  There are not enough hours in the day for that!  I decided today to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and cook tonight's dinner and Thursday/Friday's dinner while Eoin was napping.  Unfortunately, my plan didn't pan out the way I would have liked.  My stove decided it didn't want to light!  So my Dad, the wonderful man that he is :), came over and took a look at it.  When we first moved in, my landlord had told us that if the stove wasn't working, she would buy us a new one.  My Dad did get it to work enough that I could make dinner, but it does look like a new stove is in our near future! :)  This greatly excites me, as if you know me, you know how much I LOVE to cook.  Hence the blog!  I did get to make both dinners, cooked around Eoin's afternoon playtime.  I really don't like to be really busy while he's up, I'd rather be spending my time with him.  For tonight's dinner, I made Chicken Nuggets (akaChicken Fingers modified), with BOXED mac n cheese (:::gasp:::), and this recipe for brussels sprouts.  I only started eating brussels sprouts about 3 or 4 years ago and the only way I knew how to cook them was steam them and season them with salt, pepper and lemon juice.  Since I am currently on a mission to introduce new foods to Eoin, I figured this was worth a shot.  It's different from our mundane sides of spinach, peas, corn, string beans, and broccoli.  This is another one from Taste of Home: Comfort Food Diet Cookbook.  Bill tried them and said they were O.K.  For the record, he HATES vegetables, and has never had brussels sprouts before.  And Eoin wasn't a huge fan.  But I once read that babies need to try somethings roughly 20 times before they can really have a preference for a food.  I, on the other hand, loved them.  The sauce was perfectly tangy!  I will definitely make this dish again, and hopefully I'll have more success the second time around.

Yields 4 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of fresh brussels sprouts (you can also use frozen brussels sprouts)

  DIJON MUSTARD SAUCE:

• 1/2 cup fat-free plain yogurt
• 1 TBS reduced-fat mayonnaise
• 1-1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp celery seed

Directions:

1. Cut an "X" in the core of each brussels sprout.  Place in a steamer basket (if you don't have a steamer basket, but you have a metal colander, you can use that instead); place in a large saucepan over 1 in. of water.  Bring to a boil; cover and steam for 8-11 minutes or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard and celery seed.  Cook and stir just until heated through.  Serve with brussels sprouts.  (I mixed the brussels sprouts into the sauce to get them all coated)

Salsalito Turkey Burgers

I make all of my burgers slider size.  It makes it easier for us to all have the same portion size, which makes feeding my son so much easier.  Since I was already making the Black Beans and Rice Medley, and I knew I was making turkey burgers of some sort, I made up this recipe.  Since it's a very short and simple recipe, I'm going to renege on my usual blog format.  I just take 1 lb of lean ground turkey, add about 2 -3 TBS of Medium Salsa, 1/4 cup chopped peppers, and 1/2-3/4 cup of Panko Breadcrumbs.  Combine all ingredients and form into patties.  I cooked these in a skillet because I'm not quite sure if the George Foreman would give me the desired effect.  These came out great, and Eoin LOVED them! 

Black Beans and Rice Medley

My son hates lentils.  I've tried to get him to eat them on more than one occasion.  My boyfriend also is not a fan of lentils.  This poses a problem because I would like to get the both of them to eat a variety of foods, and well, at least the latter of the two likes black beans.  I love Latin American and Tex-Mex food!  Black Beans and Rice is probably one of my favorite sides, but more often than not, I find it impossible to get it "just right."  This is a different spin on the classic dish.  I make a vegetable with every meal, and if it's not served as a separate side dish, it's incorporated into the starch dish.  My son has just started to eat rice, as well as peppers, so I chopped up some peppers to saute (very slightly) and put into the dish.  I must say, it came out very nice.  It definitely isn't your classic Black Beans and Rice, but it does have the texture I've been yearning for!  And, it's healthy!  I've toned down the onions on this dish, because my boyfriend really isn't too fond of my "over" usage of them.  You could certainly add more to your own personal liking, and I used yellow, but on most Latin-themed dishes, I would use red onion, I personally like the taste better.  I also used 1/3 bag of dried black beans, cooked them, and then used them in the recipe; but you could most certainly use canned black beans as well. I served this as a side to my Salsalito Turkey Burgers.  The best part?  Both of the men in my life ate the rice!

Yields 8 servings as a side, 4 as a main dish

Ingredients:

• 1/3 bag of dried black beans, cooked according to package directions, drained; OR 1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups cooked white rice
• 2 mixed peppers, chopped
• 1 small to medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 TBS mild salsa
• 1 TBS balsamic vinegar
• dash of your favorite hot sauce
• shredded cheese (whatever your favorite cheese or cheese blend is), optional

Directions:

1. Preheat a large skillet, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, over medium heat.  Add and saute onions, peppers, garlic, basil and black pepper until peppers are just tender.  Add salsa, vinegar, hot sauce, rice and beans and heat thoroughly.  Sprinkle with cheese (optional) before serving.

Rosemary Rice

I really think this is my son's new favorite side dish!  He just recently started to become interested in rice, and he absolutely loved this dish!  This is another recipe from Taste of Home: Comfort Food Diet Cookbook.  I like not having to buy one of those boxes of rice with the seasoning packet in it, and it was nice to bring the flavor of rosemary to our table.  I paired this rice with Grilled Pork Chops with Cilantro Salsa, but it could go with any meat and vegetable pairing.  I was very impressed with this dish, it's easy to make and it really is delicious! 

Yields 4 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 can (14 -1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup uncooked long grain rice
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions: 

• In a saucepan, saute onion and garlic in oil until tender.  Add broth and water.  Stir in the rice, rosemary and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-18 minutes or until rice is tender.  Remove from the heat; stir in Parmesan cheese.

Grilled Pork Chops with Cilantro Salsa

This is another recipe from Taste of Home: Comfort Food Diet Cookbook.  It says that you can either grill or broil the chops, and I will give the exact recipe.  I grilled my pork chops with a little bit of olive oil cooking spray sprayed on my George Foreman Grill.  I also paired this recipe with a side of Rosemary Rice, but you can also pair it with yellow rice.  I prepared the salsa the night before, and I really suggest if you are not going to have time the day of, you do the same (it was a very time consuming task).  It's a light meal, perfect for the nice warm weather!  I'm always trying to broaden Eoin's palate, and since he has never tried peppers or tomatoes, I figured what better way then pairing it with sweet cantaloupe!  He tried a little of the pork chop (which he seemed to like), and he absolutely LOVED the salsa.  He'll be having some more tomorrow with his lunch!

Yields 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups cubed cantaloupe
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 2 tablespoons limeade concentrate
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onion
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 bone-in pork loin chops (7 ounces each and 1/2 inch thick)
• Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine the cantaloupe, tomatoes, green pepper, limeade, onion, cilantro and salt.  Cover and refrigerate until serving.
2. Season pork with pepper.  Using long-handled tongs, dip a paper towel in cooking oil and lightly coat the grill rack.  Grill, covered, over medium heat or broil 4 in. from the heat for 6-7 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 160°F.  Serve with salsa. (Like I said above, I used my George Foreman Grill to cook the pork chops)

Greek Pizzas

I LOVE Greek food!  If we order out, I do make my usual rounds of Italian and Mexican, but Greek is also a very integral part to the rotation.  I've been eating Greek food since I was about 9 or 10, as my best friend at the time was from Greece.  Her Mom would make Spinach Pie, and I absolutely loved it!  I have since become very picky about Spinach Pie, and will only eat it at certain places.  One of my friends had her bridal shower the beginning of April at a place called Avli The Little Greek Tavern, in Bayside.  I had the Spinach Pie with Lemon Potatoes, and it was one of the best dishes I've ever tasted!  I highly recommend eating there if you're ever in the area!  Bill, Eoin and I will actually be going back there soon!  This recipe isn't for Spinach Pie, as I am too afraid to recreate the dish, but it is for Greek Pizzas, which just by looking at the picture, made my mouth water!  It's super easy, so there's really no reason to not give this a shot, regardless of how much time you have on your hands!  This particular recipe is from the cook book:  Taste of Home: Comfort Food Diet Cookbook.  I am not following this particular diet.  But if you wanted to, in the beginning of the cookbook it gives you a meal plan.  When I bought it, I bought it so we could eat great comfort meals, without the guilt of all the fat and calories associated with it!  Now that we're a bit more settled into our new home, I finally decided to give this cookbook a shot and try out some of the recipes!  I have about 3 or 4 more recipes I'll be trying out this week, including 1 recipe for the slow-cooker that I never thought of trying before.  As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Yields 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 4 pita breads (6 inches)
• 1 cup reduced-fat ricotta cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 3 medium tomatoes, sliced
• 3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
• chopped Kalamata olives, optional*

Directions:

1. Place pita breads on a baking sheet.  Combine the ricotta cheese and garlic powder; spread over pitas.  Top with spinach, olives, tomatoes, feta cheese and basil.
2. Bake at 400° for 12-15 minutes or until bread is lightly browned.

*not in original recipe