A Three-fer

I feel terrible, my dear readers!  It's been a bit hectic around here and I haven't posted anything in quite some time.  So to make up for it, I'll give you not one, not two, but THREE meal updates for the price of one - FREE! :)

First up, breakfast, since it is breakfast time right now after all.  I made this amazing omelet this morning and it is sure to stay in my repertoire for years to come!  I started with this recipe from simplylivinghealthy.org - didn't tweak much.  I made Matt's with almond butter, but I'm having an almond aversion, so I put peanut butter on mine.  We only had about 3 salvageable strawberries, so that was the topping (it ended up being plenty for both omelets!) and I only had packets of stevia in the raw, so I used half a packet in each omelet in place of the liquid stevia, and we left out the whipped cream (I've never been a fan).  You could certainly, as the original post says, substitute whatever you want in the fillings/toppings.  If you can't do bananas, I'm sure berries would be great with the nutbutter or sunbutter of your choice inside.  Or mix it up tropical style and add some mango mixed with coconut nectar on the top, and fill with berries and unsweetened flaked coconut on the inside.  Your imagination is the limit!

Of course after breakfast comes two snacks lunch! Actually, I made these for dinner first, but forgot to take a picture, so you get the photo of my lunch from hanging out with my sister doing my closet reorganization. 

This was super easy and delicious (both times!) - the salad is just a bagged spring mix, topped with cucumbers, green beans, carrots and fresh red bell peppers, drizzled with a little olive oil.  The meaty goodness in the middle is a Spring Leek and Lemon Chicken Patty from healthfulpursuit.com - so tasty!  I only modified two-ish things in this recipe: 1) I used 2 whole large eggs instead of 1 egg + 1/4c egg whites - I was too lazy to separate them, even with the cool trick I posted a while back.  It worked out perfectly.  2) I rarely measure spices in cooking - my husband taught me that you can't really mess up cooking like you can baking, so being super exact doesn't matter.  That said I zested an entire lemon (and a little bit of one finger - oops!), and just threw in something that looked good to me for the other spices.  That recipe yielded me 7 patties, which lasted us through several days.  It was a huge hit all around, including as leftovers - I definitely recommend trying this (and anything else Leanne posts at Healthful Pursuit - she's a genius)!

And now for my most creative endeavor since last we met - Chicken Enchiladas!!

My parents were in Aruba last week, so my sister and I split dog-sitting duties for the westies.  I went down to have dinner with my sister & brother-in-law on Wednesday night and we abused borrowed my mom's kitchen to cook these Mexican dreams, which were a special request from my brother-in-law, since the siblings' kitchen is currently being massively renovated.  Although we probably should have planned better (I didn't arrive to start cooking until 730pm, and we didn't eat until 9, even with my sister's help!), these babies were well worth the wait, especially for my sister, who added dairy back into her diet (she's been slowly adding potentially allergenic/sensitive foods back in since her elimination diet started earlier this year) just for the occasion.  

This was a HUGE experiment on a variety of levels, so I was glad it turned out so well.  I'll start with the recipe and then give you my thoughts on the first attempt, with suggestions for how to learn from my mistakes :)

Chicken Enchiladas

• 1/4 lb queso blanco, cubed *see anecdote!
• 1-2 cups half & half
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup salsa (I used Green Mountain Gringo, medium, but I'm sure freshly made would be awesome) *see note
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken (I was lazy and bought mine at the prepared foods bar at Whole Foods!)
• 1 cup shredded mexican cheese blend
• 7 brown rice tortillas (I used Food for Life brand)
• 2 tbsp olive oil, divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350* and lightly grease a 9x13 baking pan (I used olive oil).
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine queso blanco and half & half, stirring frequently, until queso is melted and well mixed.
3. In another saucepan over medium heat, combine cream cheese, sour cream & salsa.  Cook, stirring until melted and well mixed.  Stir in chicken and mexican cheese and set aside.
4. In a large skillet, heat 1tbsp oil and cook each tortilla about 20 seconds on each side, until pliable.  Add remaining oil if it gets too depleted.
5. Spread half of queso mixture on the bottom of the greased pan.  Fill each tortilla with a portion of the chicken mixture and roll up.  Place on top of queso in pan.  Top tortillas with remaining queso mixture.  Bake for 15 minutes, or until tortillas just begin to lightly brown.  Serve immediately, preferably with guacamole.

*anecdote: I had never used queso blanco before.  I tried to find a "dip" version of this pre-made because it was already so late when I was shopping, but every brand I looked at had something in it my sister and/or I couldn't eat.  So I bought a pound of queso blanco in the ethnic aisle at Wegmans and figured I'd make my own.  I cubed it to help it melt more easily (ha!) and it still took almost 90 minutes to melt enough to work!  If you try queso blanco, which is a solid cheese but delicious, I would definitely shred it finely first rather than just cubing.  You might want to sub shredded monterey jack or crumbled queso fresco (which is softer) instead, though, since I still don't know how long it would take to melt the shredded queso blanco, and I'd hate to see you wait 90 minutes for your cheese to melt!

*note: My sister has not yet added tomatoes back into her diet, so I actually took a third of the ingredients and made her her own pot of filling without the salsa.  We just added garlic and some red onion to hers with a little cumin, which she loved.  I also used a little half and half in hers to thin it out like the watery salsa did to ours.

Those are my sister's enchiladas - the BIL's and mine were a little pinker inside from the salsa.  Everyone loved them, and they were SO filling!!  We only made about 7 enchiladas, which I worried wouldn't be enough, but we even had leftovers for the next day!  I had a little extra filling of my sister's variety, so I made her a quesadilla (brown rice tortilla filled with chicken mixture, folded in half and baked at 350* for 10 minutes) to save for the next day's lunch, since she couldn't have the leftover enchiladas with salsa.  I am happy to report that my sister's dairy-trial-by-fire was a rousing success - no bad reaction whatsoever!  Hooray for her health!

My sister made the guac, and I can't remember exactly what she put in it, so I can't give you the recipe right now, but for my version, I usually use 1 avocado, juice of 1/2 a lime, cumin, 1-2 crushed garlic cloves, salt & pepper.  I know my sister used some red onion, which was a nice addition - surprising to me, because I normally hate red onion.  Maybe it's the pregnancy taste buds...  If I can find out her basic recipe, I'll post it later.

(Thanks to my sister, too, for the photos of the enchiladas!  She took them with her actual camera, as opposed to me using my phone + Instagram to make things look remotely presentable.)

The husband and I made quesadillas (no queso sauce!) later that week with the leftover ingredients.  It was WAY faster, and just as tasty.  Feel free to adapt to whatever you like/suits your time frame.

There you have it, friends.  I hope that makes up for the dreadful span of time I left you all hanging!  Happy healthy eating! :)

Wins and Losses and THREE Recipes

My, oh my, do I have a lot to share with you today! :)  I really just wanted to share my wins, but I've been promising the ice cream maker story (which I count as a loss), so I figured I owed it to you.  So to start us off - my week, in wins and losses:

Wins - first good voice lesson in 3 weeks (I was suffering from laryngitis but it finally cleared up), manageably full week of work, meetings & social things, lots of kicking baby happening, a much needed visit to Dr. Reiff (toxicity, some issue with my large intestine - who knew?, histamine reaction - my hands have been swelling & itchy on our nightly walks around the neighborhood, and my usual stress reaction), [edited to add:] a super fun dinner date at Whole Foods with my awesome little sister, and one and a half delicious recipes accomplished!  so stoked about that last one.

Losses - pregnancy hormones & ailments came together in a fit of sobbing last night (which will undoubtedly bring the return of the dreaded laryngitis) over my sciatic pain on my right side, a spider greeting me with a web in the hallway right outside my bedroom door this morning (and I had no choice but to kill him :/ ), 4 pounds gained since my last visit to the midwife a month ago (which is technically only a half-loss, since that's right on track, but I was hoping to make up for the 8 pound gain from the month before - oops!), one moderately failed (although Matt doesn't agree) attempt at frozen yogurt.

Although the losses paragraph looks longer, I actually did have more wins than losses this week, so that's a good thing!

Now on to the part I know you're all waiting for anyway - the food!

We'll start with the loss, and save the absolute BEST for last.

Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt with Carob Chips

I started with this recipe from healthyfoodforliving.com and per usual, tweaked it for my own edification.

I ended up with:

Ingredients:

•  3 cups plain nonfat Greek yogurt *see note
• 1/2 cup room temperature natural peanut butter*, creamy or crunchy (I used crunchy for extra texture)
• 1/2 tsp truvia (then added another 1/2 tsp just to my bowl which helped)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used Trader Joe's alcohol-free version)
• 2 big handfuls of unsweetened carob chips (from the bulk aisle at Whole Foods)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine yogurts, peanut butter, truvia, and vanilla extract. Stir until well-mixed.
2. Two options: (I used option a.)

a) Freeze according to ice cream machine manufacturer’s instructions, folding in the carob chips after churning. Serve immediately as soft-serve, or transfer to an air-tight container in the freeze until “ripened” (hardened).
b) Fold in the carob chips. Spoon mixture into an air-tight container and place in the freezer. For soft-serve consistency, serve the frozen yogurt after about 2 hours of freezing. Otherwise, let the fro yo sit in the freezer until firm (at least 5 hours). If you are having trouble scooping the fully-frozen yogurt, let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

*note: I'm sure you could also use any non-dairy yogurt of your choice if you're vegan, although I haven't put that to the test.
*note: I'm assuming if you're looking at this recipe at all, you're not allergic to peanuts.  If you are, feel free to attempt it with almond or other nut/seed butter of your choice, but know that has also not been tested by me.

Three reasons this was a fail in my book, but not Matt's:

1) Our refrigerator STINKS!  Things on the top shelf of the fridge constantly freeze, but things in the freezer don't stay frozen - ice disappears & everything ends up freezer burned and horrific regardless of how it is packaged.  We left the bowl for our ice cream maker in the freezer for 2 whole days (instructions said it should be completely frozen in somewhere from 6-24 hours depending on the freezer)... When I took it out to use it, it still wasn't completely frozen, which impacted the operation of the ice cream maker :(  We ended up having to put the "frozen" yogurt in the freezer to actually freeze it.  After just 24 hours, it was a nearly-impossible-to-scoop block.  Grr.

2) 1/2 tsp was NOT an appropriate amount of sweetener for this recipe.  I'm not sure what would have been better (I'm tempted to try coconut palm sugar next time actually), so I need to experiment with that.  Adding another 1/2 tsp to my two scoops helped a bit, but I still wasn't happy because...

3) I didn't like the peanut butter - Greek yogurt combo.  I think I would have been happier with maybe the Stonyfield Farms plain yogurt for consistency/taste, although it would definitely not have the same protein punch that Greek yogurt has.  I think Greek would be fine in other recipes (fruit flavors, perhaps?) but I didn't love it with the peanut butter.

Matt has been enjoying it I think, but I haven't eaten any more since my first bowl the day after I made it. I'll experiment some more with it, and keep you posted on future developments!

Now for the highlight of my week:

I took my first bite and announced, "I'm awesome!"  (to which Matt responded, "and modest!") :)

Please, if you never try another recipe from this blog, make this for yourself!!! You won't be sorry!  (Of course, I recommend waiting until the weather is a little cooler, since my oven heated up my apartment something dreadful!)

Roasted Eggplant & Zucchini Pizza

• 1 pizza crust (I used Against the Grain's gluten-free three cheese crust)
• 2 cups marinara sauce (approx) - I made my own so see below for that recipe too!
• 1 medium eggplant, cut into 1/4" slices
• 1 small zucchini, cut into 1/4" slices
• olive oil
• turkey pepperoni minis (optional)
• 1-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese* (to taste)
• shredded parmigiano-reggiano cheese* (to taste - I used two "sprinklings")
• dash crushed red pepper (optional - I left it out to test my homemade sauce flavor!)
• dash oregano (optional - same as above)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*F.  Lightly coat veggies in olive oil and lay out on cookie sheets in a single layer.  Roast until lightly browned (about 10 minutes), then turn each piece and continue roasting until other side is also lightly browned (about 10 more minutes). [I roasted my veggies 15 mins each side as the original recipe from Cooking Light recommended, and ended up with about 1/3 completely charred!  Oops!  Adjust for whatever your oven requires and keep a close eye out!]
2. Reduce oven temp to 375*F.  Layer crust with sauce, roasted veggies, pepperoni & cheeses, top with spices & bake 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted and crust is slightly crisp.  (I used a baking stone, but you could use a cookie sheet for soft crust or bake directly on the rack for crisp crust.)
3. ENJOY!! I promise you will!

*note: If you're vegan/dairy-free, feel free to substitute any non-dairy cheese product of your choice.

Easy Tomato Basil Sauce (adapted from the Food Network)

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• Dash cinnamon (this is my favorite part!)
• Dash nutmeg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 fresh basil leaves, chopped

Directions:

1. Coat a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of the oil and warm over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until soft. 
2. Add the crushed tomatoes & spices. Turn the heat up slightly to medium and simmer the sauce for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
3. Stir in the basil and the remaining olive oil. 
4. Toss with spaghetti, if desired - or use for the amazing pizza recipe above! 

I have enough sauce left over that we'll probably put it on brown rice pasta later in the week, and I'm sure it will be just as delicious! :)  Hope you all try & love this as much as I did!  My next experiment is making my own crushed tomatoes instead of using canned.  I'll keep you posted on that too!

Have a great cinnamon weekend!!