Eat This, Not That: Ultimate BLT

Occasionally, and only occasionally, I will pick up a different healthy recipe book to cook with. Today I tried something from "Cook This, Not That" from the "Eat This, Not That" series.

This is called The Ultimate BLT Sandwich

It was all kinds of awesome. ALL KINDS. Such a simple addition with the egg, but it made this sandwich something really different. I switched regular bacon for turkey bacon to cut even more calories and fat.

Breakdown:
412 Calories
34 g carbohydrates
23 g fat
21 g protein
2 g fiber (using whole wheat bread next time!)
826 mg sodium

Cost per serving $1.98

VS the Arby's Market Fresh BLT at 880 calories, 46 grams of fat, 1740 mg of sodium and $4.73

I'd type out the whole recipe but it is really simple. Make it as you would a normal BLT, but use 2 slices of turkey bacon, 1 tbsp LIGHT mayonnaise, and add a fried egg. Fry your egg using a spray or 2 of cooking oil - no need for lots of grease.

Oh, and if you're wondering what happens with that yolk - when you cut the sandwich down the middle, the yolk pours out and you dip your sandwich into it. mmmmmm...

Bran-ana Bread

Not much to say - it was simple to make and I loved it! I whipped it up while the previews were playing for the DVD we watched last night. I made it in my bread maker, as always. This was a great purchase. Perfect bread every time.
Per slice:
174 calories
6.2 g total fat
6 g protein
27 g carbohydrate
3.5 g fiber
159 mg sodium

Taco of the Town Salad

Okay, I seriously impressed myself. Really. I felt so fancy eating this, haha. See the recipe for details, but the home made lime salsa and whole wheat tortilla bowl is what made this a restaurant-worthy salad. I omitted the avocado because my husband did the groceries and bought un-ripe avocados, but in the end I realized omitting the avocado saves you nearly 100 calories and this still tastes awesome without it. The recipe looks long but don't be scared off of the ingredient list - I really only had to purchase about 5-7 ingredients, many of the same ingredients are used throughout the recipe.

My impressive tortilla bowl in the making:

You can do this with any salad, really. It holds up well. Just take a tortilla, lightly brush with olive oil and sprinkle with taco seasoning or herbs that best fit your salad. Fold the tortilla into an oven safe dish that is a bit too small so it crinkles and is deep enough to form a bowl - I used a disposable pie plate that I crumpled up to give it some shape. Bake in an oven at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. It will still be soft when you remove it, but it crisps as it cools.

Taco of the Town Salad (WITHOUT avocado)

calories = 491
fat = 9.5
protein = 35
carbohydrate = 56
fiber = 10
sodium = 738

Cheap Healthy Good

Here's a website that I stumbled across and love..

Cheap, Healthy, Good.

Here are a few recipes I tried so far..

Pasta with Asparagus and Mushrooms (recipe here)

Curried Brown Rice with Tomatoes and Peas (recipe here)

Creamy Parmesan Orzo (recipe here)

Shockolate Cheesecake

For dessert I made Shocklate Cheesecake. It tasted AMAZING but it cracked something fierce. It didn't taste like a low fat dessert at all. I was going to top it with raspberries to cover up the cracks but my raspberries went moldy. I hate how fragile they are this time of year.

Per Slice:

291 Calories
9.3 g fat
10 g protein
44 g carbohydrate
1.3 g fiber
208 mg sodium

(keep in mind cheesecake is usually 500+ calories per slice, and around 20 g of fat - that makes this very good in comparison and uses NO artificial sweeteners)

Thai Kwon Dough

Tonight I picked "Thai Kwon Dough". Instead of pizza sauce you use a home made Thai peanut sauce. It only occurred to me after assembling my pizza that this was really weird. Actually everything about it was weird. Shredded carrots and bean sprouts on pizza, really?

As it was cooking I thought "oh gosh, I'm not gonna like this at all".

Well - I am happy to report that I LOVED it. I can't really even explain the taste. It was like eating a Thai food dish, just in pizza form. If you were craving pizza, you wouldn't go for this - but Thai food? Yes.

Okay can I stop rambling and explain with pics? yes, I think so.

The dough (so much better this time - made in my bread maker):

The sauce:

The toppings:

The slices:

The nutrition (per slice):

220 calories
9.5 g fat
13 g protein
22 g carbohydrate
4 g fiber
442 mg sodium

Deviled In Disguise and Chic To Be Greek Dip

Tonight I made 2 appetizer-style recipes from the cookbook. One is an old favourite and one is new. I am using both as mid-afternoon snacks, and add-ons to my lunches and/or dinners.

Up first is the new recipe - Deviled In Disguise.

Yep, deviled eggs. The recipe calls for smoked salmon and I was nervous because I wasn't even sure if I like smoked salmon. I try to stick to the recipes as closely as possible to give a fair review - and that seemed like a pretty major ingredient to omit, so I went for it. I'm so glad I did! There is only a teeny, tiny bit and it makes the eggs taste awesome. Oh, this also goes down in history as one of the easiest and fastest recipes of all time. After the eggs were boiled and cooled, these took about 5 minutes to make.

Per deviled egg:

46 calories
3 g fat
3 g protein
1 g carbohydrate
0 g fiber
103 mg sodium

This is my old favourite: Chic To Be Greek Dip
This is made with white beans, sour cream, dill, garlic and lemon juice. It is like a lemony-hummus. Then you top it with chopped veggies and feta. It makes a much, much larger batch than this - but I just separated this out for my serving tonight. I only add the fresh veggies and feta right before serving, so I couldn't show you the whole bowl it makes.
for 1/3 cup:

100 calories
3.5 g fat
4 g protein
13 g carbohydrate
3.2 g fiber
261 mg sodium

Rome On The Range

This is a very yummy soup - almost more of a stew, made with meatballs in a tomato and roasted red pepper base. To be honest I found it very time consuming for a soup. Between making the meatballs and roasting the tomatoes and peppers it did take some time. It tasted so good though, so I will make it again - just not on a week night this time!

Rome on the Range (3/4 cup)

184 calories
7.8 g fat
15 g protein
16 carbohydrate
2.9 g fiber
440 mg sodium

A-Lo-Fat Hawaiian Pizza

Do you have any food traditions? I do. A lot. I wish so many of my traditions didn't revolve around food, but I figure I just have to make them healthier.

Exhibit A : Watching Lost (or other favourite TV show) and eating pizza. The two go hand-in-hand. My husband and I make our own pizza from scratch, so it really helps the entire night be an "event". I look forward to it all day.

So as you may know, the new season of Lost started on Tuesday and I figured this recipe would be perfect for it. The dough is whole wheat and flax, so it helps make this thin-crust pizza pretty filling.

Nutrition breakdown per slice:

150 calories
5 g fat
9 g protein
21 g carbohydrate
2.6 g fiber
480 mg sodium

Spring Chickens

Okay, so I seriously just finished eating this and I had to post. This is a full on, five star recipe.

Spring Chickens (healthy chicken spring rolls)

I'm just gonna give you pictures because they do all the talking.

I'm not a fan of changing recipes for reviewing purposes, but I did not add the monterey jack cheese this recipe called for. In my mind, cheese just does not belong in spring rolls, but now that I've tasted this I can understand how that would work.

The recipe calls for a low-fat peanut dipping sauce, and Canadians: this PC Blue Menu sauce works amazingly well at only 25 calories per tablespoon!

Here is the breakdown for the recipe, minus the cheese!

For one roll (or 2 pieces, I cut mine in half):
146 calories
5.3 g fat
17 g carbohydrates
2.2 g fiber
8 g protein
426 mg sodium

Britney's Spears

Okay despite the name, this recipe is awesome. Super simple and quick so I am going to keep the blog short! (also, I have to go to bed!)

Roasted asparagus with garlic, balsamic vinegar and feta. YUM

For about 125 g (or 1/3 of what you see on that plate)

55 calories
3.5 g fat
3 g protein
5 g carbohydrate
2 g fiber
152 mg sodium

Kernel Austin

Once again, I have a fair amount of food blogging to catch up on. I made this today though and I just had to report immediately.

I overlooked this recipe many, many times but recently heard a lot of people raving about it. I had most of the ingredients on hand so I decided to try it out this afternoon.

This is a corn and black bean salad served cold. What makes it so amazing is the dressing used. It is a mixture of lime juice, barbeque sauce, garlic, chili seasoning and spices. It is delicious. The corn is lightly browned in a skillet prior to chilling, which gives it a different texture.

This would be an awesome side dish at a summer pot luck or BBQ (one can dream about summer already, right?). I have a feeling this recipe will be in heavy rotation throughout the warmer months.

I have tons of leftovers, so I will be enjoying the rest this week.

Here is a very similar recipe that one of the authors of the book uploaded to youtube - shows you just how quick it is to make! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=1H83j3zfBhU&feature=channel

Kernel Austin (1/2 cup serving)

99 calories
2.6 g of fat
3 g protein
17 g carbohydrate
3.5 g fiber
94 mg sodium

Tinbucktuna

Hey everyone. This entire week, my plan for tonight has been to stay home and try out this tuna casserole recipe. I know, sounds kind of boring, but I've had a very rough week and all I wanted was some quiet time and comfort food!

My mom always made tuna noodle casserole for me when I was a kid, and though I still really like it, it doesn't really fit into my meal plans now. So ever since I stumbled upon this recipe in Eat Shrink and Be Merry, I have been tempted to try it. I have also come across a few message boards and blogs about this recipe book, and all of them seem to rave about this particular recipe.

Yum. I loved it. The original recipe does not specify whole wheat rotini, but I'm so used to using whole wheat pasta so that's what I grabbed.

This is really creamy and cheesy and really, it tasted like it was incredibly high in calories. I'll be honest, I actually calculated the recipe myself, ingredient by ingredient to make sure I wasn't consuming more than the 349 calories per serving (as stated in the recipe book). I did give myself enough room to have 2 servings for dinner so it was a HUGE bowl, I ate 4 hours ago and I'm still stuffed.

Tinbucktuna

349 calories
8.7 grams of fat
24 grams of protein
14 grams of carbohydrates
2.6 grams of fiber (5.6 with whole wheat pasta)
690 mg of sodium

Dilly Whoppers

So I worked out for 2 hours today and I'm exhausted. I do weird things when I am tired. I tend to forget my locker combination, get off on the wrong floor of my apartment building, and screw up recipes, apparently.

I wasn't going to post this until I tasted it. I don't know if this looks how it is supposed to look like. These are salmon burgers with dill, feta and lemon. I somehow thought you were supposed to cook the salmon fillets and make the burger patties with the cooked salmon. No - you make the patties with raw, chopped salmon. I realized this as I was making the patties (with the cooked fish) and felt like a bit of an idiot, but threw them back in the oven for a few minutes for everything to "set". I want to try this the correct way, because even with my major error this was so delicious.

I added tartar sauce, a slice of tomato, lettuce, and placed it on a dempster's whole wheat bun. Heaven.

Here's the nutrition:

236 calories
10.4 g of fat
26 g protein
9 g carbohydrate
1.1 g fiber
333 mg sodium

* note, the dempsters bun adds about 140 calories and obviously changes the rest of the nutrition info. This is per patty.

As always, you can visit www.eatshrinkandbemerry.com to take a look at the cookbook (not affiliated)

Roastess With The Mostess and Spud Lite

This was so delicious. I am usually guilty of drowning poultry in gravy, but the flavouring with this roast made it unnecessary. I used lots of lemon and fresh rosemary, and rubbed it right underneath the skin. I stuffed the juiced lemon into the bird's cavity, as per directions, and it seemed to help cook the bird very moist. I will make this again, definitely.

Roastess with the Mostess (1/4 chicken)

222 calories
7.3 g fat
33 g protein
5 g carbohydrates
0.4 g fiber
417 mg sodium (which is easily cut if you do not season the bird with salt)

Spud Lite

I went into this recipe expecting not to like it. I'm really not much of a potato fan. Give me pasta, bread, rice any day. Potatoes I can leave. Anyways, the whole point of me cooking through this book is to try new things, and I had some fresh herbs I needed to use up so this recipe seemed fitting.

I am so glad I picked this! Wow it is amazing. There is a balsamic vinaigrette used along with the herbs to flavour it. I think the balsamic took away from the starchy taste of potatoes, and I felt absolutely no need to salt them. Glad I went out on a limb, because I will make this again, without a doubt.

Spud Lite (1/8 of recipe - about 1/4 lb)

148 calories
3.5 g of fat
3 g protein
27 g carbohydrates
2.8 g fiber
81 mg sodium

Better Butter Chicken

Hi everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a fantastic start!

I'm tired tonight and getting ready for bed so this is a short blog.

I made "Better Butter Chicken"

This recipe is a total score. I will make this often. Guess how much butter you use? 2 tablespoons - for FIVE servings. If you've ever made butter chicken before... there is a lot more than that used.

Keep in mind this isn't going to taste exactly like your regular indian takeout. You pay for that yummy-ness in calories. This recipe is delicious in its own way! Definitely reminiscent of butter chicken, but you do know it is healthier - I'm not going to lie to you guys! Now the fun part.. I can actually post this recipe as the authors have posted it online. Enjoy! PS - you can totally make this with chicken of any kind, even leftovers, in the recipe book they suggest using a whole roast chicken (skin removed and diced) so that's what I used.

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Main/Chicken/recipe.html?dishid=8423

Nutrition info: Per serving: 314 calories, 12 g total fat (4.8 g saturated fat), 33 g protein, 19 g carbohydrate, 4 g fibre, 120 mg cholesterol, 534 mg sodium

Poppy Love

This is a lemon poppy seed loaf. Not my usual snack/dessert of choice, but sounded refreshing and different. Plus I'm on a real lemon kick lately.

This was so incredibly easy to make!

Mix:
Pour (even if you don't have a bread maker, it is super-simple):

and it is done!

When it is ready, it gets a beautiful dark, somewhat sticky crust and the inside is so soft and moist. I love it. There is not any chopping, sifting, or weighing in this recipe. It is no-fail baking, and I am going to use this as a go-to when I have company coming over.

You can slice the loaf any way you want, but 12 slices will give you this breakdown:

Poppy Love (per slice)

161 calories
5.3 g of fat
2.8 g saturated fat
4 g protein
27 g carbohydrates
1.1 g fiber
197 mg sodium

Goody Two Chews

So I ventured into the section of the recipe book called "A Sweet Carb Named Desire". I browsed around for a good snack, and this one caught my eye right away - Goody Two Chews:




Granola, peanut butter, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice, cranberries.. could you ask for anything more? I just wish I had discovered this recipe in the fall! This was very, very simple. Mix it all up, put it in muffin tins and bake!




The recipe makes 12 - which is the perfect size for me, as I am just cooking for myself (husband doesn't like cranberries!) It is the perfect blend of sweet (use REAL maple syrup) and tangy with the bits of cranberry. The peanut butter isn't very strong and I like it that way. Now, the tops get nice and crunchy but the underside/middle is my favourite part! It is soft and chewy - very much like a cookie.

These are a tiny bit higher on the calories than I would like - but 1 is very filling, and paired with some yogurt or fruit on the side would make a great mid-afternoon snack. They are nice and low in sodium, and give you a good amount of protein and a little bit of fiber (see below)

Goody Two Chews

124 calories, 3.2 g fat, 4 g protein, 22 g carbohydrates, 1.2 g fiber, 65 mg sodium

Glad Thai-Dings

I am really procrastinating right now. I need to clean my apartment and get things ready for tomorrow. Oh well.

Today I went out to lunch with my mom and went to a buffet. Imagine how fun THAT was to track. I just had various salads, a cup of soup and a big plate of fruit though. Just a lot to keep a mental note of for later.

I watched My Sisters Keeper today and cried like a baby. Then brought my kittens into bed and had a nap with them. I've pretty much been hanging out online since then - aside for some cooking, which is the point of this blog after all! Glad Thai Dings is a recipe for meatballs in a peanut-ginger sauce.

You saw my meatballs I made on Friday, and I used the same ones. Great way to use them up. This recipe calls for Hoisin Sauce. I didn't know what to look for - so if anyone else is confused, I found it in the Asian section of my grocery store and this is what it looks like.

I found it to have a very strong, salty taste. Almost like soya sauce but with a richer flavour. To be honest, if i remake this recipe I will use less of the hoisin. I found it over powered the peanut and coconut flavours of the recipe. It was still enjoyable! Quick and easy to make - something very different, to get me out of my food rut, too. I served it over stir fried bell peppers, onions, sugar snap peas and bamboo shoots. It could also easily be served as finger foods (well, on toothpicks) at a social gathering.

Glad Thai Dings (per meatball)

46 calories

2.4 g fat

4 g protein

3 g carbohydrates

0.2 g fiber

125 mg sodium