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