Friday, February 22, 2013

Recipe #5 - Brandon's Chicken Florentine





Ingredients:
  • 2 ounces Uncooked Spaghetti
  • 1 ounce Baby Spinach
  • 1 4oz Chicken Breast (Boneless/Skinless)
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon Parmesan Cheese 












 


Directions:

First, clean chicken breast of all excess fat that may be on the meat.  For this recipe, I wanted to give my chicken a nice garlic flavor.  I minced up a handful of garlic cloves and placed the raw chicken breasts in a freezer bag with the garlic and some olive oil.  After making sure the chicken was covered with the oil and garlic mixture, I let it sit in the refrigerator for around 2 hours.  Once I removed the chicken from the freezer bag, I wiped off all of the garlic from the chicken before cooking.  Now, sear chicken breast in hot skillet with non-stick cooking spray briefly on both sides just to get a nice golden brown color.  Finish chicken in the oven at 350°F until an internal temperature of 165°F or above is reached.  Chicken and any other kind of poultry must be cooked to this internal temperature for safe consumption.

While chicken is in the oven, boil the 2 ounces of uncooked spaghetti until done (approximately 7 minutes).  I use a little olive oil in my boiling water so that the pasta doesn't stick together.  Also while the chicken is finishing up in the oven, take this time to wilt your spinach.  Get your pan hot and spray with non-stick cooking spray (I like using the spray because it has zero calories).  Once hot, add your spinach in and just cook until wilted.  Lastly, drain the pasta.  If you are making large quantities, note that 2 ounces of uncooked pasta equals out to approximately 5 ounces cooked.

Now that all items are cooked, mix together the pasta, spinach and olive oil.  Sprinkle the top of the dish with the Parmesan cheese and top with the chicken cut into desired sized pieces.  This dish is also great with grape tomatoes mixed in as well, I just didn't happen to have any on hand.  Also, the reasoning for the large ingredient quantities shown in the pictures is because I made this recipe for 5 servings, my lunches for the rest of the week.

I hope y'all enjoy this light little lunch as much as I did!


Serving Size = Entire Recipe     Calories per serving = 377


Happy dieting everyone!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!

I haven't been on this blog like I originally told myself I was going to be.  I will definitely be trying to do so more.  I really wanted to put a recipe up this week, but my two days off have been busy so far, and with today being my last day off, I must devote it to my beautiful wife, it being Valentine's Day and all.

I hope everyone is going strong on their dieting.  Today would normally be a hard one for me, as my wife would usually be getting me a bag of those oh-so-delicious Reese hearts.  I've told her...NO CANDY, and she's sticking to that!

Surprisingly, I haven't had many urges to cheat.  Sure I see something every now and then that really looks delicious, but I know what i'm fighting so hard for and I don't wanna give up that fight.  I'm in this fight till the end.  My weight is getting K.O.'d this time....not me.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Valentine's Day!  Happy Dieting!!!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Recipe #4


Brandon's Chicken Parmesan





Ingredients:
  • 2 oz Uncooked Spaghetti
  • 1/2 cup Pasta Sauce
  • 1 4oz Chicken Breast (Boneless/Skinless)
  • 2 Tbsp Croutons (finely crumbled)
  • 1/8 cup Fat-Free Mozzarella Cheese












Directions:

Place chicken breast, nice side down, in between two pieces of plastic wrap.  With a meat mallet, pound chicken breast until thin.  In a food processor, use the blade attachment to finely crumble 2 Tbsp worth of croutons (I did two whole bags so I can have some ready for future uses).  Coat the flattened chicken breast with the crouton crumbs.  (I chose croutons instead of regular bread crumbs because they already have a nice Italian seasoning to them.)  Sear chicken breast in hot skillet with non-stick cooking spray briefly on both sides just to get a nice golden brown color.  Finish chicken in the oven at 350°F for 15 minutes.

While chicken is in the oven, boil the 2oz of uncooked spaghetti until done (approximately 7 minutes).  Heat up 1/2 cup of your favorite pasta sauce (I used Hunts Four Cheese Sauce, which is 60 calories per 1/2 cup).  To plate, lay down your finished spaghetti, use 3/4 of the sauce to top your spaghetti.  Next lay the chicken breast on top of the pasta and sauce.  Place the remaining 1/4 of the sauce on top of the chicken breast and finish with the 1/8 cup of fat-free mozzarella cheese.  (Yes, I know I didn't actually put Parmesan cheese in the crumb mixture, i'm trying to keep the calorie count as low as possible.  TRUST ME, it tastes AMAZING even with it not in there!!!)

I hope y'all enjoy this delicious dish of comfort food as much as I did!  This is going to become one of my frequented go-to recipes for eating healthy.  My favorite dish I've made thus far.

Serving Size = Entire Recipe     Calories per serving = 432


Happy dieting everyone!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Superbowl Snack


Tortilla Pizzas


I am having two of these for my Superbowl snack.  Just took 1 tortilla shell, 1/8 cup pizza sauce, 1/4 cup Fat-Free Mozzarella Cheese and 1 small can of mushrooms.  Total Calories = 210 each

Hope everyone has a good time watching the game and everyone has a safe and happy ending to their weekend!

Tough Week

Hello all,

This week for some reason has been a tough one.  I have been hitting my diet extremely hard since I've started, but for some reason, this week has really been a challenge.  Although I really love my pasta dish that I made this week, it just doesn't seem to be enough to fill me up for one whole meal.  I really love pasta, but I think it's just going to have to be a rare occasion meal, as it is just too many calories for such small portions.  I could be having a couple chicken breasts and a couple sides with it and get the same amount of calories that I am getting in my pasta dish and feel so much fuller.

Last night I broke down a little bit and had a Reese Snowman that's been taunting me in the fridge since Christmas.  Reese cups are definitely my weakness.  It's like the only candy I like.  It was like 700 calories just by itself, so my 1,000 calorie/day diet got blown yesterday.

I still struggle constantly with my longing for pizza.  It is the one food that I just cannot shake to do away with.  While I love the portobello version of the pizza, it's still just not cutting it.  Tonight for the Super Bowl I am going to try and make a pizza on a soft tortilla shell.  I got this idea from the inmates at work, because this is how they make pizzas all the time and they say they are really good.  It looks as if I will be able to make decent size little pizzas for around 200-250 calories a piece.  Hopefully this is what will satisfy these extreme pizza cravings I've been having.

I really hope this next week will be better, and I know one day is not going to hurt me as it was only turned into a 1600 calorie day, but still.  I set out on this diet to never cheat this time.  I've cheated on my diets so many times and it's always led to an epic failure and I feel so strong this time in my diet.  I can't let anything stop me.  I HAVE TO DO THIS!!!  I GOT THIS!!!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Recipe #3


Alfredo Substitute Pasta
(with Shrimp, Mushrooms & Tomatoes)


Ever long for that very tasty yet OH SO FATTENING plate of pasta with alfredo sauce poured all over it?  I know I do.  That's why I came up with this recipe.  It helps you with that alfredo pasta craving you've been having and tastes great too!  I hope y'all enjoy!

Ingredients:
  • 2oz uncooked spaghetti
  • 1/4 cup Low Fat Ricotta Cheese
  • 5 - 31/40 raw shrimp
  • 1 baby portobello mushroom (sliced)
  • 3 grape tomatoes (cut in halves)
  • 1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
  • Chives (for garnish)
Directions:



 1. Take the 2oz of uncooked spaghetti and place in boiling water and cook till done (approx 7 min)





  2. Slice up one baby portobello mushroom and slice 3 grape tomatoes in half






3. In a small saucepan, pour in a small amount of olive oil and wait until hot.  At that time, add 5 of the 31/40 shrimp to the hot pan.






4. Sear the shrimp on both sides until shrimp is fully cooked.






5. At this time, add both mushrooms and tomatoes to the pan with the shrimp and cook briefly.






6. At this time, in a separate bowl, add enough water to the 1/4 cup of Low Fat Ricotta Cheese to make it a thin sauce.  Remove shrimp, mushrooms and tomato mixture from heat and add the ricotta cheese mixture.


7. Immediately add the spaghetti to the mixture and cook until thoroughly heated (will not take long).  Finally, add 1 Tbsp of Parmesan cheese to the top and garnish the top with chives to complete this mouth watering and healthy pasta dish!

Serving Size = Entire Recipe     Calories per serving = 372