Lightened up: Macaroni and Cheese Cups

March 28th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Recipes - (0 Comments)

As usual, I was browsing Pinterest for recipe ideas, and I saw this mac ‘n cheese recipe with spinach from Emily Bites.

I am picky about my pasta dishes, and don’t typically eat too much pasta. But, I love baked pastas!

Since this recipe is made in a muffin tin, you get these cute little portion sizes (and yes, you may want to eat more than one!). Another benefit is that you get crispy edges, and this dish cooks more quickly. If you don’t like crispy edges, you may want to bake this in a large casserole dish.

macaroni and cheese muffin

I followed Emily’s recipe exactly, except I added more crushed garlic to mine, and I used half gluten free pasta/half regular elbow white pasta.

You can use whatever pasta you like, but I recommend cooking it so that it is barely done as it will continue cooking in the oven.

We ate ours with some leftover chicken, and a side salad. Yum!! I loved it, and Mr. Cyclist said it was OK (he said you could tell it was healthier). I was happy to eat more of it the next day as leftovers ;-)

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When’s the last time you had a Philly Cheesesteak?

February 25th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Eats of the Week - (0 Comments)

What’s wrong with this picture? Haha.

easy cheese

My answer to this question would be… maybe in middle school? I have no idea. It has been forever. My Mom used to cook us that frozen meat and put it all under the broiler. It was delicious.

Since I am not a fan of beef and cheese, I had a modified cheesesteak for dinner. My Dad was kind enough to cook me chicken.

chicken Philly cheesesteak

Then, I topped with loads of lettuce and some spicy sauce.

healthier Philly cheesesteak

I was so excited about the sweet potato fries, that I had already been eating them off my plate before the picture ;-)

baked homemade sweet potato fries

For all of you who are don’t like to eat much white bread, here is a trick I use:

Pick out the fluffy inside of a bun, so that all you have is a bread sandwich “shell” to hold your toppings.

low carb sub roll

Now, compared to my meal, here is my brother’s cheesy less healthy meal. Ugh.

homemade philly cheesesteak

Does not look appetizing to me. Just looks gross. By the way, I was reading the ingredients of the Easy Cheese, and they seem to be a little better now. Easy Cheese is made with cheese, and canola oil now. And, of course, a list of preservatives and chemicals, but it is not as bad as I remember.

We all got excited about Philly Cheesesteaks, and were rushing to get to watch the Oscar’s that this happened:

dropped eggs

Whoops.

When I came home after the Oscar’s, the cats were loving their new Banana Republic shopping bag!

cat in shopping bag

cat in bag

Until tomorrow bloggies!

Going to start working on getting ready to get in my bikini at the end of March when I go to the beach. So, I will be posting some beach body worthy foods and recipe ideas starting Monday!

Until then…

cat in a shopping bag

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Eats this Week: Oat Creations and Spaghetti Squash

February 17th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Eats of the Week - (0 Comments)

This past week i made homemade granola, so I had a small bowl with bananas and almond milk:

granola with almond milk

Up next, I made this antioxidant-rich oatmeal with mixed berries and walnuts:

berry oatmeal with nuts

I added some cinnamon and 1 packet of stevia to even out the bitterness from the berries.

For a snack, I had my favorite ants on a log snack since I had some peanut butter in the house (I usually only have almond butter around).

ants on a log healthy

The night before Valentine’s Day, Mr. Cyclist whipped up some homemade green curry. Again. Yes, once again!

homemade green curry

Served with black rice, avocado, and basil garnish! YUM. We have decided that we are a little tired of those flavors… for now.

I made the same type of spaghetti squash as I did last week because I enjoyed the flavor combinations so much.

healthy spaghetti squash

If I haven’t posted this recipe yet, I will because so far this is my favorite way to cook it. Sun-dried tomatoes and onions! A perfect combination in the squash. I served it with some low fat ricotta for protein.

What did everyone do on Valentine’s Day? I dressed up in red for work that day:

Valentine's Day outfit

For dinner, we made salad with shrimp and avocado:

shrimp and avocado salad

One of my favorite salads!

For a sweet treat, I brought Mr. Cyclist some mats to make s’mores!

healthy s'mores ingredients

Did you know that most all graham crackers contain trans fat? YES, terrible. So, I got these Mi-del graham crackers that are much healthier. The marshmallows are still full of corn syrup, but what can you do?

s'mores healthier

They are pretty fun to make in a toaster oven. No, I do not have a fireplace.

Yesterday morning, Mr. Cyclist walks in the bathroom as I am just rolling out of bed, and says, “I made huevos rancheros”. Haha.

healthy huevos rancheros

Eggs with tomato, onion, spices, avocado on top, and a brown rice wrap!

By the way, I got a new phone, so I now have Instagram. Hence, the reason for some pictures with silly filters. I don’t care if people don’t like it because it is just a fun thing to do! You can find me on Instagram here.

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Chicken Sausage, Peppers, and Onions

January 13th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Recipes - (1 Comments)

When I was a kid, we always used to have sausage and peppers, but I never made it again as an adult. Mostly, I just thought it wasn’t very healthy. But, you can make it packed with vitamins and minerals! The peppers add loads of vitamin C, and the onions add some antioxidants. Believe it or not! Then, I get a chicken sausage to make it as healthy as possible.

And this is what you get:

healthier sausage and peppers

By the way, I really need to get a new camera. If you noticed, all my pictures are crooked because my camera screen is broken. I can’t see what the heck I am doing!

Anyway…

Healthier Sausage and Peppers

Ingredients:

  • 1 large yellow onion (or 2 medium-small), thinly sliced
  • 3 peppers, sliced
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed/minced
  • 1 Tbsp. dried oregano
  • 1 Tbsp. dried basil
  • 1 lb. chicken sausage links
  • 1 1/2 cups good tomato sauce (I had some leftover that was homemade)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Parsley for garnish

Directions:

  1. In a large skillet, add your olive oil and heat on medium. Next, add your onions, and cook for about 5 minutes on medium.
  2. Add your peppers, and cook another 5 minutes. Add your garlic, and seasonings. Cook on medium/low until your vegetables have softened.
  3. Push the vegetables to the sides of the pan, and add your sausage in the middle. Turn every few minutes to brown the sides.
  4. Add your tomato sauce, and cover for another 5-8 minutes.

To serve, you can serve by itself, or over top brown rice or pasta, or a whole grain bread. We loved the taste of the peppers and onions, and wish we made more! Next time, I might double the amount of peppers and onions, or use a little less sausage.

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Sam’s Spinach

December 12th, 2012 | Posted by Nicole in Recipes - (0 Comments)

“I ate a pound of spinach”… said no one ever. Until now.

Mr. Cyclists aka Chef Sam cooked a creamed spinach dish. He started with a 2.5 pound bag of fresh spinach from Costco. And yes, at meal time he ate quite a bit of spinach. I don’t really know if it was a whole pound!

Anyway, he based his recipe off of this Food Wishes YouTube site:

Don’t freak out. We did not use all this butter. Sam reduced it to a total of 2 tablespoons (or slightly less) in this recipe. He also used whole milk instead of cream, and added some extra fresh chopped garlic. Everything else was pretty much the same!

And, it turned out delicious!

We ate it with some homemade salmon croquettes.

Look at those chunks of garlic. Mmm.

What we realized is that the spinach to sauce ratio is fairly healthy. You are able to eat a lot of healthy greens, and much less creamy sauce.

Do you have any favorite cooked spinach recipes?

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Light Baked French Toast

December 3rd, 2012 | Posted by Nicole in Recipes - (3 Comments)

I rarely make french toast since it takes a while if you are baking it in the oven. But, when I do make it, get ready for some deliciousness!

I took a bite of my piece already!

You can use any type of bread as long as it is crusty. I put in a slice of Ezekiel bread for myself. But, this was mostly white Italian style bread. You could do the entire dish with Ezekiel bread if you wanted! And the great part is that you can put the bread in the casserole still partially frozen.

Half Ezekiel, half white bread here.

Light Baked French Toast

Serves 3–You can easily double this and make in a 9×13 pan instead.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups skim milk (or any milk you prefer)
  • 4 egg (could use some egg whites if you want even lighter)
  • 1 Tbsp. good vanilla
  • 2 tsp. ground cinnamon, and then some for dusting on top
  • 1 tsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. butter or Earth Balance to grease the bottom and sides of pan, PLUS 2 tsp. butter for the top of the casserole
  • Half a loaf of crusty bread (whatever you prefer)–preferably, a natural bread
  • pinch of salt

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
  2. In a small square baking dish, grease the bottom and sides with your butter or Earth Balance.
  3. Slice your bread in 1-1.5 inch slices. If the bread slices are already sliced, then layer in double slices. Add the bread to the baking dish and make sure it is compactly arranged. You can cut up a few cube slices and stick in the empty spots of the casserole to keep everything in place.
  4. Whisk your eggs, vanilla, milk, and cinnamon. Pour over top of your bread in the baking dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon and a tiny pinch of salt.
  5. With 1 tsp. sugar, dust over top of the french toast. Cut tiny slices of butter/Earth Balance and place on top of the french toast.
  6. Bake 45-60 minutes until all the liquid is cooked or absorbed and the top has become lightly golden.

Serve with real maple syrup, fruit, fruit compote, agave, or honey! You can easily make variations on this with bananas, or other fruits, or pecans, etc.

Yum yum yum. The reason this recipe is lighter is because I cut out the heavy cream, reduced the butter significantly, and reduced the sugar to only 5 grams of sugar for the entire recipe.

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