Chicken Stuffed with Feta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Chicken Stuffed with Feta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

 

Ingredients:

• crumbled feta cheese (approx. 1 oz. per chicken breast)
• a couple tablespoons of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, thinly sliced
• boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. 
• In a small bowl, combine feta cheese and sliced sun-dried tomatoes.
• Butterfly the chicken breasts.  Stuff with feta-tomato mixture.
• Brush both sides of stuffed breasts with a little bit of oil from the sun-dried tomatoes.  Sprinkle with TSSS.
• Place in baking dish in a single layer and bake for 15 - 20 minutes until cooked through.

ETA on 3/3/11: I did a goat cheese and spinach stuffing.  YUM!

Garlic Green Beans

One of my favorite ways to prepare green beans (or the thinner French haricots verts) is to sauté it in olive oil with garlic.  It's quick, simple and yummy.

Garlic Green Beans

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• green beans, stemmed and washed
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• a couple cloves of garlic, minced (or Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic)

Directions:

• If using large green beans, I like to nuke them for a minute (or blanche them in boiling water) before sautéing, just to soften them up a tad.  If using thinner green beans, or haricots verts, I skip this step.
• In a sauté pan, heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil.
• Toss in the green beans and sauté for a minute or two.
• Add TSSS and minced garlic.  Toss for a few more minutes until the green beans are slightly soft but still crunchy.
• Serve immediately.

Honey Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

This is a basic bread recipe that I normally use to make loaves in my bread machine.  Today I decided to just use the machine's "dough" function, and then take it out and make individual rolls baked in the oven.  They turned out nice and chewy, very different than the texture of the machine loaves.

Most wheat bread recipes use a combination of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour, which yields a lighter, fluffier end product.  This recipe uses 100% whole wheat flour, so the rolls are a little denser and chewier than the traditional dinner roll.  If you're not used to eating 100% whole wheat bread, it may take a little getting used to, but I, personally, love it.

Honey Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
Makes a 2-pound loaf, or 18 - 24 dinner rolls.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
• 2.25 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast

Directions:

• Place ingredients into bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
• Select the "dough" function.
• Once the machine has completed the "dough" function, remove the pan and turn the dough out onto a smooth surface.
• Punch down the dough and knead for a few minutes until the dough is soft and stretchy.
• Divide dough into 18 equal pieces and roll them into balls.
• Place dough balls into muffin pans lightly sprayed with cooking spray.  Lightly spray the tops with cooking spray.
• Loosely cover muffin pans with plastic wrap, then lay a kitchen towel over the top.  Let rest in a warm location to rise for 30 - 45 minutes, until double in volume.
• Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Remove kitchen towel and plastic wrap. Brush tops lightly with milk or egg wash (optional).  Bake in pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes, until tops are golden brown.

Salmon with Balsamic Vinegar

Normally I'd make a balsamic vinegar reduction on the stove top first, and then glaze the salmon with it before baking.  However, with a toddler and a newborn in the house, I just didn't have the time to make the glaze (go figure), so I just drizzled everything directly onto the fillets.  If you have the time, combine the TSSS, lemon juice, and balsamic vinegar in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat and cook until reduced by half, then pour over the salmon fillets before baking.  The flavor of the glaze is much more robust.

Eat more fish!

Salmon with Balsamic Vinegar

Ingredients:

• cooking spray
• wild salmon fillets in individual portions, skinned and de-boned
• balsamic vinegar
• lemon juice
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
• In a small bowl, combine about 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, juice of 1/2 lemon, and TSSS to taste.
• Coat both sides of the fillets with the seasoned mixture and place onto the prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in pre-heated oven for 15 - 20 minutes.
• Drizzle with additional balsamic vinegar before serving if desired.

Baked Tofu Parmigiana

The toddler and I love tofu, but the hubby doesn't.  When I came across this recipe, I thought I'd give it a try and see if hubs even notices that it's tofu. Well, he saw me making it so there was no tricking him involved, but he did eat his entire portion.  ;-) 

Baked Tofu Parmigiana
Adapted from this recipe.


Ingredients:

• cooking spray
• 2 blocks (12 oz. each) of firm or extra firm tofu
• 1 cup-ish whole wheat flour
• 1 cup-ish Egg Beaters
• 1/2 cup-ish whole wheat panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup-ish grated parmesan cheese
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• Tastefully Simple Garlic Bread Seasoning (or other Italian seasoning)
• 1 jar marinara sauce (I use Trader Joe's)
• a cup of part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
• Cut each block of tofu in half width-wise.  Then cut each piece in half again, thick-wise (so they're 1/2 inch thick instead of 1 inch thick).  You should have 8 pieces of tofu.
• Place each piece of tofu between a few layers of paper towels, to remove any excess water.
• Arrange three shallow bowls in an assembly line.  Add whole wheat flour to the first bowl, Egg Beaters to the second bowl, and a 1:1 ratio of whole wheat panko bread crumbs and grated parmesan to the third bowl.  Season the first and third bowls with TSSS and TSGBS.
• One by one, dredge each tofu piece into the whole wheat flour, then dip into the Egg Beaters, then press into the panko:parmesan mixture.  Place in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Flip, then bake for another 15 minutes.
• Remove baked tofu from oven and increase temperature to 400 degrees F.
• Spread a few spoonfuls of marinara sauce into the bottom of a small baking dish.  Arrange 4 pieces of tofu in a single layer over the sauce.  Ladle 1/2 of the remaining sauce over the tofu, as well as 1/2 of the shredded mozzarella and 1/2 of the remaining parmesan.  Repeat with the other 4 pieces of tofu and the rest of the sauce and cheese.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Instead of a double-layer, you can do it all in a single layer in a larger baking dish.  My baking dish just couldn't fit all the tofu pieces in a single layer, so I did the double.

If you want to conceal/minimize the tofu taste, cut each slice in half again thick-wise for thinner pieces.

Cabbage Rolls

Deeeelish!

Cabbage Rolls
Adapted from this recipe.


Ingredients:

• one medium head of cabbage
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/2 small onion, minced
• 1 pound ground sirloin (or other lean ground meat)
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar (Splenda if you're strictly SBDing)
• juice of a small lemon
• few dashes of worcestershire sauce

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.
• Carefully remove a dozen or so of the large outer cabbage leaves and wash them. Microwave on high for a minute or two with a splash of water, until the leaves are soft.  Set aside.
• Core the remainder of the head of lettuce, and chop into bite-size pieces.  Spread the chopped cabbage across the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
• In a mixing bowl, combine rice, egg, milk, onion, ground sirloin, TSSS and pepper.
• One at a time, place 2 huge heaping tablespoons of meat mixture in the center of each cabbage leaf and roll.  Place in a single layer on top of the chopped cabbage in the baking dish.  Sprinkle TSSS and ground pepper over the top.
• In a separate bowl, mix tomato sauce, sugar, lemon juice and worcestershire sauce.  Pour over cabbage rolls.
• Cover baking dish with foil and bake in preheated oven for1 hour.

Baked Zucchini Fries

I saw this on Our Best Bites the other day and thought it sounded scrumptious, so I figured I'd give it a try tonight.  I modified the recipe from that site with my Baked Onion Rings recipe to come up with the one below, and it is indeed scrumptious.

You can make thick or thin zuke fries.  I oped for thin, and they are nice and crispy outside, and soft and flavorful inside.

Basically you take a zuke and cut the ends off.  Then cut it in half so you have two shorter pieces.  Take each half and cut in half length-wise so you have 2 flat pieces, then again so you have 4 flat pieces.  Take each flat piece and cut into quarters to make sticks.  They turn out to be the same size as traditional french fries.

Baked Zucchini Fries
Adapted from this recipe and this recipe.

Ingredients:

• PAM
• 3 medium zucchini, washed, dried, sliced into sticks
• whole wheat flour
• EggBeaters
• 1 part whole wheat Panko bread crumbs to 1 part grated parmesan
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Spray a baking sheet with PAM.
• Set up three shallow bowls in an assembly line: first with the flour (about a cup), then with the EggBeaters (about 2 cups), then with the 1:1 Panko to parmesan mixture (about 2 cups total).
• Season the flour and Panko:parmesan with TSSS.
• One by one, dredge the zucchini sticks in flour, then dip into the EggBeaters, then roll in the Panko:parmesan mixture.  Lay them on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer.
• Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes until crunchy.  (Our Best Bites says to flip them after 10 minutes, but I didn't and they turned out perfectly fine.)
• Serve immediately.  (They lose their crunch once they cool down and sit on the counter for a while.)

I served mine with some warmed jarred marinara sauce.  YUM!

Brown Rice and Lentil Soup

Today I got my second weekly box from Farm Fresh To You.  (Got my first last Thursday and everything's gone.  ;-))  So far I'm loving my organic CSA deliveries (right to my door!).  The produce is so incredibly fresh and yummy-tasting. 

I consider myself pretty versed in produce, but there was something in the box today that I'd never seen before.  It's a substitution (I was supposed to get collards but I specified I don't want collards), and there was no label or indication of what it is.



So I consulted Google and found out it's a type of kale called Dinosaur (or Tuscan, Lacinato, Black, Cavolo Nero) Kale.  It's dark green like the regular kale I use to make kale chips with, but the leaves are narrower and much thicker, almost rubbery-like.  Very interesting, I think I'll use it to make soup.

Brown Rice and Lentil Soup
Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 box (4 cups) chicken broth
• 4 cups water
• 1 cup brown rice, rinsed
• 1 cup dry lentils, rinsed
• Vietnamese fish sauce (or salt & pepper)
• a big bunch (approx 3 cups) kale, rinsed and chopped (or spinach, or chard)

Directions:

• In a large pot, brown the turkey with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
• Add carrots, celery, onion, cumin and thyme.  Sautee about 5 minutes until fragrant.
• Add chicken broth, water, rice and lentils.  Season to taste.
• Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice and lentils are soft, 45 minutes - 1 hour.
• Stir in kale and cook a few minutes until wilted.

Banana Baked Oatmeal

This recipe is adapted from the Baked Oatmeal one on the official South Beach Diet website and cookbook. It is not fluffy like a muffin, but rather dense and chewy like a bar, which is what the original recipe instructs you to make.  You can prepare it in a 9"x9" pan and then cut into bars per the original recipe, or you can use a muffin tin and make individual muffins from it, which is my favorite way to do it because it makes things much more convenient in the long run. The chocolate chips are totally optional. ;-)

I don't have a link to the original recipe because I don't subscribe to the SBD website, but if you do, or if you check out the cookbook, you can easily find it.

Banana Baked Oatmeal
Adapted from the official South Beach Diet Baked Oatmeal recipe.
Yields 12 bars/muffins.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup fat free milk
• 3 eggs
• 1.5 cups ground flaxseed
• 2/3 cups brown sugar (or Splenda if you're strictly SBD-ing)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 medium (or 2 large) mashed over-ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 12-count muffin tin with non-stick spray.
• In a bowl, combine rolled oats and milk.  Toss it to evenly coat the oats with milk.  Set aside.
• In another mixing bowl, beat eggs with a hand mixer.  Beat in the flaxseed, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, baking powder and salt, until well combined.  Add in the mashed bananas and chocolate chips and combine.
• Add the oatmeal mixture to the egg mixture and combine with a wooden spoon.
• Divide into the prepared muffin tin.  These hardly rise at all, so don't be afraid to fill 'er up to the top.
• Bake for 25 minutes.

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

When I was pregnant with the now-toddler, I developed quite a sweet tooth.  I was eating ice cream to the point where the Baskin Robbins lady knew what my "usual" was and had it ready for me between the time she saw me pull up in the parking lot and when I entered the store.  I was also eating my weight in Cinnabons and cupcakes.  I'm amazed I'd only put on 18 lbs. that entire pregnancy, it could easily have been 58 lbs.

An online friend of mine (hi Mindy!) posted a link to her favorite Blueberry Cream Muffins recipe, and after reading it I was drooling.  BUT!  I had to make it a little more healthful in quality to compensate for the sheer quantity I would be consuming.  :-D  So I replaced the AP flour with a combination of whole wheat flour and rolled oats, the oil with ground flaxseed, and the sour cream with fat-free plain yogurt.  If you are strictly following the SBD way of eating, use Splenda in place of the brown sugar.

These are dense muffins, but they are delicious!

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
Adapted from this recipe.
Yields 24 muffins.

Ingredients:

• cooking spray
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups brown sugar, packed
• 2 cups ground flaxseed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 cups fat-free plain yogurt
• 2 cups blueberries

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Spray two 12-count muffin pans with cooking spray.
• In a bowl, stir together flour, oats, salt and baking soda.  Set aside.
• In a separate mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, ground flaxseed, vanilla and water.
• Gradually combine the dry ingredients with the egg mixture, alternating with the yogurt, just until everything is moistened.  Do not over-stir.  Mixture will be quite thick.
• Gently fold in the blueberries.  Again, do not over-stir.
• Divide batter into the prepared muffin pans.
• Bake for 20 minutes until golden.

ETA on 2/14/11:  I had a bag of frozen pineapple, so I decided to try pineapple cranberry muffins.  Instead of the 2 cups of blueberries, I used 1 bag of frozen pineapple (approx. 1.5 cups) and 1/2 cup dried cranberries.  YUM!

ETA on 2/19/11:  Instead of the 2 cups of blueberries, I added 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts.  YUM!

ETA on 10/1/11:  Instead of the 2 cups of blueberries, I added 2 large ripe mashed bananas and 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts.  I also omitted the 3/4 cup of water since the bananas added enough moisture.  YUM!

ETA on 11/29/11:  Instead of the 2 cups of blueberries, I added 2 cups of chunky home-made applesauce and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon.  I also omitted the 3/4 cup of water since the applesauce added enough moisture.  YUM!