Tangy Wheatberry Salad with Salmon

This salad has been my favorite for a while at the Wholefoods salad bar.... a tangy wheatberry salad. This is my reinvention of it, a perfect and healthy side to fish and chicken. In this meal, a Trader Joe's salmon patty (80kcal) and some summer squash and cherry tomatoes.

1 TB tamari
1/2 ts sesame oil
1 TB balsamic vinegar
2 TB fruity olive oil
4 scallions, sliced
1/4 cp dried cranberries
1/4 cp pecans, toasted
1/2 red onion, diced

Cook in vegetable broth until al dente:
1/4 cp japonica rice
1/4 cp wild rice mix
1/2 cp wheat berries

Mix all ingredients, add some lemon juice, chill and serve as a side as 1/4 cup (ca. 100kcal).

Skinny Charred Chili Relleno

This is a dish inspired by Rachel Ray, charred chili relenos, but without the green rice. The charred poblano pepper gives this dish a unique flavor, lovely!

• 1 large poblano pepper
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
  
• oilve oil spray
  
• 1/3 red onion, chopped
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
• 1 clove garlic, microplaned
• 1/3 cup fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained well or 1 charred red bell pepper, diced
  
• 1 teaspoons ground cumin
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• juice of 1/2 lime
  
• 1 TB shredded ff monterey jack cheese

Preheat broiler or grill pan to high, and char the poblano pepper. It should not deflate, but only soften and the skin slightly charred.

In a hot skillet, saute the onion and diced jalapeno for 3-5 min, then add the corn and the tomatoes or charred, diced red bell pepper (or both), and sautee. Add salt, pepper, cumin and grate in the garlic. Sautee until veggies are tender, but still slightly crunchy, another 5 minutes.

Sprinkle the lime juice over the sauteed corn mixture.

Split the charred peppers open but not in half with small sharp knife, and scoop out the seeds. Place pepper in a shallow baking dish and stuff the pepper with the corn mix, top the pepper with the shredded cheese and place back under broiler to melt and char the cheese.

Serve pepper as dinner with a side of grilled lime chicken or shrimp. Enjoy!

1 dinner entree + 2 veggie serving (needs 2 servings of protein, since the entree is mostly carbs).

Healthy Cookies

For a christmas tea, I was looking for something that is not necessarily low-cal, but at least very healthy, and very tasty, of course. These cookies are flour-less, egg-less, butter-less and almost sugar-less, thus, vegan and low-glycemic, but they taste like out of this world.

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, barely warm - so it isn't solid
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 - 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a food processor, ground the almonds to a fine, sand-like consistency. In a little sauce pan, melt the coconut oil to a liquid consistency (don't really heat, just melt). Add to the food processor. Also, peel the bananas, break into pieces and add to the food processor. Add vanilla, shredded coconut, cinnamon, and salt. First pulse, then mix the ingredients to a mousse-like consistency.

In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, and baking powder. Add the wet ingredients from the food processor and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, that's ok. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 1 tablespoon in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or silicon mat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 14 - 16 minutes. I baked them until I could see some light brown coloring on the oats.

makes about 60 cookies a 50 kcal.

Bucatini with Spicy Turkey Bolognese

Pasta:
2 oz bucatini, cooked al dente

Bolognese sauce:
1/2 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 oz ground turkey meat
1/2 ts anchovy paste
salt, pepper, rosemary
1 TB balsamic vinegar
1/2 cp chopped tomatoes
1/2 cp spicy ajvar (roasted red pepper spread) or Trader Joe's red pepper spread


Heat a large enough skillet with some olive oil spray, add the onion, garlic and the anchovy paste. The anchovy paste will dissolve. Once onions are slightly browned, add the ground turkey and brown. Then, add salt, pepper, and rosemary (dried or fresh) and the chopped tomatoes. Stir well, and sautee for 5 min. Add the balsamic vinegar and the ajvar, heat another 3 minutes. Serve with the bucatini.

1 dinner entree + 2 veggie servings

Chocolate Amaretto Cake

This is one of my favorite cakes in the real-world, and this is a single-serving, skinny version of it. It required a bit more effort, but is well worth it, a luxurious amaretto chocolate coffee cake.

2 Tbsp Heart Smart Bisquick
7 baby amaretti cookies (0.5 oz) , ground
1 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp any whey
2 Tbsp Splenda
1/2 Tbsp slivered or sliced almonds
2 Tbsp FF milk
¼ Tbsp Parkey FF butter spread
¼ cup egg beaters
1/2 ts almond extract
1 ts fresh orange zest

Preheat toaster over to 400F.

This cake is best prepared in a small food processor. First, add the amaretti cookies and ground them to a fine powder, then add heartsmart bisquick, splenda and mix in the blender. Then work in the wet ingredients including the almond extract and the orange peel. Mix to a liquid like consistency (it's very liquidy, don't worry). Fill into a small sprayed spring form, and bake for 15-20 min.

Remove from oven, and cool for 5 min, and serve!

Makes 1 breakfast + 1 protein (215 kcal).

Peach Oatmeal Cookies

1 NS maple sugar oatmeal
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 c Fiber One bran (pulsed in food processor)
1 ts brown splenda
2 dried peach halves, diced
2 TB egg beaters
1 ts Parkay spreadable butter
1 TB (real) maple syrup

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix all dry ingredients in small bowl, then add in wet ingredients and combine well. Scoop cookies on to sprayed baking sheet; it made six reasonably sized cookies for me. Bake cookies until lightly browned and slightly crispy (ca 12 min).

1 breakfast entree + 1 fruit



Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

1 NS maple sugar oatmeal
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 c Fiber One bran (pulsed in food processor)
1 ts brown splenda
1 TB dried cranberries
2 TB egg beaters
1 ts Parkay spreadable butter

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix all dry ingredients in small bowl, then add in wet ingredients and combine well. Scoop cookies on to sprayed baking sheet; it made six reasonably sized cookies for me. Bake cookies until lightly browned and slightly crispy (ca 12 min).

1 breakfast entree + 1 fruit

Seafood Risotto

Love seafood. Love risotto. Here is the marriage of it.

2 oz arborio rice
1/2 white onion, finely diced or alternatively 1 shallot, finely diced
1 garlic clove, grate
1 ts clarified butter (or 1 ts olive oil and 1/2 ts butter)
1/8 cp white wine
1 cp fish bouillion (and some extra)
1/2 cp mixed seafood
1 TB grated parmesan cheese

In a large enough skillet, heat the clarified butter and sweat the onion, and once see-through add the grated garlic and the arborio rice. Toast the rice for 1-2 min in the hot butter, and thenadd the white wine. Once the white wine reduced, start adding laddle fulls of hot (!) fish bouillon. Add about 2-3 TB at a time, and wait until it is absorbed by the risotto, then add more. The process of stirring and adding bouillion takes about 20 min. At this point, add the fresh seafood and just heat in the risottoe for 1-2 min. Take off the stove, and add the freshly grated parmesan cheese, mix, and serve!

1 dinner + protein (300kcal)

Orecchiette with Cherry Tomatos and Tapende

One of my all-time favorites.

1.5 oz orecchiette
1 cp fire-roasted tomatoes
1/3 red onion, diced
1 ts olive oil
1 ts fresh thyme
1 TB lkalamata tapenade

Tapenade:
1 cp marinated, pitted kalamata olives
2 TB cured kalamata olives
2 TB capers
1/4 cp fruity olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 TB dried oregano
fresh ground pepper
optionally: 1 ts anchovy paste

Mix all tapenade ingredients in a food processor.

Cook pasta in a pot of boiling water. In a saute pan, heat olive oil and saute onions slightly. After 3 min, add the diced fire roasted tomatoes and fresh thyme. Saute for 3 min. Add 1/2 cp of hot pasta water, and simmer the sauce. Once the orecchiette is al dente, add it to the pasta sause. Mix in the tapenade, and serve!

1 serving 250 kcal

Lobster Saffron Pasta

Some days, you just need to be spoiled....... this is a dish for it. Quick, flavorful, luxurious and even skinny.....

1 oz spaghetti
4 oz cooked lobster meat
2 TB light cream
1 TB cognac
a few strands of saffron
salt, pepper

Cook pasta according to instructions. Meanwhile, heat lobster in mixture of light cream and cognac and a bit of vegetable stock. Add saffron, mix, and just heat up. Take off heat. Once pasta is al dente, add pasta to pan with lobster sauce, mix and heat again. Serve !

1 dinner entree (250kcal)