Zucchini Pasta with Chicken Sausage

My health coach posted this wonderful meal the other day and I finally tried it. I've tried zucchini pasta before and wasn't a fan, but this time used my new spiralizer to make noodles and it was great! Or…maybe it was the delicious sauce. I love alfredo sauce and was so excited to see that this was an approved meal. It was so incredible that I practically licked my plate afterwards.

I did make a couple switches from the original recipe. First, I'm not a broccoli fan, so I just made a full 3 servings of zucchini (1.5 cups). Second, I saw bell peppers as ingredients for the sausages and that wasn't my style, so I picked a Trader Joe's Tomato Basil Chicken Sausage (110 calories per link). I have to say, it was a fantastic choice. The sausages are fully cooked, so you can either heat them in the microwave or do what I did and get a nice sear in the pan. Regardless of what you choose to do, please enjoy this wonderful lean and green meal!!

Ingredients:
1 link of Trader Joes spicy Italian chicken sausage
1 link of Trader Joes sweet Italian chicken sausage
1 cup zucchini noodles
1/2 cup broccoli
1/4 cup Bertolli light alfredo sauce
1 tsp grated parmesan cheese

Use spiral slicer to make zucchini noodles and throw them in a sauce pan. Add water to the bottom of the pan and let cook for about 3 minutes. Steam the broccoli and heat the chicken sausage. Mix the noodles, broccoli, chicken sausage and sauce in a bowl. Top with 1 tsp grated parmesan cheese.

Enhanced Medifast Meals: Waffles!!

Did you know that you can make several Medifast meals into waffles? After following the Paleo diet for years, I hadn't had a waffle in so long. I've never really been much of a pancake fan, but waffles have always been amazingly good to me. At first, I had only found recipes to do waffles with the pancake or oatmeal meals. I tried one with the pancakes when I visited my parents a few weeks ago and it was delicious! My mom traded me for some oatmeal so that I could try it with that. Loved that too and started making them more often. Then I started running out of oatmeal and wondered what other meals I might be able to use. So I tried the blueberry muffin, brownies and then the shakes. Wow. Blueberry was definitely the best by far!

So now I'm totally obsessed with making waffles. My next order of meals definitely reflects that. I bought oatmeal, shakes and muffins in addition to my normal goodies.

Here are a couple recipes that you can use to make your waffles. It really depends whether or not you have a meal that rises on it's own, such as the blueberry muffin or brownie. If not, you will need to add egg beaters.

Ingredients:

Waffles made from: Pancakes, Oatmeal, or shakes (I used both vanilla and strawberry)

1 packet meal replacement
1 tsp Torani sugar-free syrup** (I have use both vanilla* and cinnamon and brown sugar)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Tbsp egg beaters
1 Stevia packet
1 tsp cinnamon (for all except strawberry shake)
Enough water to make thick batter (probably about 2-4 Tbsp)

*For vanilla shake, I added 1/4 tsp of vanilla as well
**The syrup is optional. I add it to decrease the dryness of the waffle - especially with the pancake


Waffles made from: Blueberry muffin or brownies

1 packet meal replacement

1 tsp Torani sugar-free syrup (I have use both vanilla and cinnamon and brown sugar)

1/4 tsp baking powder

Enough water to make thick batter (probably about 2-4 Tbsp)

Directions:

Heat up waffle maker while you are making batter. Pour batter into middle and spread out slightly until it is a thick even layer. Let sit with lid open for 30-45 seconds. Then close lid and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes (check at one minute for doneness). It should feel like a normal waffle when finished. 

When it is done, take off the waffle out and add your fixings. You can use up to 2 Tbsp of powdered PB (1 snack) and/or you can do what I do and add some Walden Farms Pancake Syrup (zero calories). Now go and enjoy that delicious waffle!

Enhanced Medifast Meals: Chocolate Pudding and Cookie Dough Blizzard!

Obviously I have a sweet tooth. While my parents were in town visiting this last weekend, I decided to see if I could make the Chocolate Pudding into a Wendy's frosty-type drink. Found a link online that just added ice and water, so decided to try it out. It worked great! Then I had seen a cookie dough ice cream recipe using the Chocolate Chip Soft Bake and PB Soft Serve. That got me thinking I might be able to make a blizzard with the Pudding and Soft Bake. So I tried it and it came out perfectly! This does not freeze well, so you will want to half the pudding prior to making the shake, then reuse the other half another meal.

Ingredients:

1/2 Chocolate Pudding package

1/2 Chocolate Chip Cookie Soft Bake

1/2 Tbsp Powdered Peanut Butter (optional - 1/4 snack)

1/2 cup ice

3 oz water for shake

2 Tbsp water for Cookie Dough

Directions:

Mix ENTIRE Chocolate Chip Soft bake as directed on package - add 2 Tbsp water to package and mix well.

On parchment paper, place an even number of small bits of dough.

Freeze dough for 30-40 minutes. 

Once dough is frozen, it is time to start the shake. As I said earlier, you need to half the pudding. I separated it out evenly into 2 cups, put 1/2 Tbsp of PB in each one and set one aside for later.

Add the pudding, ice and 3 oz water to blender and blend for 20-30 seconds or until thoroughly blended. 

Take only HALF of the cookie dough bits out of the freezer. Save the rest for the next batch.

Add cookie dough to the shake, mix together and Voila! You now have a delicious Blizzard. Enjoy! 

Zucchini Chips

I don't know what alternate universe I am living in when I, the veggie hater, am completely obsessed with zucchini chips! How did this happen? I was certainly unsure of this whole thing when I bought my mandolin slicer and decided to try them out. Now I can't get enough! They sit on my counter in an air-tight container just calling to me. I guess veggies calling out your name to eat them can never be a bad thing right? Especially when they are only about 10 calories or so for a 1/4 cup. Even right this moment, they are sitting in my purse 2 feet away and I can hardly wait to eat them for dinner in a couple hours.

I found this recipe on http://wishfulchef.com/baked-zucchini-chips/. The only thing I changed was to spritz with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray then sprinkle a tiny bit of garlic powder, onion powder and ground pepper of each side of the zucchini slices. I also had to bake mine quite a bit longer (more like 50-60 min), sometimes removing the browned ones and putting the rest back to get crispier. Keep in mind that a couple full trays of chips do not yield many servings. I have a large and smaller trays and that would give me about 1 1/2 cups. But they keep well for a few days in an airtight container at room temperature, so I am just making batches like crazy to keep my wonderful zucchini chips available to me whenever I want them.

Baked Zucchini Chips

• 2 zucchinis, sliced very thin with a mandolin
• cooking oil spray (I used olive oil)
• salt

Preheat oven to 225°F. Thinly slice the zucchini. I used the thinnest setting on my mandolin. Place the zucchini slices onto a baking sheet lined with Silpat or parchment paper. Lightly spray with olive oil and lightly sprinkle with salt. If you don’t have an oil spray, just lightly drizzle olive oil over top.

Depending on your oven, bake for 35-45 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they don’t burn. When done, remove chips from baking sheet and place them on a plate and let cool.

Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: serves 2-4

**UPDATE** I decided to try out a homemade ranch seasoning that I had in my spice rack. It made delicious ranch chips! Mix all these ingredients below and sprinkle over the chips before baking. I recommend multiplying the recipe and storing in a spice jar for future use!

1 tsp dried parsley, crumbled up really finely
1/2 tsp salt (I prefer kosher salt)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp dried thyme, crumbled up really finely
1/4 tsp dried dill

Easter goodies! Peanut butter cups and meringue cookies!

With Easter tomorrow, you will most likely be surrounded by yummy looking candies, cookies and chocolates. Fear not! I have delicious goodies that you can make to bring with you. One consists of a meal and a snack and the other will take barely any condiments and like 1/16 of a lean. So tomorrow, make sure you bring your PB cups for before or after dinner and then some meringue cookies to have anytime!

Peanut butter cups would be the first. I used the hot cocoa and packet of Stevia instead of Splenda (0 cal and natural sweetener). I also used small dixie cups to make them a bit smaller and got 4 PB cups out of the recipe. You can find the recipe at Sandy's Kitchen, but here is the recipe:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

Ingredients:

1 package Hot Cocoa or brownie mix (1 Meal)

2 tablespoon PB2  or other powdered peanut butter (1 Snack)

1 packet of Splenda (optional)

Directions:

Mix 2 tablespoon of PB2 and Splenda with 1 1/2 tablespoon of water (until creamy but not watery). Set aside. In another container, mix hot cocoa with 3 tablespoons of water. Spread half over the bottom of a ramekin or silicone baking cup. Spread PB2 over the chocolate bottom layer. Spread the rest of the hot cocoa mixture over the top of the PB2. Place in freezer for at least one hour.

Servings: 1 Meal, 1 Snack and 1 Condiment (if you used Splenda)

The next goodie is a meringue cookie. I tried this today and definitely need to work on it, but it still tasted delicious. I divided mine into 12 cookies, which I decided would be 3 servings of 4 cookies each. That way you have 1 egg white per serving, which is the bulk of the calories. The teeny amounts of white vinegar, stevia and vanilla extract are negligible. I have changed the ingredients to reflect what I used, but you can find the original recipe here: https://nunaturals.com/recipe/294

Ingredients

• 3 large egg whites
• 1/16 tsp white vinegar
• Squirt of lemon juice
• 4 tbs White Stevia Powder or 1/4 tsp Pure White Stevia Extract
• 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F and place the rack in the center of your oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon sheet.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on low-medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat the whites until they hold soft peaks. Add the NuStevia, a tablespoon at a time (or if you use Pure White Stevia Extract add all at once), and continue to beat until the meringue holds very stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla extract.
3. Spoon mounds of meringue onto the prepared sheets.
4. Bake the meringues for approximately 40 minutes, rotating the baking sheet from front to back (about half way through) to ensure even baking (if you have a convection oven, this is not necessary). The meringues are done when they are fairly firm and fairly crisp. Turn off the oven, open the door a crack, and leave the meringues in the oven to finish drying.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Chicken cordon bleu has been one of my favorite dishes since I was a kid. I was watching Hell's Kitchen last night where they made some and it got me really wanting to find a recipe that I could make on plan. Unfortunately, I didn't find one that fit the lean and green specifications, but saw a mason jar recipe that gave me an idea of how I could make one. I put together some ingredients and sent off to nutrition support. Got the approval and tried the recipe out tonight! This dish tasted so good and is definitely one that I will make again very soon. Since the recipe takes several steps, I decided to take pictures along the way.

Ingredients:

5.5 oz raw chicken breast
2 extra lean turkey bacon slices
2 Tbsp egg beaters
1 slice thin sliced swiss cheese (or reduced fat swiss cheese) - I used Sargento thin slice (40 cal)
1 Tbsp almond flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp dried basil
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2) Start heating up bacon in a pan. Make sure it doesn't get crispy.

3) Lay out chicken breast and thin out with meat tenderizer. I tried to lay mine out in a long shape that would fit height-wise in the ramekin once rolled up.

4) Put the egg beaters in a small dish. Take about a tsp and pour over one side of chicken at a time.

5) Mix almond flour with all the seasoning. Spread 1 tsp on one side of the chicken.

6) Flip chicken over and repeat on other side with the egg beaters and almond flour

7) By this time the bacon should be finished cooking. Place on the chicken followed by the cheese.

8) Now it's time to roll the chicken up and put in the ramekin (greased with Pam spray). Once it's rolled up, turn the roll on it's side and press down into ramekin so that it's as flat as possible. You can see the center of the roll is right at the top of the ramekin.

9) Now pour the remaining egg beaters equally over the top of the chicken.

10) Spread the remaining almond flour mixture over the top of the chicken.

11) To keep the topping moist, spray the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray a couple times over the top.

12) Bake for 20 min. Spray another couple of times and place back in oven.

13) Bake for 20 more minutes.

14) Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove from ramekin, serve with 3 servings of greens and ENJOY!!