Relay for Life

I know at Man Approved Diet I normally talk about food and share my recipes, but today I’m doing something a little different and I think all of you out there in cyberland will understand.  I usually try to do my part to help out wherever I can, from simple things like donating to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW, or the guys with the poppies) or giving the Girl Scouts money to send cookies to our troops overseas (I got some while I was deployed and there was nothing quite like it).  I’ve also done a couple crazier things, like jumping in the Chesapeake Bay in January as part of the Polar Bear Plunge to support the Special Olympics for a couple of years.

This year I’ve decided to participate in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.  As you can probably guess, it’s an event to raise money for cancer research and awareness.  By awareness I don’t mean letting people know there’s cancer, there isn’t a need for that.  Nearly everyone knows of at least one person whose life has been affected by cancer.  What I mean when I say awareness is getting people to go to the doctor and get a screening done or finding out what risk factors they have in their lives and how to change them for the better. 

Relay for Life is a team walking event.  The event lasts anywhere from a few hours up to 24 hours, with each team having at least one member on the track at all times.  The Relay for Life event that I’m participating in is 12 hours long, from 7 pm to 7am starting on May 3^rd.  My personal goal is to walk at least six hours of it, but if I can get my knees to cooperate with me by then, I will be walking the entire time.  I’m already starting to train to walk for that long, I’ve been going out hiking for a few hours at a time.  I figure hiking is harder than walking on a track, so if I can handle four or five hours out there, six or more on the track will be no problem.

Relay for Life is a fundraising event, so I’m working on finding different ways for my team to reach our goal.  My personal goal is $500.  It sounds like a lot, but I think it’s going towards a worthy cause.  I’ll admit that I’m going to need some help getting there, but I’m sure you guys will help me. 

The first way you can help is just by giving me some fundraising ideas.  I know we have a garage sale planned and we are trying to work out the details for a 50/50 drawing with a couple home based businesses.  After the Girl Scout cookies have all been eaten, we might be able to do a bake sale.  But my team and I could always use more ideas, especially since we have a couple months to work on it.

The second way would be to donate to Relay for Life.  If you click on the button below it will take to you to my official American Cancer Society fundraising page or go to http://main.acsevents.org/goto/sailorsarah.  I thought it would be best just to send you to that link so that way you know that your donation is going to Relay for Life and I’m not using it for personal reasons.  Although I wouldn’t say no if you wanted to fund my next vacation :-)

 

Another way would be to share my button on your blog.  I figure the more people who see it, the more likely someone is going to donate.  And who knows, maybe someone out there would be inspired to talk to their doctor about their cancer risk and what steps they can take to lower that risk. 

<a href=" http://main.acsevents.org/goto/sailorsarah" target="_blank"><img src=" http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/r498/mgwife/FRLbutton-001_zps330be6bf.jpg" alt=" http://main.acsevents.org/goto/sailorsarah" width="300" height="300" /></a>

 

Just know whatever help you can give is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Sarah from the Man Approved Diet



New Recipe at My New Blog: Gravy for Biscuits

I've got a new recipe up at my new blog www.manapproveddiet.com!  Gravy for Biscuits, quick and tasty, perfect for Chrismas morning, or any day you want to start off a little extra special.  It also makes for a great dinner recipe! 

New Recipe at My New Website: Sausage and Cheese Biscuits

The other day I made some delicious Sausage and Cheese Biscuits that are perfect for grab and go breakfasts.  The recipe makes about 35 of them, so one batch would last you almost a month.  The recipe for them are at my new website: www.manapproveddiet.com

It's Official!!!

Hi everyone!!!  It's official, www.manapproveddiet.com is finally working!  It's been a little bit lot of trial and error to figure out how to get everything to connect and everything, but it's worth it.  All of the recipes that you've like on my blogger/blogspot blog have already been transferred over.  Plus my pinterest and facebook pictures have the updated links on them.  All that's left is for you to join me over there!

Ch-ch-changes!!!

I've got a few plans in store for the Man Approved Diet after New Years.  Actually one of them already happened.  Thanks to the wonderful man behind the Man Approved Diet, you can now find me at www.manapproveddiet.com.  Granted that address will just lead you back to here for the moment, but I'm working on transferring to a wordpress based blog instead of blogspot.  When I am able to launch an entire website of my own, it'll be much easy to do so from wordpress than my current home.  If you add www.manapproveddiet.com to your blog list now, you won't miss anything when I do make the switch.  Of course I'll let everyone know when it happens.

There's a couple other things I've got in the works, but I'll leave them as a surprise for right now. 

Jalapeno Popper Pizza

This recipe is definitely one of my husband's favorite dinners.  It's a perfect snack for guys night.  It has three of his requirements for a well balanced meal: bacon, jalapeno and cheese.  It also has a good does of veggies from the jalapeno peppers and the red peppers.  You can use a homemade pizza crust if you would like, but since this is usually one of our quick dinners with just use premade.  You can also adjust how hot it is by adding the jalapeno seeds.  I usually add one or two jalapenos worth of seeds and it's a good compromise between what my husband likes (mouth on fire heat) and what I like (being able to taste my food).  You could adjust how much cheese there is if someone in your house likes super cheesy, just put extra cheddar on part of the pizza.

Ingredients

1 12" premade pizza crust
9 slices bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 cup chopped red peppers
4 jalapenos, seeded and diced (save the seeds if you like your food little hotter)
1 8 oz package fat free cream cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
In a large pan, cook the bacon until almost crispy. Add the red and jalapeno peppers the pan (add the seeds too if you like), cook until the peppers have softened. Stir the bacon and pepper mixture into the cream cheese. Spread over the pizza crust and sprinkle with cream cheese. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cheddar cheese has melted.
 

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 6
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 294.5

• Total Fat: 5.4 g
• Cholesterol: 20.0 mg
• Sodium: 930.5 mg
• Total Carbs: 38.1 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.8 g
• Protein: 20.2 g

Breaded Baked Chicken with Cheesy Potatoes

Every once in a while I come up with a recipe that I'm seriously impressed with.  This cheesy potato and bacon recipe is one of them.  I was craving some potatoes, and I knew there was some bacon and cream cheese in the fridge that needed to get used soon. 
The chicken is a really simple recipe that can be altered to your tastes, just play with adding different herbs and spices.  Or marinate the chicken before breading them, like I did.  I started with barbecue marinated chicken breasts that we had in the freezer.
I know the calorie count for the potatoes seem a little high for a side dish, but when they were served up with the chicken and broccoli (like in the picture), the entire plate is less than 500 calories. 

Twice Cooked Cheesy Potatoes and Bacon

Ingredients

1 large potato, sliced
6 slices bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
3/4 cup chopped bacon
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 oz fat free cream cheese
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Lightly grease a 9x9 baking dish.
In a large pan, pan fry the potatoes, bacon, chopped onion and minced garlic. When the bacon is cooked and the potatoes are fork tender, transfer them to the prepared baking dish.
In the same pan, add the butter, flour, garlic powder and onion powder. Keep moving the butter and flour around the pan until it thickens. Add the milk, cheddar cheese, and cream cheese to the pan, stirring until everything melts and forms a sauce.
Pour the sauce over the potatoes in the baking pan, gently stirring the potatoes so they're well coated.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and bubbly, and the potatoes are tender.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 246.2

• Total Fat: 8.3 g
• Cholesterol: 32.7 mg
• Sodium: 478.9 mg
• Total Carbs: 26.3 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g
• Protein: 15.6 g

Breaded Baked Chicken

Ingredients

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Combine the flour, garlic and onion powders together in a large, flat bowl. Press the chicken breast into the flour mixture, lightly coating both sides. Place them in a lightly greased baking dish.
Bake at 425 for about 25 minutes, flipping it over halfway through. Cut into the thickest part of one of them to check that they are cooked all the way through.

 

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 2
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 146.7

• Total Fat: 1.1 g
• Cholesterol: 55.0 mg
• Sodium: 331.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 7.8 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g
• Protein: 24.1 g

Breakfast Cookies: Oatmeal-Chocolate-Cranberry-Pecan Cookies

It's that time of year when I start channeling Betty Crocker and do a couple all night cookie baking marathons.  This year it looks like there's going to be at least seven types of cookies, so somewhere around thirty dozen cookies.  I've done five of them so far and I thought I would share one of them with you guys.  I stumbled upon the combination a few years ago when I was playing around with an oatmeal cookie recipe.  Cranberries can be rather tart (like in my Cranberry Nut Pie), but it's balanced out nicely with the cookie and chocolate.  I call these Breakfast Cookies because they're great for a grab and go when you're in a hurry.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups softened butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup white sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and butter together. Add the flour, eggs, baking powder and soda, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix until everything is thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips, pecans, and dried cranberries. The dough is going to be very stiff.
Drop by rounded teaspoons on to cookie sheets and bake for 12 minutes or until the cookies start to brown. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Nutritional Info
• Servings Per Recipe: 60
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 160.2
• Total Fat: 7.2 g
• Cholesterol: 18.6 mg
• Sodium: 33.9 mg
• Total Carbs: 25.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.2 g
• Protein: 1.8

Tomato Bacon Quiche

Since the husband has to work night shift this week, we're going to have breakfast for dinner (or lunch, or brunch, or whenever he decides to eat).  I personally love quiches and frittatas because they are so easy, just mix some stuff together and bake it.  I bet you could even mix the stuff the night before and just pour it in the pie shell and bake it the next morning.  They also reheat pretty well, which is always a plus when there's only two of us in the house. 

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 can evaporated milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
2/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 scallions, sliced
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 frozen pie shell

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together eggs, egg whites, milk, salt, cayenne pepper, chili powder, onion powder and garlic powder. Add bacon, scallions, tomatoes, and cheese to bowl, stir together. Pour filling into frozen pie shell. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, or until the filling it puffed and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes.

 

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 8
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 259.4

• Total Fat: 16.2 g
• Cholesterol: 122.8 mg
• Sodium: 377.5 mg
• Total Carbs: 15.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.3 g
• Protein: 12.5 g

 

 

Attempt One of Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken Curry

I love Thai Chicken Curry and have been attempting to create or find a recipe for it.  In Germany it was a little difficult sometimes because it was hard to find the curry paste and curry powder just didn't quite work.  I finally found some here and decided it was time to try to make it, again.  Well, it tasted just ok and wasn't really like the chicken curry I was trying to recreate.  I'll add the recipe on here just because someone else might find it good or it might be a good starting point for a recipe in the future. 

Ingredients

1 13.66 oz can lite coconut milk
3 tablespoons red curry paste
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons minced garlic
8 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 cup chopped celery
1 medium potato, chopped
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped bell peppers
4 cups cooked rice

 

Mix the coconut milk, water, curry paste, chili powder, and garlic in a bowl. Put the veggies and chicken in a slow cooker and pour the coconut milk mixture over it. Cook on low for eight hours.  Thirty minutes before serving, cut the chicken breast into bite sized chunks or shred it.  Serve over rice.

 

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 422.9

• Total Fat: 5.4 g
• Cholesterol: 32.5 mg
• Sodium: 514.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 73.0 g
• Dietary Fiber: 5.4 g
• Protein: 20.6 g

 

Cranberry Nut Pie

After being in Germany for three years, a lot of American things seem really sweet.  Germans use a lot less sugar, in fruity desserts they rely more on the natural sugar found in the fruit.  In other things they just add less sugar.  The tartness of this pie makes it a nice contrast to the usual sweet desserts you find around Thanksgiving.  Plus cranberries have a ton of health benefits like antioxidants(more information about the benefits here).  Depending on you taste, you may want to top your pie with some cool whip like my husband does.

Ingredients

For the Pie:
1 ready to bake pie crust
3 cups fresh cranberries, berries cut in half
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans

For the Top "Crust"
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

Preheat the oven 350 degrees.
Combine the cranberries, brown sugar and pecans. Pour into the pie crust.
Combine the egg, sugar, flour and butter. Pour over the cranberry mixture. You may have to spread it out with a spoon.
Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, or until the top starts turning golden brown.

 

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 8
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 311.1

• Total Fat: 14.3 g
• Cholesterol: 38.6 mg
• Sodium: 117.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 49.4 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g
• Protein: 2.8 g

 

Herbed Sausage Stuffing

Stuffing is one of those essential Thanksgiving sides.  Luckily, I grew up with homemade stuffing and not something from a box.  Although I understand the appeal of how easy it is to make boxed stuffing, this recipe is pretty easy.  Plus you you can do most of the preparation ahead of time.  Make the sausage mixture and keep it in the fridge (or freezer) and toast the bread ahead of time and store them in a bag or air tight bowl.  Then when you make the stuffing, just mix the two parts and continue with the recipe. 
Now just to warn you, this makes a ton of stuffing.  Seriously, it's about 15 cups of stuffing, but there's not much leftover.

Ingredients

12 cups bread, cut into cubes
12 oz reduced fat sausage
4 cups chopped onions
4 cups chopped apples
3 cups chopped celery
1/2 cups minced garlic
2 tablespoons dried sage
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1/2 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Directions

Toast the bread crumbs in a 300 degree oven in a large roasting pan for 30 - 45 minutes, or until throughly dried.
In a large pan, cook the sausage, garlic, sage, thyme, rosemary and poultry seasoning until the sausage is no longer pink. Add the onions, apples, and celery to the pan and cook until the celery is tender.
Combine the bread and sausage mixture in a large roasting pan. Drizzle with the chicken broth. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes.
 
Nutritional Info
• Servings Per Recipe: 24
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 133.1
• Total Fat: 3.3 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 171.8 mg
• Total Carbs: 16.2 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.0 g
• Protein: 2.2 g

Out and About in Leander, TX

 

I don't know how many of you know it, but I'm a Pampered Chef consultant.  Considering I love cooking, I figure it fits me pretty well :-)  I just got invited to a little vender event in Leander, TX.  If you live in the area and would like to check it out, let me know.  I'll have some yummy goodies in the kitchen and there will also be Mary Kay, Celebrating Home, Discovery Toys, Interior Reflections by Rose, Miche Bags and Parklane Jewelry.  If you'd like the address or any other information, you can drop me an email at manapproveddiet@gmail.com  Or if you'd like to check out my Pampered Chef website, just click on the picture below.  I hope to see a couple of you there!

Sex on a Plate Apple Pie

I know with a name like that you just had to take a peek, right?  The more traditional name for this is Amish Sour Cream Apple Pie, which is just as long but not as fun as Sex on a Plate.  A more PG version of the name, Dirty Word Pie, was created by a friend of mine with kids.  The original recipe was my mom's, I'm not entirely sure where she got it from.  But I took it and adapted it into something that was my own.  This pie is probably the thing that I get the most requests for every Thanksgiving.  I've even had a few friends who got this instead of a cake from me for their birthdays! 

If you don't like apple peels, feel free to take them off.  I leave them on because they add more fiber and vitamins, plus it takes a little less time to make the pie.  It'll take two small - medium Braeburns, or three big ones if you're doubling the recipe (which I highly recommend!!).  Of course you can use any type of apple you like, I think my mom's recipe used half regular Red Delious and half Granny Smith.  For the topping part, depending on how soft your butter is, you may need to add a little extra flour to get it to the crumbly texture you're looking for.

Ingredients

For the pie:
1 cup fat free sour cream
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup diced and peeled apples (I like braeburn)
1 unbaked 9" deep dish pie crust

For the topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven at 400. Mix together the sour cream, eggs, sugar, two tablespoons flour and vanilla. Add in apples and pour into pie crust. Bake for 25 minutes. While that's baking, combine the brown sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of pie and return to oven for another 20 minutes.
 
Nutritional Info
• Servings Per Recipe: 8
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 252.5
• Total Fat: 7.8 g
• Cholesterol: 31.0 mg
• Sodium: 159.2 mg
• Total Carbs: 45.4 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.5 g
• Protein: 3.7 g

Sausage Potato Soup

Since winter has taken hold of our part of Texas, it's time to pull out some recipes that warm you up.  And if this one worked while I was growing up in North Dakota (where it's not uncommon to spend days below freezing), it'll definitely work wherever you are! 

I haven't tried it yet, but you might be able to skip dicing the potatoes if you use a bag of the frozen diced potatoes, like the ones by the hashbrowns or the ones you steam in the microwave to make mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

1 14 oz package smoked turkey sausage, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, diced
5 cups water
1 bag coleslaw mix
3 cups milk (at least 1%)
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Parsley to garnish, if desired

Directions

In a large soup pan, combine sausage, potatoes, onions with a little salt and pepper. Add five cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cooked for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Stir in cabbage and cook for ten more minutes. Add 2 1/2 cups of milk, mix the remaining milk with the flour, stir into soup. Cook until thick and bubbly, stirring often. Stir in cheese until melted.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 10
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 167.4

• Total Fat: 6.6 g
• Cholesterol: 35.5 mg
• Sodium: 483.4 mg
• Total Carbs: 13.3 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
• Protein: 12.0 g

Blogging Break

I'm sorry everyone that it's been a bit since I last posted a recipe.  The husband was gone for a few weeks and just got home, so that past week has been getting ready for him coming back and then enjoying being around him again.  I should have a couple new recipes this week.  I'm going to try to get some Thanksgiving ones up next week, hopefully in time for you to get the stuff to make them yourselves. :-)
Well, back to enjoying the husband :-)

The picture is from his deployment homecoming a couple years ago, luckily this trip was MUCH shorter!

Spaghetti Cups

I love easy and tasty recipes, and this is one of them!  They're perfect for grab and go meals, or when everyone needs to eat at different times.  Just serve them with some veggies and you'll have a complete meal.  The leftovers can be thrown in the freezer and reheated later.

Ingredients

24 wonton wrappers
1/2 pound ground beef
1 15 oz can no salt chopped tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cloves of minced garlic
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon rosemary
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place two wonton wrappers in each cup of a 12 cup muffin tin, overlapping to make a wonton cup.
In a large saute pan, brown the ground beef with the onions and garlic. Add the tomatoes, basil, oregano, and rosemary to the pan.  Cook on high until all of the liquid is gone, about five minutes.
Spoon the meat mixture evenly among the wonton cups. Top with the mozzarella cheese and bake for about 10 minutes.

 

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 12
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 109.3

• Total Fat: 3.5 g
• Cholesterol: 15.4 mg
• Sodium: 175.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 12.2 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.0 g
• Protein: 5.9 g

 

Pumpkin Trifle

Since the "Pumpkin Holidays" (you know, Halloween and Thanksgiving) are coming up I thought it would be fun to make a pumpkin dessert for a little Pampered Chef get together I had. I love making trifles because they are crazy easy and look pretty impressive.
The cake layer of this was inspired by the two ingredient pumpkin cookie recipe that has been all over Pinterest, the one where you mix a can of pumpkin into cake mix and bake it. Instead of using a cake mix I went with gingerbread cookie mix. Next time I might add a little extra spice into the mix. The pumpkin dip layer was from Pinterest as well, the original recipe can be found here. One person suggested maybe adding some more spice to that layer.
I went with sugar-free ingredients for most of this (except the gingerbread mix) to help keep the calories down, but you could use the regular version of this stuff.

Ingredients

1 batch of pumpkin dip (1 can of pumpkin, 1 container of sugar free cool whip, and 1 box of sugar free vanilla pudding mix all mixed together)
1 bag of gingerbread cookie mix, dry mix
1 15 oz can of pumpkin
1 container of sugar free cool whip
1/2 cup caramel topping

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Combine the gingerbread cookie mix with the can of pumpkin. Spread it in the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan and bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Let it cool for at least a couple of hours. Cut it done into bite sized pieces.  Set aside a handful of cake pieces for topping.
In a trifle bowl or other clear bowl, layer the cake, pumpkin dip, and cool whip. Repeat so there are two layers of each ingredient. Top with the cake pieces that were set aside and a touch of cool whip. Drizzle the caramel on top.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 12
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 290.5

• Total Fat: 16.7 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 269.3 mg
• Total Carbs: 60.0 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.1 g
• Protein: 2.4 g

Mediterranean Pizza

Most of the time, what ingredients you chose to use in your recipes really makes a difference when it comes to the nutritional values.  When you buy canned foods try to makes sure that it's packed in water or juice, not oil or syrup.  It can really rack up the calories and fat.  It might take a little extra time when you're out shopping, but compare the labels and make sure that you are getting the most nutritional ingredients you can.

 

This is a simple little recipe, it doesn't really require much prep work.  It's a delicious twist on a regular pizza.  The trick to keeping it lower in calories and fat is to really pay attention to what you are using to make it.  I made notes in the ingredients so you know what I used, but of course you're welcomed to make it your own!

 

Ingredients

1 mini flat bread (I used Flat Out Mini with Whole Grains)
2 tablespoons hummus (I used my homemade hummus)
1/4 cup chopped red peppers
2 tablespoons sliced black olives
4 pieces of canned artichoke hearts packed in water
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Spread the hummus over the flat bread, then top with the peppers, olives, artichoke hearts and cheese. Bake for about ten minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

 

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 1
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 241.6

• Total Fat: 6.5 g
• Cholesterol: 5.0 mg
• Sodium: 889.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 19.2 g
• Dietary Fiber: 4.0 g
• Protein: 11.8 g

 

 

 

Easy Hummus

A friend of mine introduced me to hummus a few years ago and I loved it.  The store bought stuff is good, but it's easy to make your own and you can flavor it however you would like.  Besides, regular hummus has about 70 calories for two tablespoons.  A serving of this stuff is almost four tablespoons and only 53 calories per serving.  You can expand upon this recipe if you feel like experimenting, try blending in some red bell pepper, more chili powder or a little lemon juice, maybe even all three.  You can serve this with crackers, chips, or veggies.  I like it on a Mediterranean style pizza (more on that in a later post).

Ingredients

1 16 oz can of reduced sodium garbanzo beans, undrained
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Without draining it, pour the can of beans into a food processor. Sprinkle the onion, garlic and chili powder on top. Blend until smooth. Taste and depending on your preference, add the salt and blend again.

 

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 8
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 53.1

• Total Fat: 0.9 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 176.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 10.3 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g
• Protein: 2.9 g