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

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

 

 

Bacon Cheddar Ranch Potato Soup

This is a great slow cooker recipe.  It has my husband's three favorite ingredients: bacon, ranch and cheese.  Amazingly, it's only 176 calories per serving and a serving is about a cup and a half of soup.  So you could add a topping or two without any guilt.    I like my soup a little less chunky, so about half an hour before serving I scooped out the diced potato and mashed it a bit.  Depending how thick you like your soup, you may need to whisk a little flour into the pot.  You can reduce the sodium count a bit by using lower sodium beef broth and ranch mix.

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes, diced
1 12-oz can fat free evaporated milk
1 cup beef broth
3 cups water
1 packet ranch mix
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 slices center cut bacon, diced

Directions

In a large pan, saute the bacon, garlic and onions until the bacon is starting to brown.
In a slow cooker, whisk the ranch mix into the evaporated milk, then combine with the water and beef broth. Add the potatoes, cheese, and bacon mixture to the slow cooker. Cook on low for eight to ten hours.
You can top the soup with some onion straws, parsley, a little sour cream or whatever else sounds good to you. (Extras aren't included in nutrition facts.)

Nutritional Info
• Servings Per Recipe: 6
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 176.3
• Total Fat: 1.7 g
• Cholesterol: 10.9 mg
• Sodium: 830.8 mg
• Total Carbs: 25.2 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.3 g
• Protein: 14.7 g