BBQing Guilt Free!

It is officially the BBQ season! I don't know many people, if any, who don't like a good BBQ with family and friends. The only problem I see with BBQs is that it can get pretty high in calories. I started a biggest loser competition about a month ago. The first week I lost 10 lbs and that put me in the lead. Then since then I have held on the the second place spot on the leader boards. So I have been trying to eat healthy and exercise everyday.

Normal BBQs have hamburger, steak, sausage, tons of snacks like chips and even salads that are all high in calories like potato salads and the like. So I have been thinking of what I could do to still enjoy the time around the grill with friends and family but still eat healthy and not go over my calorie allotment.

This is what I have come up with. Corn on the cob! Most BBQs have corn on the cob already but normally we slather on the butter. But I like to eat my corn on the cob pure. Nothing added. Now, I do think they are kinda high in calories all on their own, about 120 in one cob but I think this is a good snack or addition to the menu.

Here are a couple other veggie options for the grill. Kabocha. KABOCHA!!! I love kabocha. It is a Japanese pumpkin and the outer skin is green. I like to slice it up in little steaks and put them in a gallon Ziploc bag and put a tsp of oil and some salt and pepper and mix it all up. When you get to the grill you can just throw these on on the outside and let them cook. They get a little chard sometimes but its ok as long as it is cooked all the way through. Very tasty and not too bad in calories, around 50. You can have a few if you want. When I grill my kabocha I eat the skin as well as the meat. When I put my kabocha in Thai curry, I cut off the skin.

The other veggie idea I have for the grill is zucchini. Now you can cut them in slices length wise and put it on the grill like that but there have been times in the process of flipping or putting on or taking off the grill that they fall through the cracks. So what I like to do is cut in half length wise, then in half the other way and make little slivers and put them in a sheet of foil with a tsp of oil and salt and pepper. I also put quartered mushrooms but you can put whatever you want. Onions, yellow squash, tomatoes, eggplant you name it! Then just close up the foil and put it on the grill with the corn and kabocha.

Now meat. This is something that I, an omnivore, have a really hard time with. I love beef and pork but since I have been counting my calories I have noticed they are so much higher in calories than say chicken or fish. But never fear, they can still taste good at the grill. What I used was tilapia. One serving of 3-4oz is just over 100 calories. You can have twice as much fish for the same amount as one serving of beef or pork. So what I did was before heading out to the grill I rinsed the fish and dried it in a paper towel. Then packed it that way.

I also made a little rub to put on before I put it on the BBQ. I put salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder. Then I put that in a separate Ziploc bag and headed on out. At the grill I cut a lime and squeezed in over the dried fish then dipped that in the rub. Then on to the grill.

It doesn't take too long to cook so I would wait till everything is about ready to eat. I am making the fish into tacos or you can just eat it as it is. So when I put the meat on the grill I also put on my tortillas to heat up.

When the meat is done build your tacos, all I put on mine were a squeeze of lime, some sliced up cabbage and some avocado. So very yummy and low in calories. If you eat a corn on the cob, two kabocha slices, zucchini and two tacos the total calorie intake it a whopping 438 calories! That is awesome if you ask me. I have watched Hell's Kitchen and when they have a challenge to make a healthy low calorie dinner the goal is 750 calories! My meal is a little over half of that! That leaves room for watermelon or even seconds! Who doesn't like seconds?

Who Loves Cauliflower? After this Everyone Will!

I have loved cauliflower for years now. I have only just recently been cooking with it though. I used to love it at my favorite Indian restaurant in Hawaii. India Cafe. My friend Cris and I would go there all the time! We loved it! Anyways, they had this amazing cauliflower korma! My mouth is watering just thinking of it! It was so soft and tender and it seemed that it just soaked up the flavors of the spices and coconut milk it was cooked in.

Well, I haven't figured out how to make that myself, even though this past minute I have been thinking of how to make it. But there are things I have cooked cauliflower in that are very tasty. I like to put it in my Thai curry recipes, in my quinoa mac and cheese, and lately I have made pizza bites and roasted cauliflower from recipes that I have found on Pintrest.

My friend Cris who would go with me to India Cafe had given me this list of whole foods and what their health benefits are. I still have that paper after all these years. That paper says, "Cauliflower, cruciferous family member that contains many of the same cancer-fighting, hormone-regulating compounds as its cousins, broccoli and cabbage. Specifically thought to help ward off breast and colon cancers. Eat raw or lightly cooked."

Aleks, his sister and I were talking about cauliflower last night and he brought up how people say that we should eat colored foods and that they are more nutritious than white foods. Most diet people say to stay away from white things like white bread, white rice or potatoes and is cauliflower really that good for you? So I looked it up online, from what I found it confirmed what the paper that Cris gave me and said that there were many health benefits. One that we really liked was that it helps in the fighting of cancer and also in the prevention of cancer.

Yesterday I made two recipes, cauliflower pizza bites and roasted cauliflower. These were the recipes that I found on Pintrest. They turned out real good. The pizza bites, since I made them in regular muffin tins so they came out to be 50 calories each. If you want them smaller you can put them in mini muffin tins for a total of 25 calories each. The other cauliflower recipe I made was roasted cauliflower. Aleks says it's the best thing I ever made. Which was surprising because he loves my cooking and there are some pretty amazing things I make, if I do say so myself.

So here are the two recipes I made yesterday.
Cauliflower Pizza Bites that I got off Pintrest by Damy Health

First you got to grate the cauliflower. This could take just a little while. If I had a food processor then I would probably try that but I had to use a cheese grater.

Put the grated cauliflower in a pan and let cook till tender.

While its cooking separate 2 eggs. It should make about 1/4 cup of whites. Save the yolks. I did and I am keeping it for some curd.

Then add 1 cup of cottage cheese to the whites and add 1 tsp of dried oregano 2 tsp of Italian seasonings. Damy says parsley but I didn't have any so... I also put a squirt of Saracha in mine as well.

Damy says  that hot sauce and coconut oil are optional. I didn't use the coconut oil because that would add a bunch of calories and that would defeat the purpose. Then 1/4 tsp of garlic powder. Blend that up in your food processor, like I said I didn't have one so I used the blender till smooth. It worked fine.

Then add the wet mixture to the cooled cauliflower. I didn't let mine cool too much because I am kinda lazy and I wanted to hurry up and make them.

Damy says that you got to press the mixture into the pan otherwise they fall apart. So I pressed my "dough" into the pan. It is wet so it's not like packing brown sugar its mostly just like making sure there are no air pockets.

Then you throw it in the oven at 450 degrees. Let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes so it has time to set and wont fall apart.

If you notice on my pan it has those little black dots That is the Pam that I used to coat the pan. After being in the oven it makes those spots. I just wiped them off. No big deal.

The recipe said that to make two cups of grated cauliflower you would need about a whole head but I only needed 2/3s of mine. It must have been a huge noggin! So with the remaining I cut it up and roasted it.

I also found this recipe on Pintrest  to came from Design Her Momma.

 Cut the florets into bit sized pieces and in a bowl put the juice of 1/2 a lemon and 1 Tbl of olive oil and salt and pepper. Normally when I make things like this I like to use my big glass bowl but I had just used it and had already put it in the dishwasher and started it. So I used this Tupperware which actually turned out to be a genius idea. I'll show you in a minute.

 Then throw in the cauliflower and put on the lid. Shake the Tupperware till it is all coated with the lemon oil mixture! How easy was that? I think I will make it like this from now on! Although I think next time I will add cabbage.

Anyways after its all mixed up and coated then put it in a pan. The first time I made it I put it on a cookie sheet this time I put it in my new Le Creuset pan that Aleks mom gave me.

After its all arranged then grate some Parmesan on top and roast for 25-30 minutes in a 450 degree oven. This is a yummy snack. 

If you use a whole head of cauliflower and separate it into 6 servings then each serving is only 50 calories. Not only is it good for you but super super tasty. I think I am going to go get some out of the fridge right now!

PS. You probably noticed the change in the pictures about half way through. I used an app on my phone for the second half of the pictures. I should have done them all but I messed up and didn't know how to bring the pictures back to edit them. Anyways, all this to say, I am trying to take better pictures and I would love it if you could let me know which ones you like better. 

Tabbouleh Salad with Quinoa Recipe and Homemade Pita Chips

I have been trying to use quinoa in our diet more lately. I even made a quinoa mac and cheese which I will post about later. I feel quinoa is a better carb than most, especially white rice, potatoes, pasta and bread. I don't want to cut carbs out of my diet all together because I don't feel that is a balanced diet and I end up craving and caving. So I have been looking for more ways to use quinoa. Not only is it a good carb but it also is high in protein. Not as high as meat but higher than other types of carbs. I believe my quinoa package says that there are 6 grams of protein per serving.

In my fridge I had cucumbers and tomatoes and we are growing mint on the balcony. So I thought I would like to make a Tabbouleh salad with the quinoa instead of the Bulgar wheat. All I needed from the store was a little bit of parsley, lemon and feta.

While I was on my road trip we had dinner at my dads house. They use quinoa a lot and I asked them how they cook it seeing as I have had a bit of problems with cooking mine. You can read about what happened when I made my quinoa black bean burgers here. 

I asked my dad's wife if she rinsed her quinoa before she cooked it and she said that she did not. That all she does is measure two cups of water for one cup of quinoa. Puts it on the stove and waits for it to boil. Once it boils she said to turn off the burner and let it sit for 15 minutes. I did this and it was a lot better than before when I made the quinoa burgers.

While the quinoa was cooking I chopped the cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic, parsley and mint. I threw it all in a bowl with the feta.

After the quinoa finished cooking I took it out of the pot to cool. I didn't want the hot quinoa to wilt the veggies so I wanted it to cool.

While waiting I decided to make some pita chips to eat with the hummus I got from Sprouts, Aleks and my new favorite store. I cut the pita bread in 8 pieces and then took each segment apart. I like to do it this way because then I get more chips and they get crispier.

I like to use my toaster oven most of the time. This way I don't end up heating up the house like if I used the regular oven. I lined the tray for the toaster with some foil and put a little bit of olive oil on top.

I like to put salt and pepper in the oil and rub the pita pieces in the oil. Then line them nicely on the tray and pop um in the toaster for about 5 minutes. 

They come out all nice and toasty and crisp. Great for dipping in the hummus.

By this time the quinoa has cooled and I add it to the bowl with the veggies and cheese. Then I put one teaspoon of olive oil and juice of half a lemon.

Stir it all up so all the ingredients are evenly distributed and the flavors can marry.

Serve up the salad with a side of pita chips and hummus and enjoy.

Breakfast Burritos

It's been a while since I have posted. I have been on a small road trip. Aleks' dad was here visiting. Since he was taing care of the baby we were able to leave and Aleks got to meet my family. We planned our trip according to the restaurants we wanted to eat at. So I have many blogs I want to write about those places. But first here is my breakfast burrito recipe I was working on before we left.

Breakfast is kind of hard for me to plan. A lot of the time we might talk about eating something in he morning and the morning comes and we decide we don't want that. I have been trying to eat more healthy but Aleks and his sister thought that breakfast burritos sound good, so I offered to make some. I pulled some stuff out of the fridge: eggs, portuguese sausage, cheese, potato, salsa, and cilantro.

I started off by chopping up the potato in little chunks and threw them in a pan with butter and oil. I use both at the same time so that I have the butter taste and the oil keeps it from burning. Once the potatoes have started cooking and each piece is coated with the oil I like to use my special seasoning mix. I like to use salt, pepper, crushed chili flakes and cayenne pepper. I might use this blend in pretty much everything I cook. It is just my favorite.

In a separate pan I put the chopped up pieces of portuguese sausage. I let the sausage and potatoes cook till crispy. If you wanted to you could use regular sausage, bacon, ham or any other kind of meat you want in your burrito.

We didn't have a cheese grater so I cut up the cheese in little strips. (We have one now.)

I got the eggs ready for cooking. I just added a little bit of milk while scrambling it. Once the sausage was done cooking I drained the grease and added a little bit of butter to the pan and cooked the eggs in that same pan. Season with salt and pepper. Once it is cooked about half way then I add the cheese so it can melt in with the eggs.

Then I put all the ingredients in the tortilla and fold it up. We like our burritos a little crispy so I put the built burrito in the pan to get a little crispy. I don't like to put any oil in the pan when I do this because it will get crispy without it and I don't want the extra calories.

Quinoa Black Bean Burger with Cilantro Tzatziki Sauce

Earlier this week I had made Quinoa and Cheese, my way of making a healthier mac and cheese; then I had made a batch of black beans for Chocolate Chili. I still had some quinoa and black beans leftover. I have been trying to not waste any food by cooking  enough portions for what we eat, or by either making sure that I eat all of the leftovers and making new recipes with extra ingredients. I know that sometimes I have all these random, little bits of ingredients and they end up getting thrown out. This really bothers me.

I checked the fridge and found all these ingredients: quinoa, black beans, hamburger buns, cucumbers, cottage cheese, parmesan, eggs and greek yogurt. I decided to make quinoa black bean burgers and some kind of sauce. I went online and found a few recipes and decided to combine the different ideas into my own. Pintrest shows a lot of different ones if you just do a search.

I started to cook to quinoa. It always ends up coming out alright but I think I am doing something wrong. Recipes I have read and the package that the quinoa comes in all say to rinse the quinoa but I always end up losing a lot of the grains. Then at the end there is so much extra water. If anyone knows what I should be doing different I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave me a comment and give me any tips.

While the quinoa was cooking I chopped up half a shallot and two cloves of garlic. I sautéed them in a small pan with some olive oil just till they were translucent.

Then took my beans, cottage cheese, egg, and parmesan and blended it up in the blender till smooth. I had seen many pictures of these kinds of burgers and I didn't like how the black beans looked in them. So I blended them smooth and added salt and pepper.

After the quinoa was cooked I drained the water, again I must be doing something wrong  in my method of cooking them, I combined it in with the bean mixture in a big bowl. After mixing it all up it seemed so wet. I remembered we had some Panko breadcrumbs in the pantry so I added some to the mix. Along with some cilantro.

While everyone was putting the baby to bed I made the Tzatziki sauce to go with it. I didn't have lemon, mint or dill but I had limes and cilantro. I put greek yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, lime and a handful of cilantro and bended it up in the bender. It turned out pretty good if I must say so myself.

When everybody was ready to eat I put a spoonful of the quinoa black bean mixture into a hot pan with olive oil, pressed it down to make a patty and let it cook for four minutes on each side.

For Aleks' burger I put the Tzatziki sauce on the toasted bun and topped the burger with lettuce, tomato and avocado. He loved it. Especially the sauce. He thought that deserved its own blog. But here it is, sharing the entry with the quinoa burger. Maybe someday it will get its own entry. We will see.

Quinoa Black Bean Burger
1 3/4 Cups cooked Quinoa
1/2 Cup Black Beans
1/2 Cup Cottage Cheese
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Panko breadcrumbs
Salt
Pepper
1/2 Shallot
2 Cloves of Garlic

Cilantro Tzatziki Sauce
1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt
1/4 Cucumber peeled and chopped
1/4 Cup Cilantro
2 Cloves of Garlic
1/2 Lime juiced