Cuban Style Lentils with Smoked Pork

Yummy lentils are super quick to cook in a pressure cooker and one serving provides 15% of your needed amount of iron and 8grams of protein.

Chicken Florentine

I remember a million years ago when I was a kid Italian restaurants would carry a dish called Chicken Florentine...essentially it was fettuccini Alfredo tossed with spinach and grilled chicken.  It's probably not very Italian, but it is really good. I think the last time I had it, or even seen it on a menu was probably early 2000.  Today I decided to make it, and damn was it good.  If even say it was the best pasta fish I have EVER made, aside from my awesome pea pesto spaghetti.

Ground chicken quesadilla & chopped salad

The salad has a base of spring mix (50% spinach 50% spring mix) with various veggies on top.  Today I put some diced tomato, diced cucumber, diced onion, and corn.  I also added sliced hard boiled egg and a swirl of Rooster sauce.  

The quesadilla had some leftover ground chicken that I had cooked the night before with some chili powder, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper.  I also added diced onion and green bell peppers and a bit of BBQ sauce.  

I warmed up two corn tortillas in a pan, and added a tbsp of shredded reduced fat cheese added the leftover meat and some spinach leaves and more cheese.  I topped this with the other tortilla.  I allowed the cheese to melt and flipped the quesadilla.  unfortunately the non stick coating in my pan has worn out so my quesadilla got stuck and somewhat fell apart, but it was amazing nonetheless.   I cut it in half and served with the salad.

You can also drizzle any dressing you like or top with salsa and sour cream.

Ridiculously easy Granola and it's low-fat too!

I found the inspiration for this recipe from this Bon a petit recipe.  However, I've made quite a few changes that reduce the fat and sugar content.  

www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/06/everyday_granola

Ingredients:

• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup coarsely chopped cashews
• 3 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

**original recipe calls for pecans, but I only had cashews on hand, and these are lower in fat anyway.  Also, recipe called for unsweetened coconut, which unless you want to make a special trip to Whole Foods or an Asian grocery it is per hard to find.  So I didn't add it, and you know what, coconut is about ten grams of ft per serving....so that also lowers the fat content as well.

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Directions:

• Preheat oven to 300°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. Mix first 7 ingredients in large bowl. 
  
  
  Stir honey and oil in saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture; toss. 
  
  
  Spread on prepared sheet. Bake until golden, stirring every 10 minutes, about 25-30 minutes. 
  
  
  Store in airtight container.
  
  

1 serving=1/4 cup (20 servings per batch). Nutrition info is below (I calculated it using spark people).

**Original recipe says to add 1cup of any dried fruit after the granola cools, I did not (this decreases the sugar content quite a bit.  However, if you go for the fruit I still think 1 cup is over kill. Try 1/3 cup of craisins, raisins or chopped dates instead.

Original recipe: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/06/everyday_granola#ixzz2ZobtGP00

Before placing granola in oven:

After taking granola out of oven:

This was after 25 mins stirring every ten minutes.

And now for the food porn...

Verdict...it is super tasty and crunchy.  You can eat it solo, sprinkle over yogurt, or make your own fancy breakfast cereal and mix it it with Cheerios or cornflakes.

1 serving=1/4 cup (20 servings per batch)

I

Peach and cream cheese stuffed waffles

Freshly made waffles with cream cheese and fresh peaches.  This would be even better had the cream cheese been sweetened with some honey.

Thai Peanut Chicken in the slow cooker

I have been thinking a lot about my schedule for this coming school year.  I will be working at a middle school and commuting with my husband so I will no longer be the first one home at around 3 PM, now I might not be home until around 5 PM.  So I have started researching freezing meals and slow cooker meals.  I am very familiar with using the slow cooker, and usually prepare whatever needs to go in the pot the night before, place it in the slow cooker sleeve, cover it in plastic wrap and store in the fridge.  Then I just pop the whole thing into the slow cooker, add the lid, and set to cook for the whole day.

This particular recipe was taken and adapted from this blog: "365 Days of Slow Cooker by: Stephanie O'Dea" http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2011/02/easy-peanut-butter-chicken-slow-cooker.html

A nice blog where the writer cooked at least one item each night using her slow cooker.  She has done everything from chicken nuggets to desserts in a slow cooker.  Worth checking out if you find yourself doing the same research.

For my version here were the ingredients I used:

4 chicken thighs with bones and skin

4 chicken legs with bones and skin

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup of water

Drizzle of sesame oil

1/4 cup of lemon juice

Generous squirt of rooster sauce

Cumin, garlic powder, and pepper (1 tbsp each, or more to your taste)

3/4 cup of peanut butter (I intended to use crunchy...but realized all I had was Peter Pan my husband bought on sale.)

1 large onion in large chunks

2 red bell peppers cut in large chunks

1/2 green bell pepper diced (I don't like eating large chunks of green bell pepper, but do like the flavor)

Cover and cook for 6 hours on high in the slow cooker.  Serve over steamed rice with steamed broccoli or other veggie (I always have frozen broccoli on hand)

*****If I had fresh garlic I would have also added a few cloves of crushed garlic

*****Next time I would use boneless/skinless thighs and real peanut butter, because the spread looks crumbly.

**maybe add Chopped cashews to sprinkle on top (the only nuts I have on hand)