What do you do when you’re craving pizza, but don’t want all that fat? Tortilla Pizza! Just follow the baking instructions, and go for it on the toppings. Try it, I bet you will like it.
Tortilla Pizza
Serves 1
1 10″ Flour or Whole Wheat Tortilla
2 Tbsp. Pizza Sauce
1/4 cup Mozzarella Cheese
Your Favorite Pizza Toppings
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place tortilla on a baking sheet in oven for a minute. Top with sauce, cheese, and your toppings. Bake for 10-15 minutes until bubbly, and cut in wedges.
So what were you doing this time last year? I decided to check what I was up to, and it turns out I had a day off in Rhodes, Greece, and drank some wine, took a big nap, and for some reason was upset that white ladies were getting their hair braided. O.k., now let’s all write down what we will be doing this time next year, put it in a safe place, and pull it out in a year from now to see how close we were. I am sure I won’t be close (never am), plus I have no doubt I will forget which safe place I put it in. I must be missing the Mediterranean since I came up with this recipe for the website. It is goood! (yeah, I know there’s an extra o, it’s for emphasis).
Chicken Thighs Roasted with Garbanzo Beans and Tomatoes
Serves 4
4 chicken thighs, skinless
1 can(15oz) garbanzo beans
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
juice from 1 lemon
6 ounce plain yogurt
1/4 cup chopped italian parsley or cilantro
Mix oil with the spices and mix a tablespoon of the spice oil with the yogurt- set aside. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and mix the other ingredients (except fresh herbs) with the rest of the spice oil in a large bowl. Put that in a baking dish, and roast for 30 minutes or if using boneless thighs or breast, than use 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Mix in fresh herbs, and enjoy with the reserved yogurt sauce!
I came up with this recipe for the Healthy Family menu plan at mydietchef.com. I must be a big (well, still kinda little) kid, because I really enjoy them. They’re healthier than regular chicken tenders, and who doesn’t love a recipe with three ingredients?
Cheeze-It Chicken Tenders
Serves 4
1 lb. Chicken Tenders (raw chicken tenderloins)
1/4 cup Dijon Mustard
1 cup Cheeze-It Crackers (reduced-fat) , crushed
Mix the chicken and mustard in a bowl. Coat each piece of chicken with the crackers, and bake at 475 degree oven for 15 minutes or until cooked browned and coked through.
Doug sent me this great link the other day. It is too funny, this man loves his sausage. I heard a story recently about how many food products are getting smaller, and the price is remaining the same (cereals etc.). Makes me think as a business owner, how much customers really do pay attention! Warning that he really gets upset at the end of the call and starts swearing, I can’t edit the audio, so you might want to stop it at 1:35.
I got the idea for the website when I owned my restaurant, and was cooking for private clients on the side. There was the athlete who ate like a horse (a healthy horse), the busy family that wanted to eat healthy (of course the kids all had different tastes), and a bunch of drop-off clients who had a variety of food preferences/issues such as food allergies, trying to lose weight, didn’t like broccoli etc. I can remember the aha! moment though was when a friend was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and I had to cook her food for two weeks that contained no iodine. She is doing great now, but it was the feeling that I got from helping her which reminded me of the fulfillment that I got when I worked at hospitals helping patients with their dietary needs. So, I got this great idea where I would start a website where I would write easy weekly recipes for people with these different needs, along with a team of dietitians that specialized in their needs (this was 1 1/2 years ago). I sold the restaurant, went back to yachting for a while, and was finally ready to build that site at the end of last year. That’s when I realized that I was going to have to build this thing from scratch if it was going to let people do what I wanted. If I knew how much was going to be involved, I don’t know if I would have done it (I still probably would have). The two month project wound up taking six (though I did keep adding bells and whistles). It finally went live last week, you could click the link on the right, or just click on the logo at the top right of this page (if you are challenged, you can also just click here). You can sign up for free while I work out the bugs, you just have to let me know what you think. I think it is just great now, and will be adding videos, interactive food diaries, etc. in the future. I am still working on the forum, though it works, Celeste sneaked in and asked a question, and got a response by one of our dietitians in no time. In the next week or two I will add some posts on the features of the site since we are still working on a flash tutorial. We have a bunch of different menu plans, and a few more to come, so I bet there is one that would benefit you, if you have a need you think is not being met- please email me!
I used to cook for a lot of Russian yacht charters. I learned the basic cuisine in case of requests, but they mainly liked Mediterranean food. You would think that you would have to have a bunch of caviar and vodka on hand (true), but if you ran out of watermelon, you were screwed! I remember one guest went through 13 unsatisfactory watermelons, and we had to provision from the fancy hotel that had the proper ones. When I went shopping for dinner today, there were these great looking cut watermelons, and I remembered the salad that Corli (friend, and former sous chef) used to make with them. Sounds weird, but all that you do is mix watermelon with feta cheese, red onion, and toasted pumpkin seeds (sunflower would be good too, I didn’t add cause I didn’t want to buy just for myself). Fresh tuna was on sale, and rounded out the meal.
Oh god, now I’m on a shrimp kick. I have been doing a lot of healthy recipe testing the past year, and have some great pasta recipes that I really enjoy. This one I came up with at the grocery store tonight, and took me about 15 minutes to cook-start to finish. I really love the new whole grain pastas that are available. I used Ronzini Healthy Harvest for this, and was fantastic! I have also been on a spicy kick lately, so feel free to substitute bell pepper for the poblano pepper.
Shrimp Pasta
Serves 4
1 cup fusilli pasta
1/2 a sweet onion, sliced
1 small poblano/ anaheim pepper, chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb. shrimp, raw, peeled, no tails
1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Cook pasta and set aside. Cook vegetables, seasoning, and olive oil over high heat in a skillet until they start to get soft, add the shrimp, cooked pasta, and feta, and cook until the shrimp is cooked through (that’s when they turn pink).
What do you do when you’re craving pizza, but don’t want all that fat? Tortilla Pizza! Just follow the baking instructions, and go for it on the toppings. Try it, I bet you will like it.
