Homemade Eggrolls and Butternut Squash Soup

Posted by Unknown at 15:19

Tonight's supper consisted of homemade egg rolls and butternut squash, and it was delicious! I could barely finish my soup because the egg rolls were so good and so filling. Entire recipe made 14 egg rolls and 3 large servings of soup.

What you need:
- Ground pork
- Coleslaw salad mix
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- Pinch curry powder
- Salt and pepper
- Wing's egg roll wraps
- Low sodium chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- President's choice butternut squash vegetable medley soup mix

What you do:
Egg rolls:
1. Fry up ground pork, seasoned any way you like it.
2. When almost done, add soy sauce, garlic, and ginger and mix in.
3. Put coleslaw mix in a large bowl and microwave for ~5 minutes.
4. Mix together coleslaw and pork and add curry, salt, and pepper to taste.
5. Lay out egg roll wraps in diamond shape and put small scoop of pork mixture on top.
6. Fold two opposite ends of the wraps towards center to the corners touch, then start at the bottom corner and roll up and around the filling. Seal with small amount of water.
7. Place wraps seal down on lightly greased pan and bake for 10-15 minutes on each side.
Soup:
1. Pour entire mixture of butternut squash soup mix into a large pot.
2. Add entire carton of chicken broth (ours was 900ml) and brown sugar.
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Remove from heat and use hand mixer to puree vegetables.
5. Either eat this way, or let cool and add to a blender to further puree the soup. This will give it a thicker and creamier texture.
6. Re-heat, add any garnish (I used a small amount of cheese) and enjoy!


Calorie breakdown:
Egg roll wraps: 1 wrap, 70 calories x 3 = 210 calories
Ground pork: 38 g, 64 calories x 3 = 192 calories
Coleslaw mix: 8 g, 8 calories x 3 = 24 calories
Brown sugar: 1/3 teaspoon, 5 calories
Soup mix: 1/3 of package, 93 calories
Chicken broth: 1/3 of package, 12 calories
Total: 536 calories!

Flatbread Pizza

Posted by Unknown at 06:51

One of my weaknesses has always been pizza. What's not to love? A crust full of carbs and topped with cheese and cheese and cheese galore. When I made the major changes in my diet, I knew that my pizza cravings weren't just going to go away so I would have to find a way to make a healthier version. At first I tried making it on a tortilla, but they were too thin and didn't have quite the same effect. Next I tried a whole wheat english muffin, and they did the trick however were so small and gone in approximately 30 seconds. So I was stuck. I needed something thin and low in calories, but not too thin or too small.

And then I found them. FlatOut Thin Crust Flatbreads. They come in a few different flavors like Rosemary & Olive Oil or Spicy Italian, but I used the Whole Wheat Artisan Pizza kind. Each crust has 140 calories in it and it covers my entire plate.
The company makes other flatbreads too, including wraps and fold-its - a panini type of bread that's low in calories and great for sandwiches and grilled cheeses.

So this is what I used to make my new and improved 'healthy' pizza!

What you need:
- 1 Flatout thin crust flatbread
- 1/4 pizza sauce (I used Kraft because there really is nothing better)
- 1 handful of spinach
- ~100 grams of either ground chicken or chicken breast
- 30 g part skin mozzarella cheese

What you do:
1. If using ground chicken, cook in frying pan until cooked completely. Add any type of seasoning you want, typically the more flavor the chicken has, the better tasting the pizza. If using chicken breast, cut into strips and season before cooking.
2. Use a slap chop or knife to very finely chop up cooked chicken to easier spread out on pizza.
3. Top flat bread with sauce, spinach, chicken, and cheese, in that order.
4. Cook in oven until cheese is melted, then switch to broil to brown the top until desired.

And enjoy!

Calorie breakdown:
Flatbread: 140 calories
Ground chicken: 95 g, 114 calories
Pizza sauce: 1/4 cup, 40 calories
Cheese: 30 g, 80 calories
Total: 374 calories!

Crock Pot Orange Chicken

Posted by Unknown at 17:55

So I figured for my first post I would share a new recipe I just tried out today! I posted a picture of my supper tonight on Instagram and already had two people looking for the recipe. I can't take all of the credit, I got the idea from Pinterest (typical) and kind of made it my own - mostly just to fit what we had already at home.

What you need:
- 2-3 chicken breasts
- ~1/4 cup of flour
- Small amount of olive oil
- 3 Tablespoons ketchup
- 1.5 teaspoons sea salt
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 6 oz (~175 ml) Trop50, pulp free
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

What you do:
1. Chop up the chicken breasts into small pieces.
2. Coat chicken bites in flour, shake off excess.
3. Brown in a frying pan with a small amount of oil - don't worry about cooking all the way through, just fry them long enough to seal in the moisture.
4. In a separate bowl combine the rest of the ingredients.
5. Pour chicken and sauce into slow cooker and stir.
6. Cook on high for ~3 hours.
7. Once cooked, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread chicken (not with excess sauce) flat over it.
8. Put in oven on broil for ~5 minutes.
9. Enjoy!

The total calorie breakdown for the meal depends on the amount of chicken you use, but for the sauce itself, the entire recipe results in 282 calories. Note that there's about 1/2 of the sauce still left in the pot once you remove the chicken.

My meal tonight:

Calorie breakdown:
Chicken: 168 g, 168 calories
Orange sauce: 1/4 of recipe, 70.5 calories
Spinach, cucumber, carrot: ~50 calories
Light ranch dressing: 1 tablespoon, 40 calories
Total: 328.5 calories!