Vegetable Lo Mein

I love chinese food!! Especially veggie lo mein! So, I decided to try to make some...I'm super picky and it was good! The hubby ate 3 bowls full...so much for his end of our "diet". Oh well, y'all try it! Let me know what you think! 

Ingredients

-1 lb vermicelli or chinese noodles

-1 package tofu, extra firm, cubed

-1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced

-8 oz can of bamboo shoots (I sliced them thinner than they were sliced in the can)

-1 cup celery, chopped

-1 cup bean sprouts

-1 tsp chopped garlic

-1 tsp salt

-1 cup vegetable broth (I used my handy vegetable broth ice cubes)

-1 tsp sugar

-1 cup water

-2 Tbsp soy sauce

-2 Tbsp oyster sauce

-1 Tbsp flour

1. Cook noodles according to directions. Drain, and set aside. 

2. Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots, celery, bean sprouts, and garlic to a bowl on the side. 

 3. Take a wok or a large skillet, and add a small amount of oil. Brown the tofu in the skillet/wok over medium-high heat.

 4. Dump your bowl of veggies into the wok/skillet and saute until your preferred amount of doneness.

5. Add the salt, vegetable broth, sugar, water, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Stir fry to heat through.

6. Add flour to thicken a little. Then, toss the noodles with the sauce/veggie mixture. Enjoy!

This recipe boasts only about 400 calories a serving. YUM!!! 

Greek Steak Pitas & Potatoes

My hubby and I when we were in college loved to eat at this little Greek restaurant in Galveston for lunch about every other week or so. They had these steak pita sandwich things that were SOOO good, and they came with roasted potatoes...mmmm!! Since we graduated and moved, we both have been craving these for  a while. I looked through a bunch of different recipes, and none of them sounded 100% like what we like. So, of course I made my own :) Oh, and I made my own roasted potatoes too. I'll share both the recipes with you! 

The Steak Pita

Ingredients

For Steak Marinade

-1/2 cup olive oil

-2 Tbsp white vinegar

-2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

-1 large garlic clove, minced

-1 tsp ground thyme

-2 tsp oregano

-2 bay leaves

-salt & pepper to taste

-2-3 lbs sirloin steak

For Salad

-1/3-1/2 cucumber, diced (depending on how much you like cucumber, I only did 1/3-ish because Dean hates cucumber)

-3 roma tomatoes, diced

-1/2 onion, sliced thinly

-3/4 cup feta cheese crumbles

For Dressing

-4 Tbsp olive oil

-2 Tbsp white vinegar

-1/2 tsp oregano

-1/2 tsp garlic powder

-1/2 tsp sugar

-salt & pepper to taste

-4 Flatbread or Pita Bread

1. Add all the marinade ingredients to a big ziploc bag, and massage them around to mix. Add the steak and seal, and move around a bit to coat the meat. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Remove meat from the refrigerator about an hour before grilling (because you never want to cook meat that's still cold!!)

2. Cook on grill to desired doneness. I wanted medium, but it was raining and I didn't check it as often as I should have...so oops! I got well done!! But, luckily the marinade is amazing and it was still VERY juicy!! 

3. Mix up the "salad" in a bowl & then mix dressing into bowl with it. (I did this while the meat was cooking)

4. When the meat is done, slice it thinly against the grain. 

5. Take your pita pocket or flatbread (I used flatbread) and top with a few slices of meat, and a generous portion of the "salad". Add a little extra feta cheese if desired. 

Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients

-1 bag of red potatoes, washed & diced into bite sized pieces

-1 medium onion, peeled & diced into bite sized pieces

-1/2 bag of baby carrots, cut in 1/2

-Olive oil

-Garlic powder

-Thyme

-Oregano

-Salt & pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425*. 

2. Spread potatoes, onions, and carrots evenly on a large cookie sheet. Sprinkle olive oil, garlic powder, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper over them and mix (I just used my hands) to distribute seasonings evenly. Make sure there aren't really any veggies on top of one another and such so that they will properly roast.

3. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until your desired amount of roasted-ness. (I like mine crispy...as you can see in the picture, so mine went for about 50 minutes.)

Easy Healthy Taco Salad

Yum! What's better than Mexican food?? Ok...maybe chocolate. But, for the current point...I love Mexican food!! But, it's SOO terrible for you. So, I decided to create a HEALTHY alternative to satisfy my craving for some good ole' TexMex. It was delicious!! Also, it's less than 500 calories!!

Ingredients (for 1 serving)
-2 handfuls of salad mix (from my last blog post) roughly chopped/shredded
-1/2 avocado, diced
-1/2 roma tomato, diced
-1/3 can of whole black beans, rinsed
-1/3 can of whole sweet yellow corn, rinsed
-1/4 cup shredded light cheddar cheese
-2 spoonfuls of salsa (as "dressing")
-2 chicken strips, or 1/2 a boneless skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced (like fajita meat)**
-Low sodium taco seasoning packet (I just used the Kroger brand)

**I use the Tyson frozen bagged skinless boneless chicken breast strips, because they're easier and smaller portioned.

1. Cook chicken in large skillet, and once no longer pink add taco seasoning plus however much water it says according to the seasoning packet.
2. Layer your ingredients on your plate or bowl, lettuce on the bottom and then sprinkle everything else on & top with your salsa.
3. Enjoy!


This was super easy, super quick, nice weeknight meal! I took a handful of Tostito's "Hint of Jalapeno" Tortilla chips and crumbled them over the top, for some crunch. Even my hubby (who hates his veggies) loved it, and said we need to make it again!

Try it!! Let me know what you think in the comments!!  :)

How I Make Salad on a Budget

I know lot's of people like salad, but don't buy it because when you buy it in the bag pre-made because it can be really pricey. Then, the stuff in those bags comes with enough for like 3 salads and then usually it's half wilted anyway....and then even worse if you don't eat it within 2-3 days of buying it it's all nasty and wilted...waste of a bag of $5 salad mix!! So, I decided to experiment a few months ago and see how much cheaper and longer making my own salad would be. I'm super organized with my food/pantry/refrigerator, so my salad making is pretty much the same. Yeah, it's a little more time consuming that just buying a "ready made" bagged...but, it lasts about 2 weeks and only takes like 30 minutes to put together!! 

First, I obviously wash and separate all the lettuce. I use an organic romaine ($1.99) and iceberg ($1).

 Then, I chop up the lettuce using my super awesome Chefmate chef's knife. 

 As I'm chopping, I throw the lettuce into my salad spinner, and spin the water out. This is important because the drier the lettuce, the longer it will stay good.

Once it's nice and dry-ish I dump all the romaine in one bowl to the side.

Next, I'll chop up the iceberg. I find it easiest to chop it in half, then cut it into wedges to break apart. As I'm cutting it up and breaking the pieces apart with my fingers, I'll throw it in the spinner and spin it out. Then, I put it in another big bowl to the side. 

 Then, I just take half from each bowl and "exchange" bowls and toss it together. Cover it with plastic wrap, and keep it in the fridge! So, you end up with these two giant bowls of salad for only about $3. Compare that to your wimpy pre-mixed bagged salad!! 

I'll also buy a celery bunch, a couple cucumbers, and a big thing of mushrooms, and a bag of baby carrots. All that was about $4 for the "extra goodies" for the salads. I went ahead and chopped everything up and put the veggies in their own separate baggies. This way when we make our salads for lunch/dinner/snacks it's like a salad bar....everyone gets what they want. I love cucumber's, my hubby doesn't. Sometimes I'll have cucumbers, sometimes avocado...it just depends on what's on sale that week. 

I've had my salad mix stay for nearly two weeks, and it was STILL good...we just had eaten it all. I highly recommend doing this. Eating healthy can be cheap! You just have to be willing to put in a little work...not even a lot...just a little! 

Healthy Baked Crab Rangoon's

I love Chinese food...especially those little fried crab wonton rangoon thingies. I was thinking that there must be a way to make those absolutely terribly unhealthy for you forms of deliciousness...remotely healthy. After doing some research, thinking, and experimenting, I created some absolutely delicious forms of healthiness! :)

Ingredients

-square wonton wrappers

-1 (8oz) package of Neufchatel cream cheese, softened

-1 (8oz) package of crab meat, shredded (I used imitation because it was on sale for $2)

-green onions

1. Preheat the oven to 350*.

2. Spray down muffin tins with cooking spray. I used a 12 muffin pan and a 6 muffin tin, to make 18. 

3. Lay a wrapper over each tin, and push it in a little to line tin. 

4. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the crab meat and cream cheese.

5. Spoon mixture into each tin on top of the wonton wrappers.

6. If desired, push another wrapper in along the top of the crab meat. I did half of mine this way. It makes them have some extra crunch.

7. Sprinkle green onions over the top.

8. Bake at 350* for about 10 minutes, until heated through and tips are golden brown. 

Can you believe these are only 64 calories a piece!! Compare that to the around 200 calories a piece for the fried ones!! I had a few of these and a salad for a nice little dinner. 

Try them out, and let me know what you think!!