I just have to admit up front … I can claim absolutely NO credit for this recipe. It is from the TSFL Lean & Green Cookbook. But it was so yummy that I just had to pass it along. If you are following this program and don’t have this recipe book yet, you really should get it. So worth every penny!!
Ingredients
1 lb (16 oz) raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined OR 14 oz fully cooked frozen shrimp, thawed
2 cups romaine lettuce, chopped or shredded
1 cup (2 medium) tomatoes, diced
1 cup cucumber, sliced
8 Tbsp Sun-Dried Tomato dressing, divided (recipe specified Newman’s Own, but I couldn’t find it at my local store, so I used the Kraft equivalent)
Preparation
Marinate shrimp in 6 Tbsp of dressing for 1-2 hours (I was only able to marinate it for about 30-45 minutes, and it still absorbed the flavor well). Prepare salad by washing vegetables and cutting them as indicated above; set aside. After shrimp has sufficiently marinated, pour entire contents (shrimp and marinade) into a skillet and cook over medium heat until shrimp are cooked through (or turn opaque in color), about 3-5 minutes. Place shrimp on top of salad and drizzle remaining dressing over.
Each serving counts as: 1 “Leanest” Protein Serving, 2 Healthy Fat Servings, 3 Vegetable Servings
Serves 2
Total cost of this meal was about $4-5. So, leaning towards the more expensive side, it cost about $2.50 per person. It was light, refreshing and super tasty. And as easy as it sounds. We will definitely be having this one again!
Cabbage casserole
So, this is a little late, but figured I’d post my new St. Patrick’s Day cabbage recipe. We really enjoyed this, and there are so many variations you could do to make it fit your lifestyle. As usual, I changed it up from the recipe I originally stumbled across, mainly in an effort to get it to fit fully within our “lean and green” meal requirements. But also to fit with what was actually in my pantry! I have never, ever wanted anything to do with cooked cabbage … but I have changed my tune since eating this meal! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef (I got a GREAT deal on the 97% lean ground beef straight from the butcher’s block – but you could also use the super lean ground turkey for an even leaner meat)
1 tsp olive oil
1-2 tsp onion powder
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 tsp salt (or salt substitute)
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup brown minute rice (this part was not within our current lean & green, but we splurged, because the recipe really needed something to help absorb the wet ingredients)
2 10-oz cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes
3 cups coarsely chopped cabbage (I had the pre-bagged dry coleslaw mix on hand that I’d gotten for 49 cents a package, so I just used 1-1.5 bags of it)
Preparation
In a large frying pan, stir and break up the ground beef in oil for 1-2 minutes (I actually just substituted olive-oil flavored cooking spray to cut back on the fat). Add onion powder, salt, pepper, mushrooms and rice. Mix well and continue sweating for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes and stir well. Put cabbage into bottom of a greased baking dish. Pour meat mixture over raw cabbage and bake covered at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.
Extra bonus tip: You can easily double the recipe and store in tupperware containers and freeze for up to a couple months. Have an easy meal to pull out of the freezer on a day when you don’t have time for the extra effort!
Meal prepared as listed above cost me about $6 to make, or $3 a serving.
Spanish Crockpot Chicken
I am all about making my life as easy as possible. And any meal I can make in the crockpot qualifies as just that! I adapted this recipe slightly from getskinnybehappy.com. The recipe as I found it only called for enough veggies for 1 person, but there was enough chicken to feed 3 or 4 people. So I added more veggies. And it was amazing! My hubby was practically licking the remains off his plate, and my 2 year old ate 2 full platefuls! Took all of 5 minutes to prepare, and the total cost for the entire recipe was about $4.50.
Ingredients
4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1 large onion, diced
1 can of no-salt-added green beans
4-8 oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 tsp tarragon
1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash chicken seasoning
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 (16 oz) can of diced tomatoes (I used Italian-style with basil)
1 large green bell pepper, diced
Arrange chicken in bottom of crockpot. Add remaining ingredients on top. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. Serve and enjoy!
One more, just for fun!
And, for those of you who are following the TSFL program and are looking for a little variety or something fun to try with some of your Medifast food, here’s one of my favorite recipes. It’s a good little comfort meal, and it is absolutely on program!
Medifast Tomato Soup Pizza
Preheat oven to 375
Mix 1 packet of Medifast Cream of Tomato Soup
1/2 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Basil (dried)
3 Tablespoons water
Put on a cookie sheet or a metal pie tin that has been sprayed with Pam and spread out to about a 4-inch circle. Bake for 10 minutes. You can eat it plain if you want, but I opt to use one of my daily condiments at this point. I spread a little Light Laughing Cow cheese on the crust (my favorites are Sundried Tomato or Queso Fresco). I have also been known to chop up 1 mushroom and add it to it, just for a little extra texture. If you do that, throw it back in the oven for 2-3 minutes. Then, eat and enjoy!
**NOTE: Not Lean & Green Approved!
Zesty Wings
A great recipe that I found on ZestyCook.com. I made these for Super Bowl Sunday & they were a hit. I have done them since in a slightly healthier version, using chicken tenderloin. Cook time was the same using the tenderloin, but all ovens are different, so you might want to check them around 30-35 minutes to be sure. I also used a salt substitute, since we’re cutting back on sodium. The sauce was to die for. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Total cost was around $1.50 per serving.
Ingredients
- Chicken Wings ( tips removed )
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1/4 Cup Hoisin Sauce (couldn’t find any, so I just used a wing sauce I found that had no sugar in it)
- 1/4 Cup Ketchup (Hunts – with NO high fructose corn syrup)
- 3 Tbsp. Brown Sugar (I used the Splenda/Brown Sugar which has 1/2 the sugar in it)
- Splash of Vinegar
- 1/2 Cup Sweet Chili sauce
- 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 Tsp. red pepper flakes
- 1/2 Cup Water
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pat chicken dry. Season chicken wings with salt and pepper. Place them in the oven and cook for 40-50 minutes.
- In a separate sauce pan, place on medium heat and add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. One everything is combined thoroughly bring to a boil.
- Remove wings from the oven and place in a large bowl.
- Add the sauce over the wings and toss to coat.
- Serve with some fresh veggies and a big glass of ice water!
- ENJOY!
The best way to save money …
… is to live healthy! I know the opposite seems true when you go to the grocery store and look at produce prices and organic food prices. In the long-run, however, it really is true.
I am discovering many things about becoming healthy. Sure, some healthy foods may cost more. But I’m not wasting money on sugary snacks anymore. I’m not buying any products that have high fructose corn syrup in them … a product which never satisfies your hunger, which your body can’t process, and which makes you want more and more … thereby causing you to purchase more food with no nutritional value. People always complain that healthy food is so expensive. I used to be one of them. But I’ve realized that when I am eating healthy food, I don’t need as much of it in my shopping cart. I have learned how to eat smaller portions, which helps stretch that grocery budget a little further. I wish there were more coupons for healthy foods, and hopefully if enough of us start changing our lifestyles, the producers and stores will take notice and try harder to get our business. But I can no longer wait for a good coupon while I put my health on the back burner.
When you are healthy, you’re not going to be spending as much money on doctor’s bills, over the counter medication, prescription medication, etc. I have met people in recent months who have eliminated as many as 17 prescription medications from their life, just because they started changing their eating habits and got their bodies into an optimally healthy state. Can you imagine how much all that medication must have cost them over the years? What a good motivation to change your eating habits!
This last one may seem trivial to some … but you also save money on clothes when you’re healthier. When you have to pay for plus-sized clothing, you’re usually paying anywhere from $10-25 more for the same item of clothing that someone in a smaller size might buy. And you have no choice, because you just can’t squeeze into anything. They know they have you, so they charge even more. Since starting my journey to a healthy me, I have gone from a 22W and a 2X down to a 12 Petite and either a small or medium top. I can actually go into a regular department store and get good deals on the clearance racks now! I officially cancelled my email subscription to Lane Bryant a couple months back, because all their clothes are too big for me now! I am no longer stuck paying exorbitant prices just to buy myself a nice pair of jeans and a top. An outfit that cost me $75 a few months ago … now costs me about $30. That is a huge savings!
If you would like more information about getting healthy and changing your life for the better, please contact me. As I have made the decision to get healthy, I have also decided that I owe it to those around me that I love to share what I’ve learned and help spread the health. If you’re curious about how I’ve lost 75 pounds in 6 months (and my husband lost 40 pounds in 2 months!), head on over to my site and check it out. And then contact me to let me know what questions I can answer. I would love to help you get healthy AND save money as you do it!
Beef Tips with Mushrooms
Well, we have a new favorite recipe in our house after eating this last night! My hubby was still smacking his lips a half hour after dinner was over! Way yummy, very, very economical, and healthy. If you’re on the 5 and 1 plan, this absolutely falls within your lean and green parameters (makes 2 servings).
Ingredients
1 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
(to make your own, just heat the olive oil in your skillet, add minced garlic,
and saute over high heat for about 1 minute)
12-14 ounces Steak, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
(I used petite sirloin, which I bought in a family pack for $1.99/lb)
1 medium Shallot, minced
(I didn’t have any shallots, so I substituted a little chopped onion)
6-8 ounces Mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup beef bouillon
(I had 1 beef bouillon cube, so I dissolved it in low-sodium organic vegetable
stock & used that)
Natural Sea Salt & Tricolor Peppercorns (ground) to taste
Heat roasted garlic oil in medium frying pan over high heat. Add beef and cook for 2 minutes on each side until browned. Set beef aside. Put pan back over medium-high heat and add shallots. Cook one minute until translucent. Add remaining ingredients, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove all the extra browned bits. Reduce heat to medium and bring ingredients to a simmer. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes or until liquid has reduced by half. Add beef back into pan and stir until heated, being careful not to overcook the meat and make it tough. Serve warm.
I added green beans to round out the “green” portion of our evening meal. If you wanted to add a starch with this, it would be incredible over some whole grain pasta or brown rice. Or even a baked potato would work. The entire meal took about 10 minutes to make, cost me about $3 to make, and it fed all 3 of us. This is seriously the kind of meal you go to a restaurant and pay anywhere from $15 to $25 for … and an individual portion cost me about $1 to make. Hard to go wrong doing that kind of math! And it’s healthy. This is the perfect trifecta for me when cooking a meal – quick, cheap and healthy!
Spaghetti Squash Casserole
Wow! It’s been WAY too long since I posted anything! Life suddenly got crazy once the holidays rolled around, but that’s no excuse. I will try to post at least one new recipe or money-saving idea each week from now on! My newest is for spaghetti squash casserole. I think I may like this one even more than the cauliflower pizza I posted about last time. So yummy and so healthy … and really economical. My entire family loved it. My 2 year old even wanted seconds! If you are a fellow Take Shape for Life or Medifast client, this will fit the requirements of your lean and green meal for the day (makes 4 servings, but you’ll come out a little short on your veggies, so add another veggie serving to your meal). Enjoy!
Ingredients:
4c cooked spaghetti squash (1 medium-large spaghetti squash – about $4-5)
8oz low-moisture part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese (on sale for $1.99)
2c sugar-free salt-free tomato puree (canned): or make home-made (I actually used sugar-free spaghetti sauce, which I bought on sale 3/$5, so this was about 75 cents worth)
12oz cooked 95-97% fat-free ground beef or ground turkey ($3-4)
2 healthy fats (2tsp of olive oil added to the sauce, for example)
Italian seasoning, salt & pepper to taste
To cook squash:
With a knife, cut a big X on the front and back sides of a spaghetti squash.
Microwave until soft to the touch (about 10 mins).
Open, scrape out the seeds, then scrape out 4c of the cooked squash with a spoon.
To prepare:
Put 4c of spaghetti squash on the bottom of a casserole dish
Add 4oz of the cheese
Layer on the 12oz of ground beef
Pour the sauce evenly on top of everything
Layer the rest of the cheese on top
Cook at 475 until the cheese is brown (about 30mins)
**It’s a little watery at first- let it cool off so the sauce can thicken a bit before you eat it.
Makes excellent leftovers- better than right out of the oven**
Total cost was about $9-10, which comes out to about $2.50 per serving. Honestly, you’d never know that you were eating mostly vegetables. Lasagna is normally my favorite food in the world, and this totally filled the craving for that. We will be eating this one again!
Cauliflower pizza
Okay, I can not even begin to describe to you how totally yummy this recipe is. I know it sounds bizarre, if you haven’t tried it before … but you really need to give it a chance. For my fellow Take Shape for Life/Medifast friends, this meal fits the requirements for your Lean and Green. And for anyone else … it’s just plain healthy and YUMM-O! So, enjoy!!
CRUST:
1/4 cup Egg Beaters (1/8 Lean)
3/8 cup (which = 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp) 2% low-fat shredded Mexican 4-cheese variety, for a firmer crust (3/8 lean)
1 cup Fresh Raw Cauliflower, shredded in a food processor (2 greens)
Dash of Italian (optional)
Mix together and put into a Pam-sprayed foil pie pan (or on a foil-lined baking sheet). Pat down so it all sticks together. Bake 20 minutes at 450, until it starts to turn brown, then flip it over and bake another 10 minutes.
TOP WITH:
2 tsp Ragu Pizza Quick sauce (only .5g of sugar = 2 condiments)
1/4 cup 2% low-fat shredded Mozzarella cheese (1/4 lean)
1/4 cup of the Morning Star Sausage crumbles (1/4 lean)
1/2 cup of veggies – bell peppers, mushrooms, etc. (1 green)
Put back in oven for about 10 minutes so that the cheese melts.
This is the recipe exactly as I found it. The only suggestion I would really make is to check the crust after about 15 minutes during the first bake. Mine got a little crispy around the edges by the 20 minute mark. But I like it crispy, so I was okay with that. The sausage crumbles are yummy, and I will probably use them next time. But I had leftover turkey off the BBQ from last night, so I shredded some white meat and substituted it where it cauls for the “sausage” crumbles. WAY yummy. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!
Oh yeah, and the total cost per serving? About $1.50. You get a personal-sized pizza for $1.50. Where else can you find any pizza for that price?!!
Skate fish? What?
Okay, I had never heard of skate before … except for the all-couples skate at Skate World. Who knew it was also something edible??!? We were at the local Asian market last week, and there was something called “Skate Fin” on sale for a reasonable price. So I figured, what the heck? Of course, I couldn’t find recipes anywhere for “skate”. Go figure. But, according to Wikipedia, it’s similar to cod and flounder. So, what you will see here is a flounder recipe that I adapted to suit our needs.
It should be noted, though, if you ever go out and buy skate fin …. there’s not as much meat on there as you would think. The fin part is mostly this bony membrane. So, double up! I didn’t, so we’ll be supplementing our protein needs with something else tonight. However, this is still yummy and worth trying with whatever fish variety you may choose!
1 lb skate fin (buy 2 lbs!!)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup butter spread, melted (I used “Live Well” from Safeway – very low fat, no cholesterol and super low sodium)
1 tbsp low-fat or fat-free mayo
1 tsp fat free milk (original recipe called for twice the mayo – the milk helps thin it for spreading easier)
1 tsp onion powder (or you can use 2 tbsp fresh green onions)
1/8 tsp Mrs. Dash Lemon-pepper seasoning
Coat a piece of heavy-duty foil with cooking spray. Place fish on foil (on baking sheet). Coat with lemon juice. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Mix remaining ingredients together. After first 10 minutes, spread mixture over fish and return to oven on broil for 5 minutes. Serve!
Total cost was about $5, which is pretty reasonable for fish. Hope you enjoy!
my new pantry challenge 