Baked Falafel

I really love hummus. As such, I find any excuse to buy a new brand of it at the store--I think I'm obsessed at this point! Anyways, I found a new jar of it at Safeway yesterday that was just the garbanzo beans, garlic, and spices added--the olive oil was not added in yet, and the instructions said to add it in to taste.

Well, as you can guess, this made the calorie and fat content much better, so I bought it and took it home. Turns out, by itself this isn't such a great idea, but mixed with a littl nonfat yogurt and diced cucumbers, it made a pretty tasty sauce for what I believe would be perfect for falafel.

Here's the ingredients I am talking about:

Traditional falafel is fried, but I was looking for something a little lighter. I found a recipe on bakingbites for "baked falafel", you can find it here. I followed it exactly, although my picture doesn't do it justice!

Pork Carnitas

One of Ryan and I's favorite restaurants is a local Mexican restaurant called Fiesta, near his work. We particularly love this Fiesta Platter, which has lots of different meats served fajita style, including some delicious pork carnitas.

I decided a while ago to re-create the recipe at home. After much research, I realize why it tastes so good. Traditionally, the pork is roasted all day and then cooked in lard at the end to add that nice crunchiness. This doesn't surprise me--I often thought it was so good it must be bad for me!

Anyways, after inquiring, I found out traditionally the meat is cooked in either regular coke (for the sugar), or beer, with homemade salsa often mixed in.

I've made it before with the coke and salsa, it was excellent! I decided to experiment a little more this time.


Ryan agreed to sacrifice a beer, and I found this interesting interesting salsa called "tequila lime" which had lower sodium than some other brands:

Here's the recipe:

Buy a large pork roast (I choose a lean variety of pork loin, make sure to check your labels!) and place in crockpot with the beer and salsa. Cook on low about 7 to 9 hours.

To get that "crunchy" outside, here's the trick: Break up the pork into large pieces and place in a shallow roasting pan. Place in over at 400 degrees, and cook about 20 minutes, checking after 15.

I like to serve it with sauteed peppers and onions:

These are fabulous! Serve with tortillas, and whatever condiments you desire!

Sun-Dried Tomato and Artichoke Chicken

Well, it was Friday night, and Ryan and were without children. Ryan was working late, so I decided to have a dinner ready for him getting home. You see, we had a big date to watch "No Country for Old Men".

Here's a dish that is really easy to make, tastes great, and fits into my healthy eating perfectly. I adapted it from one I got off allrecipes.com

3 large chicken breasts, sliced into large pieces
1T olive oil
1 can tomatoes with green chilis
1 can tomatoes, no sodium added
1 cup chopped artichokes (or artichoke tapenade if you have it)
1/3 cup sun-dried tomato pesto

Saute chicken slices in olive oil until lightly browned. Remove from skillet and keep warm.

In same skillet, add the 2 cans of tomatoes, artichokes, and sun-dried tomato pesto. Bring to a simmer, and add chicken back in. Cover, simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes longer, until sauce is nice and thick.

Serve over pasta, or as Ryan prefers, mashed potatoes! I like to serve it with french green beans!

Here's the pesto and artichokes I used:

Here's the chicken simmering!

Weekend Turkey Chili

We've had a brutal week here at our house. My husband got sick with a cold Sunday, I came down with it Wednesday, and Friday our 6 year old son Aaron had also fallen victim. It's one of those annoying illnesses where you just feel horrible, run fevers for days, and have a sore throat/coughing spits at any given moment.

Somewhere along the line in my life, I decided the cure to such an illness is SPICY FOOD! My favorite food of choice in years past would have been chinese food, but since there isn't any take out that fits in my lifestyle anymore, and I didn't have a good recipe, I opted for turkey chili instead.

Turkey chili is a great recipe when you are trying to eat clean. It has lots of protein, fiber, vegetables, and of course tomatoes are great anti-oxidants. As such, I'm sure that it will cure us all.

I've made this once before, and even my red meat loving husband ate tons of it - so I think anyone could enjoy it! Here's my recipe, I modified it slightly from one that I found on Baking Bites to make it my own. Enjoy!

Jennie's Turkey Chili

3 lb. ground turkey
1 12 oz. can reduced sodium chicken broth
1 large onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 T worchestire sauce
1 T hot sauce (less if you don't like hot)
1.5 T favorite steak rub or seasoning
2 cans tomatoes with green chilis
2 small cans tomato paste
1 12 oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 cup favorite barbeque sauce
1 small can green chilis (optional if you don't like hot)
3 cans kidney beans, rinsed under water (I choose reduced sodium)

Directions:

In giant soup pot, brown meat under medium heat. Drain off fat and rinse meat with water.

Put meat back in pot and add chicken broth, onion, both peppers, worchestire, hot sauce, and steak rub seasoning. Let simmer under medium heat for about 10 minutes, until vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally.

Add tomato ingredients and barbeque sauce, reduce temperature to low and simmer for approximately 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add in rinsed kidney beans, and continue simmering for at least 1 to 2 hours.





Here's what it looks like after that!



Serve with shredded cheese, chopped onions, or anything else that normally goes on chili. Myself, since I'm eating clean, I just eat this!