Quest Protein Chips

I had read on several blogs about Quest Protein Chips so I was pretty excited when I saw them in my local health store. I chose two flavors- the Sea Salt and Sour Cream and Onion flavors. Some information about these chips: they are gluten free, baked, have no soy, are vegetarian, have 5g of carbs, 120 calories in a bag, 15% of your DV of calcium and 21g of protein!! Another thing to know is the serving size is 32g (1 and 1/8 oz) and it cost me $2.50 per bag of chips! So a little on the pricy side! This is a review of the Sour Cream and Onion flavored chip.

Smell: like any other sour cream and onion chip out there, not to overpowering

Look: 

Definitely looks baked, not quiteas appetizing looking as you may think from the picture on the front of the bag.

Taste: I have to admit that I didn't see they were baked until I got the bag home. I am not really a fan of baked chips. That being said these had a really strong sour cream and onion flavor. This was good because it covered up the baked flavor that I am not a fan of. I think I would not like the sea salt flavor, that might be a little too plain for me.

Texture: so this one is a little weird for me , there were a lot of textures going on in this little chip. It was crunchy due to being baked, airy (there were actually pockets of air in the chip) and also had a slightly chalky reside on the chip. I am a fan of crisp and airy, not so much chalky. These chips also made my mouth a bit dry. You could put a chip in your mouth and it would just crumble also (I think this was due to the airiness). 

Grade: the chalky texture really threw me off and I am not a huge fan of baked chips so I am a little biased here. These would be better with a drink. I would give them a C.

Tomato and asparagus gratin

I had a large amount of heirloom tomatoes give to me and started to find creative ways to use them. This recipe was by far, my favorite.

Ingredients:

- sliced tomatoes (enough to line the bottom of a casserole dish)

-balsamic vinegar

-asparagus spears

-olive oil

-parmesan cheese

-salt and pepper to taste

Slice tomatoes and layer on the bottom of a casserole dish. Top with asparagus spears. Drizzle generously with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Top with grated parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.  Bake at 350 until cheese melts. Don't eat all at once :)

 

Sliced tomatoes above and with toppings below before going in the oven:

And after coming out of the oven:

Carrot Juice

This year has been a very kitchen gadget filled year for me. I've found a few I don't know how I lived without before. I bought a juicer from aldi's right after the new year. It was a great price and is super powerful. They seemed to have the same gadgets come out every year around the same time. I recommend checked in January to see if they have one. My favorite thing to make is carrot juice. It's very filling and has even been my dinner a few times this year.

Ingredients:

-4 carrots

-1 sweet potato 

-1 inch of ginger

-1/2 of a lemon

Juice all items into the same glass and enjoy! It doesn't really matter what order you juice it in and in my juicer the above amount would only make one glass.

From the Pero Kitchen: Nonnie's Green Bean Salad

The company I work for, Pero Family Farms, has a line of bagged vegetables. One of the vegetables that we carry is bagged snipped green beans. The green beans are microwavable in the bag, which is something I love when in a rush, but they also include a recipe for green bean salad on the back of the bag for when you have more time. I have personally had this green bean salad and I must say that even though I'm not a huge fan of green beans this salad was really good!




Ingredients:
3 cups of Pero snipped green beans
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:
Remove beans from bag, plunge beans into boiling water for a few minutes-chill immediately. Add chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, apple cider vinegar and olive oil to cooked beans. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

Healthified mac n cheese

I was trying to figure out what to eat for dinner one day when and I opened up the Home and Garden's that came that day and I came across a healthier version of mac and cheese. I am a big mac n cheese lover so if you can make a healthy mac n cheese taste good - you are my best friend! I thought I would try the recipe with a few adaptations:

Ingredients:

-Whole wheat pasta 1 and 1/2 cups - I used whole wheat shells

-1 and 1/2 broccoli florets and finely chopped carrots

-1/4 cup finely chopped onion

-4 tsp olive oil

-3/4 cup 75% reduced fat white cheddar cheese

-1/2 cup 75% reduced fat pepper jack cheese

-1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

-1 and 2/3 cups fat free milk

-1 tbsp all-purpose flour

-crushed red pepper and italian seasonings to taste

-some panko bread crumbs to sprinkle on top

Steps:

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees...while the oven is warming up cook pasta and add broccoli and carrots in the last 3 minutes of cooking...drain pasta and veggies and set aside.

2. While the pasta is cooking heat 2 tsp of olive oil in pan and cook onions until soft and translucent. Remove pan from heat and stir in parmesan cheese...stir until blended.

3. In a medium bowl whisk together milk and flour until smooth...add to onion mixture...cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly...reduce heat to low and add the rest of the cheese...stir until melted...add cooked pasta mixture and stir to coat.

4. Transfer pasta mixture to a cassarole dish...in a small bowl toss panko breadcrumbs with remaining oil and sprinkle on top of pasta...sprinkle with crushed red pepper and italian seasonings...bake for 15 minutes or until top of browned.

This mac and cheese is probably the best mac and cheese I have ever had...it had so much flavor and it was a much healthier option...until I ate almost all of it...and saw it was supposed to feed six...whoops!

If you want to see the original recipe it was in the March 2010 Better Homes and Gardens.

Some pictures of the finished product:

Asain Inspired Turkey Burgers

I was trying to work out and eat healthier for a while so this meant trying to be creative with some healthier ingredients - during this time I made an amazing Asain inspired burger that I think should be featured on a menu somewhere that's how good this burger was;)

Ingredients:

- 1 pound ground turkey

-chopped cilantro to taste

-chopped broccoli slaw

-grated fresh ginger

-grated ginger

-a few dashes of hot sauce

-2 teaspoons of soy sauce

-red pepper flakes to taste

Mix all indredients together and shape into burgers. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes or until burgers brown slightly.

The mixture

patties

The finished product - baked burger with ketsup, more broccoli slaw on a whole wheat bun.

Healthified BBQ Chicken Pizza

No matter how healthy I want to eat there is one thing I could never give up - pizza. So I just need to make it a bit healthier. This BBQ chicken pizza tasted so good and was pretty healthy too.Ingredients:
- honey BBQ sauce (I added too much)
-cubed 50% fat free cedar cheese
-lots of fresh basil
-minced chicken
-organic whole wheat naan bread

I just topped the naan with all of the ingredients and put into a oven preheated at 400. When the cheese melted I put it under the broiler for about 3 minutes...so good...just need less BBQ sauce next time!

Baked Halibut, spinach and paneer, and stuffed poblano peppers

So anyone who knows me knows I am not in shape at all. Most of my exercise of late has been walking my dogs...so I'm pretty excited to say that I started P90X - an extreme fitness system. Today is my 3rd day. I'm pretty excited about the workouts- I'm also pretty sore right now! I'm not loving the plyometrics at all and I'm really hating the ab ripper...so much pain! But I also need to diet a bit...eat a little heathier. Typically my favorite foods are anything fried or in a cream sauce. I am going by some of the food recommended in the diet plan but also innovating a bit. I really loved the meal I cooked tonight - I think I could eat it everyday! I had a poblano pepper sitting around and also some black beans that needed to be used up so I made a stuffed poblano pepper. The other thing to know about the diet is that it is high protien so the black beans work. I also bought a ton of spinach so that was an easy side...paneer is an Indian cheese that is basicallya block of cottage cheese. Its pretty yummy and stays pretty solid so it can even be subsituted for meat in lots of dishes. I tried eating regular cottage cheese this morning and I couldn't do it - nothing should be runny and chunky at the same time! So I thought paneer would be a great way to get some cottage cheese in me! The last in 6 0unces of Halibut that the program also recommends for dinner.

Halibut:
6 0unce of Halibut filet
lemon juice - sprinkle
garlic salt - sprinkle
dried basil - spinkle
All I did for the Halibut was take it out of the freezer and sprinkle with lemon juice, a little garlic salt and a decent amount of dried basil. I then put it in the oven and baked it at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. I never had halibut before today, so I added a little sauce. I was expecting it to be fishy. Wow was I wrong, no sauce needed, just amazing taste and all it really needed was the ingredients above. I think if I could eat halibut every day for dinner I would be happy!
Stuffed Poblano Pepper:
one poblano pepper top cut off and de-seeded
a quarter of an ounce of 75% reduced fat cheddar cheese
black beans and a dash of garlic
I just stuffed the cheese and beans in the pepper and put in the oven with the fish at 450 - these were ready to come out when the skin on the pepper started to shrivel - they were ready a few minutes before the fish.
Spinach and Paneer:
a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach
a couple of dashes of dry white wine
a clove of garlic
a quarter of a block of paneer cut into cubes
So I would typically fry the paneer in oil to cook it - this is where the wine came in. I heated a frying pan on medium high heat and and added a dash of white wine and the minced clove of garlic. I let the wine boil down and added the paneer and heated until browned. When the paneer started to brown I lowered the heat and added the fresh spinach. I then added another splash of wine and cooked the wine down. The paneer was much sweeter than usual due to the wine.
This meal is going to be a repeat for sure over the next 90 days of this diet!