What's cookin? (with pics!)
 

i've been home, all week, sidelined with a torn ligament in my ankle.

i've taken this time to make up some low cal, high taste dishes from my 'taste of home comfort food diet' cook book. and one that i saw on the can of salsa :P

the first one i made, was the salsa dish. it's cubed chicken breast meat cooked with a jar of raspberry chipotle salsa. (brown the chicken, add in salsa, serve with rice) it was sweet and spicy and i served it over whole grain brown rice, with no salt added whole kernel corn.

whole plate: 430 calories

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...8_313399_n.jpg

the next night, at my husband's request, i made a pasta dish. this one, if looked up on the taste of home website is called 'sausage spaghetti pie'... i substituted turkey kielbasa with 93/7 lean ground beef (same calories, much lower sodium) and used egg substitute instead of egg whites (hubby grabbed the wrong thing at the store!), as well as using more cheese. my calories were a little more than the original recipe, but not by much.

1/4 pie: 400 calories

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4349416_n.jpg

last night i made a pork dish. honey lemon schnitzel. served with garlic mashed potatoes, and the rest of the corn. but i forgot to take a picture :( the whole dish was around 400 calories. and it was really really good.

tonight, i made a honey chicken stir fry... it was so easy! (all of these dishes were easy, none of them took more than 30-45 minutes to make, start to serve). it's amazing. it sorta reminds me of sweet and sour chicken, minus the fried batter and uber high salt content (reduced sodium soy sauce is the sodium culprit in this dish). i served it with more of the whole grain brown rice.

whole plate: 350 calories

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4416942_n.jpg

and for a sweet treat to go after all of those delicious dishes, i made a set of tiramisu parfaits. mine ended up being around 200 calories apiece due to substitutions i had to make (angel food cake instead of lady fingers, light whipped topping instead of fat free), but still.. really really good!

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...1_883688_n.jpg


anybody else a foodie like me and have pics of your dinner foods like other people have pics of their children? :D

Thanks for posting these photos, everything looks delicious! I love rice and have sort of given it up for the past few months, but I miss it..... I am going to check out the recipes you used.

Yes, I take photos of food the way other people take photos of their children!! LOL. Every time my boyfriend or I make something yummy I take pictures of it... maybe I will add a few here :)

PS sorry about your ankle and hope it heals swiftly!

Those dishes look yummy!!! I am also going to have to try some of those recipes! I take pics of my food and post on Facebook at times lol.. I love cooking and try and make new concoctions all the time lol

thanks ladies :)

the chicken stir fry is an excellent way to kill a craving for chinese food. and the sausage spaghetti pie was so much like pizza... yum.

That all looks so good! Have you ever cooked with the shirataki tofu noodles (they taste much better than they sound) I wonder if I could do the sausage spaghetti pie with that? I actually had those noodles with ricotta salata, a little butter and some salmon roe tonight and it was so good - but already gone so no picture...

you could probably use the tofu noodles in the recipe. it's basically a 'crust' for the pie. you cook the noodles and toss them with the egg/parm mixture to make a crust of sorts. then you top it with the prepared sauce. it only goes in the oven to warm it through "bake" the crust, and melt the cheese.

Oh my... mouth is watering. It' 2am here and I have a good mind of going down to the kitchen...

Great thread, Mandy. All the recipes look great. thanks for sharing them and your substitutions. I like recipes like these where it isn't "rocket science" and you can just use the recipe as a guide.

Hope the ankle heals quickly.

Lin

haha lin, i'm the same way. the only time i ever follow a recipe exactly is if it's baked goods where the ratios are critical to the dish coming out properly. other times i edit it to taste, especially if it's a pasta dish.

I meant to take a picture of dinner tonight, but forgot. We had sweet chili thai chicken on white rice with steamed carrots and sugar snap peas. The white rice was an unusual thing, I usually do wild/brown. But, I'm still not feeling good and it was my little taste of comfort food today. :)

Okay, I had to add my own food porn here...

Here we have the extra-lean meatballs I made this week, along with 2T of diced tomatoes (no salt added), and 1 ounce of shredded skim mozzarella...popped under the broiler for 10 minutes. I had 6oz of meatballs so this plate is 470 calories.

Attachment 39992

I love food porn! :D Here's a few of my favorites. I have a new love for white fish, so most of the recipes I get creative with are fish recipes..

Baked cod in a creamy dill sauce, steamed garlic and olive oil zucchini, broccoli and carrots

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...otbroccoli.jpg

Here's the dill sauce ingredients...
Heavy Whipping Cream, (0.13 cup, fluid (yields 2 cups whipped))
Butter, salted, (0.50 tbsp)
White Wine, (0.50 fl oz)
Lemon Juice, (0.25 lemon yields)
Dill weed, dried, (0.50 tsp)

6 oz. of cod - serving is about 350 calories. garlic and olive oil zucchini is about 60 calories, broccoli and carrots together are about 50 calories. = 460 calories for the meal.


Baked cod in cream sauce with asparagus and carrots over brown rice from foodtastesyummy.com

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...carrotrice.jpg

I asked her if she had nutrition information, which she didn't.. so I worked it out myself and her recipe comes out to about 300 calories per serving. The asparagus and carrots together are approximately 80 calories. Brown rice - 160 calories. = 540 calories for the meal.



Tilapia w/ cilantro cream sauce, ginger glazed carrots & sautéed garlic lima beans from food.com - one of my higher calorie meals...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...azedcarrot.jpg

6 oz of tilapia came out to 428 calories. Ginger glazed carrots is 103 calories. Garlic sautéed lima beans (which are heaven!) 84 calories = 615 calories for the meal.


baked Italian sole, steamed broccoli in lemon zest butter w/ shaved almonds and steamed baby carrots

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...colicarrot.jpg

I can't remember where I got the recipe... but if I remember right, the ingredients are:
olive oil
garlic
diced onion
diced olive
diced mushroom
crushed tomatoes
butter
salt and freshly ground pepper
all sautéed together in a pan and served over a fillet of sole coming out to about 300 calories per 6 oz serving. The lemon zest butter and shaved almonds over steamed broccoli is 115 calories. Steamed baby carrots about 35 calories = 450 calories for the meal.


I have more... I'll try and find the recipes to go with them before I post.

sabrina... i love tilapia! i could probably sub that in as the white fish in some of those dishes. that last one made me drool. i love anything topped with onions :D

also, your table cloth is uber cute!