Quick Tomato Sauce (3 dishes)
I'm always trying to shave prep time off my meals. Last night I made a quick tomato sauce that I eventually use for 3 meals. If I'm in a real 'tomato' mood I'll leave it fresh and use it every night. If not, I divide it and freeze it. You usually need to add more hot pepper to the frozen sauce to keep the heat.
Base Sauce
28-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 cup diced onions
1 cup sliced mushrooms
4-oz red wine
2 cups beef broth
2 Tbsp ketchup
2 tsp garlic
1/8 - 1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes
1 tsp italian seasonings
Take as large a frying pan as you have (saucepan will work, but looking for the largest cooking surface you can find). Start cooking the onions and mushrooms in some of the beef broth until softened. Add all remaining ingredients and cook on high heat until sauce is dry (ie. you're scrapping the nonstick surface since you think it's going to burn). If you want a smoother sauce, turn it down and cook it longer. The fast method takes me under 30 minutes from start to finish. I usually make the sauce the day before I make anything from it.
Makes 2-1/2 to 3 cups of sauce.
415 cals total, 2g fat / 74g carbs / 14g protein
#1 - Baked Chicken
1/3 of the sauce
2 - 6-oz chicken breasts
2-oz cheese blend
Preheat oven to 350F. Brown chicken breasts in a non-stick pan. Place in small baking dish and cover with sauce. Bake 30-mins and top with cheese. Broil until cheese melts (or bake 10 mins more). Note: I make my own cheese blend from regular and low-fat cheeses or... buy one that comes in at 100 cals per ounce. You don't need as much as 2 ounces, but as I'm not taking a starch with my dinner it doesn't matter to me.
Serves 2, 349 calories, 9g fat / 13g carb / 52g protein
#2 - Skillet Shrimp
1/3 of the sauce
1/2 cup water
12-oz peeled and deveined shimp
Mix the sauce with water and place in a non-stick frying pan. Add the shrimp and cook until shrimp turns pink (varies depending on size of shrimp). I usually like this one the spiciest and will add a few hot pepper flakes. You can add parmesan to this as well, but I like it better without.
Serves 2, 251 calories, 3g fat / 14g carb / 37g protein
#3 - Spaghetti Squash
1/3 of the sauce
1 medium spaghetti squash (2 cups needed)
2-oz cheese blend
Prick spaghetti squash with fork and place in 375F oven for approx. 45 mins. (There are many ways of cooking it, often I'll drop it into the oven with something else so I'm not consistent on how long I cook it.) Cool squash, cut apart, scrape out seeds and then scrape out the strands of squash with a fork.
Coat a small baking dish with non-stick spray and put squash in bottom, cheese in middle and sauce on top. Bake at 350F for 30, uncover if too moist and continue baking for 15 minutes.
Serves 2, 213 calories, 8g fat / 23g carb / 12g protein
(Overall note - I'm not specifically watching my fat intake as the rest of my diet tends to fruits, veg and fat-free/low-fat salad dressings. Cutting back on the cheese or changing it to a lower-fat one would help. The spaghetti squash recipe would be almost no different with low-fat cheese as it's not on the top of the dish and you won't have any issues with it not browning.)
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