Chard & Tomato Egg White Omelet

I didn't think to take pictures of this, but I assure you it was pretty, what with the whiteness of the egg and the pinkness of the chard and tomato juice :)

Chard & Tomato Egg White Omelet
1/2 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 head red chard, rough chopped
1 TBS capers
1 c.  tomato, diced (I used campari's)
juice of 1/2 lemon
7 grams coconut oil (reserve half for egg pan)
3 egg whites
4 grams coconut oil
S&P to taste

freshly shaved Parmesan, to taste

In a saucepan, heat oil; add garlic and onion and saute until carmelized.  You may need to add a tablespoon of water or broth. Add chard and lemon juice; saute until wilted. Remove from heat, add capers and tomatoes; toss and set aside.  In a separate skillet, add remaining oil and egg whites.  Season with salt and pepper; allow to cook through.  Add your chard mixture to half of the egg layer, slide that half onto plate, and flip the empty half over the top, forming your omelet.  Lightly shave Parmesan over the top.

1 serving, 257 calories

Eric's Dinner : can of chicken noodle soup, and half a grilled cheese sandwich.

Greek Inspired Pasta Sauce over Cabbage & Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I saw a really intriguing post on /r/cooking for eggplant "noodles" last week.  I am in the process of trying to give up pasta and white flour products in general (why did a lone bugle playing Taps start playing softly in my head...) and figured this would be a terrific substrate replacement for a hefty sauce.  When thinking of eggplant I think of Chinese and Greek food, so I set out to find a dense pasta topper with one of the two cuisines in mind. I landed at allrecipes.com and a Greek pasta sauce.  I had to make very minimal changes to get this where I wanted it to be flavor- and calorie-wise so below is my version.

The sauce came out fanfrakingtastic... really an exceptional find.  Full of flavor, great texture, and very filling.  You could eat this in a bowl as a stew if you so desire.  That is the good news.

The bad news, however, is that the eggplant pasta SUCKED.   I am about to post over in the Cookit thread and share the information that I used a lot of salt - as in, at an epic scale equal to an amount more suited to the process of creating funazushi.  And while I am tongue in cheek about it this morning (and in retrospect feel like a complete noob), last night I was seriously frustrated.  No amount of rinsing, or soaking and rinsing, was getting the salt level down to an edible level.  So I scrubbed it.   Why yes, that is, in fact, giant kosher sea salt crystals that my eggplant is drowning in.

Luckily I had a head of unclaimed cabbage in the fridge (I plan my meals 3-5 days in advance and had just gone shopping for the entire week) leftover from last week.  I sliced about half the head into thin strips, and popped the pile in the microwave for a minute and a half.  The cabbage came out perfectly al dente and about half-steamed.  I am happy to report that it was the perfect accompaniment to the sauce.  I actually think the cabbage ended up being a better match than the eggplant would have been, or that real pasta could have lived up to (Shush. Let a girl dream).

Greek Inspired Pasta Sauce over Cabbage 
1 small yellow onion, diced
6 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 TBS water or vegetable broth
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 8oz can tomato sauce (no added sugar)
2 TBS capers
15 Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
3 TBS Balsamic vinegar
2-4 tsp crushed red pepper (to taste)
S&P to taste
1 oz per serving of crumbled light feta cheese

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray, add onion and water/broth. Cook until it starts to turn translucent.  Add garlic and cook an additional minute.  Add the rest of the ingredients, except feta.  Let simmer for a minimum of 30 mins.  Meanwhile, slice the cabbage into thin strips and microwave for 1.5 mins with a small amount of water.  Ladle a hearty amount of sauce over cabbage, and top with 1oz of light feta per serving.

Makes about 4 c of sauce, 119 kcals per cup.  Light feta adds 35 kcal per oz.  Cabbage is about 13 kcal per cup.


Roasted Brussels Sprouts
1 lb Brussels Sprouts
1/2 lemon
s& p to taste

Toss everything to coat.  Add to a casserole dish that has been treated with cooking spray.  Bake for 30 mins until the sprouts start to brown.  Don't do what I did and leave them in the oven after turning it off or else they dry out and look yucky but still taste awesome.

Eric's Dinner : half a pound of breaded chicken strips from the Safeway deli

Salmon-Veggie Bake & Beet and Blood Orange Salad

The salmon bake is the easiest, fastest, and most flexible way I have found to cook fish that turns out delicious almost without fail.  You can use pretty much any fish (although oily seems to be better) and any veggie / herb combination you can dream up.  You don't even need to watch proportions; as long as your foil will close, you are set.

I said "almost without fail" above as I came really close to failure last night.  I didn't plan ahead for this meal, and  was just using what I had on hand for the veggies: leeks, scallions, lemon, and fresh thyme.  Sounds amazing, right?  Not so much.  For whatever reason (am I supposed to pan fry leeks first??) the leeks were bitter as all get out - just simply inedible.  And sadly, as you can see from the image below, I had my leeks right on top of the salmon flesh.  Luckily, a little scraping and the meat was fine.  But let that be a lesson to you from me. 

Salmon-Veggie Bake
1 salmon steak, skin on (or any other fish you fancy)
1-2 cups chopped and sliced veggies
fresh herbs
salt, pepper, other seasonings to your taste

Preheat oven to 350.  Tear off a rectangle of foil, making sure it is big enough to wrap all your ingredients with some wiggle room.  Spray foil with a bit of cooking spray.  Lay your fish in skin side down (I like to put a couple slices of citrus down under the fish).  Season the fish with salt, pepper, garlic salt, Mrs. Dash, whatever, just be sure to season it. Lay your cut veg on top and on the sides.  Finish the pile with fresh herbs.  Bring up the two long sides of the foil and fold over twice  to make airtight-ish, leaving a bit of space on the top. Roll and fold the remaining sides to make a packet.  Place the packet on a cookie sheet, and pop the whole thing in the oven 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cut of fish.

calories depend on the size of fish and what veg you use

Beet and Blood Orange Salad
4 small blood oranges, peeled and segmented
2 bunches of beets, greens removed (save em for later, or you can use them as the base of a salad)
for the dressing:
juice from 1 navel orange (1/2 cup)
1 tsp mace
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp mustard

Boil your beets for 20-30 minutes until a knife slips in easily.  Allow to cool, then cut into segments about the size of your orange slices.  Mix your dressing and simply pour it over your beets and oranges.  Enjoy the pretty colors :)

makes 5 cups.  70 kcals per cup.

Eric's Dinner: nothing.  He ate lunch at 2:00 and apparently that means he doesn't need food at 8pm...

Roasted Roots 'n' Wheat Berries

I had a version of this recipe come through my reader courtesy of David Lebovitz's blog.  This is my take on his basic recipe.

Roasted Roots 'n'  Wheat Berries Salad
1 1/2 c. wheat berries (also called farro)
1 bay leaf
2 c. (.5 lb) sunchoke, scrubbed and cubed
2 1/4 c. (1 lb) parsnips, peeled and cubed
2 1/2 c. (1 lb) rutabaga, peeled and cubed
2 1/2 c. (1 large) red onion , diced
2 TBS fresh thyme, destemmed
1 c. (2 medium) carrots, grated
1 c. (1 large) red bell pepper, diced
1 c (1/2 bunch) parsley, choped
2 lemons. squeezed for juice
S&P

Preheat oven to 425.  Heavily salt a 2 quart pot of water, bring to a boil and add wheat berries and bay leaf.  Allow 40 minutes to an hour for cooking, checking for desired consistency.  Remove from water and allow to cool.  Meanwhile, cube the root vegetables and onion, about 1/4 - 1/2 inch cubes.  Toss root veggies, onion, thyme, salt and pepper (to taste) in a bowl to distribute spices; transfer to a baking sheet that has been treated with cooking spray.  Allow 20-40 minutes for vegetables to cook thoroughly and start to brown.  Allow to cool.  Toss wheat berries, roasted root mixture, and the remaining ingredients.  Season to your taste and enjoy. 

makes 12 1-cup servings. 129kcal per cup

Erics Dinner: the other half of my chicken breast with some cheese for a sandwich.

Creamy TurkeyBacon-Lentil Soup

Another recipe I pilfered from myrecipes.com that I built better than what it was before. Bigger, stronger, faster.  Ok maybe not that bionic, but definitely half the calories and as far as I can tell through various tastings along the way, a hell of a lot yummier.

Creamy TurkeyBacon-Lentil Soup
6 cups fat-free vegetable broth
8 slices lean turkey bacon (about 8 oz), thinly sliced
1/2 lb dried lentils, rinsed
1 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped red bell pepper
1 c. chopped celery
2 gloves garlic, chopped
1 Serrano chili, minced
2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 TBS Spike (or any other all-purpose seasoning you fancy)
juice of 1 lime
2 oz fat free plain greek style yogurt (like Fage)

Toss everything except  the lime and yogurt in  your crock pot.  Let it cook on low while you are at work, or goofing off for 8 hours while the rest of us hate on you.  Add your lime juice, and stir well before serving.  Add a dollop of yogurt (2 oz) to each 2 c. serving just before eating. So good!  A dash or two of Tobasco is great in it, too.

Yields 9.5 cups.  80 calories per cup.

Eric's dinner: nothing as nothing sounded good to him that we had in the house.

Dijon Peppercorn Pork Loin Roast & Garlicky TurkeyBacon Brussel Sprouts

I never really do roasts.  I think this is only the 3rd or 4th roast I have ever attempted, and the first time with pork.  I didn't really know what to expect when I purchased the sealed package of meat, but when I got home, it was 2 thinnish lengths of roast, totaling 2.1 lbs.  I ended up freezing one of them because, seriously, that's a shiton of food.  As it stands, I ate a portion last night, a portion is for today's lunch, and I am sending Cynthia home with two more portions for her dinner.

As far as the sprouts - Merlin's beard are they good!  I am going to make these every night, I swear.  Roasting brings out the sweetness.   I am not sharing these with Cynthia, except for maybe a taste.

The base for both of these recipes came from myrecipes.com .  As usual, I changed them to suit my taste, reduced the number of servings, and I cut corners on the calories as much as possible.

Dijon Peppercorn Pork Loin Roast

1 lean, boneless pork loin roast, trimmed of fat (about 1lb)
3 TBS Dijon mustard
1 TBS lowfat buttermilk
2 cups breadcrumbs (I used 2 slices Sarah Lee 45cal per slice bread)
2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon peppercorns, crushed
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325. Combine mustard and buttermilk, and slather on your roast.  Combine remaining ingredients, and press mixture onto roast, thoroughly covering.  Cook until internal temperature of thickest part of meat reaches 160° (my thin roast only needed 40 minutes, original recipe with a 2lb roast called for 2 hours of cook time)

Makes 4 servings, about 3oz each.  213 calories.

Garlicky TurkeyBacon Brussels Sprouts
1 pound Brussels sprouts, cleaned, trimmed, and halved
2 slices turkey bacon, thinnly chopped (about 1 oz per slice)
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp salt
3 gloves garlic, thinly sliced

Pre-heat oven to 375. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.  Add all ingredients, and toss to coat. Cook for 30 minutes until sprouts have started to wilt/brown and become tender.

Makes about 4 cups, 69 cals per cup.  I dare you to try to eat just one.

Eric's Dinner: box of Safeway white cheddar shells pasta