Creamy Holiday Potatoes

Around Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two times in a year that I will forgive myself for all the unhealthy foods I've eaten. Throughout the year, I make my mashed potatoes using skim milk and very little butter or other fats. These mashed potatoes are rich, indulgent, and delicious, however fattening it may be, and I will ONLY make it around the holidays! Make sure you have a potato masher because if you use a handheld mixer it will overwork the starch and will make your creamy mashed potatoes turn into gummy mashed potatoes- not palatable.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Yields: 3-4 servings


1½ pounds Idaho potatoes, cubed
5½ tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed, room temperature
2½ ounces cream cheese, cubed, room temperature
2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream
½ tsp. Lawry's seasoning (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. Once boiling, place potatoes in the water and cook until fork tender. Depending on the size you cut the potatoes, they may take anywhere from 20-45 minutes; mine took about 25 minutes. Once cooked, drain in a colander and put the potatoes back in the hot pot and over a very low heat. Putting the potatoes back into the same pot over a low heat allows for excess water to evaporate. I found that cubing the butter and cream cheese before bringing them to room temperature will allow quicker meting, but cubing is not necessary. Once melted, add in the heavy whipping cream. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust your seasoning. If you choose to add the Lawry's seasoning, go a little lighter on salt.

Enjoy!

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 380.7

• Total Fat: 25.6 g
• Cholesterol: 75.0 mg
• Sodium: 92.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 34.6 g
• Dietary Fiber: 5.1 g
• Protein: 5.3 g

Fettuccine Alfredo

Michael's favorite dish at Olive Garden is the chicken fettuccine alfredo. Have you ever taken the time to on Olive Garden's website to look at the nutrition facts for that dish?! If you enjoy it and care about what you eat, don't eat it. After Thanksgiving, I had some heavy whipping cream left over from Michael's pumpkin pie and from my mashed potatoes. While we were at the grocery store, Michael asked if we had enough heavy cream to make an alfredo sauce for dinner one night. When we got home, I checked and we only had about ½ cup remaining. Heavy cream wouldn't be an optimal choice to make a sauce when considering low-fat. The recipe I have today for you is much healthier and tastes JUST as good. I actually think it tastes better because it isn't as rich and doesn't overpower the palate.

Light Alfredo Sauce
Yields: 2 servings

½ medium onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. vegetable oil
1 c. skim milk
½ c. chicken broth
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
½ tbsp. salt
½ tbsp. pepper
¼ c. parmesan cheese, grated


In a small sauté pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and sauté for about 4-5 minutes or until slightly golden brown and soft. In a medium saucepan, stir together the milk, chicken broth, flour, salt, and pepper over low heat until smooth and thick. Add the sautéed garlic and onions to the saucepan and stir constantly until the sauce has thickened. Stir in parmesan cheese until well blended.

Serve over fettuccine noodles or any other type of noodle you prefer (or have on hand)!

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 3
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 114.5

• Total Fat: 4.3 g
• Cholesterol: 9.1 mg
• Sodium: 350.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 11.9 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.8 g
• Protein: 7.4 g

Fajita Seasoning Mix

If you go in the grocery store and pick up a packet of taco seasoning or fajita seasoning, can you actually read every ingredient? You have to be a physicist to understand what the purpose of some of the ingredients are! I don't think that's necessary, plus if you cook regularly, you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry. I make this amount and use it as needed for recipes or wherever a taco or fajita seasoing is used. I keep it stored simply in a plastic bag with the date and contents. Here it is!


3 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. paprika
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. chicken bouillon
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder

Simply combine and use where needed!

Turkey Meatballs!

One of the great things about cooking is there are no rules. I also enjoy the fact that if you "mess up" it can open the doors to a completely different recipe that will still taste pretty darn good. I had some ground turkey that I had been wanting to use in a recipe, and I wanted to make something quick for dinner a few nights ago. I also had a half of a jar of spaghetti sauce that REALLY needed to be used. (I prefer my homemade sauce, but I keep spaghetti sauce on hand just in case.) Spaghetti it is.

I also make my own bread crumbs-I try not to waste anything. Any bread that is fixing to go stale or the heels of a loaf of bread all go into my gallon-size storage bag in the freezer until it's full. Then, to the food processor! If you decide to make your own, I would recommend leaving the crumbs a bit coarse so you can grind them finer if need be! Sometimes, the bigger crumbs are a benefit for crunch.

I started out making turkey meatballs, but the flavors ended up being better for a morning turkey sausage. Use it for either one, but next time I make these, I will definitely be doing patties and doing breakfast sandwiches with it. So, let's go!

Turkey Meatballs/Patties
Yield: 15 1-inch meatballs

1 lb. ground turkey (I used 85/15%)
¾ c. milk
¼ c. coarse bread crumbs
1 tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tbsp. Italian seasoning
2½ tsp. salt
1½ tsp. pepper
1 tsp. cinnamon

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs with the milk and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and cinnamon and mix well. Next, if the bread crumbs seem to have a bit too much liquid, squeeze them until just moist and add to the spice mixture. I like to leave the breadcrumbs moist because the meatballs don't dry out in the oven. Once everything except the turkey is mixed well, add the turkey. You want to make sure the turkey is the last thing added! It is a lean meat and if worked too much, the meat will become tough once cooked. Mix with your hands until just combined. Roll the mixture into approximately 1-inch balls and place evenly across cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes, then flip the meatballs over and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove, let sit for 2-3 minutes and enjoy!

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 15
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 60.1

• Total Fat: 2.9 g
• Cholesterol: 21.4 mg
• Sodium: 445.5 mg
• Total Carbs: 2.2 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.2 g
• Protein: 6.5 g

Heathy eating!

As you may have noticed, most (if not all) of my recipes are somewhat healthy. For example, I prefer grilled versus fried food and also don't like full-fat sauces and dips. My palate enjoys light and refreshing flavors opposed to fatty and rich ones. The main reason for this post was because I absolutely loved my lunch this afternoon and wanted to post about it! Obsessed? No, just amazed!

Rewind just a tad- Michael and I went to Las Vegas for 10 days with a couple of our friends. Needless to say, eating wasn't the healthiest, but that was expected. On October 21, 2012, the group went to the Grand Canyon where Michael proposed!!! (It's a beautiful ring, by the way!) All the thoughts of planning a wedding came shortly after the excitement of becoming engaged! One of the first things that comes to mind is the dress. All women want to look their best on their wedding day, so I have been working to mold my diet towards some healthy weight loss.

My daily budget for calories is 1,453 calories. I've decided to start posting semi-regularly about the foods I'm eating and hope it helps some of you! Most people think "diet=bland". Well, not so! I like flavor just as much as the next person but I look for ways to bend to get flavor without fat and calories. As I said previously, today's lunch in particular was what amazed me!

I had a grilled cheese sandwich and soup. (I even had a little butter in it.) It doesn't sound like an impressive lunch, but the calorie content was VERY impressive: 310!!!! That's it! 310 calories and I was STUFFED! How did I do it? Well...

Low fat/low calorie grilled cheese
Yields: 1 serving
2 slices of wheat bread (120 cal.)
2 slices of fat-free american cheese (50 cal.)
1 tsp. of butter spread (20 cal.)

First, toast the slices of bread in the toaster to increase the crunchiness. Heat the spread in a small skillet and place one piece of bread along with the cheese slices. Allow the bread to crisp a little and the cheese to melt a bit. Then, add the top piece of bread and flip the sandwich over to crisp. That's it!

In total, my sandwich had 190 calories and 3.3g of fat! Also, I had a can of Campbell's Harvest Select Vegetable and Pasta Light. No fat, and only 120 calories for the entire can!

A very satisfying lunch, with ZERO guilt!

Enjoy healthy eating!