Pasta with Escarole and Cannellini

A great healthy way to get your greens on!

Use as a main dish or side dish with a white fish or chicken.

Ingredients
1 Tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1 medium onion chopped (I used leek)
1 large carrot
2 large celery stalks with leaves, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2-3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil, crumbled
6 cups loosely packed cut escarole (1inch pieces), well washed (I could not find escarole and just used spinach instead)
1/2 cup defatted chicken or vegetable broth
1 can (19oz) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
8oz pasta twists

1. Bring large covered pot of water to boil
2. In a fry pan, heat oil over med heat. Stir in onions, carrots, celery, and garlic, and saute for a minute. Add pepper, basil and salt, and reduce the heat to med-low, cover and cook stirring frequently for 5 to 7 min or until veg are tender.
3. Add escarole (spinach) and broth to veggie mixture and raise heat to high. Cook until wilted. Stir in beans and reduce heat to med, cover and simmer for 3-5 min or until beans are heated.
4. Cook pasta accordingly. Reserve 2 Tbsp of cooking liquid and drain and rinse pasta.
5. Combine pasta, reserved liquid, and escarole (spinach) mixture.
6. Top with fresh grated parmesan (optional)

Tuna Salad

What you will need:

2 Cans of tuna (rinse and strain)

1 can of chick peas (garbanzo beans) (rinse and drain)

1 large red bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup peeled, diced cucumber

1 medium tomato, diced

1/4 cup scallions or leeks

1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt (I used 3/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt)

3 TBSP snipped fresh dill (I sprinkled a little dill on mine from the spice rack)

2 TBSP reduced calorie mayonnaise (I didn't use any, just added more yogurt)

2 TBSP fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/2 tsp dry mustard (I used a TBSP of Dijon mustard)

After draining the tuna, strain it under cold water, and break it up into small pieces. Drain and rinse the chick peas and add them to the tuna. Add in peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, leeks, and toss gently.

Add yogurt, dill, mayo, lemon juice, pepper and mustard and stir well until mixed.

I put mine between two pieces of dry whole grain toast. You could always add mayo on your toast if you wanted to keep it out of the salad and use less.

Other ways to eat it. Place on top of greens and add some toast on the side.
Put inside a pita pocket.
Make a wrap.
For Canyon and Sawyer, I put it in a small bowl and they ate it with jelly toast on the side.
Canyon was eating it and said, "Mom, can you put grapes in mine to make it sweeter?" Love that kid:) A great idea!! If you add grapes and walnuts to it, even better yet!!

Buffalo Stroganoff

A great alternative to cream of mushroom soup when making casseroles or hot dishes.

A great base for any recipe.

No YOLK egg noodles. Cook, rinse, drain, set aside.

Saute mushrooms, leeks, zucchini. I sprayed olive oil lightly over veggies before sauteing them. I also sprinkled a little salt and pepper on them.

Cook your ground buffalo and then add your veggie mixture in. I added garlic to my buffalo when cooking it up in the fry pan. Add the portobello soup and simmer for 10-15 minutes. You will not use the entire carton. Add as much as you like. I tend to add more and if you want it thicker you can add a cornstarch mixture to it.

Put your egg noodles on a plate or in a bowl (bowl if mixture is soupier), top off with meat and veggie mixture and add sour cream to the top if you like. Stir it all up and enjoy!

Cafe Yumm!

My favorite restaurant which is only footsteps from our door is Cafe Yumm. It's my favorite because it is healthy, cheap, and tastes delicious! The other thing that makes it good is the special sauce. Unfortunately you may not be able to get the sauce but the ingredients are good on there own and I barely use any of the sauce. I will list the ingredients of the sauce if you feel like trying to make it.

So easy to make and will now be a weekly meal at our house.

Make as much as you think you will need for your family.

Brown Rice

Black Beans

Black Olives

Tomatoes

Salsa

Sour Cream (or yogurt)

Cheese (optional)

Avocado

Top it off with turkey, chicken, or tofu

Mix it all together! Enjoy!

Ingredients in the cafe yumm sauce

Expeller-pressed canola oil, filtered water, lemon juice concentrate, almonds, nutritional yeast (candida-free), garbanzo beans, soy lecithin, ascorbic acid, fresh garlic, soy beans, herbs.

BLT and Omelet

A great Turkey Bacon

A great 100% Whole Grain Bread.

I absolutely love Cherub tomatoes although they can be pricey. They are always perfectly ripe and a great on the go snack for you and the kiddos.

I used spinach as my L lettus which tastes just as good!

When making the BLT, fry up your turkey bacon and cut up your tomatoes. Toast your bread and put it all together. You can always add cheese if that is an essential for you.
Try Nayonaise by Nasoya as a mayo alternative if you are a fan of mayo.

Finished BLT for the kiddos with veggie and fruit.

The next day I took my left over turkey bacon and made an egg white omelet for us for breakfast. Spray pan well then add your 100% egg whites. Sprinkle a little cheese, add spinach, cherub tomatoes and turkey bacon and let it cook on low until the egg whites are not runny.

Fold it over in the pan and sprinkle a little more cheese on the top and there you have it!

Scramble up for kiddos.

Vegetable Lasagna

I love making vegetable lasagna! It's work but worth it in the end. You can be in charge of what vegetables you want in your lasagna. In this version, I used

1 Red Pepper

2 Zucchini

2 Yellow Squash

1 Leek

1 container of mushrooms

1 Sweet Potato

Spinach

Broccoli steamed

1-2 Cans of diced tomatoes drained or you can use fresh cut in small pieces.

Chop up all vegetables and fry them in a pan until cooked. I usually will fry up my squash, zucchini, red pepper together, put it in a big bowl, fry up my leeks and mushrooms, add them to the bowl, and then fry up my sweet potato until soft. You can use olive oil or I tend not to use anything. I add water to my sweet potato to help it fry up faster. When all your veggies are cooked toss them all together in a bowl.

You can be boiling your water and noodles at this time also and making your cheese mixture.

I try to buy the dry cottage cheese curds in a bag, most grocery stores will carry them. King Soopers does here in Fort Collins. I take the entire bag, and mix in some shredded mozzarella. If it's too dry I like to add regular cottage cheese. Other options for your cheese mixture, are ricotta, and I know some even add egg.

This is a lasagna that seriously is up to your creativity and your likes. I have yet to make a similar tasting veggie lasagna. Every time I make it, it's completely different.

When everything is cooked start making your lasagna.

I put spaghetti sauce on the bottom, just enough to cover the lasagna pan.

Noodles

Cheese Mixture

Veggies

Spinach (I just use fresh spinach and sprinkle it on top of the veggies)

Tomatoes (Canned or fresh)

Noodles

Cheese Mixture

Veggies

Spinach

Tomatoes

Top it off with one last set of noodles

Cover with Cheese and put foil on it and cook for 30 minutes on 350. Because you are using lots of water carrying foods, you may find your lasagna looking a bit soupy. Try to get as much liquid out of everything before you put it together. You can try to drain some of the juice out very carefully when it is done cooking. It is usually fine and after you let it sit for 15-20 minutes, it tends to all soak up and not be soupy. I find too, that it always tastes better the next day.

Be creative with spices if you tend to like them. It's really a lasagna you can form to your own tastes. You can always add a layer of ground turkey and tomato sauce if you want meat.

Good luck. Would love to hear if you try it out!

I prepped all my veggies the day before so it would not take as long during the process.

One thing that has helped me as a mom, is when I get home from the grocery store I prep all my veggies for my meals and then they are ready to go when I need to use them.

SUPER FOOD QUESADILLA

Start out by buying a good whole wheat tortilla. These are one of my favorites and my boys love them with peanut butter and jelly in them. A great on the go snack for the kids or an easy picnic lunch for at the park.
The finished look:)

Spray your pan and place the tortilla in the pan. I cooked my spinach before hand to get more on the tortilla. Spinach cooks down to nothing so if you put it on raw you won't get much. (I fill my fry pan up with spinach and spray a little olive oil on it and add sea salt and pepper). Add turkey and tomatoes (I used salsa on this one because I was out of tomatoes) Then add just a tiny bit of cheese...you don't need much to give it the flavor you like. Put the other tortilla on top and cook on low/medium heat and flip carefully:)
Enjoy.

You can cut up your spinach in tiny pieces for the kiddos and they will usually not be able to tell if they are picky eaters. Some kids think anything green is bad but give it a try. You can even try to make a quesadilla pizza with cheese and spinach and spaghetti sauce to get your tomatoes in. Kids usually love tomato paste and it's very good for you!