Cashew Butter Chicken
Recipe courtesy Twinnett
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound chicken (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 tablespoon cashew butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 lime (juice and zest)
2 cloves garlic (grated)
2 teaspoons ginger (grated)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons chili sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
1/4 cup cashews
2 green onions (chopped)
Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add the chicken and saute until cooked, about 4-7 minutes.
3. Mix the cashew butter, soy sauce, lime juice, lime zest, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, chili sauce and sesame oil in a bowl.
4. Toss the chicken and cilantro in the cashew butter sauce to coat.
5. Serve on salad, rice or pasta and garnish with cashews and green onions.
Note: the cashew butter mixture isn't cooked, you just mix it and it's done!
1 tablespoon cashew butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 lime (juice and zest)
2 cloves garlic (grated)
2 teaspoons ginger (grated)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons chili sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
1/4 cup cashews
2 green onions (chopped)
Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add the chicken and saute until cooked, about 4-7 minutes.
3. Mix the cashew butter, soy sauce, lime juice, lime zest, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, chili sauce and sesame oil in a bowl.
4. Toss the chicken and cilantro in the cashew butter sauce to coat.
5. Serve on salad, rice or pasta and garnish with cashews and green onions.
Note: the cashew butter mixture isn't cooked, you just mix it and it's done!
**My variation: I eat this with long grain or brown rice.
I exclude the sugar, use lite soy sauce and all natural raw cashews. You can find Cashew butter in publix next to the peanut butter. If you don't have a publix near you, try a health food store or anywhere that allows you to grind your own nut butter** Trust me it is worth it!
Quick Shrimp and Pasta Recipe
This is the ultimate fast pasta recipe! Minimal prep time needed!
Serves 1
Ingredients
6-10 uncooked, peeled and deveined frozen or fresh shrimp
2-3 TBs of italian breadcrumbs
Angel hair, thin spaghetti or regular spaghetti - preferably Barilla plus
Bertolli pasta sauce (very low in sugar...9g)
Directions
Before doing anything else, fill your pot with water and put it on the stove to boil.
Preheat the oven at 400 degrees
Rinse the shrimp and pat until mostly dry
Put the breadcrumbs into a bowl and coat the shrimp
Put on a non stick cookie sheet (if you don't have one just spray some pam onto your pan)
Bake for 8-10 minutes (check after 8 minutes) You can tell when they are cooked because they turn pink and curl up a bit.
Stuff to do while shrimp is baking
Add the pasta into the boiling water. Follow cooking time/directions on the box. Drain the water from the pasta as soon as it is finished cooking.
Put pasta sauce in a pot and put it between medium and low heat. Be careful because it splashes when it gets too hot.
When the shrimp is done....
Fill ur bowl or plate with desired amount of pasta, and sauce. Add shrimp and top with your fav cheese! Enjoy! This recipe takes me less than 20 minutes, including clean up.
My favorite Protein Shake
Ingredients
1 cup of fat free plain yogurt
1 scoop of vanilla Whey protein
1/4 cup of frozen blueberries
3-4 frozen strawberries
*Optional*
1 TBs of natural peanut butter
Sometimes I put fresh mango instead of blueberries
Directions
Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until it reaches desired consistency. I use frozen fruits because it gives it a "smoothie" texture that I love!
Tuna
Ingredients
1 can of chunk light tuna in water
1-2 tsps of spicy mustard or your fav. mustard
1 organic apple (I use red or gala)
couple squirts of lime juice
1 whole wheat pita or your choice of bread (sometimes I use an english muffin)
Directions
I cut up the apple and grind in a food processor
Add it to the tuna and mix in the other ingredients
I usually pinch off pieces of the pita and put the tuna on top or if I'm having it with english muffins I cut them in half and toast them. Then spoon the tuna mixture onto the top :)
Quick Sweet Potato
Don't have time to broil or bake your sweet potato?
The microwave is next best thing (unless you are on the raw diet lol)
Wash the sweet potato really well and pop it on a microwavable plate. Poke holes in it with a knife.
Stick it in the microwave for 10 minutes on powerlevel 5 (for eg: my max level is 10, so 5 is about midway). Voila!
Greek Roasted Tilapia
Courtesy Twinnett on bb.com
Ingredients
1 1/2 TBSP minced garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup chopped parsley
2/3 cup chopped Roma tomato
1 3/4 cup crumbled reduced fat feta cheese
1/2 lb. tilapia
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Mix the first 5 ingredients. Spray the tilapia with nonstick cooking spray and season with salt and pepper. Top with tomato mixture and bake at 400 degrees for 13-17 minutes in a non-stick pan.
** My variation: I don't change a thing! I love this recipe because it is easy and quick! Goes well with a salad or baked sweet potato or sweet potato fries.**
Chili Dogs
Ingredients
Whole wheat hot dog buns
1 pack of turkey hot dogs
Quick Chili
(Recipe on the back of McCormick's chili powder pack)
1 lb of lean ground beef
1 can of organic unsalted or low sodium kidney beans
1 pack of McCormick's chili powder
1 can of organic diced tomatoes
Optional
Sauerkraut
Mustard
Ketchup
Red onions (diced)
Jalapenos (diced)
Method
Brown the beef on medium or medium/high heat then add the ingredients. Cook until everything else is hot. Takes about 10-12 minutes.
Meanwhile saute the hot dogs in a hot skillet or cook them however you like (boil, microwave,etc).
Broil buns for 1-1.5 minutes to make them toasty and then insert hot dog and top with fav toppings.
Really fast and easy!
Cottage Cheese Recipes (more to come!)
Cottage Cheese Nachos
Serves 1
Ingredients
1-2 TBSP fat free cottage cheese (substitute for sour cream)1 lb of lean ground beef
1 pack of low sodium taco seasoning
1 can of your favorite beans
Your favorite tortilla chips
**Optional: your favorite cheese and salsa, OR 1 can of Rotel and 1 box of velveeta (extra naughty)**
Directions
Cook ground beef until no longer pink, add a packet of low sodium taco seasoning, and throw beans in for a few minutes before taking off the heat. Put desired amount into a bowl and throw in other ingredients and enjoy :) **My favorites: I use low sodium black beans, and unsalted tortilla chips mixed with a few salted ones**
Cottage Cheese Pesto
Recipe Courtesy Martha Shulman
Ingredients
2 plump garlic cloves, halved, green shoots removed
1/2 cup fresh basil or parsley leaves, or a combination
1 cup low-fat or nonfat cottage cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tablespoon plain low-fat or nonfat yogurt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Directions
Turn on a food processor fitted with the steel blade, and drop in the garlic. When the garlic is chopped and adhering to the sides of the bowl, stop the machine and scrape down the bowl with a spatula.
Add the basil and/or parsley, and process until finely chopped. Stop the machine, and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients, and process until smooth and creamy. Serve with pasta, or as a dip or spread.
If serving with pasta, use 2 to 3 tablespoons of the cottage cheese pesto per serving (in my home, that’s 3 ounces of dry pasta). Add a spoonful of the pasta cooking water to the cottage cheese mixture to dilute it before tossing with the pasta.
Yield: Makes 1 heaped cup (about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons).
Advance preparation: This will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator. It will become more pungent, however, and the green will fade.
**My variation: Can substitute the basil/parsley for rosemary and it was yum too. I have used this recipe on pasta and as a dip with ritz crackers. For some extra umph, I added smoked salmon (you can find it in the refridgerated section in your grocery) into the food processor...it was yum.
I used no sodium chicken stock instead of water when I made it for pasta....Don't dilute too much!
No food processor? Try the blender, just takes a little more time and effort.**NY Times
