Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

4 large portabello caps, washed, stemmed & gills scraped out

1 to 1-1/3 lb ground turkey

2 Tablespoons A1 sauce

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons seasoning salt

8 oz pkg fat free cream cheese (room temp or nuke briefly)

10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach thawed & pressed dry

Heat oven to 400F. Put cleaned caps in a sprayed baking dish.

Cook the ground turkey, drain meat. Remove from heat. Add sauces & seasoning salt. Crumble spinach into pan. Stir in cream cheese.

Stuff caps. Bake 20 minutes, remove from oven. Sprinkle some grated parmesan on top, bake an additional 5 minutes.

It’s a keeper! I taste tested this on my family and my brother said it tasted like Hamburger Helper. And yes, that is a compliment. The A-1 and the Worchester sauce give the flavor a nice biting taste and I love the combo of the meat and cream cheese. Recently I’ve also discovered how much I love spinach, which I would never have believed a year ago. It’s featured prominently in three of my favorite recipes.

The portabello mushroom caps [...]

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I’m starting to get bored of my regular meals, so that means it’s time to start experimenting in the kitchen again. When choosing new recipes I look for two things:

1) Nothing too complicated or complex. If it involves separating egg whites or getting out the sifter it’s a no go. Do I even own a sifter?

2) No weird ingredients. I’m not adverse to buying one or two new spices or veggies for a recipe, but if it turns into a grocery store scavenger hunt that requires me to find eye of newt, it’s out. No toil or trouble.

Lately, I’ve been surfing this thread at a South Beach diet site which has links to tons of recipes. Today I tried:

Apple Strudel Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Topping:

1/4 cup Splenda

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon or to taste

1/8 cup melted margarine

Muffin:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup Splenda

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup apple juice*

1/3 cup Canola oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup apples – peeled, cored and diced

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray bottom and [...]

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Stuffed Chicken Breasts

4 chicken breasts

1 box frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup low fat mayo

1/2 cup low fat feta

4 strips turkey bacon

Cut a pocket in four chicken breasts. Mix together the spinach, garlic, mayo and feta. Stuff chicken with mixture and place in shallow baking dish. Place a slice of turkey bacon on each piece of chicken and bake at 375 for one hour.

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! This recipe is most delicious. Yummy even. Who knew I could use the word ‘yummy’ to describe spinach? The cheese, mayo, garlic spinach filling is good enough to use in other recipes too, perhaps on a whole-wheat pita or in an omelet. Plus, it was very quick to put together, though the baking did take about 45 minutes. (I used small chicken breasts.) I subbed a strip of ham for the bacon and it came out fine, if a little black and curly on the edges. This one is definitely going into heavy rotation on my dinner menu list.

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Italian-Style Crustless Cheesecake

South Beach Diet Phase 1

Makes 8 servings

1 lb. container part-skim ricotta cheese

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

8 packets Splenda

Handful of slivered almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 325F. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray. Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl until fully incorporated. Turn into the prepared pie plate. Add almonds on top of mixture (optional) and bake 45-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack, and then chill. Refrigerate until serving time.

Your little sister can put her hair in pigtails, put on a Catholic School girl outfit and sing with her hair brush in front of the mirror like Britney Spears, but that doesn’t make her Britney Spears. This recipe is trying hard to be cheesecake, but it just ain’t cheesecake.

It’s not bad really, but I think I would like it better if it were called “Cheese Pie” or something. When I hear “Cheesecake” I get some delicious expectations which this just didn’t live up to. It’s just – off. But [...]

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I’ve switched into a recipe mode again, so I’ll be trying out some South Beach Diet compatible recipes and reviewing them on the blog. First up:

Peanut Butter Cookies

South Beach Diet – Phase 1

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup Splenda

1 egg

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix ingredients together. Drop teaspoon sized balls onto greased cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.

These cookies were pretty good, but you definitely need some milk nearby to get the dry taste out of your mouth. I found it pretty amazing that you can actually make cookies without flour. They’d probably taste better with the flour, but these weren’t bad at all. Bonus points for being quick to make.

The only problem I had was that I couldn’t eat just one. I wanted to eat 4, which included more nuts than I should be having in a day. I have this problem with all cookies and small serving food though. Whenever I make whole wheat bread, I end up chomping on 3 slices or half the loaf.

Final Assessment: I won’t throw [...]

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