Honey Dijon Chicken Marinade

I thought since it wasn't very chilly tonight, I would ask Chris to grill some chicken since I'm not feeling too well. He grilled some chicken tenderloins tonight with this marinade. I sort of just threw this together. They turned out really well and were very tender.

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders

3-4 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon light mayonnaise

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

juice of one lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a Ziploc bag and marinate for at least 3 hours in fridge. Grill or bake until juices run clear.

Easy Crockpot Sweet Potatoes

I know Thanksgiving is over now, but I wanted to share this really simple recipe for sweet potatoes. (Maybe you can use it for Christmas!)

5-6 large sweet potatoes- peeled and sliced into 1/4" discs

12 oz. can evaporated skim milk

1 cup brown sugar

4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Combine everything in a large crockpot. Stir well, then dot butter on top. Cook on low for 4-5 hours.

Low-Fat Fettucini Alfredo

Fettucini Alfredo

1 package reduced-fat cream cheese

1/2 cup skim milk

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons light margarine

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/2 lb. whole-grain pasta

Combine all ingredients in small saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted. Serve over cooked egg noodles.

Optional ingredients - cooked broccoli florets and/or cooked baked chicken breast, diced.

Yield: 4 servings

270 Calories when served with 1 cup cooked noodles.

I got this recipe from the First Place 4 Health's Facebook page. (under the recipe tab)

I added broccoli and half a pound of ground turkey to this and we really enjoyed this. It's a very quick meal to put together.

Low Fat Baked Ziti with Spinach

I made this tonight since I wanted to do a vegetarian dish and cut down on our meat consumption. This definitely hit the spot!! So filling and delicious! I would definitely make this again.

Here are my changes:

Used regular spaghetti sauce instead of crushed tomatoes since I already had it on hand.

Couldn't find whole wheat ziti, so I used whole grain penne- very similar.

Couldn't find fat-free ricotta, so I used part-skim ricotta.

Didn't see the need in baking this for the entire 30 minutes. Once my cheese was melted, I took it out after about 15 minutes. Tasted GREAT!

Here are some helpful tips--

1) The recipe doesn't specify this, but if you make this, make sure to squeeze out ALL of the liquid from your frozen spinach after defrosting and before adding it to your pan. You don't want watery, mushy ziti!

2) I find it helpful for clean-up to cover my 9 x 13 dish with foil before adding the ziti. Afterward, you can scoop out the leftover pasta into a container, throw away the foil and have very little clean-up!

Here's the recipe

Honey Mustard Chicken

I saw this on Rachael Ray and had to make it since it looked so simple. She actually used this recipe in the world's largest cooking demo on her show on Monday. She had hundreds of people cooking alongside her all over the world with the same recipe. Very cool!

Anyway, we really enjoyed this and will probably make it again.

Here are a couple changes I made:

Used olive oil instead of butter

Used celery instead of parsnips

Omitted the shallot

Added frozen green peas (about one cup) at the end

Used dill instead of parsley- great flavor!

Here's the recipe

VitaTops

If any of you haven't tried these delicious snacks/desserts, you must! These are wonderful! I found them in the freezer section but I know you can usually find them near other snack items usually too. The frozen ones you just have to microwave for 18 seconds and they are perfect! Plus, they won't go bad in the freezer.

They are only 100 calories each and have 1.5 grams of fat. Great if you are having a craving for something sweet. The Deep Chocolate ones go great with a cold glass of milk!

Here's a link

Squeeze Garlic

This is my newest grocery find. It is made my Spice World. I found this stuff in Target and it makes adding garlic to dishes SO easy! I don't enjoy chopping garlic and the smell it leaves on your hands. So if you're in the same boat, I highly recommend this product. It's also definitely cheaper than buying all fresh garlic.

Here's a link with a picture- it's the first product on the list.

http://www.spiceworldinc.com/index.php?page=garlic

Chicken Pierre

Had this tonight and it was a really nice, easy meal! We had it with green beans and corn- super simple! The tomato sauce is really nice and sweet. Very different from an Italian type tomato sauce. Very easy dish to pull together with some typical pantry ingredients that most people have on-hand. Gotta love that! :)

Here are my changes:

Used a teaspoon of dijon mustard instead of mustard powder

Used olive oil instead of butter

Only used 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of 6, but the same amount of all the other ingredients.

My chicken didn't need the 35-40 minutes to simmer like they suggested. Mine was done after about 20 minutes.

Here's the recipe

Crockpot Minestrone Soup

Chris and I literally JUST ate this for dinner and really enjoyed it. It's definitely a great go-to during the colder months of the year. We had it with some whole grain bread that I toasted in the oven with some mozzarella melted on top. It went great with the soup!

Here are my changes:

Omitted the onion

Used fire-roasted diced tomatoes instead of plain- nice flavor!

Omitted parmesan cheese rind (didn't have one)

***Here's a tip that I saw on Rachael Ray's show recently***

When making a soup that calls for pasta to be added, only add the amount that you will eat right then to your soup bowl. When you eat the leftovers, make a small batch of pasta on the stove, drain it and add it at that time. This will help the pasta to stay "al dente" and not get too squishy and bloated while it sits in your fridge.

Here's the recipe

Crockpot Cranberry Pork Roast

We had this for dinner tonight-- and this is a keeper, y'all! This is so tender and juicy that I just used a fork to get the meat out of the crockpot onto my plate- YUM!

I think this would be a great dish for holiday get-togethers as well and it requires very little prep work.

I put my fresh cranberries in a small pot with about 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup cranberry juice and let it come to a boil for about 5-10 minutes. Then, I mashed the cranberries with a potato masher slightly. I poured this on top of the meat after I had put my savory ingredients onto the meat.

I think the next time I make this, I might omit the lemon slices. I didn't think they were needed as the cranberries were tart enough. But still, VERY good!

I served this with whole-wheat couscous that had golden raisins in it and green beans. Delicious!

Here's the recipe

Oven Roasted Cauliflower

Made this tonight as a side dish and really enjoyed it! Roasting the cauliflower definitely gives it a nice flavor and it was very tender when I removed it from the oven.

The next time I make this, the only thing I would do differently would be to put foil down on the cookie sheet before roasting as it was pretty messy afterward. But the flavor of this dish was great!

Here's the recipe

Petite Turkey Meatloaves

I made these tonight for dinner and really enjoyed mine. Since I didn't have a mini loaf pan, I used a giant muffin pan and they only needed to bake for about 25 minutes instead of the 40 she suggests in the recipe. Gotta love that! I made it as written tonight (shocker, I know!) but this is a very easy dish that can be changed up in a thousand different ways.

Here's the recipe

Lightened Up Creamed Spinach

I made this the other day as a side for dinner. I believe we had it with grilled chicken and this is really delicious, folks!! I will be making this again! The Boursin Light cheese is the key ingredient. I used fresh spinach, but next time, I will probably use the frozen, thawed and drained kind. Either that, or I will buy TWO bags of the fresh kind. One bag was not enough if you don't half the amount of sauce used since spinach wilts down so much when added to the sauce.

Also, when it says to reduce heat to low before adding milk, I actually disagree with this. Mine worked better with the heat turned UP. It helps the milk to thicken up when added to the flour. Make sure to use a whisk when doing this to break up any lumps that the flour creates. This dish came together very fast- it was ready before our chicken had finished grilling on the grill. :)

This would be a great addition to any special occasion or date night at home!

Here's the recipe