Tortilla Soup (Lightened Up)

With the barbecue pot roast and this soup, it has been a week for comfort food! Both Mr. Max and I have felt a little puny with fall allergies on top of being generally run down from a very hectic September. Experiencing a bit of real fall weather, we decided to make a big batch of our favorite soup for the week. Giada's Tortilla Soup has been our go-to the past few years, it is so easy to make and truly delicious, but this time I decided to change it up a bit.

I wanted to turn up the heat a bit to help clear some serious sniffles so cayenne pepper was included, I added black beans for additional protein, and used a low-sodium vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. 

Nutritional facts can be found here, calculated through SparkRecipes.com; one serving of soup is 3 WW points. 

Grocery List:
Recipe yields 7-8 servings

• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 12 oz. can of roasted tomatoes, diced
• 1 tbsp. canola oil
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 poblano pepper, minced
• 1 tsp. cayenne
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 12 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups rotisserie chicken, shredded
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• 1 avocado, cubed
• Cheese for garnish

To start, combine the vegetable broth, diced tomatoes and peppers in a pot on medium-high heat. Add the cayenne, chili powder and oregano.

 

Take an immersion blender, or dump contents of pot into a blender, and blend the diced tomatoes and peppers until smooth and creamy. In a different pot, begin to saute the onions in canola oil over medium heat. Add more cayenne pepper and cumin. After cooking for about 10 minutes, add the garlic until fragrant.

 

Pour the soup mix into the pot with the onions, then add the black beans, shredded chicken and cilantro. Let simmer for about 30 minutes to allow the flavors to conjure, or until you are ready to serve.

 

Add the avocado to each individual bowl, garnish cheese and additional cilantro then ladel and enjoy!

Tastefully yours,

Barbecue Pot Roast

 

This is a recipe that I can't wait to share! When you have something that you just loved to make and eat, it's really fun to run and tell everyone about it in hopes that they can then enjoy it like you did. Mr. Max and I have simply not been very creative with meals lately. We've had a lot of repeats or easy meals like salads, or simple fish and chicken breasts with roasted veggies. Blame that partially on a whirlwind event schedule and needing the ease, and maybe partially on trying to eat very basic because of the wedding that is approaching.

I can't say that I've been a dieting bride necessarily. I know how to eat well and I know what's good and what is not so good for me. I've just become a little more diligent on those what's good with more veggies and protein, and really strict on the consumption of the not so good like unneeded sugars, excess carbs or salty foods.

Well.... all that is fine and great but sometimes you just need some comfort food! Feeling slightly under the weather and having just one of those weeks, I decided that a pot roast seemed appropriate because it gave me a perfect reason to make a cauliflower and potato puree - mmm potatoes! Pinspired by the fabulous Plain Chicken blog, I used this for reference but made my own version based on what I had in the fridge.

Nutritional facts can be found here, and they were surprisingly not as bad as I thought; this is 8 WW points per serving.

Grocery List:
Recipe yields six servings

• 2 lb rump roast, trimmed (rump is leaner than chuck roast)
• Garlic salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 1 cup chili sauce
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp. BBQ sauce (I used our favorite, Austin's Own, Medium Heat)
• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp. Sriracha
• 2 cups carrots
• 1 cup celery (optional)
• 1/2 cup water (optional)

To start, sprinkle your roast with the garlic salt and pepper, then place in the crock pot. Surround with the celery, then the carrots. I thought I got most of what Plain Chicken used but come to find, I did not. I didn't have a Coke, and didn't want to use one, so I subbed the taste of apple cider vinegar for a little bit of tang and to help compensate for the missing liquid. I decided to start with just 1/4 cup so that it didn't over power and could somewhat keep sugars low, and that amount was perfect. In a bowl, mix the chili sauce, apple cider vinegar, BBQ sauce, Worcestershire and sriracha together until blended. At this point, I looked at it and thought I needed to "water" it up more so that is when I added the water.

 

Once mixed, pour the sauce over the contents in the crock pot, put the top on and walk away. If you are cooking for over 6 hours, cook on low-medium heat. If you are cooking for under 6 hours, cook on high heat.

When you come back, test the roast to see if it falls apart at the touch and move the contents around to get everything a little saucy.

When the roast is ready, scoop the meat and veggies into a bowl, top with some extra sauce and serve! 

 Served with cauliflower-potato mash

Kate's Easy Cauliflower-Potato Mash

Boil 1 large Yukon gold potato, cut in on inch cubes 

and 2 cups of cauliflower florets.

When soft, drain and add 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt,

with 1 tsp. garlic powder and 1 tsp. butter.

Use electric beaters to mash until smooth and creamy

Serves 3-4

Tastefully yours,

Fiesta Shrimp Salad

Easy as can be on a summer evening! Mr. Max and I got home from yoga one night and whipped up this salad in less than 15 minutes for a not too light, yet not too heavy, refreshing dish. Similar to the mexi-texi layer salad but better suited for two. We've made this several times in the past two weeks! I decided to post this in case you are looking for a delicious and nutritious salad combination to add to your rotation. I know I'm always looking for new ideas!

The nutritional facts can be found here, calculated at SparkRecipes.com; one serving of this salad is 6 WW points. Does not include salad dressing, I used a great new bottle of dressing I came across, fat free without oil added, a spicy cilantro and citrus from Kozlowski Farms found at Central Market. This dressing was 20 calories, 180 mg sodium, 4g carbs, 4g sugars for one serving, equal to 2 tbsp.

Grocery List:
Recipe yields two servings

• 1/2 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 3 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup baby corn
• 1/4 cup black beans
• Avocado,chopped

To prepare the shrimp, you can kabob them, or lay them in a grill safe basket. Cook for 10 minutes, flipping to cook evenly on each side. Remove from grill and chop into smaller bits. 

Are you ready for how simple this is? Now dump all the ingredients into a bowl, toss with your dressing of choice and voila! Serve it out and enjoy.

Tastefully yours,

Southwest BBQ Quinoa Bowl

I'll take a little walk down memory lane here for the sake of recipe introduction: as I've mentioned before, it was when we started dating that Mr. Max and I learned just how much we enjoyed cooking both together and in general. Instead of going out to dinner, we would go to the grocery store without a plan and wander the aisles until we came up with something to make.

Flash forward to now.

This past weekend did not yield time to meal plan, so we took off for the grocery store in our more spontaneous vintage fashion. All I knew was that I wanted to use up the quinoa in the pantry and had a plan to revise my Mexi-Texi salad sometime in the near future. We passed by the tantalizing BBQ counter that always smells incredible every time we pass by. They had some BBQ sauce on the counter so we sauntered over to taste test it and that did us in right there! At that moment, the clouds parted and the plan for dinner was formulated. It went a little something like this...

Okay, at the risk of sounding annoying and/or mushy, I had swoon moment #11,876: mid-way through food prep my sous chef informs me that this is his favorite part of the day: when we laugh, talk and make a meal together. I die. (insert high pitched squeal and girly wiggle dance) 6 more months until I'm Mrs. Max!

For nutritional facts, click here; 1 serving is equivalent to 9 WW points.

Grocery List:
Recipe yields 5 servings

• 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded (about 2.5 cups)
• 1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed
• 1/2 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 avocado, cubed
• 2 tbsp. lime juice
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. barbecue sauce, divided (Austin's Own in medium will rock your world!)
• 2-3 tbsp. fresh cilantro, diced for garnish

To begin, cook the quinoa according to the package. If you got it from a canister rather than in a package, you cook 2 cups water to every 1 cup quinoa. Rinse, lightly toast in a pan to intensify the flavor, it will start to smell a bit like popcorn. Add the water and bring to a boil, stirring frequently until water is absorbed and the curlique of the seed has popped.

Shred the chicken into a bowl and add the 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce. Stir well to combine.

 

In a skillet, add the olive oil and heat to medium-high on the burner. Saute the red onion and bell pepper until softened, about 5 minutes. Next add the corn and the black beans, combining with other peppers and onions. Turn the heat to low and let warm until quinoa is fully ready.

 

 

Once the quinoa is cooked, set it in a bowl and stir in the lime juice. Add in the pepper, onion, corn and black bean mixture and stir well. Scoop the southwest quinoa combo into a bowl as a bed, then pile on the BBQ shredded chicken, top with the avocado and sprinkle with the cilantro. Finally, add a drizzle (roughly 1 tbsp) of BBQ sauce over the top of your creation and you are ready to dig in!

 

Tastefully yours,

 

Grilled Shrimp Papillote with Mango-Avocado Salsa

I blinked and it was May... already halfway through May at that! It's been hard to find spare minutes lately but I finally convinced myself to sit down to create time that isn't solely dedicated to wedding planning. Mr. Max and I made this dish a week or so ago and it was such a refreshing dinner packed with super foods and a taste of summer! For this recipe, we've got spinach, quinoa, shrimp, cilantro, mango salsa, avocado.... all wrapped up in a foil packet, set on a grill and you've got dinner 15 minutes later!

I haven't played with foil packets since the very first post, the halibut en papillote. Here is your "I learned something new today" nugget of wisdom: en papillote is french for pouch, or in parchment. It's a great cooking method that uses the liquids from food to steam and cook in a package. The recipe I found for this creation used couscous, but in my adaptation, I replaced with quinoa instead.

This was a fun one, but don't be discouraged if you do not have a grill or simply don't want to take the effort to use it. If it weren't for the E-grill, I would feel the same way. I gave Mr. Max a Weber for Christmas a few years ago and we hardly ever use it. Sad. The foil packets cook in the oven too, so there is your solution! Whole Foods had a great little mango/pineapple salsa like relish in their fresh produce section that already included those obvious ingredients, red bell pepper, tomato, onion and jalepeno pepper so I saved time and money by grabbing that instead of each ingredient individually.

Nutritional facts can be found here, calculated at SparkRecipes.com; it is 9 points for Weight Watchers.

Grocery List:
Recipe Yields 2 servings
Adapted from Self Magazine

• Vegetable oil cooking spray
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 3 tbsp. water
• 1/2 lb. shrimp, peeled, deveined 
• 1 tsp. lime juice
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 cup of fresh chopped mango salsa (diced mango, pineapple, red onion, tomato, red bell pepper and jalepeno or poblano pepper)
• 1 small avocado, cubed

Start by pre-heating your grill to a medium-high heat. If you are going to do this in the oven, I guesstimate a temperature of 400 degrees in the oven. Take aluminum foil and tear out two pieces about 18-in long, then fold in half to create a line in the foil. Unfold and coat with non-stick cooking spray. On each piece of foil, arrange 1 cup of spinach.

In a small bowl, mix the water and the quinoa together in a bowl. By adding water, we are helping the quinoa to have something to absorb as it cooks on the grill. It will become magically fluffy in the end!

Now, add the quinoa on top of the spinach. The spinach naturally produces moisture as it cooks, this will allow the quinoa to cook even more. 

In another small bowl, mix the olive oil, lime juice and cilantro with the shrimp. 

Lay that next to the quinoa on the foil. 

Fold over that unused half from earlier and begin to crimp the edges, folding each in, to create and enclosed packet. 

 .... like-a-so.

I put our foil packets on a grill basket then set on the grill with the timer at 15 minutes. 

When the timer goes off, the packets will be slightly puffed. Cut them open carefully to reveal wilted, cooked spinach, fluffy quinoa and delicious shrimp! 

Take your mango salsa/relish concoction and scoop half over one packet, half over the other, and add diced avocado. Using a fork, gently mix the contents of the packet and dig in! 

Tastefully yours,

Black Bean Veggie Quesadillas

I ran by the grocery store on the way home to grab ingredients to make a quick and easy black bean quesadillas, knowing I had a can of black beans in my pantry. I was craving black bean casserole enchiladas but wanted something a little lighter. As I strolled the produce section of Whole Foods, I had grabbed a large tomato, red bell pepper, fresh corn, zucchini, onion, poblano pepper... then I looked up and noticed there was a black bean fresh "salsa" combo in the fresh chopped area next to the pre-chopped onions and garlic. I eyeballed the contents and realized this $3.39 plastic container had everything I needed inside, so I was saving money and time by grabbing this little chunk with about 2 cups worth of the blend, perfect amount for our dinner needs.

I grabbed whole wheat tortillas, cilantro, some low fat mexican-blend cheese and I was on my merry way. This meal took all of 15 minutes to make, but allow more time if you are going to chop through the process yourself. Click here for the nutritional facts calculated at SparkRecipes.com, this dish is 6 WW points per quesadilla.

Grocery List:
Recipe Yields 4 servings

• 1/2 cup black beans (drained and rinsed if making on your own)
• 1/4 cup tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup corn
• 1/4 cup zucchini, diced
• 3 tbsp. poblano pepper, diced
• 3 tbsp. red onion, diced
• 2 tbsp. fresh cilantro, diced
• 1.5 tsp. taco seasoning
• 4 whole wheat tortillas
• 3/4 cup low-fat Mexican Blend cheese, shredded

In a bowl, mix your veggies and cilantro together. Sprinkle taco seasoning in and stir to coat.

Heat a skillet on medium heat to saute the veggie blend, softening the vegetables.

 

As the veggies saute, spray a griddle pan with non-stick spray and heat on medium-high (7 on a dial). Once nice and hot (about 3-5 minutes), place a tortilla down and let sit for about 1 minute, then flip. This creates heat on the surface that you build the quesadilla on, helping the cheese to melt faster on the already heated tortilla side.

Next, add about 1-2 tbsp. of cheese, trying to spread evenly across the tortilla surface. 

Add a generous scoop (2-3 spoonfuls) of the veggie mix to one half of the tortilla. 

 

Top the veggies with 1/2-1 add'l tbsp. of shredded cheese to help adhere the contents to the folded over side.

Fold the other half over and press for about 30 seconds, then set aside on a plate, keep warm by setting in the microwave to contain and maintain the heat. Repeat instructions to create up to 3 additional quesadillas with the given amount of ingredients. 

Serve with a side of fat-free sour cream and/or guacamole. Dig in and enjoy!

Tastefully yours,

 

Mexi-Texi Chicken Wraps

Mr. Max spontaneously decided we would head to Milwaukee for the weekend to surprise his dad for his birthday and visit family. I packed my warmest stuff to experience my first Midwest winter! Of course we travel on the day that horrible storms are ripping through from Texas to Wisconsin - all other flights around us were cancelled. The two minutes it would have taken to grab the Dramamine would have been worth it....

After circling for nearly an hour and experiencing a landing process that I honestly didn't think we would walk away from, we gave the captain a round of applause for keeping us all alive and the flight attendant welcomed us to Chicago O'Hare. A nice two second pause allowed the plane to fill with gasps, Mr. Max and my faces to drop, and her to say just kidding. Well played lady, well played.

We had such a fun weekend spending time with his family and playing with his nearly 6-month old nephew!

 

Me and little man

 

Max and the little squirmer

On Saturday, Mr. Max and I decided to make use of all the snow - Meet Sam the Snowman! That's a red light bulb for his nose, we didn't have a carrot.

As all good things do, the weekend had to come to an end. When we got home, we were in need of a quick fix for dinner. So we made some smoothies to hold us over and threw some chicken in a crock pot to make some shredded chicken wraps with the spinach lavash bread I got while in Austin. Lavash is a low-carb, flat bread that originated in the Middle East.

Click here for the nutritional facts for my Mexi-Texi wraps, calculated at SparkRecipes.com. Serving size is 1 wrap, with 3 decent spoonfuls of filling and 1 tbsp. worth of avocado-chiptotle spread.

Grocery List:

• 1/2 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup frozen sweet corn, thawed
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 red, yellow and orange bell pepper, diced 
• Cumin to taste
• 2 tbsp. lime juice, divided
• 1 avocado, sliced thin
• 1 tbsp. sauce from canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• Lavash bread, or tortillas
• a pinch of Monterrey-Jack cheese

In a crock pot, add your diced bell peppers and the chicken breasts. Set on high and walk away for about an hour. 

 

We were a little more impatient than normal, so while I would have liked these to cook longer, I did start to tear into them after 1 hour in the crock pot, shredding with 2 forks. They would have been more shred-able with more time, but it still worked out!

 

In a skillet, add your black beans and corn, 1 tbsp. of lime juice and and heart shake of cumin. Sit on medium heat for about 5 minutes to mix with the cumin and lime.

 

Add the black beans and corn to the shredded chicken and bell peppers in the crock pot, along with the additional tbsp. of lime juice and a few more shakes of cumin. Turn on a low setting.

 

In a food processor, add 3/4 of your thinly sliced avocado and the sauce from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo. Blend until smooth and creamy.

 

Starting about 1 inch in from each edge, spread 1 tbsp. worth of the avocado-chipotle sauce on the lavash bread, top with a few hearty spoonfuls from the crock pot.

 

Top with a low fat cheese and use that additional 1/4 of the sliced avocado (should be a few slices left) and add some to your wrap. Fold tightly and cut off the extra breaded area for angled edges. Toast in a skillet over high heat for 2 minutes each side to firm the lavash.

 

Remove from heat, put on a plate and dig in! I did not add any lettuce in because of the large dose of greens in my smoothie, but feel free to add some chopped lettuce.

 

 Served with a Mexican rice pilaf

Tastefully yours,