Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Link to Recipe

Oh my goodness this a really good recipe! I love when I can find recipes that are yummy and healthy at the same time. This could be good for a breakfast, snack, or dessert. I made a few changes to the recipe. I changed the flour to half all purpose and half whole wheat flour and instead of sugar I used Stevia in the raw, plus I changed it from 32 servings to 24. 

Modified Nutritional info:

Calories: 158  Carbs: 21  Fat: 8  Protein: 4  Fiber: 2

Skinny Baked Spaghetti

If you like Italian food get ready to start loving being on a diet! I've been wanting to make baked spaghetti for a while now, but I wanted it to be healthy. So I started thinking of ways to make it with in a 300 calorie rage so that I could eat it and not feel guilty. Well I did tonight, 1st try and the recipe was a rousing success!!! Try it because baby you will love it! 

Recipe:

Ingredients- 

20 oz Lean ground turkey

26oz Jar/can pasta sauce

2x 8oz bags of Tofu shirataki noodle substitute 

8oz bag of weight watcher shredded cheese

3 cloves garlic 

1 tablespoon Italian spices (or to taste)

1 teaspoon Crushed red pepper (or to taste, optional) 

Directions:

Brown ground turkey with chopped garlic, Italian spices, and crushed red pepper. Once it is cooked add the pasta sauce and simmer for at least 10min. Rinse the shirataki noodles and squeeze as much of the water out as you can. Microwave the noodles for 1 to 2 min then drain any more water that seeps out. Add the noodles to sauce and mix all together. Put in 8x8 pan and cover the top with the entire bag of cheese. Bake for 350 degrees for 45min. Let cool for about 10min, makes 6 servings. 

Nutritional information:

Calories: 279  Carbs: 17g  Fat: 14g  Protein: 30g  Fiber: 4g

He way I used to make it:

Calories: 658.5  Carbs: 13.33g  Fat: 26.33g  Protein: 45g  Fiber: 2g

That is a big difference! But the recipe still tastes just so so good! 

Peanut Butter Brownies

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This is a really good recipe, it tastes good and it certainly satisfies the sweet tooth. It's amazing to me that you can make brownies with no oil! No oil! Awesome! Plus these were so satisfying that I was content to just have one and put the others away so if you like sweets this is one to try. Unfortunately the picture doesn't make it look too appetizing because I made two mistakes. First I used crunchy peanut butter so the topping didn't get smooth like it was supposed to. Second I cut them when they were too warm...that was dumb. However despite the look they were every tasty. The below picture is how they are supposed to look if you don't make silly mistakes.They are super easy to make and they are kid approved. Both of my nieces loved them. They didn't know that they were secretly healthy :)

Pumpkin Spice Coffee

I was craving a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks this morning, but I knew it was a bad idea. So my lovely friend Keya linked me a recipe to help me out. I doctored it up and found that it was pretty good! Not exactly like Starbucks, but enough like it to kick my craving. 

The original recipe calls for espresso, but I don't have an espresso machine, so I just used strong coffee.

Recipe:

2 tablespoons pumpkin puree 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of your favorite no calorie sweetener

1/2 cup skim milk

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Fat free Reddi whip (optional) 

8oz strong coffee 

Mix all of the ingredients in a small sauce pan until smooth. Heat, but do not bring to a boil. Mix with your coffee or espresso and top with the Reddi whip. Enjoy :)

Nutritional info: 

Cal: 70  Fat: 0g  Sugars: 3g  Protein: 5g

Lets compare that to the Starbucks latte shall we? This is the nutritional information for a 16oz pumpkin spice latte with nonfat milk and whip cream.

Cal: 330  Fat: 7g (4.5 of that is saturated)  Sugars: 50g  Protein: 14g

So they have me beat on the protein, but that's about it. 

Outside-In Turkey Tamale Pie

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I am a Mexican food fiend! It seems like every time we "cheat" on the meal plan it's almost always Mexican food, so I deiced to start finding some healthy versions. This is a yummy crock pot casserole, it takes 3 to 4 hours to cook keep that in mind. Now you can't tell from this picture because of the toppings, but I'm not going to lie it's pretty ugly lol. So if you have a picky eater the look might gross them out, but I assure you that it tastes really good. This is going to be a recipe I use often for sure!

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal Parfait

Link to Recipe

I thought I would try this recipe because I am trying to will it to be fall. I ate this for breakfast, but I don't know if I would recommend eating it first thing in the morning. This would be a really good dessert or maybe an afternoon snack. The recipe makes one serving, but it is huge so make sure you are really hungry. I wasn't able to eat the whole thing. It was very tasty, however the texture was a little weird because it's cold oatmeal. I'm thinking about playing with the recipe to make a hot version and maybe a little less sweet so I can eat it for breakfast. All in all it is a good recipe and if you like pumpkin flavored things you should try it :)

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

I was originally going to do a hungry girl oatmeal parfait, but I ran out of time this morning. So I just did the hungry girl style oatmeal, yay improvising. It turned out really yummy perfect for the kiddos before school or anyone else for that matter. It was like eating apple pie flavored oatmeal yum!

Recipe:
1/3 cup old-fashion oats
3/4 cup Unsweetened vanilla almond milk
no-calorie sweeter of your choice (I used stevia in the raw)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 vanilla extract
Dash of salt
Half of an apple chopped to your liking (or a whole apple if you want)

Through it all together and cook for about 10min on the stove top. Then if you want to make it look pretty, because it's fun to eat pretty food, put a little fat free reddi whip on top, sprinkle a little cinnamon.

Nutritional info: (this info is based on a whole apple)
Cal: 220  Carbs: 52  Fat:5  Protein:4  Fiber: 8  Sugar: 27
Enjoy :)

High Fiber Scottish Oat Muffins

Link to Recipe

These are surprising delicious! I wanted to try the recipe because they were healthy, but they were really tasty. You can defiantly tell that they are wheat and bran but it didn't matter. The best way to describe it is like a wonderful coupling of carrot cake and banana bread. The recipe called for dates, I am not a fan so I didn't add them so it changed the calories a bit.

Calories (with out dates)
Cal: 150  Fat:7  Carbs:20  Fiber:3.5  Protein:4  Sugars:8

Banana Muffins

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These were so good!! It's like having a single serving of banana bread, so it's easier to control your calorie intake. The original recipe is 79 calories per muffin, but I wanted to add a little to this recipe. For half of the recipe I put some walnuts on top and the other I shaved ultra dark chocolate on top. These are wonderful for breakfast or just an easy snack on the go. Yum!

Calories:
adding about 1/2 tablespoon of walnuts on top of each muffin
Cal: 112  Carbs: 17.8  Fat: 3.6  Protein: 2.7  Fiber: 1.17

adding 88% dark chocolate (I used about 5 squares for 6 muffins)
Cal: 102  Carbs: 19  Fat:2.5  Protein:2.5  Fiber:1.5