Amanda's A-MA-ZANG Kitchen Sink Burger!!!

Looking for a delicious burger? Check this one out! I came across the basis of this recipe a couple of years ago in a Weight Watchers cookbook. It's a great recipe, but needed some tweaking. First of all, I think it's just plain WEIRD for any recipe to call for 3/4 lb of meat. I'm sorry, but I always have 1 lb, and I'm not about to waste 1/4 lb of meat for a recipe. So....I always use 1 lb for this recipe, add a bit of the rest of the ingredients if you want, to make up for it, add what you wish--I really don't think you can go wrong. We also have tried this with just about every meat possible, beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, veal..and they are all delicious!!! Now, throw everything but the kitchen sink in this burger, and it will be DELICIOUS!!!! YUM-O!!! ENJOY!!!

Kitchen Sink Burger

Ingredients:
3/4 lb ground turkey/lamb/veal/beef, etc (I almost always use 1 lb)
2 green onions, chopped (I just use 1/2 medium onion, chopped, and it's fantastic)
1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup monterey jack cheese (I just use whatever 2% shredded cheese I have on hand--it's all delicious)

I also add:
*chopped shiitake mushrooms (regular mushrooms work, too, but the shiitakes seem to work together in the meat better)
*dash of onion powder
*red pepper flakes

Directions:

*Mix together all ingredients, divide into 6 or 7 patties (unless you want really big burgers).

* Heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet (approx. 1-2 turns around the pan--just to coat the bottom).

* Once the oil is hot, place burgers in the skillet---cook approx 3-4 minutes a side.

These are delicious with any of your regular burger toppings---my personal favorite is BBQ sauce! YUM!!!

ENJOY!

Put a little Bobby into your Filet!

Ok....so, this has NOTHING to do with filets..he he....just BOBBY FLAY!!! Last year we saw Bobby Flay make a recipe on a Food Network special with a rubbed chicken with a pesto-mint sauce. Well, we weren't too fond of the mint sauce, but we LOVE the spice-rubbed chicken! It's a wonderful go-to meal if you are in a hurry, and it's oh-so healthy!

Spanish Spice-Rubbed Chicken

1 Tb spanish paprika
1 Tb smoked paprika
2 tsp cumin seeds, ground
2 tsp mustard seeds, ground
2 tsp fennel seeds, ground
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 tsp kosher salt

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Olive Oil


Directions:

1. Preheat your grill to high.

2. Whisk together the paprika, cumin, mustard, fennel, pepper and salt in a small bowl.

3. Brush the chicken with a few teaspoons of oil on both sides.

4. Rub the breasts on the skin side (I use skinless---rub onto the "smooth" side, if that makes sense) with some of the rub and place on the grill, rub side down.

5. Grill until golden brown and slightly charred, 4 to 5 minutes. Turn the breasts over and continue cooking until just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes.

6. Transfer the chicken to a platter and let rest 5 minutes.

We serve ours with some pesto on top, or on a bun with a little bbq sauce. DELICIOUS, and oh so easy!! Make a little extra of the rub ( you will have extra anyways--the recipe makes quite a bit), put in a ziplock bag, and store in your cupboard---then when you need a quick, easy, and low-cal meal, it's just a few minutes away :-)

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia!!!

A wonderful friend of mine, Jenn, gave me this recipe AGES ago. It's tried and true in our house---a quick, simple, DELICIOUS, and Low-cal dinner!

Parmesan crusted Tilapia!

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup lowfat butter, softened
3 tablespoons fat free mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
2 pounds tilapia fillets


DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat your oven's broiler. Grease a broiling pan or line pan with aluminum foil. (I just used a cast iron griddle sprayed with olive oil.
• In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, lowfat butter, fat free mayonnaise and lemon juice. Season with dried basil, pepper, onion powder and celery salt. Mix well and set aside.
• Arrange fillets in a single layer on the prepared pan. Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the fillets over and broil for a couple more minutes.
• Remove the fillets from the oven and cover them with the Parmesan cheese mixture on the top side. Broil for 2 more minutes or until the topping is browned and fish flakes easily with a fork. Be careful not to over cook the fish.

Spicy Beef----Quesadilla? Burrito?

You know what I love? Well, other than my husband, cat, family, and friends......my CROCKPOT!! This is a fantastic crockpot recipe that you can use for SEVERAL meals!!

Spicy Beef

eye of round steaks (I normally get 4 or 5 steaks for the 2 of us)

1 can of beef broth

1 jar pepperocinis (found near the pickles/olives/etc)

Directions:

1. Put the eye of round steaks in the bottom of your crockpot.

2. Pour the beef broth and pepperocinis over the steaks.

3. Put the lid on your crockpot and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. You will know when it's done--you should be able to pull the meat apart, EASILY, with a fork.

Voila! DONE!

Now....for us, this amount of food lasts us for 3 or 4 meals...so, 6-8 servings. You can easily change the amount of meat, liquid, etc, to better work with your group---it will work the same way in the crockpot.

MEAL IDEAS:

1. Sautè onions and mushrooms....add some of the meat and pepper mixture. Heat the meat through and be sure it's mixed in with the sauteed veggies. Make it into a quesadilla using the meat and veggie mixture with some 2% mexican style cheese (OR 2% Colby-Jack cheese), on a low cal tortilla. It's absolutely delicious!!!

2. Make it into a burrito!! heat up some of the meat mixture in a skillet . Take a low cal tortilla---take a SMALL amount of canned refried beans and smear it on the tortilla....add some of the meat mixture and some low cal cheese. Fold in the sides and the ends, and then spray all over with Pam (or other cooking spray). Place seam side down into a hot skillet. Brown both sides of the burrito. Serve with low cal sour cream and other toppings of your choice (lettuce, tomatos, salsa, guac, etc). DELICIOUS!

3. It makes a delicious philly-style sandwich. Take low cal hamburger buns....toast them on a grill pan. Heat up your meat mixture. Top the toasted hamburger buns with the spicy meat mixture and some melted swiss or mozzarella cheese....and it's wonderful. Even better? Add some sauteed onions and green peppers!!!!

Pumpkin Muffins/Cookies/Cake?

This is, BY FAR, my dear husband's favorite dessert (right now..HA HA)! I think he could eat these until they come out of his ears. I cannot take credit for this recipe, as it was given to me by my dear mother, who is a Weight Watchers leader. It is absolutely delicious and can be made as muffins, cookies, and recently my lovely nestie friend, Skye, told me she tried it as a CAKE and it was fantastic!!! I am posting the recipe as muffins, as that is what we normally have in our house! These bad boys are packed with moisture, and are fantastic by themselves, but can be even better with just a little bit of whipped cream cheese frosting from your local grocery store (I think we use Betty Crocker)!!!





Try it out and let me know what you think!



Pumpkin Muffins!

1 box yellow/spice cake mix

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (NOT pie filling)

1 cup water


Directions:

1. Preheat oven according to your cake mix package directions.

2. Lightly spray 2 muffin pans with Pam (I take a paper towel and then smear around the Pam after spraying---still greases the pan, but doesn't leave TOO much Pam).

3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the cake mix (DO NOT add the eggs, oil, etc...just the mix), pumpkin, and water according to the cake mix box directions.

4. Once thoroughly mixed, pour your mixture into the 2 muffin pans. Depending on how big I make them----I always end up between 20-24 muffins.

5. Place in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out FAIRLY clean. These muffins will be SUPER moist. Use the cake mix cooking directions as a guideline. However, I generally take mine out when the toothpick inserted doesn't come out COMPLETELY clean. You don't want them to be over-cooked. So, start with the package directions, check with the toothpick, and then add time as needed from there. I think we maybe add 3-5 minutes, per the norm.

GOOD LUCK!!! Let me know what you think!

Clean out those cabinets! Wheat Thin Chicken!

This is definitely not a fancy recipe, but one night the husband and I were moping around the house, not wanting to go to the grocery but seriously lacking groceries in our house. We had chicken breasts, and we had some wheat thins, and thus Wheat Thin Chicken was born :-) Obviously, the same idea would work with any type of cracker that you can crush to make a breading. I haven't added specific amounts for the ingredients as it can be done for 1 or 100....it's a great, flexible dish. I eye-ball everything (I know, I'm a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE food blogger!)



Wheat Thin Chicken

chicken breasts
reduced fat or fat free wheat thins
flour
egg whites
olive oil
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese
spices of choice (I used onion powder, chili powder, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper)

Directions:

• So, First, I took each chicken breast, put it in a ziplock bag with a little water, closed the ziplock up, and pounded the chicken out so it would cook faster.
  
• After doing that with the chicken, I dried the chicken off and seasoned them with salt and pepper....set aside.
  
• Put a little flour in 1 bowl (we used whole wheat flour when we made this the second time--just as great!), and in a separate bowl whip up a couple of egg whites (or if you aren't watching your figure...a couple of eggs with the yolks would work the same). Set the bowls aside....
  
• Take some wheat thins (I even used some of the 100 calorie packs because i didn't have enough in my regular box).....place in a ziplock and crush--the smaller the better. Once crushed, sprinkle in some grated parmesan, and the spices of your choice---I used salt and pepper, onion powder, chili powder, and red pepper flakes. Shake around to mix together well. Place the wheat thin mixture in a shallow dish or plate.Drizzle the bottom of a glass baking dish with olive oil and place in a cool oven and turn on to 400-425.....let the olive oil warm up.
  
• Now you are ready to begin assembling your chicken.First...dredge your chicken in the flour, shake any excess off but be sure all is covered.Then, dredge in the egg whites.....Then place in the wheat thins......make sure you get the crumbs all over.

• Pull out your Baking dish...your olive oil should be hot now. Place your breaded chicken breasts in the baking dish--allowing a little room between each breast.Drizzle with a little more olive oil, and then place back in the 400-425 oven, uncovered, to cook for 25-30 minute or until the crumbs are browned and the chicken is done.We drizzled ours with a little bbq sauce when they came out, and they were DELICIOUS!!!!

Boston Cream Cake?

One of my fiancè's FAVORITE things is Boston Cream Pie. I, too, love it, but a girl trying to look FABULOUS for her wedding can't be eating Boston Cream Pie every night :-) It's not, at all, figure friendly. SO, I was given this recipe by my Weight Watcher leader mother, that uses the same base recipe that I've posted before (cake mix, diet soda, egg whites), and turns it into a DELICIOUS and much healthier version of the Boston Cream Pie!

Low-cal Boston Cream Pie cake :-)

1 yellow cake mix (i prefer Betty Crocker)
12 oz. Sprite Zero (or really, any diet drink will do)
2 egg whites
1 small pkg vanilla pudding
2 cups of cold skim milk
chocolate syrup
Fat free cool whip (optional)

*Grease a 9 x 13 pan (I used a metal pan and spray it down with Pam).

*Mix cake mix, Sprite, and egg whites, according to the package directions (I believe mine said to beat on low for 30 seconds and Medium for 2 minutes). DO NOT ADD OIL OR OTHER INGREDIENTS CALLED FOR IN CAKE MIX----JUST MIX!

*Pour into the pan and bake according to cake mix package directions.

*Take out of oven and let cool 15 minutes.

*Poke holes in the cake using either a fork or, my personal preference, the handle end of a wooden spoon. I make holes every inch or so......lots of holes.

*Mix up vanilla pudding with the cold milk, according to the directions. Let it thicken just a touch, and then spoon over the cake......you will not need ALL of the pudding, but a majority of it! Make sure it gets into all of the holes and then a thin layer across the top of all of the cake.

*Put in refrigerator to set up.

*After an hour or so, take cake out of refrigerator, and drizzle with chocolate syrup.....the amount depends on your liking.

*Put back in the refrigerator.....it will begin to set up with the pudding after awhile.

*If you desire, serve with fat free cool whip...delicious!

Servings: 15
WW Points per serving: 3