"These Are a Few of My Favorite Things Part II"

I posted in March about some of my favorite healthy foods.  And, as I promised, today I am sharing about some of my favorite things outside of the grocery store that are helpful to me in my quest to be healthy-er.  

Cooking at Home

We love Mexican food at our house and we eat it a lot because it's so easy to "healthy it up."  For example, we often have big taco salads with lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, black beans, lean ground beef, a small amount of cheese, home made pico de gallo (fresh chunky salsa), and my homemade sour cream dressing. It rounds out to about 500 calories, which is a good dinner.

Here's how I make my pico.
-6 roma tomatoes-diced
-6 green onions sliced
4 rings of jalepeno peppers (I use the kind that
   come in a jar)-diced as small as
   possible
-Cilantro to taste- I use
   about 1/4 of a bunch.
   Bunches vary in size so I guess
   about 3-4 tblsp
   chopped very small.

-A little salt

-A little garlic powder.

This is so flavorful and yummy!  It makes any Mexican dish delicious so you can go easy on the cheese and greasy meat.  We put it on tacos, burritos, anything.  When I make taco salad, I dump a ton of this stuff on, like a cup and a half for a big salad!  Pair this with healthy tortillas, and you have some great dishes!  This is all veggies, so I don't bother to count the calories.

Want a thinner, more resturant style, chip dipping salsa?  Try this...
In a food processor or blender mix the following:
1 large can (28 oz) of tomatoes, well drained
1/2 of a medium white, or yellow onion,
4 rings of jalapeno peppers, the jarred kind
A small handful of cilantro
Salt and Garlic Powder to taste (sometimes I use fresh garlic here since it gets chopped and mixed well)
We typically eat this on quesadillas.



Sour Cream dressing,
There's no measuring in my kitchen, so I'll take my best guesses here. Wisk well, the following.
-1 cup of sour cream (I just get the regular because you don't save many calories in
  the low fat kind, and it
  tastes awful, in my opinion)
-Milk, (I use 1%) start with about 4 tblsp, add more if you need it thinner.
-2 tblsp (approximately) of lime juice.
-salt and garlic powder to taste
  This has about 25 calories per tablespoon, which is way lower than any salad
  dressing that tastes good, and it tastes great on a taco salad!


Are you more of an Italian food lover?  Try this low cal version of Chicken Parmesan, my family loves it.  Pound out some chicken breasts thin, spray them with Pam, the grilling kind if you have it, and season liberally with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning.  Then cook them on your grill. 

Use a healthy spaghetti like Ronzoni, and a low cal spaghetti sauce. Look for one with 50-60 calories per 1/2 cup.   Here are a few to look for.  Just remember, you can't go by brand alone, you have to read the calories on the back of each type.

Then, just go easy on your portions, and on your cheese.  I use Parmesan cheese and skip the mozzarella to save calories.

There you go, some of my favorite healthy dishes to cook at home.  Do you have some favorites?  Please share!!

Stay tuned.  Next time, we're going out to eat!