Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes

Follow me on Pinterest!

All right my friends, this will be my last post for a few days, as I will be recovering from my PRK surgery!  Ooooooooh!
Source: Adapted from Emily Bites
Tonight's meal was soooo good!  First thing's first!  Here are the ingredients that I used:

First thing I did was dice one green bell pepper and one large onion.

Then the recipe called for ground beef but I decided to use ground chicken.  I browned that in a skillet over medium high heat until it was cooked, and then I added the bell pepper and onion, and cooked until they were softened.  Then I added 3 tablespoons steak sauce, 1 cup of beef broth (I supposed I should have used chicken broth but the beef broth ended up giving it a unique flavor!) and some salt and pepper to taste.

I let that cook until it bubbled, and then added 3/4 cup of the mixture to some wheat sub rolls and topped it with a slice of provolone cheese.

Then I put it on the top rack and broiled it for about 30 seconds to a minute, but keep an eye on it!  The cheese melts fast and can quickly burn!

And voila!  This was delicious, especially with the chicken!  The meal was only 334 calories (I'm assuming a little less with the chicken) and only $2.06/serving (based on the recipe saying it would give 5 servings).  We had leftovers for another day so yummy!
Here's the recipe!

1 pound 95% lean ground chicken
1 large white onion, diced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
3 tablespoons steak sauce
1 cup fat free beef broth
salt and pepper to taste
5 wheat sub rolls
5 slices Provolone cheese

Happy cooking!!!!

Alfredo Yumminess

Follow me on Pinterest!

All right my dearest friends, we have a Mama Feta's Meals first!  I was given a request to make this meal and post it here for all you lovely lovelies to see, and I jumped at the chance!  So much fun!
This recipe was brought to me by my friend Jessie M. and it was full of (as the name of the meal states) 'yumminess'.  :)  One of the first things I did wrong was I forgot the brown rice!  EEP!  Luckily for me, there was plenty of leftovers so I can make brown rice and add it then.  For your reference, she said she used the frozen Trader Joe's brown rice packets.

So I hope I did the meal justice, and here's what I did, but I'm sure there are many ways to throw these ingredients together!  First thing's first: I threw some chicken breasts on my grill pan to let it cook while I started to prep the other items.  Jessie told me this usually makes meals for her for about 5 days, so I only cooked two chicken breasts but used all of the veggies for later!

Then I threw one bag of frozen French-cut green beans and frozen asparagus into my steamer and let that cook while I took the stems out of some fresh mushrooms.

I also started to warm one bottle of Ragu alfredo sauce and, once the veggies looked like they had started to thaw and cook, I threw the mushrooms in with them.

The chicken took quite some time to cook, as they were larger pieces and I had to end up slicing them to get them to cook quicker.  So what I ended up doing was slicing the chicken, mixed the veggies into the alfredo sauce, and then poured the veggie/alfredo mixture over the chicken.  Then I added some sliced green onions on top and voila!  Dinner was served!

This was very filling and there certainly were leftovers for the next couple of days!  Jessie mentioned she knew I liked to make low calorie meals so she gave me this one because of that reason and said it was only 300 calories!  Not to mention it was only $2.25/serving based on Jessie's 5 serving rule!  Soooo good, even without the brown rice!

Taco-Corn Chili

Follow me on Pinterest!

Happy post-National Chili Day!  Seriously, though, yesterday was National Chili Day (I don't make this stuff up people!).  So, in honor of National Chili Day I made a very simple, but very delicious, chili from the Betty Crocker website!
The recipe called for ground beef but I used ground chicken (getting crazy over here without using ground turkey!).  I cooked that for about 10 minutes until it was browned.

Then I added 1 can of kidney beans, 1 envelope of taco seasoning, 1 can of diced tomatoes with green  chilies, 9 ounces of frozen corn, 2 cups of water and 2 teaspoons of sugar.

I heat that until it was boiling and then lowered the heat and simmered for about 18 minutes and voila!  Dinner was served!  Seriously, that was all it took!

I like to add sour cream and hot sauce to mine, so with the 300 calories that only added another 25, so I was still WAY under my 500 calorie limit!  Not to mention it was only $2.00/serving!  Happy National Chili Day indeed!!
Here's the recipe!

1 pound ground beef (or turkey or chicken if you prefer)
1 can (15 ounce) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 envelope (1 ounce) taco seasoning mix
1 can (10 ounce) diced tomatoes and green chilies, undrained
1 package (9 ounces) frozen corn (the recipe said to thaw and drain it but I threw it in frozen and it worked fine!)
2 cups water
2 teaspoons sugar

Happy cooking everyone!!!!

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

Follow me on Pinterest!

Holy handbags!!!  This has to be my most favorite recipes I've made this year, so I suggest you try this...NOW!  Okay, maybe not NOW now...wait until I tell you how and THEN do it now.  :)  Myself and my boys have a bit of an obsession with anything that involves 'buffalo chicken', so when I saw 'Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas' on Pinterest, I knew this was a recipe I NEEDED!  It took me to The Novice Chef website, so kudos to you: this was delicious!
So first thing's first: preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  No seriously, do it.  Also, the recipe said to spray an 8x8 glass dish with cooking spray, but I only had a 9x13.  If you have an 8x8 go ahead and use it!  :)
While that preheats, take 1 14 ounce can of enchilada sauce and 1/3 cup buffalo wing sauce and mix it together (YUM!).  Prior to this I had cooked 1 pound of chicken breast strips in the oven and shredded it, but whenever you'd like to cook the chicken is up to you!

I also chopped  green onions and measured out 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese and crumbled 1/3 cup of Gorgonzola cheese (this was my first time using Gorgonzola and let me tell you...YUM!  I'm using this in place of blue cheese every time now!).

Once all the prep work is done, mix the chicken, half of the green onions, 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of enchilada/buffalo sauce together.  I poured another 1/2 cup of enchilada/buffalo sauce into the bottom of the pan and spread it out.  Now, since there are 4 of us in my family, I actually spread the chicken mixture onto 8 tortillas instead of the 4 the recipe called for.  Not sure if that changed the calories, but no biggie.  This meal was surprisingly filling!  Back to the food, though!  I stuffed about 1/4 cup into each tortilla and rolled them up, placing them seam side down on the sauce, topped it with the remaining enchilada/buffalo sauce and remaining mozzarella cheese (there was a second pan, but I didn't feel it was necessary to take pictures of that.  You get my point!).

I threw that into my preheated oven for about 20 minutes and, once it was done, immediately topped it with the Gorgonzola cheese, green onion and some freshly chopped cilantro (YUM).

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND voila!  Buffalo Chicken Enchilada.  I mean, honestly, these were ridiculously good.  If you like buffalo chicken, this is just an amazing way to have it, and it was only 204 calories for 2 enchiladas!  No kidding!!!!  Not to mention it was only $4.38/serving WITH a side of black beans that I added...it's true.  The numbers don't lie, my friends...:)
Here's the recipe!!!!!

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 (14 ounce) can red enchilada sauce
1/3 cup buffalo wing sauce
5 green onions, chopped and divided
1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
4 large tortillas (or 8 smaller ones if you have a big family like me!)
1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

Happy cooking everyone!!!!!

Mexican Mac and Cheese

Follow me on Pinterest!

Howdy strangers!  Tonight's meal was another 'SURPRISE' for my husband, as he has long since told me that he doesn't like mac and cheese.  I decided to try something sassy and hopefully get him to enjoy it!  I picked up this handy dandy recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens website, for those of you that are interested in trying it yourself!
First thing's first, I preheated my oven to 350 degrees.  Then I got the ingredients that I needed: rigatoni, sausage, chopped onion, green salsa, Monterey Jack cheese, tomatoes, cilantro and 1 jalapeno!

The first thing I did was boil a saucepan of water and put 12 ounces of rigatoni in to cook based on the box directions.  Side note: don't be like me and look at a conversion for ounces to cups, because MY conversion chart said 1 1/2 cups.  Had I managed to look a little farther to the left, I would have seen the parenthesis that stated '3 cups'.  Lesson learned!!!  I also chopped 1 cup of onion and took the skin off of my sausages to cook in a pan until the sausages were browned and the onions were soft.

While that was cooking, I grated about 4 cups of Monterey Jack cheese and diced the tomatoes, cilantro and jalapeno pepper for later.

After the meat had cooked, I drained it, put it back on the heat and added 1 16 ounce jar of green salsa to the mix.  I let that cook while I drained the pasta and lightly grease a baking dish.  Then I made two layers (each) of pasta, meat mixture and cheese.

I put the mac and cheese in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes (the recipe called for 35 minutes or until bubbly, and the mac and cheese was super bubbly by then!).

I let that sit for about 5 minutes, served into bowls and topped with the tomatoes, cilantro and jalapenos.  Yummies!!!!

This was surprisingly filling!  I expected everyone to go back for seconds, but we were all stuffed by the first!  This meal was only 378 calories and only $2.99/serving!  Seriously...and guess what?!?  My husband is now interested in letting me try different types of mac and cheese on him now, since this one was so good!!  Yay!!!!
Here's the recipe:

12 ounces dried rigatoni (3 cups)
1 pound pork sausage
1 cup chopped onion
1 16 ounce jar green salsa
4 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Tomato wedges, sliced jalapeno peppers and chopped cilantro

Happy cooking everyone!!!!

Turkey Wraps with Egg Drop Soup

Follow me on Pinterest!

All right my friends, tonight's dinner is two different items so GET READY!  I made a turkey wraps but it seemed too small of a meal so I decided to add a soup, and who doesn't love egg drop soup?!?
First thing's first: I cooked some turkey wings in the oven while I started to chop some lettuce and olives for the roll-ups.  Also while I was doing that, I whisked 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk together with a fork for the egg drop soup.

Once the turkey wings were done cooking (I just cooked them in a baking dish on broil), I chopped it up to make about 1 1/2 cups of cubed turkey.  I also measured out 3 1/4 cups of chicken broth in a saucepan, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon of ground ginger and set that on high to boil.

I also measured out 3/4 cups additional chicken broth and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, mixed it together and set it aside.  Once the broth was boiling I added 2 tablespoons of chives and slowly added in the egg until I used the whole bowl.  Then I added in the broth and cornstarch mixture.

While that was thickening, I spread 2 tablespoons (each) on spinach tortillas, added the chicken, lettuce (only on my husband's!), olives, and about 1 tablespoon of cheddar cheese and salsa on each tortilla.

Then I spooned the soup into bowls, folded the wraps and voila!  Dinner was served!  It was SOOOO yummy!  An interesting mixture, but I liked it.

The wraps were, by themselves, only 353 calories and the soup was 61 calories, for a total calorie intake of 414; still under my 500 calorie limit!!  It was also only $4.24/serving!

Here's the recipe(s)!  :)

Turkey wraps:

3/4 cup sour cream

4 spinach tortillas

1 1/2 cooked cubed turkey

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup lettuce

1/2 cup chopped olives

1/2 cup salsa

Egg drop soup:

4 cups chicken broth

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons chives

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

Happy cooking everyone!!!