Asian Marinated Flank Steak with Wasabi Mashed Potatoes

So I realized that I just shoot myself in the foot when I say that I'm going to post more often.  ANOTHER birthday passed, this time MINE, and my mother's!, so as usual, my time became very limited!  I know, excuses, excuses, but I had every intention of posting stuff.  Either way!  I'm here now and will do my very best to post more often.  :)
So this meal I made a few weeks ago now, but it was so yummy!  Especially the wasabi mashed potatoes, mmmmmm.
I originally got this recipe from Fitness Magazine.  So first thing's first: One of the ingredients in this recipe is toasted sesame oil.  Now I realized far too late that I didn't have any sesame oil, so I had actually found a recipe where I toasted some sesames in oil and made my OWN sesame oil!  :)  So then I took 1 1/4 pounds of flank steak, 1/4 soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of the toasted sesame oil, 1 tablespoon of Sriracha and honey, as well as 1 teaspoon of minced fresh ginger in a bowl, covered it with foil and let it marinade for 15 minutes.  While that was marinating, I boiled some water that I had salted and added 3 pounds of russet potatoes that I had previously peeled and cubed.  I allowed it to cook until it was tender, about 10 minutes or so, drained and then added it to the bowl of my mixer.  Then I added 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk and Greek yogurt, along with 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger, and 1 teaspoon each of salt and wasabi paste (yum!).  I let the mixer blend everything together.
While that was blending, I heat a large pan over medium heat and added 2 tablespoons of the marinade, as well as the steak, to the pan.  I allowed it to sear for 3-5 minutes on each side, and then moved it to a cutting board to let it rest.
I sliced the steak into 1/4 inch pieces and served it with the mashed potatoes and voila!!  Dinner was served!!  Surprisingly, even though wasabi is usually very hot, it really only lent a small amount of heat to the potatoes and mostly lent it the flavor.  It was delicious!  It was 408 calories for the entire meal (steak AND potatoes) and only $3.48/serving (it made a total of 4 servings)!
Here's the recipe!!!

1 1/4 pounds flank steak
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon Sriracha
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon wasabi paste
1 teaspoon salt

Happy cooking everyone!!!

Spinach and Linguine Soup with Fried Egg and Garlic Tor-toast-a

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Okay, so I have quite a few recipes that I did before this one, but I just LOVED this recipe, and so did all three of my little, and big :), guys and I've been so excited to do, so I'm just going to skip ahead.  Deal with it!  :)

This meal was ridiculously easy, but still managed to be ridiculously good.  I love the imagery of any meal where they put an egg on top, so I was all for trying this recipe!

So first thing's first: Just a heads up that the original recipe actually called for vermicelli but, for some reason, every store I went to didn't seem to have any.  I'm not sure if vermicelli is hard to come by or what, so I just used what I had on hand, which was linguine.  Still tasted good so I'm not complaining!  When I do find vermicelli I will definitely make it again, it was too easy!  Anyway, the first thing I did was thinly slice half of a yellow onion and mince 1 clove of garlic (like I mentioned in my last blog, if you're uncomfortable mincing your own garlic, you can definitely use the bottled kind, it works just as well.  I just tend to like my herbs I use to be fresh!).  I also took 1 bunch of spinach and stemmed it, setting it aside for later.  I then heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat and added 1 tablespoon of olive oil to it to warm, as well.  I added the garlic and onion and sauteed it for about 5 minutes, adding 5 cups of chicken broth to the saucepan and bringing it to a boil.  Once it was boiling, I added 1/2 pound of linguine (vermicelli if you'd like to use the original recipe), breaking it beforehand into two inch pieces, and let that boil for another 7 minutes or so.  Then I added the spinach and allowed it to boil until it was wilted, about another 2 minutes, and then set it to low so I could cook the eggs (woo!!).

The original recipe stated to butter the pan prior to cooking the eggs, but I like to minimize the calories (obviously) so I just used cooking spray each time.  Make sure to keep the yolk in tact when you crack the egg and allow it to cook, yolk side up, for about 5 minutes for each egg, so that the bottom has set but the yolk is still running.

I spooned the soup into individual bowls and topped each with an egg and VOILA, yummy dinner was served!  As you can see, we also topped our with Sriracha sauce (our youngest, especially, is in love with Sriracha sauce) and upon cutting into the egg on the first bite, the yolk just spills into the soup and...sheesh, just heaven, honestly.  It was so good.

I also added my own little concoction on the side, if you can see on the second image.  The hubs and I have created our own little name for this and have been using it quite frequently on meals that need a side like bread (we tend to not have bread on hand in the house and we always love garlic bread/toast/etc.).  Meet the Garlic Tor-toast-a!  It's really simple, just spray each side of a corn tortilla with cooking spray, sprinkle with some garlic salt on each side and bake in your oven (350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes, making sure to turn it occasionally) and you've got your very own Garlic Tor-toast-a!!  We've used this so many times recently, whether it be just as a side to pasta, or have even added it to wraps/burritos, etc. we've made as a crunchy additional to the meal.  SOOOOOOO good, please try it and let me know what you think!!

So the best part of this meal was that it was only 178.5 calories/serving and, with the Garlic Tor-toast-a, only added another 55 calories, so the meal in its entirety was only 233.5 calories!  Whoa!  It was also only $1.21/serving, and that's WITH the Garlic Tor-toast-a!  Yay!!

 Here's the recipe!!

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

5 cups chicken broth

1/2 pound linguine, broken into two inch pieces

1 bunch spinach, stemmed

 4 eggs

Sriracha sauce for serving

4 corn tortillas (if you'd like to do the Garlic Tor-toast-a option!)

Cooking spray

Happy cooking all!!

Honey Chicken Breast with Shoyu

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Hello fellow home cookers and welcome to another addition of Mama Feta's Meals!  Wahoo!  This meal I made a few weeks ago and it was super yummy.  Anything with shoyu, garlic and ginger and I'm sold!

For those of you that don't know, shoyu is actually the Japanese word for soy sauce, however, being from Hawaii and growing up around all kinds of Asian foods, we ALWAYS used the word shoyu instead of soy sauce.  It's actually always a bit of difficulty to change the word so people understand what I'm saying sometimes!  Haha, but this meal was actually listed as shoyu, which made me happy and immediately made me want to make it!
Sooooo, this meal is an overnighte marinade type deal, so be prepared to start this the day before for the best flavor!!!
First thing's first: Get a large baggie (or if you're like me and HATE to waste baggies unnecessarily, you can use a bowl!) and mix 1/3 cup lower sodium SHOYU :) (as usual, my favorite brand is Aloha, due to it already having a lower salt taste), 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/4cup honey, 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger root (I usually use my cheese grater for this, seems to work fine.  Also, if you're unsure where to find fresh ginger root, it should just be in the produce section.  At my local Winco, they have it located in the same area as all of the peppers and fresh herbs) and 4 cloves of garlic, minced.  If mincing your own garlic makes you nervous, I don't see any problem with using the garlic in the bottle that's already minced, and it should tell you how much you need to equal a clove on the bottle.  Just don't be like my husband and mistake the word 'clove' for an entire bulb!  He's so cute, I sent him to the store once to get cloves of garlic (I should have just said 1 bulb, but I listed 10 cloves) and he literally came home with 10 bulbs of garlic.  Needless to say, we had garlic to last us for months, but it all got used, so that was good!  :)
Soooo, off of my garlic tangent, mix all of the above ingredients in a bag or bowl, and then add 4 chicken breasts to the mix.  The original recipe stated to leave the bones in, but my family isn't one to play well with chicken bones (please don't even get me started on the story of my sister and chicken bones!) so I just used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and they turned out great!
As I mentioned above, this is an overnight deal, so make sure to seal that baggie tightly, or cover your bowl with some foil, and toss it (okay, don't seriously toss it, especially if it's in the bowl, that'll just make a giant mess and ruin all of the work you just did!) into the fridge until the next day when you're ready to cook it!
When you're ready to cook, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and, while your oven is getting all kinds of toasty for you, cover a cookie sheet with foil and places your chickens onto it.  Let it cook in the oven for 40-45 minutes, basically until the chicken is fully cooked.  I usually make slices into the thickest parts of the chicken to check on it.  While it's cooking, though, make sure to check on it occasionally and baste it with the remaining marinade, so it stays juicy and the flavors get deliciously BAKED into the chicken.  Yum and voila!!  Dinner is served!  As you can see by the image, I wanted to put some sweet mashed potatoes on the side (I am entirely obsessed with sweet potatoes, it's ridiculous).  I literally did nothing to the sweet potatoes but peel them, boil them and mash them.  I just love sweet potatoes plain, I feel their natural flavor is SOOOOO yummy.  So anyway, just the chicken itself was 363 calories/chicken and the sweet potatoes were 147, making the dinner a grand total of (I know, I know!) 510 calories.  Listen, don't be mad, it's only 10 calories over my usual.  Okay, I'm mad at myself, but sometimes a little 'splurge' doesn't hurt, right?  Besides, these were good calories over, and who's to say my 500 calorie limit is a good number, anyway?  It's just where I like to be haha.  HOWEVER, it was only $0.96/serving, so I guess that makes up for the overage, right?  Right?!?  :)
Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, if anyone has any requests for recipes they'd like me to do on here, or ideas, or if you have a family recipe you'd like me to share with your story, hey, I'm all for it!  Just hit me up!
Here's the recipe!!

1/3 cup lower sodium shoyu (soy sauce!)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger root
4 cloves garlic, minced

Happy cooking my friends!

Chicken Tacos with Charred Tomatoes

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Yes it's true, I am harassing you all yet again.  Like I mentioned, I got pretty backed up so BE PREPARED FOR FOOD AWESOMENESS.  Or something like that.  :)

This meal was...well...delicious.  The flavors were crazy good, I can't even describe them correctly.  PLEASE try this one if you don't try any others.  It was amazingly good, I promise!

I originally got the meal from the Eating Well website, but it was only for two people so all of the amounts I put on here are for four (obviously!).

So first thing's first: I heat a skillet over high heat and added four cored plum tomatoes to it, allowing it to cook and turning it occasionally until it was charred, about 8 minutes.  I transferred it to a plate, cut the tomatoes crosswise and squeezed the seeds out.  I chopped the remaining pulp and skin and set it aside.

I cut some chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces and seasoned them with salt and pepper.  Then I added 2 teaspoons of canola oil in the same skillet and heat it over high heat and cooked the chicken until it was no longer pink, about 3-5 minutes, and transferred that to a plate as well.

I reduced the heat to medium, then, and added another 2 teaspoons of canola oil to the pan and added some onions, cooking them until they softened, about 2 minutes,  and added garlic and jalapeno and cooked for another 30 seconds.  Then I added lime juice, the chicken and the tomatoes and cooked for another 1-2 minutes, until the mixture was heated through.  Then I added cilantro and scallions and split the mixture among 12 corn tortillas (make sure to get a towel damp, wrap the tortillas in them and heat them for at least 30 seconds prior to putting the mixture in them.  It helps to keep the tortillas from breaking) and VOILA!!  Dinner was served!  As you can see, I also served dinner with black beans as it was such a low calorie meal.  For two tacos it was 297 calories and only $1.95/serving!!  WOW!

Here's the recipe!

4 plum tomatoes, cored

16 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

4 teaspoons canola oil, divided

1 cup finely chopped white onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 small jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced

4 teaspoons lime juice

4 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro

4 scallions, chopped

12 small corn tortillas, heated

Happy cooking everyone!!!

Steak and Vegetable Braciole

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So THIS meal was super fun!  This was a slow cooker meal which was fun to put together AND fun to eat!  :)  I got this meal from the Better Homes and Gardens website and it was YUMMY.

So first thing's first: the night before (just to make my prep easier but you can do it whenever!) I shredded 1/2 cup of carrots, chopped 1/3 cup of zucchini and green  bell peppers, as well as sliced 1/4 cup of green onions.

In the morning I combined the chopped veggies in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and 1 tablespoon of snipped parsley and 1 clove of minced garlic, along with 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper.

Then I spooned 1/4 cup of the vegetable mixture onto 6 different round steaks and rolled them up, securing them with toothpicks and putting them into my slow cooker.  Then I poured two cups of pasta sauce over the meat, covered it and set the slow cooker on low to allow it to cook for 8-10 hours (I believe with my work schedule it ended up being the full 10 hours).

When I got home I cooked some pasta to put below it and removed the tooth picks from the rolls.  I topped the cooked pasta with the rolls and sauce and VOILA!!  Dinner was served!!  The recipe made six servings and the steaks by themselves were only 261 calories.  With the pasta that added another 200 calories per serving but STILL managed to stay within my 500 calorie limit at 461 calories.  Woo!!  It was also only $1.54/serving, and that includes the pasta! I know!

Here's the recipe!!

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1/3 cup chopped zucchini

1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/4 cup sliced green onions

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

6 tenderized beef round steaks (about 2 pounds total)

2 cups pasta sauce

Hot cooked pasta (optional)

Happy cooking everyone!!!

Sweet Potato-Topped Shepherd's Pie

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So as I previously posted, St. Patrick's Day was really fun for my family, and dinner was no exception!  Our oldest son isn't the biggest fan of potatoes but we can all certainly agree that we LOVE sweet potatoes.  So when I saw that there was a St. Patrick's Day dinner recipe that included sweet potatoes, I jumped on it!!  I got the recipe from Betty Crocker (seems to be one of my consistent places to go to for recipes!) and only changed a little to suit our youngest son's dairy allergy needs!
So first thing's first: I preheated my oven to 375 degrees, and then sprayed a casserole dish with cooking spray.  While the oven was preheating, I cooked 1 1/2 pounds of extra-lean ground beef, 1 cup of onion (chopped), 1 cup of carrots (chopped) and 1 clove of garlic (finely chopped) in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until the beef was cooked, about 6 minutes.  Then I drained the beef mixture and added 1 can of reduced sodium beef broth, 1/4 cup tomato paste, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce,  3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 thyme, heating to a boil and then reducing the heat, allowing it to simmer for 10 minutes covered.  While that was simmering, I mixed 4 1/2 teaspoons of flour and 4 1/2 teaspoons of water in a small bowl and then stirring it into the beef mixture once it had simmered.  Then I allowed that cook for another two minutes, stirring constantly until thickened.  Then I added 1/2 cup of thawed spinach.  While that continued to simmer, I added 3 cups (each) of cubed Yukon Gold and sweet potatoes to a saucepan, covering it with water and allowing it to simmer for about 12 minutes (until it was tender).  In my mixer, once the potatoes were done, I added them along with 1/3 cup almond milk, 2 tablespoons margarine and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and mixed until it was smooth.
I put the meat mixture into the casserole dish and topped it with the potato mixture and baked it, uncovered, in the preheated oven for 30 minutes and VOILA!!  St. Patrick's Day dinner was served!!  This meal was so yummy!  It made 8 servings with only 250 calories per serving!  No kidding!  Needless to say, the family went back for seconds.  :)  It was also only $1.40/serving!  Yay!
Here's the recipe!!

1 1/2 pounds extra-lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 can (14 ounces) reduced-sodium fat-free beef broth
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon thyme
4 1/2 teaspoons flour
4 1/2 teaspoons water
1/2 cup frozen (thawed) chopped spinach, squeezed to drain
3 cups cubed, peeled Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
3 cups cubed, peeled sweet potatoes
1/3 cup almond milk (the original recipe called for low fat 1% milk)
2 tablespoons margarine (the original recipe called for light stick butter)

Happy cooking everyone!!!

St. Patrick's Day Treats!

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So a little bit ago I did promise to inundate you with all of the awesomeness that was my family's St. Patrick's Day treats and...well...MARCH happened and here we are on April 4th, but hey, at least I'm still posting it!  :)
I've basically posted a few of the treats I made and will do another blog post showing the dinner I made.  The images above are some delicious Lucky Charms ® Cupcakes (the recipe I got from the Betty Crocker website oddly enough), Shamrock Juice, and some GREEN Corn Dog Muffins I made for the family for lunch.
So I'll just list the recipes below and you can do as you please!!

Lucky Charms ® Cupcakes:

1 box Betty Crocker ® Super Moist ® yellow cake mix
1 container Betty Crocker ® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
3 cups Lucky Charms ® cereal
Green Food coloring

So first thing's first: I heat the oven to 350 degrees, put paper cups in my muffin pan (I currently only have 1 muffin pan and this particular recipe made 24 cupcakes so I had to do this twice).  Once that was done, I mixed the cake mix with the water, vegetable oil and eggs that were called for on the box and separated the mix into the paper cups equally, baking them as called for, as well, on the box.  When it was done, I made sure to cool completely before frosting them.  The recipe actually just called to frost them with the white frosting but I wanted to make it even more GREEN, so I had actually added a couple of drops of food coloring to the cake mixture AND the frosting.  Once it was frosted I topped it with the Lucky Charms ® and voila!  Yummy St. Patrick's Day cupcakes!

Shamrock Juice:

This recipe was more look and guess.  You'll need pineapple juice, sparkling lemonade, sparkling white grape juice and lime Popsicles!  The original recipe also stated to use green apples, however, the way the stores where I live completely breeze over the St. Patrick's Day holiday didn't leave me the ability to find a shamrock cookie cutter to use on the apples so I just left it out of the recipe!!
What I ended up doing was getting a large pitcher and mixing two cups of each of the pineapple juice, sparkling lemonade and white grape juice.  Once that was mixed I cut up the lime Popsicles and put them into separate cups and evenly distributed the juice and voila!!  Yummy juice that I put on the side of our DELICIOUS St. Patrick's Day dinner.  Try this, it was really good.  I don't even like pineapples or anything that has pineapple in it, but this was very refreshing!

Green Corn Dog Muffins:

I love these...ever since I saw them on Pinterest it has been a weekend staple at our house.  Kids love it, husband loves it, I love it...it's amazing.  So quick, yummy and filling!
1 Box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
Eggs and milk called for on box
3 turkey hot dogs

So I also mixed some green food coloring into this mixture as well because, HELLO, it was St. Patrick's Day!!  Once the mixture was evenly mixed, I greased my muffin pan with some cooking spray and put the mixture into it.  I cut the turkey hot dogs into 4 equal pieces for each hot dog and put those into the muffin mixture, baking them as directed on the package and VOILA!!!  St. Patrick's Day lunch muffins!  So yummy :)

Happy cooking everyone, and I hope everyone had as much fun on their St. Patrick's Day as our family did!

Honey Garlic Pork Chops

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Okay, first, let me get this out of the way: OH...MA...GAWD, March was a complete time consumer!!  All good, thankfully, but YOWZA!  I had intended to dwindle my GINORMOUS stack of recipes by posting more and what ended up happening instead?  I added...of course.  HOWEVER, I think I'm able to get back on track now, although I'm not making any promises...that seems to jinx me!  :)
So here we go!  This meal I made, clearly weeks ago, nonetheless I remember it was dee-licious!
First thing's first: I minced 6 cloves of garlic and added it to a bowl with 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 3/8 cup of honey and mixed well.  Once that was completed, I added the pork chops (6 boneless loin, they were about 4 ounces each) and made sure to coat them all evenly.
Once that was completed, I heated my grill pan on medium-high heat, coated it with cooking spray and cooked them until done, basting two or three times in between cooking.
Once that was done VOILA!!  Dinner was served!  This was a very low calorie meal so, as you can see, I was able to add some vegetables and rice on the side and still fit within my 500 calorie limit!  This meal made 6 servings and it was 214.5 calories per serving and only $1.37/serving!!  Pretty crazy, right?  It was a very quick-to-fix meal that was loaded with flavor and low in calories.  Try it yourself and let me know what you think!!
Here's the recipe!!!

3/8 cup honey
3 tablespoons soy sauce
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 pork loin chops, boneless, 4 ounces each

Happy less-time-consuming cooking everyone!!!!  :)