Help! I'm Addicted to Guacamole!

I love Mexican food. I really love guacamole. Okay, I really just love any use of avocados. Although, guac and avocados pair best with bad Mexican food there are some easier alternatives:

• Guacamole on a breakfast omelet. You can leave out the cheese and potatoes to save carbs/calories. You can add, egg whites, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, spinach, mushroom, jalapenos or just about any vegetable your little heart desires.
• Guacamole in a salad. You don't even need a dressing! It is so good with eggs, peppers, and tomatoes.
• Guacamole in pesto! Make your pesto normally and just add guacamole or avocado to it. Serve over spaghetti squash instead of noodles if you want to cut back.
• Guacamole on pizza! I like to make 'salad' pizzas. Let's face it, we all want pizza some time. Why not try to make it a little healthier? Try topping your cheese pizza with salad items next time. It is delicious.

Don't be afraid to try something weird. You might just find a new recipe!

Fish and Veggies

When I'm watching what I eat, my go to meal is fish and veggies! I love to get fresh salmon, bake it and serve it with whatever vegetable I'm feeling that day.

Today, I'm having baked salmon, lemon pepper and olive oil baked eggplant and steamed broccoli with a little butter and cheese. Check it out:

 

 

 

I typically cook these in mass and make containers for work and home for the week. I don't like to get burnt out though, so I usually make a variety of veggies and only enough fish for 2-3 days.

 

For any recipe request, let me know in the comment section below. Happy, healthy eating!

Shaking Things Up

I've always been told that in order to blog properly you need to have a focus. This blog has been like me: all over the place. I've decided to dedicate this blog completely to recipes and food. 

I've had a tough time finding recipes that fit my pescatarian diet so I decided to create a blog for others like me. In this blog, I plan to write ways to add meat to these meals, because my boyfriend is definitely not a pescatarian. And, I'm sure you're friends aren't all pescatariants either.

For those of  you that don't know what a pescatarian is:  Pescatarian = Vegetarian + Seafood. Not to be confused with the religion, "Presbyterian".

I became a pescatarian in April 2008. The reason I chose to be pescatarian vs. vegetarian is because I grew up on the sea and absolutely love seafood. There is no way that I could give it up or cheese. Plus, my dad is a boat captain. I could NEVER give up free seafood caught by my old man.

I became a pescatarian after reading the book "Skinny Bitch" in college. This book changed my views on food, health and animal rights; which immediately changed my palate.

Even if you're not into the pescatarian diet, I hope you enjoy this blog and find some yummy, new recipes.

My other blog is dedicated to inspiring myself and others. To follow it, please visit: http://marissadeslatte.wordpress.com/

I plan to post at least once a week to both. Enjoy!

Everything's Better with Cheese!

Recipe for Success issued a flash challenge asking followers to make a hot dish with the most vegetables they can. The tasty little number that I created is "Marissa's Meatless and Pastaless Vegetable Lasagna". It is amazing and has 14 vegetables in it! Check it out:

Here's the recipe:
1. Preheat Oven to 350
2. Poke holes in an entire Spaghetti Squash (Veggie #1) and put it in the oven
3. Thinly slice 1) Eggplant (Veggie # 2), Squash (Veggie #3) and Zucchini (Veggie #4) place on a cookie sheet, top with Cayenne, Tony's and pop it in the oven
4. In a small pot, boil or steam a head of Broccoli (Veggie #5)
5. In a large pot, add the following chopped items: Garlic (Veggie #6), Celery (Veggie #7), Chives (Veggie #8), Onions (Veggie #9), Red Bell Pepper (Veggie # 10, Spinach (Veggie #11), Tomatoes (Veggie #12), Carrots (Veggie #13) and 1 Jalapeno (Veggie #14). I cook all of this on Medium-Low with Olive Oil.
6. Keep an eye on your Eggplant, Squash and Zucchini tray and remove it from the onion once it is cooked.
7. Once the pot of veggies are pretty sautéed, add 1 large can of whole Tomatoes and 1/4 cup of water and reduce the heat to Low
8. Remove the Spaghetti Squash from the Oven and allow it to cool.While it is cooling, get out your large baking pan and coat it with Olive Oil.
9. Scrape the inside of the Spaghetti Squash into the pan to create your first layer.
10. Add a layer or Cheese: Ricotta, Parmesan and Mozzarella
11. Add a little bit of the Spaghetti Sauce you made
12. Add a layer of other veggies: Eggplant, Squash and Zucchini
13. Add another layer of Ricotta Cheese
14. Add the rest of the Spaghetti Sauce
15. Top with more Parmesan and Mozzarella.
16. Bake until the cheese melts.

And, yes, you read this correctly. I did not have to add any more seasoning besides those listed in step 3. All of the vegetables brought out natural, delicious flavors.

This meal is a little expensive since it has so many different veggies and cheeses,  but it's well worth it. It is delicious and taste amazing reheated. Recipe will feed 12-15!

Enjoy:)

Sunday Lovin'

Sundays are my absolute favorite. I love spending time with my church family, my real family, relaxing and cooking.

Andy and I love to cook together, especially on Sunday's when we're not rushed. This past Sunday, I made brunch and he made dinner. Both were wonderful so I thought I'd share.

For brunch, I made stuffed bell peppers topped with fried eggs over easy. Here's what the finished product looks like:

 

Can you say yum? This is a fairly cheap and easy meal. The ingredients that you need to make a serving for two are:

• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of rotel
• 2 large, red bell pepper
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 avocado
• 4-6 oz of cheese (I used habanero cheddar--so spicy and good!) 
• OPTIONAL:
• Black Pepper
• 1/5 a White Onion
• Salsa
• Sour Cream

Other items needed:

• Pam/Cooking Spray
• Cutting Board
• 1 Small Pot
• 1 Baking Dish (11x7 or larger)
• 1 Frying Pan (Medium to Large)
• 1 Knife
• 1 Spoon
• 1 Spatula

 

Cooking this meal takes less than 30 minutes too! Here is what you do:

1. Preheat your oven to bake/350 degrees
2. Wash your 2 red bell peppers, cut the tops/stems off of them (don't discard) and pull out the seeds. Cut the bell peppers in half long ways (remember you're going to be stuffing these!). Place all four halves in your pan (after you've sprayed the pan with Pam). Let bake/cook while you prep the rest of your ingredients.
3. Cut the red bell peppers from tops/stems into small chunks and cook them in your small pot (which you've already coated with Pam) on medium heat.
4. OPTIONAL: cut 1/5 of a white onion and add it to the small pot.
5. Add 1 can of black beans and 1 can of rotel to your pot and turn on low.
6. Take your bell peppers from the oven. Stuff them with the bean/rotel mixture from the pot and top them with cheese. Place them back in the oven until the cheese melts. Keep an eye on them so that the cheese does not burn.
7. While you're waiting for the cheese to melt, spray your pan with Pam and turn the heat on high. Once the heat is on high, add all four eggs. OPTIONAL: Season eggs with black pepper. Turn the heat to low and cook the eggs over easy. I suggest turning the heat off once you've flipped them.
8. While you're waiting for your eggs to cook, cut 1/2 of avocado into long strips for easy serving.
9. Begin plating your bell peppers. Top them with the fried egg and avocado. Serve extra beans on the side of the plate. OPTIONAL: Top with salsa and/or sour cream. Enjoy!

For Andy's dinner, he made roasted garlic bulbs, bread, corn on the cob and crab legs. It was SO good. Here's what it looked like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This meal is kind of expensive because of the crab, but it is still much cheaper (and better!) than eating out at a lot of restaurants. Here's how he did it:

1. He preheated the oven to 350
2. He cut the tops of the garlic bulb off of three garlic bulbs
3. He let them soak in olive oil, pepper and salt while the oven preheated
4. Once the oven preheated, he wrapped each bulb individually in aluminum foil and stuck them in the oven.
5. In the left over oil, pepper and salt mixture, he rolled the corn on the cob in it. He added extra pepper and tony's to the corn and wrapped it in foil and placed it in the oven. All four items (3 garlic bulbs and 1 corn on the cob) need to bake 30 minutes.
6. After 15 minutes of baking, he brought a large pot to water on top of the stove. On top of the water, he steamed the thawed crab legs. They needed to cook for 12-15 minutes.
7. While they were steaming, Andy cut more garlic and placed it in a small pot. He added 1/2 stick of butter and allowed it to melt on low for our crab dipping sauce.
8. Before everything wrapped up, he cut the French bread in small pieces and added it to the oven for 2 minutes to toast.
9. Everything finished at the same time, so he plated it all together. We dipped the bread in more olive oil/pepper mixture. Ate the garlic bulbs by themselves or on the bread and we dipped the crab legs in the butter/garlic mixture.

This was a delicious meal for under $50 and it took less than 45 minutes to cook everything. GREAT at home date night meal!

 



Healthy, Cheap Lunch!

Like everyone else in the New Year, my boyfriend and I are trying to eat healthier. We don't need to lose a ton of weight, so we thought of a few guidelines to help us slim down  and lose the holiday weight (vs. doing a drastic diet). We definitely didn't want anything that would eliminate an entire food group. We also wanted to do something realistic that we could stick with since we both work full time and have a ton of extracurricular activities. Here's a few guidelines we set for ourselves (at least for the first week or two):

• No Crap (Sodas, Alcohol, Coffee, Chips, Junk Food, Etc.)
• I'm sure you're thinking coffee isn't 'crap', well you haven't seen mine! I love sugar and creamer in mind (or a fatty Starbucks drink) and by the time I'm done with it my drink is over 150 calories! I'm trying to replace my morning coffee with a glass of water or hot, green tea-both are 0 calories! So far, so good!
• Have a Healthy Breakfast/AM Snack
• Aiming to have some sort of fruit every morning
• Healthy Lunch (No Fried Foods, Limit the Pasta, Etc.)
• Veggie PM Snack 
• Edamame orVeggies with Hummus or Almond Butter 
• No Dairy or Pasta/Grains for Dinner
• Pasta is quick and easy and cheese makes everything better! We're trying to eliminate these two things for the first week or two so that we lose our holiday weight.  

After a week or two, we will probably just focus on low calorie/healthier options. We're bothing using MyFitnessPal app and website right now and love it. It alows you to scan products to calculate daily nutrition. According to it, my lunch today was only 405 calories. We added ground meat and taco seasoning to Andy's which made his 576 calories. Here's what I had:

 

The above photo is one stuffed serrano pepper. It doesn't look too pretty but it taste amazing! This is probably one of the most delicious healthy meals I make! It is very filling, low cost and taste like it's unhealthy! Here's a few easy steps to make your own (Serves 4):

1. Toast 4 Serrano Peppers on an open flame or burner on low. Be sure to rotate them frequently to ensure that they cook on all sides. While they're cooking go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 375 and proceed to step 2.  

 
2. While your peppers are roasting, go ahead and chop 1 whole yellow onion and place it in a large pot sprayed with Pam on Med-Low heat. While they are cooking be sure to check on your peppers and rotate them. Once onions are slighlty cooked add 1 large can of whole black beans and 1 small can of whole corn. Stir every few minutes.  
 
3. At this time, your peppers should be nice and toasted on every side (hopefully you rotated!). If they are  pretty black on every side, place them in a ziplock bag to cool. This will cause them to "sweat" and make their skin come off a little easier.  
 
4. While your peppers sweat, go ahead and cut 1/4 of an avocado per serving and 1 oz of cheese per saving. I used Calbot habanero cheddar cheese. Be sure to continue to watch your pot of veggies and stir them.  
 
5. Get your bag of serrano peppers and run cold water in it. Rub them together (still in the bag) then drain the water. Now using a knife slighly scrape off all remaining black residue. You will see a smoother skin appear. Once all black has been scrapped off, cut the stem off of the pepper and remove most of the seeds (or all of the seeds if you don't want it too spicy). Instead of trying to stuff mine, I cut them open to wear I have a flat sheet of pepper. I think serrano peppers are too skinny to stuff.
 
6. Top your pepper with your pot of veggies (2 scoops/cups) and top with 1 oz of cheese. Place in the oven until the cheese melts. (Roughly 3-5 minutes).
 
7.  Once cheese has melted, top with 1/4 avocado and 2 table spoons of salsa (I used Hernandez).
 

Tips:

• If you need to cut calories, you could easily eliminate the cheese, salsa and avocado. This would save you 200 calories). It would be great without these, but it's even better with them!
 
• If you need to add calories, you can add beef and taco seasoning like Andy did. You could also add more veggies in pot like eggplant or tomatoes. I've made this same recipe with rice too, which will add calories.
 

However you make it, I hope you enjoy it! Leave me a comment if you changed the recipe. I'd love to hear from you!