Two great suggestions…

I apologize and haveforgotten to include prep and cook time and will start providing that again.  Also, someone asked about offering the calorie and fat gram information on the dishes, I will begin doing that as well.  Tomorrow I hope to have all of the information as well as the recipes.  If I forget, just send a kind reminder and will follow-up with it.

Thanks for the feedback!!

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Turkey/Beef Burger Twist…

Tonight Dean made dinner.  He grilled hamburgers and sautéed string beans.  To keep the hamburgers light and delicious, I combine half of the burger meat with 93% lean ground beef and turkey breast meat.  I emphasize the breast in the turkey meat because it only has 1 gram of fat per serving, unlike just ground turkey meat which has about 10 grams of fat per serving.  Combining the two types of meat gives you a tasty yet lighter burger.

To make the burgers a little more interesting, I cooked onions and ketchup sauce as a topping to the burgers.  It’s a little tastier than just ketchup and doesn’t add any fat to the dish.  Try it out…

Onion and Ketchup Sauce

Prep and cook time: 45 minutes

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 large sweet onion – thinly sliced

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup ketchup

3 – 4 drops Chipotle sauce

Directions:

1. Heat a saucepot on medium low heat and spray with cooking spray.  Add onions, cover, and cook slowly for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  (TIP: if the onions stick to the bottom, add a little water and stir).
2. Add sugar and Worcestershire sauce and cook, uncovered, for about 2 minutes until liquid reduces to ½.
3. Add ketchup and Chipotle sauce, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and serve room temperature with burgers or meat.

Then old standby…

Nick, my son, has been waking up really early all week and it has taken a toll on my enthusiasm of trying new a new delicious and light recipe to share tonight.  So I took the easy way out tonight and just defrosted some chicken breasts, sautéed them with tomato sauce and baked it in a casserole dish with a little low fat cheese sprinkled on top with a side of spaghetti.

I was feeling a little guilty but when I saw Nick and Dean, my husband, really enjoying a dinner staple from our home and realized that sometimes the easiest meals that have been made 100 times before are good enough.    It’s not necessary to have something new every night.  So if you are feeling run down, cook one of your family favorites, just keep it light. 

Here are a couple of tips to help you keep it light:

1. When sautéing a non-coated protein (meat, fish or chicken) – use cooking spray instead of oil or butter.  If the protein is sticking to the pan, then it is not ready to be turned over yet.  Wait until it begins to separate a little, then turn over.
2. If you are coating the protein with bread crumbs, flour or something else, use egg substitute or egg whites instead of whole eggs, this helps cut down on the fat.  Also, it is best to use a non-stick skillet for this type of cooking because your coating can stick to a regular stainless steel pan.
3. If you are making tomato sauce or any sauce where you are sautéing onions first, spray the pot with cooking spray, set the heat on medium to medium low, add your onions and then cover the pot so that the onion juices can stay in the pot and assist in the cooking process.  Otherwise, the onions can stick to the bottom.  If this does happen, just add a tablespoon of water and that will help release them from the bottom.

Rest up and Happy Cooking!