Eat Comfy, Go Lightly

This is my absolute favorite recipe for chili.  It's so filling, so healthy, and I promise you won't miss the meat!

Portobello mushrooms, cashews (sounds strange, but they're great in this!) and amazing spices make this chili stand out.  The beans and cashews add protein, iron and zinc.  It's a complete meal all by itself, but it's great with cornbread (whole -wheat cornbread recipe below) or some brown rice.  It's perfect for a cold night -- especially a cold super bowl Sunday night!  Have fun! Portobello Mushroom Vegetarian Chili 1 yellow onion, diced 1 carrot, diced 1 red pepper, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 cerrano (or other mild… continue reading the BEST vegetarian chili. | 6 Comments

Well, I guess I took about a month-long blogging hiatus.  It wasn't intentional, but I guess I've been getting adjusted to living somewhere new, cooking in a different kitchen, and of course...working.  But now that a month has passed, and Superbowl Sunday is around the corner, I decided it was time to get "back in the game" before the big game! Honestly, I don't really watch football, but I've always loved Superbowl Sunday because of the commercials, the half-time show, and the Superbowl parties!  Great excuse to get together with friends and eat good food!  One of my favorites for Superbowl Sunday is spinach-artichoke dip.  Actually, it's one of my favorites, period.  But it's usually so unhealthy.  Did you know… continue reading getting "back in the game" with a healthier spinach-artichoke dip.

I have another confession to make, one of my favorite things in the world is fried chicken. Of course we all know how terrible it is for you since its deep fried chicken but I have come up with a recipe that will never make you miss "the real" fried chicken again. This recipe was so good I had it for breakfast the next day.  I know what you are guys are thinking I'm a little gross, but it really was delicious. Well in order to recreate a healthy fried chicken I think there are two things you need to do. You need to leave the bone in the chicken and you need to make sure you… continue reading oven baked fried chicken, some delicious goodness | 17 Comments

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and as one of our last Thanksgiving recipes we have a delicious creamed corn casserole recipe for you. Usually creamed corn is made with a heavy cream so it turns out to be really unhealthy for you but with a few simple tricks this dish can really be made into something healthy and delicious.

Creamed Corn Casserole: 1 ¾ cup soy milk 1 pound frozen corn kernels 1 teaspoon Splenda 2 1/2 teaspoons flour ¼ cup fat free yogurt 3/4 teaspoon minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese… continue reading planning a thin thanksgiving: creamed corn casserole | 5 Comments

Making your own cranberry sauce is a great way to infuse your thanksgiving meal with personality, and it's also a great way to cut some of your thanksgiving sugar intake.  There's no reason not to make your own cranberry sauce; it takes all of 20 minutes and your home will smell amazing as guests start arriving!

Using agave nectar (a natural sweetener from the agave plant) instead of sugar allows you to cut the sugar in cranberry sauce by about half.  That's because agave nectar tastes sweeter than sugar, even though it's lower on the glycemic index.  Adding apples and some orange juice not only makes the flavor/texture more… continue reading planning a thin thanksgiving: agave cranberry sauce with apple and spices.

It isn't thanksgiving without stuffing.  When you think about it though, traditional stuffing really is a bunch of empty calories.  The base is usually white bread, and there's usually a ton of butter involved.  There's no reason why stuffing needs to be unhealthy.  This stuffing is made with whole-grain bread, a ton of veggies, a bit of olive oil, spices and some granny smith apple, which gives it an amazing kick and totally balances the flavors.  

I absolutely love this stuffing just as it is, but if you'd like to use this recipe as a healthy base and personalize it with your favorite stuffing ingredients, I'm sure it… continue reading planning a thin thanksgiving: delicious whole-grain stuffing. | 2 Comments

Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends, and delicious food.  Eating great food over the holidays is something we all look forward to.  But it's the feeling after eating all that great food that we dread.  That "I have to start my diet" feeling, or wondering "why did I eat so much, AGAIN?!?"

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, Tudy and I decided to do a healthy Thanksgiving recipe each day until the holiday.  Of course, it's hard to replace all of your family favorites with healthy alternatives, and we're not suggesting that you do.  We do think it's pretty reasonable to work in a few healthy dishes, and… continue reading planning a thin thanksgiving: "candied" yams. | 2 Comments

The other night I wanted to try something new with potatoes. So I decided to make a potato pancake, but not the traditional way with left over mashed potatoes. Instead, I decided to boil the potatoes first and and then added a few unique twists like dill and a yogurt dill sauce. I thought there was something rather addicting about them since I ate about 7 of them. Potato Cakes 4 cups shredded potatoes (preferably russet potatoes) 1 tablespoon dill 1/3 cup parmesan cheese 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic 3/4 teaspoon  sea salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 egg whites beaten Cooking Spray Fill a large pot with water and add the potatoes. Two large russet potatoes… continue reading wholesome potato pancakes | 2 Comments

Last night I blogged about making some good homemade chili and of course the perfect accompaniment to chili is cornbread. Usually I just make my cornbread out of a box, but yesterday I wanted to make my cornbread low fat and also wanted it to have a higher nutritional value so I made it from scratch. I didn't use any oil or butter and also added in some frozen corn kernels. I must say it was quite delicious and really easy to make! Cornbread 1 cup yellow corn meal 1 cup all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 1 egg 1 egg white 1 cup vanilla rice milk or vanilla soy milk 1… continue reading A lighter side of corn bread

One of Joey's favorite meals in the winter time was eating chili on Monday nights while watching football. So tonight I decided to surprise Joey by making chili along with cornbread (watch for the recipe tomorrow) so he can enjoy the big game! However, I of course decided to make my chili alot healthier than your traditional chili. I used lean ground turkey instead of ground beef and added corn and sliced red bell peppers to boost the vitamin content. One of the things that makes chili so easy to make healthy is you can pretty much throw any vegetable in there and it is masked by all the  spices so its really easy to boost your… continue reading spice up your night with a hot bowl of chili | 1 Comment