Mushroom Quesadillas

Kaylee is so happy!  Today was her first day back to the swim team {they switched pools for the winter and it was too far away to take her and still take Mantha to practice also.}  I have a feeling I'm going to have one very sore 10 year old tomorrow.  As a fitness enthusiast and personal trainer I'd love to know how many calories she burns during one practice.  But no matter what, she burns a bunch.  And every athlete needs a nutritious meal after they exercise.  What's a better nutritious meal than QUESADILLAS???  

The kids and I have been craving Mexican for a few days and Vegetarian Times Magazine did a piece with various quesadilla recipes.  

One of the things I love about quesadillas is that they are so versatile.  There are over handful of different tortillas to choose from, dozens of different cheeses, hundreds of different filling options and thousands of different combinations you can put it all together with.  

But, in the fashion that my recipes for this blog have been going recently, something went wrong when I made this.   I opened up my bag of tortillas and they were moldy.  I had bought them the same day!  I was so annoyed.  But, today I wasn't going to let that get me.  I took one of the tortillas I bought for Ken and the kids and made this quesadilla into a quesadilla salad.  I baked the tortilla into a shell in my tortilla shell bowl that my mother gave me for Christmas.  If you don't have one you can always bake the shell flat.

Creamy Mushroom Quesadilla Salad
adapted from Vegetarian Times

• .5 small onion, chopped 
• 8 oz. white mushrooms, sliced 
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 oz. fat-free cream cheese, softened
• .25 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 8-inch fat free tortilla
• Fresh spinach
• Your favorite salsa 
• Fat free sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 450, spray tortilla bowl mold and fit tortilla inside
2. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned
3. While the tortilla is baking, saute mushrooms and onions.
4. Turn off heat and stir in cumin, cream cheese and cheddar until the cream cheese coats the mushrooms mixture and the cheddar cheese is melty. 
5. Take tortilla out of the mold and fill 3/4 of the way full with spinach
6. Top with mushroom mixture and garnish with salsa and sour cream.

What's one of your family's favorite after workout meals?

Belated Father's Day Dinner....A Restaurant Review

For Father's Day Ken had to work.  So, we celebrated it tonite.  Over the past 3 years of living here we have only really eaten at 2 restaurants in town, Golden Corral and the Chinese buffet.  After 3 years we have come to realize we are sick and tired of Chinese buffets and Golden Corral {ESPECIALLY Golden Corral}. Plus we want the girls to experience different types of food.  

Tonite we chose Salsa's Mexican Restaurant.  The server was great.  They messed up my order and even though I was just going to suffer and pick around the cheese and other stuff I couldn't eat he insisted on taking it back and getting me one that was made properly.  

I had the vegetable fajitas.  No tortillas, no cheese, and no oil.  
Ken had the mixed fajita.  He said it was "okay"
Kaylee got a fish dish that she really like.
Mo tried an enchilada.  She said the inside was really tasty but, she didn't like the enchilada sauce on top or the fact it was made with a corn tortilla.
Sunny got a burrito.  She was very happy with it.

All of the meals came with a side of rice and refried beans.  

After dinner we went to try a new-ish frozen yogurt place in European Village.  It's a self serve, pay by the ounce (47 cents an ounce, to be exact) place.  They had either 8 or 10 different flavors.  And atleast half, if not more, were fat free.  90% of them were atleast low fat though.  They have a variety of fruit and candy toppings and syrups.  There's something for everybody.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of it.

The 2 best parts about this evening?  1) I didn't get any stomach pains!!  So, even though the food wasn't the most amazing we've ever tried I consider it a place to keep on our list due to the fact I didn't feel like death.  2) We had a nice relaxing family night.

Here's our meal in pictures:

Salsa's has a few locations around the Daytona area.  Click Here to check out their site.
Yo'Belle has locations across the US.  Click Here to find your closest one.

What's your favorite ethnic cuisine?  What is your kids fave?

 

Pannuts and Puffins and Huevos Rancheros

OH MY!

Pannut -- (noun) Pancake batter baked in a donut maker

Puffin -- (noun) Pancake batter baked in a muffin tin

Huevos Rancheros -- (noun) a super yummy breakfast dish


This month I had originally made a menu made up completely of breakfast foods.  I realized after making it that the hubby wouldn't be too happy with it so, I just added a few extra BFD (breakfast for dinner) meals to the menu on nights he works.  Saturday was one of our added BFD nites.  When I asked the girls if they had any suggestions Mantha instantly piped up with "Donuts!  But not the normal kind, a healthy version."  So I set to work figuring it out.  I remembered seeing a recipe for Bisquick muffins before and then I realized that I could make donuts out of a pancake batter.  

Perfect dinner for a girl who won her first soccer game today right?  Yep that's right, Kaylee's team won their very first game of the season 2-0!  

Don't these look yummy?  And even though they aren't fat free the calories aren't through the roof.  You could make them healthier by substituting the whole eggs for either egg whites or egg substitute.  If you can find fat free pancake batter these can easily be made fat free.  (Krusteaz and a few other companies make a fat free mix)

 Sunny decided she needed to make her presence known in my last photo.  That one is the Dark Chocolate Dream filled Puffin.  Puffins are on the top and the Pannuts are on  the left. 

Puffin and Pannut Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups Bisquick
2 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1 T sugar
juice of 1/2 an orange
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Mix together Bisquick, sugar, and baking powder.
2. Whisk in wet ingrediets (eggs, milk, orange juice and vanilla)
3. For Puffin preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin pan.  Fill each cup 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.
4. For Pannuts preheat and spray you doughnut maker (I have a Sunbeam donut maker and I love it)  fill each cavity and bake for about 5-7 minutes.  Repeat until batter is gone.

If you want to add mix-ins into your puffins or pannuts then feel free and have fun.  I used craisins, blueberries, strawberries, cinnamon sugar, peanut butter, and Peanut Butter & Co Dark Chocolate Dream.  The possibilities are endless!  

Tonite was another BFD nite.  This time it was Huevos Rancheros.  I combined a few recipes to get a perfect one.

The top photo is my fat free one (I only used half a tortilla in order to save a few calories), and the other two are the girls with a normal sunny side up egg.  Don't they look good?  Kaylee wasn't a big fan of it but Mantha and I loved it.  


Huevos Rancheros

Ingredients
4 fat free tortillas
2 onions, minced
2 tomatoes, minced
Pickled Jalapenos (to taste), chopped fine
1-2 cups egg substitute (equivalent to 4-8 eggs) [you can use either the yellow kind or all whites]
1/2 cup shredded lettuce
1/2 cup shredded fat free cheese
1 can of black beans (I only had kidney so that's what I used)

Directions

1. Spray and heat a medium skillet on high.  Saute onions until slightly soft (about 2 minutes) add in tomatoes and jalapenos and cook for a bit longer.  If you need to add a bit of water to the pan to keep things from sticking.  Set aside when done.
2. In a separate bowl put the beans and mash with a fork.  If they are too gummy you can add a bit of water.
3. Spray a skillet with non-stick spray and heat each side of the tortillas one at a time until brown and bubbly
4. Cook the eggs.  (Standard Huevos Rancheros is done with sunny side up eggs so, if you aren't watching you fat, feel free to use normal eggs)
5. To put them together place a tortilla on the plate, spread beans on the tortillas, add eggs, then top with the salsa.  

The tomatoes and onions can be substituted for jarred salsa.  I actually used both.  

I made extra eggs so the girls could make themselves burritos also.

Frozen Yogurt is the Devil!

Farmers Market Friday is back!

Here's a list of all the things I bought today.

Eggplant
Creamer potatoes
Brussel sprouts
Kiwi
Bananas
Apples
Peaches
Carrots
Green onions
Tomatoes
Green peppers
Jalepenos

Frozen yogurt has been my downfall the past few days.  

It's just so darn good!  Espresso Chip low-fat frozen yogurt from Publix is AMAZING!  I've been meaning to try some fat free fro-yo recipes and wanting to cut calories is a perfect reason to try them out.  

Today I got back on my health wagon.  I took the girls to the pool and I took the dogs for a walk on the beach.  It only lasted 20 minutes due to a nice oncoming rainstorm.

After I got home I recieved a call from the detective handling my ring case.  Looks like I need to take both of my dogs in for x-rays to make sure that they didn't eat my ring.  After losing a very expensive, very sentimental item like an engagement ring some people would look at the "glass" half empty but, honestly I can't.  I can't look at it half full or half empty.  My glass is just half.  Not empty, not full, just half.

Tonite was taco night.  Vegetarian taco night.  The girls love having tacos.  Taco night is only second to sushi night in favorites.  This is a great quick meal.  I served it with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream and cheese.

Vegetarian bean taco filling
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn
1 can mexicorn
1 large onion, diced

1. Sautee onion until soft
2. Add corn with juice and mexicorn
3. After a few minutes add black beans and heat through

Simple right?

What is your favorite simple meal?