Smoked Sausage with Peppers and Onions...

7 oz turkey smoked sausage
1 green bell pepper

1 medium onion

Spray skillet with Pam. Cut pepper and onion into 1 inch pieces. Cut sausage into bite sized pieces. Toss all into a skillet and simmer covered on medium low heat until veggies are tender. This makes two servings.

Nutritional information for one serving:

239 Calories

10.3g Fat

70 mg Cholesterol

1084.4 mg Sodium

294.9mg Potassium

17.7g Carbs

2.7g Fiber

7.4g Sugar

17.9g Protein

Pepper Steak with a Twist...

1/2 pound lean steak
1 small onion
1 small tomato
1 1/2 cups cooked cabbage
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 Tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

Cut steak into 1/2 inch thick strips. Chop onion and tomato into large pieces.

Saute onion in olive oil until almost tender. Add steak and saute until almost done. Add tomato, garlic, cabbage and soy sauce and continue cooking until warm throughout.

I decided to use cabbage because I had some already cooked and was out of green peppers. If you want to cut the sodium you can leave the soy sauce out. It wasn't enough to really taste it and would have been just as good without it.

This was a lot for one meal, and could be divided into two meals with another side.

Calories 477
Total fat 21.4
Cholesterol 127
Sodium 1060
Potassium 1280
Carbs 17.8
Fiber 5.2
Sugars 0.3
Protein 52.6

I checked the difference using a green pepper instead of the cabbage and the calories were 4 more with the pepper, and you lose a lot of the Potassium.

I forgot to take a picture until it was almost gone. Will do it next time and revise this.

Creamy Parmesan Salad Dressing...

1/2 Cup Light Mayo
1/4 Cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 Cup Light Buttermilk
1 1/2 Teaspoons Garlic Salt
1 Tablespoon Parsley
1/2 Cup Water

Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl until well blended.
Best if refrigerated for a few hours, but can be used immediately.
Makes approximately 1 1/2 cups.

Nutritional values per tablespoon:

Calories 22
Total Fat 2
Cholesterol 2.6
Sodium 67
Potassium 9.5
Carbs 0.7
Fiber 0
Sugar 0.3
Protein 0.6

If you don't have buttermilk, you can use skim milk and add 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice.

Oven Fried Chicken and Gravy...

The chicken part of this recipe is my version of the one mentioned on Biggest Loser this week. I've just done it my way since they didn't go into any details about how they did it.

This recipe is for two pieces of chicken and I'm not adding the nutrition count at the end (you can do that for yourselves).

3 slices Whole Wheat Light Bread
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 egg white whipped to foamy state

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toast the bread and let it set out over night to get hard and crispy. Place bread slices in a food processor and pulse until all pieces are ground. Continue grinding until almost the consistency of flour. Add salt and pepper.

Dip chicken in egg whites and then coat with bread crumbs.

Pour olive oil into a baking dish. (I lined mine with Reynold's Wrap Release so that I wouldn't have to scour the baking dish afterward.) With my hand I spread the olive oil all over the bottom of the pan. Place the chicken in the pan and put it in the oven. Half way through cooking flip the chicken over and bake on the other side. Times will vary depending on the chicken. Boneless chicken will cook quicker than bone in chicken. My guess is 20 minutes on each side for boneless and 30 minutes on each side for bone in.

GRAVY:

Scrape/pour the drippings from the chicken into a small skillet. Turn heat on medium and allow the drippings to get warm. Add 1 tablespoon of flour and stir to make a roux. Continue cooking until roux becomes a little brown. Add approximately 1/2 cup of your favorite light milk stirring constantly to keep from lumping. If gravy is too thick add more milk. If it's too runny cook for a little while and it will thicken up.

Homemade Granola

Here's a recipe that most people will love. Sorry, but it isn't low in calories. There's just not much of a way to do that. It's been so long since I've made it (around 30 years) that I don't remember how much it actually makes. So what I've done is list the nutritional value for the TOTAL recipe. So when you see the nutritional values please don't faint away.

Homemade Granola
6 cups Rolled Oats
2 cups slivered Almonds
1.5 cups Sunflower Nuts
1 cup Sesame Seeds
1 cup coconut
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup brown sugar

Combine first 4 ingredients on a cookie sheet and bake at 200 degrees for 15 minutes.

Mix remaining ingredients with the warm ingredients.

Spread out on cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cool and scrape off.

For TOTAL recipe:
Calories 8,892
Total Fat 554 g
Saturated Fat 96 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 212 g
Monounsaturated Fat 238 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 176 mg
Potassium 10,558 mg
Total Carbohydrates 1,177 g
Dietary Fiber 219 g
Sugars 155 g
Protein 227 g
Vitamin A 1.4%
Vitamin B-6 402%
Vitamin C 10.3%
Vitamin E 723%
Calcium 560%
Folate 451%
Iron 758%
Magnesium 1,042%
niacin 281%
Phosphorus 1,62%
Selenium 408%
Thiamine 899%
Zinc 661%

Dinah Shore's Rice Pudding...

Simmer (covered) for ~7 minutes or until dry:

1 Cup Water
1/2 Cup dry rice

Add and simmer (covered) for 1 hour:

4 Cups Milk
4 TBSP Butter

Beat and add in slowly:

1/2 Cup Sugar
3 Whole Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Stir and continue cooking until thick. Place in individual containers or one large dish and refrigerate.

The recipe above is the one that was published in a local newspaper many, many,many moons ago. Below I will give you the nutritional information on this one and the one I made with the substitutes. My substitutes were using soy milk instead of whole milk, egg beaters instead real eggs, Land O Lakes Light Butter with Canola Oil and Splenda instead of sugar. The nutritional values are for 1/2 cup serving.

Original:
Calories 134.7
Total Fat 7.2
Saturated Fat 4.1
Poly. Fat 0.3
Mono. Fat 1.4
Cholesterol 64.6
Sodium 78.6
Potassium 17.7
Carbs 13.3
Fiber 0.0
Sugar 11.1
Protien 4.1

Mine:
Calories 50.2
Total Fat 1.8
Saturated Fat 0.5
Poly. Fat 0.2
Mono. Fat 0.6
Cholesterol 1.3
Sodium 85.8
Potassium 50.3
Carbs 5.7
Fiber 0.3
Sugar 2.0
Protien 3.4

Chicken Salad

2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts (boiled)
1/4 cup chopped onion
4 stalks of celery
6-8 TBSP Light Mayo

Place first 3 ingredients into a food processor and process until desired consistency.

Add mayo, salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 8 servings.

Calories 114
Fat 5.2
Carbs 2
Protein 13.6

Easy Breakfast Bake...

This one I got out of the instruction booklet for my new hand mixer. I haven't tried it yet but rest assured I will.

1 pound turkey Italian sausage links, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 medium onion, chopped
1 package (8 oz) light cream cheese
1 TBSP dried marjoram leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup fat-free egg substitute
1 can evaporated skimmed milk
9 slices french bread
1 package frozen chopped broccoli thawed
1 cup shredded reduced fat sharp Cheddar cheese

Place sausage and onion in a medium nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat about 8 minutes or until sausage is no longer pink in center and onion is tender. Set aside.

Place cream cheese, marjoram, salt and pepper in medium bowl. Beat until smooth. Add egg substitute and milk. Beat until smooth.

Layer bread in a Pam sprayed 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Top with sausage mixture, broccoli, and Cheddar cheese. Pour cream cheese mixture evenly over top. Cover tightly. Refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.

Uncover dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Makes 12 servings.

Per serving:
264 Calories
18 g protein
17 g Carbs
14 g total fat
5 g sat. fat
55 mg cholesterol
728 mg sodium

Chicken and Noodles with Limas

Served here with cabbage and sliced peaches. This is a large portion so it could be cut in half, but I usually eat it all :o)

6 oz Noodles (half a 12 oz package)
2 skinless/boneless Chicken breasts (~12 oz)
4 TBSP Land-0-Lakes Light Butter w/Canola oil
1 3/4 cups Fordhook Lima Beans (350 total calories or 87.5 per serving)

Boil chicken until done (approximately 40 minutes).
Bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil. Drop in noodles and turn off heat. Let noodles stand in water until tender (approximately 15 minutes). Drain.
Cook Lima's according to package directions. Drain.
Chop chicken into bite sized pieces.
Combine all ingredients.
Add salt and pepper to taste. (I use low sodium sea salt.)

Makes 4 servings.

Stats per serving:

435 Calories
9.9 g Fat
3.6 g Saturated Fat
130 g Cholesterol
162 g Sodium (without salting to taste)
46.8 g Carbs
5 g Fiber
1.5 g Sugar
37.5 g Protein
10% Vitamin A
22% Vitamin C
1% Calcium
16% Iron

I included the calorie count for the Lima beans in case you don't like them and prefer to use other veggies. You can then change the stats easier.

I usually eat this mix with one other vegetable and I am full all evening long. I've also found that when I'm having a little trouble losing this will kick start the loss again. (I'll add a picture of it tonight after I dish myself out a serving :o)