My family loves Chinese food. American-ized Chinese food that is. Think PF Changs…or even more pedestrian (and the hubs and the boy both love this place and have to go there without me) Panda Express. Mongolian Beef, Fried Rice and Sesame Chicken is about as far in Chinese food as my family is willing to delve.

Since I do love my family, we don’t eat fast food Chinese very much because I don’t want them to dehydrate and die from all the sodium, sugar and MSG in most take-away meals…so I think I am going to add this healthy version of Cashew Chicken to the rotation. Inspired by this…I must find a healthy swap for Mongolian Beef.

To make Healthy Chines Cashew Chicken you need:

2 teaspoons canola oil

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 teaspoon finely chopped gingerroot (can be found on spice isle already ground)

2 cups fresh broccoli florets

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

2 cups frozen sugar snap peas

3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

Heat oil over medium heat, add chicken and ginger..cook while stirring about 5 minutes until chicken starts to brown.

Add broccoli, ½ cup of the broth and the pepper flakes. Cover and cook on medium for 2 minutes, stirring once. Add peas and cook 4 minutes longer, stirring once until veggies are crispy-tender.

In a bowl mix the rest of the broth, soy sauce, vinegar, cornstarch and sugar. Stir into chicken mixture. Add onions, cook and stir until sauce thickens and bubbles. Serve over rice. Sprinkle with cashews.

Should make 4 servings. Chop sticks optional, ya’ll!!!

This is my ‘go to’ dish when I want to be June Cleaver.

I mean really, who roasts’ chickens anymore? Cooking a whole fowl is something that most of us only do on holidays. But this one is so easy that you can do it on any random Wednesday night and it really takes less time to prepare than spaghetti.

Making Roasted Chicken and Potatoes is as close to Martha Stewart as this mom is ev-ah gonna get.

PS-this picture is pre-cooked..like the Real Mom that I am…I forgot to take a picture of the cooked dish…I had to get dinner on the table.

You Need:

One whole chicken

3 carrots

3 potatoes

1 onion

2 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Butter

1 Cup Chicken Broth

6 crushed garlic cloves ( I use chopped garlic that I keep in fridge)

**My biggest tip for this dish is to make sure you take the freakin’ bag with the gross stuff out of the chicken before you cook it. Most of you probably already know to do this..but in case there is someone out there like me who innocently cooked an entire chicken before your husband asks where the bag is…..if I can just help one mom..it’s all worth it.

Mix the butter, oil and garlic. Season chicken with salt and pepper then rub entire chicken with butter/oil/garlic mixture

Place chicken, potatoes and carrots in roasting pan. Pour 1/2 cup chicken stock over veggies.

Halfway through cooking baste chicken with remaining broth.

Roast at 450 degrees for 90 minutes.

As the girl and I were cruising through Target today wasting time before we picked the boy up from school, a random thought came to me. ‘Go check the Mexican section for Spongebob Taco Kits‘

You may recall I’ve been looking for them for ages. The last time I researched them another mom told me they had found them on clearance somewhere so I thought that was the end of that. A five year-old boys dreams…crushed.

So I wheeled us over to the ethnic isle and there he was…that annoying sponge staring up at me.

Being the good mom that I am, I shelled out the $3 for the taco kit I was sure the boy would be excited about…but not in a million years eat. I have mentioned this kid is worse than **Mikey, right?

Not only was he UBER excited to cook dinner tonight, he did not fuss about washing his hands which was a nice treat.

Of course the entire thing is just a regular Ortega Taco Kit. The only difference is that the seasoning packet had a picture of Patrick on it and the taco sauce had the sponge. The box also boasted of ‘two free taco holders’ which sounded cool in theory but ended up looking like this:

I didn’t have high hopes for dinner tonight. I was sure I was going to be making a grilled cheese or hot dog immediately after he saw these…but guess what?

He ate THREE!!!!!

And all because of that ridiculous sponge that drives me INSANE on a daily basis. After I did the mommy happy dance all around the house celebrating the fact that we now have one more food to add to his very limited five year-old approved foods list, the hubs reminded me of something.

Sometime last year just after the boy discovered Spongebob and the magical world or Bikini Bottom, he actually ate his very first cheeseburger..which he of course called a Krabby Patty and continues to do so to this day. In fact, I don’t think either me or the hubs have called a burger a burger since that day. We are all about Krabby Patties in this house. And well…now Krabby Tacos.

****Don’t remember who “Mikey” is…check it out after the jump…vintage commercial coolness….

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Today for lunch I made the hubs and the boys a yummy cheese pizza, but I had something even better. This is one of the little tricks that keep me from going off the rails and eating a whole pan of brownies. When I start feeling deprived in any way…I start fantasizing about cake. Seriously. Like wishing the family would go somewhere for a few hours and I could sit alone on the couch with an entire chocolate coconut layer cake with cherries on top and eat every single bite myself with no interruptions. And I would eat it with a spoon because that way I won’t miss any crumbs or icing. I know. It’s sick.

So to keep that from happening I make healthy versions of the comfort food that my family loves. This is great one. Instead of wasting 350 calories on just one piece of pizza, this entire recipe is only 245 calories!!!!!

:random trivia: Did you know that California Pizza Kitchen claims to have invented the BBQ Chicken Pizza? And also Ben and Jerry’s was the first ice cream company to make Cookie Dough Ice Cream?

Moving on. While their pizza was baking I whipped this up for myself in about 6 minutes. This would be completely fine for Southbeach Diet Phase 2. If you are still Phase 1 you can make a BBQ Chicken Salad with these exact same ingredients and then serve over a bed or lettuce or cole slaw mix.

Here’s What You Need:

1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortilla (50 calories)

1 wedge Laughing Cow cheese (35 calories)

2 oz canned chicken (60 calories)

1 tbsp BBQ sauce (40 calories)

1 low fat string cheese shredded (60 calories)

And then you:

Toast the tortilla in the oven at 400 degrees until crispy

Spread Laughing Cow cheese on tortilla then BBQ sauce

Add chicken and then shred cheese stick over the chicken

Put back in the oven for about 5 minutes

Easter is coming soon and nothing says Easter to me like Bacon Wrapped Chicken.

Well not really, PEEPS say Easter to me but to counter balance all that sugar we sneak from our kids Easter baskets we should at least try to make our Easter lunch or dinner somewhat healthy.

This is a quick and easy recipe that the entire family will love. The beauty of this recipe is that it is so versatile.

Just follow the basic recipe and add whatever sauce or side you like. BBQ sauce, honey mustard…you could even tweek it and bake it in a casserole dish with some rice and cheese. You can outside grill it, bake it in the oven or throw it on the Foreman Grill.

You can also make this is smaller pieces for a cute appetizer. Insert toothpick and viola! everyone thinks you are a culinary genius.

You Need:

Chicken breast strips or larger breasts if you prefer

Uncooked turkey bacon

Seasoning Salt

Garlic

Pepper

And Then You:

Season chicken generously with salt, garlic and pepper. Wrap each piece with one or two bacon strips.

Spray with cooking oil or drizzle with olive oil

Bake in 375 degree oven for 45 minutes. Check at 30 minutes.

Serve with side of your choice. I prefer green beans..but the hubs goes with the starchy pasta.

I somehow managed not to eat every single sugar cookie the boy and I made today and ended up having time to make us a yummy and healthy dinner.

This is actually one of the hubs favorite dinners. His version consists of cups and cups of delicious freshly steamed sticky white rice..that I really just want to roll around in at this point in Phase One…but since that’s disgusting and unsanitary I just made my dinner as yummy as I could.

You Need:

Chicken breast, cut in cubes

2-3 bunches of green onions, chopped (use the entire green stem too)

1 jar of hoisin sauce

Celery, chopped

2-3 cups bagged cole slaw mix

And Then You:

Saute the chicken until almost done and add the chopped green onions and cook until soft

Add cole slaw mix and spray with cooking spray oil. Cook until the cabbage starts to get soft

Add hoisin sauce to taste. I usually only use a teaspoon or two in mine add nearly the whole jar in hubs pan

Cook a few more minutes just until sauce has coated chicken and veggies

Either plate it over steamed white rice or do it the South Beach way…and roll it up in some gorgeous lettuce leaves.

It’s also great to toss some chopped nuts on top of this before eating…it almost tastes like P.F. Changs lettuce wraps..just minus about 1000 calories.

This is one of the staple South Beach Diet recipes that will get you through the first two weeks of Phase One.

If you’ve been a processed food/empty carb eater before you start Phase One you often feel tired and sluggish and have headaches when you cut out all that crap. It happens so often it’s called the South Beach Flu. To combat this, make sure you eat lots of beans. Really. It works. It makes you feel better and it fills you up.

Some people make complicated black bean or chick pea dishes, but the easiest and tastiest way in my opinion is just to mix up a giant pot of chili with whatever you have in the house.

For this week’s batch I made Turkey and Black Bean Chili.

You Need:

1 pack ground extra lean ground turkey

1 can of black beans

1 can of kidney beans

2 cans of diced tomatoes

chili powder and garlic powder to taste

And Then You:

And this is very complicated so pay attention…brown the ground turkey and then throw it all in a pot for about an hour.

Easy peasy! And delicious. You can add cheese if you like and even some fat free yogurt and you’d still be legal in Phase One.

I might have mentioned before that we have taco night quite often at my house. It’s just one of those things like spaghetti that I always seem to have the ingredients for and the boy will always eat a cheese quesadilla, so it’s pretty much a staple.

Since I don’t eat red meat (and very little chicken/turkey/fish) I usually have a taco salad made with fat free refried beans. But last night I switched the script up a bit.

I used to eat alot of Morningstar Farms ground beef style veggie crumbles when I was in full blown vegetarian stage…and lately since getting sick at Disney off some poorly cooked chicken I am totally remembering why I was veggie/vegan for so long.

Anyhoodles…I found this ginormous bag of veggie crumbles at BJ’s and I’ve been cooking with them on a daily basis. Here is my latest concoction.

Low Calorie Vegetarian Quesadilla Recipe

2/3 cup Morningstar Farms Veggie Crumble

1 triangle Laughing Cow Cheese

1 Flour Tortilla

Heat crumbles in microwave for about 1.5 minutes…add laughing cow cheese and mix well.

Place mixture in tortilla and fold over like a taco…

Spray omlette pan with cooking spray and gently place tortilla in pan once it’s hot.

Let each side get toast and crunchy.

Remove and CHOMP!

Delicious alternative to a fatty dish ..coming in at around 230 calories!!!

I added a 90 calorie serving on edamame for a total of 310 calories and I was full and happy. But still on my way to losing those last few.

I had planned on making cute little sliders tonight for dinner. The boy would have loved them and it would have made a great recipe post.

But you know how it goes, it’s close to dinner time and you realize you don’t everything you need and the kids are screaming for food and the hubs, who is already sick, is getting faint from not eating for two days. So you switch gears and make something else.

Since the hubs is sick I decided to make his favorite comfort food. (Really I decided to cook Sloppy Joe Spaghetti because it’s super easy but don’t tell him that. He thinks I’m the bees knees for making his favorite.)

Ingredients:

1 large box spaghetti

1 can of Sloppy Joe mix

Ground beef (optional)

Three easy ingredients and you have a quick, filling dinner that I’m guessing any man would grunt over and kids always love pasta. I do have to make the boy’s plate without any meat but he does love the Sloppy Joe sauce.

Brown the ground beef, drain, add the sauce and simmer until hot all the way through…toss with cooked pasta.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it’s like cooking for simpletons..but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.…this is how a real mom cooks. And while I am sure that any mom out there can cook everything I do without my help..sometimes we just get in a rut and cook the same old, same old for months at a time.

When the kids get bored with a food then you have a hard time getting them to eat. At least that’s how it goes at my house. That’s where I come in. I’m your ‘Need some new easy recipes Fairy Godmother’!

:side note: this is probably one of the least expensive meals I make for my family. we buy big packs of pasta, sloppy joe mix and ground beef at our wholesale club. I don’t know exactly what it comes out to per meal…I barely cook and I don’t do math…but it’s cheap! Add that to the free bread we got at the store this week for buying something we already normally buy and I am suddenly a money-saving-frugal-housewife! At least today.

As I struggle to get the last of the baby weight off from the girl….I often find myself eating an entirely different dinner than the fam.

So instead of cooking three meals I’ve learned how to make one meal three ways. It should be only two ways, but since the boy has decided that he does like meat (other than chicken) he won’t eat what the hubs eats.

It’s frustrating. So here is my solution for Taco Night (which we have often thanks to BJ’s Wholesale Club and the fantastic price on buying like 48 taco kits at one time)

Here’s what I used:

One boxed taco kit

One can fat free refried beans

One bag shredded cheese

Cooked tacos according to package for the hubs.

Made the boy a cheese quesadilla cut in star shapes..and for me

1/2 cup fat free refried beans with a small green salad and one flour tortilla.

(Okay maybe that tortilla is not legal on South Beach Phase Two but I was out of my low carb tortillas and I was really hungry!)