Little Pate Chinois Parties

You have probably seen my recipe for Pate Chinois. Our French Canadian version of Shepherd's Pie.
But this week, I decided to share with you a great way to prepare a recipe and have tons of leftovers for the week.

You will need a small bag of mini potatoes. Perfect portion for this recipe. Just boil them up-skin on and all (good nutrients), mash them up with a bit of milk, butter, salt and pepper.

Get yourself some ramekins- 5 or 6 would do. I got mine at my favourite store... Dollarama!

Then brown some ground beef, divide the ground beef into your ramekins, top with a can of cream corn (or 2 if you like it corny), divided into your 6 ramekins. Then place the mashed potatoes on top.
Bake in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

You can eat them right away... because I am not sure you will be able to resist the French Canadian suburban smells of my childhood.... or let them cool and wrap them up with some foil, place in a Ziploc bag and freeze them for your next need for a moment of nostalgia.

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Everybody, Spice Up Your Life! Ok, that was an ode to the Spice Girls... But seriously, this is way to make a crowd pleasing meal- and you can make it as spicy as you want. Next time sweet peppers go on sale try this great recipe and stuff them with anything you like!

So I decided to go spicy Mexican, and added flavours and tastes from the Tex-Mex cupboard. But you could go Morrocan (cinnamon and cumin) or Spanish (safron, charizzo and tomatoes) or Italian (totmato, oregano, basil and mozzarella) or BBQ Cowboy (BBQ sauce, pepperjack cheese)!

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

4 colourful bell peppers

1 lb of ground meat (I chose lean ground beef)

2 cups of cooked grain (I chose basmati rice)

2 tbsp of Tex Mex seasoning

1 small onion chopped

1/2 bell pepper chopped

1/2 cup salsa

Options: Black beans, corn, jalapenos etc...

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

Set the oven to 375, cut your 4 peppers in half, length wise, remove seeds and place them in your baking dish.

Cook the equivalent of 2 cups of rice, in the meantime brown your ground beef with some tex mex seasoning, onion and peppers, once it's almost cooked, add in the salsa. At this point, you could add in additional ingredients such as black beans, corn etc. and stir in all together.

In a large bowl, add your cooked rice and the meat mixture, stir to incorporate ingredients.  Place a few spoonfuls of the meat and rice mixture in each pepper. Cover with aluminum foil and cook for about 20 minutes. Remove foil, top each pepper with shredded cheese and cook an additional 5-7 minutes, until cheese is bubbly hot.

Here you have them, a meal in a pepper. It's quite perfect, protein, carb, veggies, dairy with calcium and don't forget the yum factor too! You can serve them with a green salad and freeze the rest for later.

Mexican Taco Pizza, that's what's cooking!

I received the Kraft, What's Cooking recipe book in the mail a few weeks ago and was impressed by the cover.

 Looks nice right? I usually don't make anything from these books anymore as I find them too processed. But I was presently surprised by this edition. It had some fresher, 'cleaner' recipes... so I was sold. I decided to make this Mexican Taco Pizza.

I used a whole wheat pizza crust, browned up lean ground beef and used about half a jar of salsa and added some Tex- Mex seasoning.

 Put it all on top of the pizza crust...

Used light Tex Mex shredded cheese and topped it the way we like it. Tomato on one half - none for Melanie.

 Bake it at 400 for about 10 minutes until the cheese melts and the crust gets golden.

When it comes out, top it with chopped lettuces and a drizzle of light ranch dressing. Brent added jalapenos after that too! Doesn't really look like the magazine cover, but still, it was delicious!

 Et voila! Nice healthier alternative than the usual crunchy shell stuff... tacos and pizza need not be separate anymore!

Beef Burrito Casserole

Here's a little casserole I whipped up one summer evening. Beef Burrito with a healthy twist.

Just a little differentiation between the spicy and non-spicy side. Can you tell which is which???

I took some lean ground beef and browned it up with some salsa and shredded zucchini.

This was my assembly station. Some salsa, chopped red peppers and light double cheddar.

Took my 9 x 13 pan and added some salsa to the bottom.

Then dipped a small whole wheat tortilla in the salsa.

Placed some of the ground beef mixture and some cheese and then rolled it up. Placed bottom seam down and repeated about 9 more times then sprinkled cheese and red peppers all over and baked it at about 350 for about 20 minutes until the cheese has melted.

Really Tiny Burgers

Remember I showed you the tiny little red indoor burger grill we got for Brent for his Father's Day present? Well, here is the result! Tiny, and I do mean tiny, baby hamburgers.

I had 2, but in fact, I made mine a double and used one bun... they are so tiny.

Brent used the little burger maker attached to the grill flipper it came with and made lots of tiny baby burgers (do you think I should stop saying tiny?)

Here's the little sligder thins mini burger buns we used, Whole Grain to boot!

2 little buns are 110 calories and 2g fibre.

Doing 6 at a time... that's all it could handle!

Look at those little tiny grill marks! It was a fun adventure for sure!

Tex-Mex Burger- A spicy Twist

You guys know I love my homemade real ground beef burgers every week. Well I have been experimenting with different ways to change it up! You saw the Hawaiian burger a few weeks ago, well let me introduce you to his Mexican cousin... Tex-Mex Burger.

Yummy for your tummy! Grill your hamburger, then grill some sweet colourful peppers.

Melt some cheese on your burger, then add salsa and place your roasted sweet peppers on top. And if you like it really spicy, like Mr. Halliday, add some jalapenos!



On a mission to find the best burger!

Growing up, my mom would serve us hamburgers every Saturday night and we would get to watch the Looney Tunes- Bugs Bunny and friends. It was a treat, but for a long while, I was 'tired' of hamburgers. But since we have been eating healthy at home for 7 months now, I started making homemade hamburgers using extra lean ground beef and light cheddar cheese and whole wheat thin buns. It's been great... but I have been watching those shows on the Food Network and they promote restaurants making delicious homemade burgers... so for the past few Saturdays we have tried a few different burger joints that touted making fresh hamburgers with all natual ingredients.

Here's our first stop. Here Certified Burgers. Brent had heard about this restaurant and so we tried it.

I love the graphics on the Diet Coke cup!

So they certify that it is 100% Angus Beef and the wrapping for the burger is cute eh?

Brent took his first bite and he loved it!

This was mine- the small lady size, the bun was good, but to me, the meet was 'pressed' and 'fake' like a Harvey's Hamburger- it's a thumbs down for me. However, we shared a small sweet potato fries- and those were delicious!

Next weekend, we tried the South Street Burger company owned by New York Fries. I had been here a few years ago... but not with the same 'healthy focus'. This time I took the whole family... and it was hit for all.

We got a hamburger, which tasted fresh, homemade, not processed and it was charcoal grilled for us. The condiments they have there were unbelievable. I made mine with lettuce, cucumber, mango chutney and hot peppers with mustard and ketchup- all on whole wheat bun. This was a winner for me!

Here's the BEEF!

Healthy Alternative- Taco Night

So thanks to my dear friend Iain who told me about this new way of making 'Healthy Tacos'. Instead of buying those pre-made, high fat, crunchy boxed tacos, you can use soft whole wheat flour tortillas.

Check it out...

You fry up your taco meat, shred your low fat cheddar cheese, get your fry pan ready and you are set. Just spray down the pan with some 'Pam' and place your tortilla in the pan, add your meat and cheese and fold it in two, you can make about 3 at a time if you have a large enough pan. Keep them warm in the oven as you mass produce them for your family.

To serve with it,  I was going to make my first attempt at making Guacamole, but my avocado was too hard and I cut my finger, but since I had already cut my tomato, onion and cilantro, I squirted some lime and I called it 'Fresh Salsa'.

I served it with these delicious, all natural Tortialla chips on the side.

Back to the 'Taco'... So once you have them all done, you get to cut them into wedges and then you open them up with the nice melted cheese inside and stuff them with lettuce, sour cream, fresh made salsa or anything else your little heart desires. See...

Loaded Twice Baked Potato

Loaded Twice Baked Potato (adapted from eatingwell.com)

This is the mixture, I added alot more broccoli.

I added a few real bacon bits on top for a little added flavour. You just need a little bit to make a difference. I served it with a nice green salad on the side.

Ingredients

• 4 medium russet potatoes
• 8 ounces 90%-lean ground beef, (see Variation)
• 1 cup broccoli florets, finely chopped
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, divided
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 3 scallions, sliced

Preparation

1. Pierce potatoes all over with a fork. Place in the microwave and cook on Medium, turning once or twice, until the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes. (Or use the “potato setting” on your microwave and cook according to the manufacturer’s directions.)
2. Meanwhile, brown meat in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. Increase heat to high, add broccoli and water to the pan, cover, and cook until tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain the broccoli; add to the meat.
3. Carefully cut off the top third of the cooked potatoes; reserve the tops for another use. Scoop out the insides into a medium bowl. Place the potato shells in a small baking dish. Add 1/2 cup Cheddar, sour cream, salt and pepper to the potato insides and mash with a fork or potato masher. Add scallions and the potato mixture to the broccoli and meat; stir to combine.
4. Evenly divide the potato mixture among the potato shells and top with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Microwave on High until the filling is hot and the cheese is melted, 2 to 4 minutes.

Nutrition

Per serving: 274 calories; 10 g fat ( 5 g sat , 4 g mono ); 52 mg cholesterol; 24 g carbohydrates; 22 g protein; 2 g fiber; 514 mg sodium; 740 mg potassium.

Variation:
I used a sweet potato as one of the extra potato for leftovers. I would say it was even better and more nutritious.

My daughter doesn`t like potatos, so look at this variation I made for her. A Beef Taco salad. She just loved it. Romaine lettuce, ground beef, low-fat cheddar, low-fat ranch dressing, red peppers, cucumbers and some good for you nacho chips.