Cheesy Soy Spinach Casserole

I'm lucky to have a boyfriend who is interested in eating healthy, because I get to experiment with all of these crazy healthy recipes that might make some boys blanch and cry out "meat and potatoes please!". We are both making a huge effort to eat healthier, and it sometimes feels risky when I am making things with crazy ingredients that I would usually disdain, like soy, but this dish turned out really delicious and we both loved how much protein the soy provided without being overloaded with fat. I absolutely cannot figure out where this recipe came from. This is probably a hint that I need to be a little more organized in my recipe browsing. Maybe I made it up myself? Yeah, that's unlikely.

This recipe was so incredibly easy, I promise even the most accident prone cook can handle it.

Cheesy Soy Spinach Casserole

Ingredients:
1 package soy meat (I used Morning Star Meal Starters)
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1 can premade crescent rolls
1/2 tub of laughing cow light cheese
1 oz Athenos Reduced fat feta

Directions:
Defrost soy meat in the microwave, set aside. Defrost spinach in the microwave, set aside. Lay 1/2 of the crescent rolls in the bottom of a greased glass pan and put in oven to brown. Add spinach, soy, laughing cow, and feta to frying pan on stovetop. Warm and mix together until nice and gooey. Pull browned crescent rolls out of oven and add soy/spinach mixture on top. Lay the rest of the crescent rolls on top of this (buy an extra package if you want to have a crust of rolls that covers the entire casserole). Cook until rolls on top are brown. Serve immediately.

Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 4 oz
Calories: 151
Fat: 7 g
Sat Fat: 2g
Poly Fat: 1g
Mono Fat: 1g
Cholestorol: 5mg
Sodium: 453 mg
Potassium: 128 mg
Carbohydrate: 12g
Fiber: 2g
Protein: 9g

Hungry Girl Top Banana Bread

I think before writing this post, I should have posted about the magic that is Hungry Girl. To sum things up, it is a magical site, containing a newsletter you should definitely sign up for if you are at all interested in health and nutrition. More information on what Hungry Girl is rather soon, but let's move on to the deliciousness that I am enjoying right this second.

One of my favorite features in the Hungry Girl emails are her food swaps, where she takes foods with disgusting nutritional stats and turns them completely around to make them healthy (and quite delicious!). I knew as soon as I saw this banana bread recipe it was something I wanted to try. I had to buy bananas in really large amounts because I kept eating them so fast I never had any leftovers :)

Hungry Girl Top Banana Bread
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters)
1/2 cup no-sugar-added applesauce
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
Optional Toppings: no-calorie spray butter, Cool Whip Free

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine both types of flour, Splenda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon (in other words, all dry ingredients). In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, egg substitute, applesauce, and vanilla extract (all the wet ingredients). Add this mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir until just blended. Spoon batter into a large loaf pan (about 9" X 5") sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly, and then cut into 8 slices. If you like, spritz with some spray butter or spread on some Cool Whip Free. MAKES 8 SERVINGS

Nutrition Information
(I doubled the recipe, and used 8 bananas instead of 6)
Serving Size: 5 OZ
Calories: 155
Fat: 1g
Sat Fat: 0g
Poly Fat: 0g
Mono Fat: 0g
Cholestorol: 0m
Sodium: 402mg
Potassium: 334mg
Carbohydrate: 34g
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 5g
Vitamin B-6: 24%
Riboflavin: 22%

It was perfect topped with a few sprays of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. The photo is of a 3 1/2 oz serving.

Here are the stats that Hungry Girl listed for a normal slice of banana bread:

Serving Size: 1 slice
Calories: 326
Fat: 12g
Sodium: 355mg
Carbs: 51g
Fiber: 1g
Sugars: 30g
Protein: 5g

What a terrific change! I can't wait to give another one of her food swaps a try.

Lentil Soup IV

Since I became a professional sunbather, I have had time to indulge in one of my favorite pastimes; cooking! I am really not that great in the kitchen, I tend to create lots of cooking related disasters (just ask my roommates), but I do have one thing going for me, and that is creativity. I LOVE to alter recipes and see how they turn out when I make little additions and changes. Using Fitday, I can enter in all of the ingredients of a recipe, and each time I cook something, I get an idea of what the nutritional stats for it are.

Swayzie and I have been talking about using dry lentils, and how they are incredibly good for you (rather than canned, which almost always have exorbitant amounts of sodium). They seemed really difficult to use and I didn't really know where to start. Then one of my favorite bloggers, angry chicken, did a post about lentils and made it sound like they really aren't that scary so I decided to give them a try.

I used allrecipes.com and typed in lentils. I browsed through the results until I found one that looked like it would work for me. I have never used plantains before, but I think I like them. I was worried they would give a "banana" taste to the soup but they have a nice texture. I love it because it reminds me of the soup that my Grandma Lu always has sitting on the stove when I go over to her house. Now if only I could let myself indulge in saltines covered in butter like she let me do when I was younger :) If you end up making it, let me know how it turned out for you. Expect many more posts related to my cooking adventures.

Lentil Soup IV

Please note that this recipe is a conglomeration of what the original person suggested and what I ended up doing. Of course I recommend modifying as desired.

INGREDIENTS

• Appx 4 quarts water
  
• 3 lbs cooked lentils
  
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 large tomatoes, diced
• 8 cloves garlic
  
• 6 med. red potatoes, diced
• 16 oz baby carrots
  
• 2 plantains, sliced
• 4 oz mushrooms
  
• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. I cooked the lentils the day before. Just follow the directions on the back of the bag, soaking them overnight and then boiling them for around 1 1/2 hours.
   
2. Fill a large pot with water and stir in the olive oil and salt. Bring to a boil.
3. Add potatoes, carrots, garlic, and plantains into boiling water. Boil for about 15 minutes.
   
4. Add mushrooms, tomato, onion, and let simmer for about 45 minutes.
   
5. I added spices on hand such as garlic and onion, season with salt and pepper.
   

Yields just under 8 quarts. If cooking for one (not for 2 boys and myself like I am), definitely halve the recipe.

Nutritional Information

Serving: 1 cup

Calories: 141
Fat: 5 g
Sat Fat: 1g
Polyunsaturated Fat:1g
Monounsaturated Fat: 3g
Sodium: 122g
Potassium:503 mg
Carbohydrates: 21g
Dietary Fiber: 5g
Protein: 5g
Vitamin A: 46%
Vitamin C: 24%
Folate: 23%

Things to Note:

• Nutritional Information is approximate, however it is based completely upon the ingredients as a whole, not stats that were given to me by someone else. I believe them to be very accurate.
• This is a vegetarian chili, but you won't even miss the meat!
• 3 cups of this gave me 15 grams of fiber, that is hard to beat for less than 500 calories
• I added my garlic cloves whole, and it wasn't a pleasant experience when I accidentally ate one. If you don't love garlic, try dicing or grating it in.

Buon Appetito!