making ingredients multitask

I am a firm believer in making prep work and ingredients go as far as possible. I often pick up six chicken breasts, marinate them for a few days in a Ziploc bag with olive oil, chopped garlic, fresh ground pepper, and kosher salt. I grill up the chicken, cut it all up into bite-sized pieces, and store it in the reefer for use in multiple recipes. Not starting from scratch for each meal also helps me resist eating out or eating junk. It's one of my ways to set myself up for success instead of setting myself up for failure. 

One of my go-to chicken dishes is this Greek-inspired concoction. Heat 5 ounces (about 170 calories) of grilled chicken breast in a sauté pan; I use a non-stick pan (I know, they are not good for us) with a little olive oil cooking spray (calories are negligible). I add a sliced zucchini (about 60 calories for two cups, which is a decent-sized zucchini), sautéing it quickly to get it tender, but still looking bright. (I cut the zucchini rounds in half to make them more bite-sized.) Add fresh ground pepper and kosher salt to taste, and sprinkle with a healthy dose of oregano. Top with 2 ounces of light feta cheese (80 calories). In under ten minutes you've got a flavorful plate full of food for just over 300 calories.

I rarely grill up a bunch of chicken and don't make some iteration of my "Chicken and Italian Sausage" recipe. This time I sautéed half a chopped sweet onion in one tablespoon of olive oil until translucent. I then added two teaspoons of fresh chopped garlic. I added 3 ounces of sliced Baby Bella mushrooms and a tablespoon of butter. I gave the mushrooms a few minutes to sauté and then added the chicken and Italian sausage, which were already grilled and cut. I gave all those ingredients a few minutes to mingle and then added 3 ounces of White Bordeaux (it was a savingnon blanc and semillion blend). Then I poured in one cup of vegetable broth, reduced heat very low, covered the pan, and let everything simmer very gently for 20 minutes or so. I steamed up about two cups of broccoli and added it close to serving time so it would hold onto its vitamins and bright color. The base in this case was angel hair pasta, which cooks in just 4 minutes, saving me propane and time and creating less steam and heat in the boat.

Here's the ingredient and calorie breakdown:

1 tbsp olive oil (120 calories)

Half a sweet onion, chopped (50 calories)

2 tsp garlic, chopped (10 calories)

3 ounces Baby Bella mushrooms, sliced (7 calories)

1 tbsp butter (100 calories)

12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, grilled and cut (400 calories)

1 sweet Italian sausage, grilled and sliced (260 calories)

3 ounces white wine (I prefer sauvingon blanc or riesling for this) (75 calories)

1 cup vegetable broth (15 calories)

2 cups broccoli, steamed (60 calories)

8 ounces angel hair pasta, cooked and drained (800 calories)

Serves four; 475 calories per serving.

This one has nothing to do with my multitasking but the avocados I buy all ripen at the same time so needing to use one up, I made this delicious omelet. Two eggs beaten with fresh ground pepper and kosher salt. Once the omelet was ready to fill I added a quarter cup of reduced fat shredded mexi-cheese, a very small avocado (about three quarters of the size of a normal small one), and then topped it with a generous drizzle of Sriracha sauce. Yum! About 325 calories of healthy fat and protein to keep me full for breakfast.

vegetarian burrito

Lunch today was a yummy low-cal vegetarian burrito. This is a short-cut recipe that just requires heating and assembly. I used a new-to-me product, Lightlife Smart Ground veggie mexi crumbles.

Here's the breakdown:

1 whole wheat tortilla (130 calories)
110 g (approx. 2/3 cup) Lightlife Smart Ground veggie mexi crumbles (120 calories)
150 g (half a 15 oz can, liquid drained out) black beans (132 calories)
1/2 cup reduced fat shredded mexi-cheese (160 calories)
2 tbsp Pace Picante salsa (10 calories)

Total calories: 552.

I sautéed the mexi crumbles in a small non-stick pan, (even with non-stick a little bit of cooking spray helps), and heated the beans in a small sauce pan. Then I just lined everything up on the tortilla, rolled it up, and flipped it over. This is too much filling to fold it closed to eat by hand, but I didn't want to add the extra calories of two tortillas. If I'd had it, I would have first covered my plate with chopped or shredded lettuce, then made the burrito, and maybe added a dollop or two of sour cream.

The Lightlife crumbles were in the refrigerated natural foods section at my local Giant. They have a definite Mexican seasoning to them, but not too spicy. For a pizza topping or a vegetarian Bolognese sauce I would use the crumbles that don't have the Mexican seasoning, so I'll have to pick some up to try. I'm working hard to find more items like this that are refrigerated, rather than frozen. I've always liked the Morningstar Farms products (though these crumbles are much better), but I don't have the freezer space on the boat to keep many frozen foods.

quinoa with chickpeas and veggie patties

Here's a flavorful diet-friendly shortcut meal. I heated up two Veggie Patch Mediterranean Spinach and Chickpea Patties in a sauté pan. They are 120 calories each and vegan. I find them in the refrigerated natural foods section at my local Giant grocery store. It'd be nice to always cook from scratch, but these little short cuts are healthier and more affordable in a pinch than eating out and help me count and control calories. (A container of 4 is currently $4.49).


Side dish: Quinoa with Chickpeas (makes two servings at 270 calories each)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup organic red quinoa (a la Trader Joe's) (320 calories)
1 vegetable bullion cube (5 calories)
2 tsp fresh chopped garlic (~ 8 calories)
1 cup water
245 g drained and rinsed canned chickpeas a/k/a garbanzo beans (207 calories)

Directions:

Put water in a small sauce pan, add vegetable bullion cube, garlic, and quinoa. Bring to a boil. Drain and rinse one can of chickpeas. (I weighed them on a food scale because it is far more accurate than using the approximate serving information from a can. Calorie counts on nutrition labels are based on weight, so it is much more accurate to weigh food than to guesstimate based on volume.) Stir the chickpeas into the quinoa mixture, stirring occasionally and simmering until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is "done," i.e., the germ ring is visible on the grain. I set aside half of the pot for the next meal. If I had had something green, I would have added it. Maybe stir in a bag of sautéed spinach or top it with some chopped scallions or cilantro.

For 510 calories, this is a heaping plateful of food, bursting with flavor.