On the healthy side...Cheeseburger Salad

Hello everyone!!! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I finally got on the ball again and worked out! Ya go me! LOL. I didn't go to long, because I wanted to work back into it, but as painful as it was, I felt better afterwards. I am trying to be good and stay on top of my healthy, but you know me I can never pass up a cake or any dessert at that. Everything in moderation though.

I went to the gym thinking that it would be kind of slow, but it was pretty busy, keep in mind this was Sunday afternoon. I am the type of person who likes to work out along or with a friend. I hate thinking that people are watching me, but I guess a lot of people do. I've been told that no one really watches, but I  used to work at a fitness center and every once in awhile someone would say something to me about another member. You can't let that hold you back though. Keep going and push yourself.

On to the food. Since I worked out, and have been having many treats on my site lately, which wont go away trust me, I wanted to give you guys something that was a healthy but satisfying.

Cheeseburger salad. Yes, you can have a healthy cheeseburger while eating well. This is made from ground turkey, but you can use lean ground beef or chicken. The meat is flavored with Worcestershire sauce, onions and steak seasoning.  You put all of this on a salad, any kind you want. I listed what I used on mine, but feel free to mix it up anyway you want, I'm not looking. You top this salad off with an easy mustard vinaigrette.

Here's how you do it:

Ingredients/recipe

Adapted From Rachael Ray

Burgers

1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin or ground turkey
1/4 cup finely chopped onion, eyeball it
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons steak seasoning blend or coarse salt and ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
3/4 pound brick sharp Cheddar (recommended: Cabot brand or Cracker Barrel brand* )

Salad

3 large hearts romaine lettuce
1 cup sliced pickles, patted dry
1 cup grape tomatoes
1 Cucumber sliced

Dressing:

3 tablespoons yellow mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup  EVOO
Salt and Pepper

Directions

Preheat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat(you can use your grill if you want)

Combine the meat with onion, Worcestershire and steak seasoning or salt and pepper. Form 2-inch meatballs, then flatten them into patties. Drizzle formed mini patties with extra-virgin olive oil to keep them from sticking to cooking surface.

Slice the brick of cheese into 1/4-inch pieces. Place patties into your skillet. Cook the mini burgers for 3 minutes on each side then add cheese to melt over patties. If you cheese is not melting, cover loosely with foil.

While the burgers are cooking, coarsely chop romaine and combine with sliced pickles and halved grape tomatoes.

Whisk together the mustard and cider vinegar. Stream in the extra-virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Arrange mini cheeseburgers on salad and drizzle the vinagrette over the salad. Serve and enjoy!

I really hope you guys try this one, its simple, healthy and did I mention 30 minutes?! It is!


Enjoy!

Chicken Souvlaki & Tzatziki Sauce

Hello. So I wasn’t sure what I should talk about today because I had two things in mind. I guess one thing that I did want to talk about is things that stay in the dark will come to the light. I always pray that I can see things that I don’t see behind my back and when the time is right I find out what people are really saying or talking about. 

I know this isn’t my normal post to complain, but it is sad that the world is still like this. You put trust into people but you find out the truth later. I am a pretty optimistic person so I just try to let it roll off one shoulder and go to the next.  You move on, but learn from this. 

Anyways, let’s get out to food! I made this dish a few weeks ago and thought it was super simple and wanted to share. It’s a 30 minute meal from Everyday from Rachael Ray and has really nice flavors. It reminded me of a chicken gyro because of the Tzatziki sauce. I also used pita bread instead of the naan bread and it still tasted great.  This one is a winner and I hope you guys like it.

 

 

 

Here is how to do it:

Ingredients/recipe

Adapted from: Rachael Ray

Ingredients/recipe

1 ½ pounds of chicken breast

Salt and pepper

 2 lemons

3 garlic cloves chopped

A pinch of dried oregano

½ a cup Evoo

1 cup of Greek yogurt

1 ts ground coriander (optional)

½ ts ground cumin

½ cup feta crumbles or to taste

½ a cucumber grated and drained

1 tbs of mint leaves

Parsley

Toppings: Tomatoes, red onions and sweet peppers all opitional.

Place the cucumber in a strainer, sprinkle with salt and let sit for 20 minutes. Press out the liquid.

In a large, resealable plastic bag, combine the EVOO, half the lemon juice, three-quarters of the garlic, the parsley and oregano. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, drop into the bag and marinate for 10 minutes while you preheat the broiler. 

Scatter the chicken across a broiler pan and broil, turning once, until charred and cooked through, about 10-12 minutes. 

In a food processor, blender or just chop by hand like I did, purée the drained cucumber, the yogurt, the remaining lemon juice and garlic, the mint, coriander and cumin; season with pepper. 

Pile the chicken onto the pita bread, top with tomatoes, red onions, and sweet peppers, Tzatziki sauce and enjoy!

Weekend Special Roasted Jalapeno Poppers-Appetizer

How is everyone this weekend so far?  I have been up very early because I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been sipping coffee all day and I am hoping I can make it through my closing shift tonight because I am tired. 

 

I was driving around today and I cannot believe how the leaves are changing so fast! There was one tree that almost had all the leaves missing! It is scary how fast everything is changing. Fall is so beautiful and I enjoy it so much.

 

I wanted to give you guys a really easy appetizer which would be great for a game day party.  Roasted Jalapeno Poppers. I saw this on a 30 minute meal and new it would be amazing.I served these as an appetizer for a dinner party and they were a hit. The feta cheese sounded weird but added a great contrast and depth of flavor. Trust me use it, plus its only 2 ounces it’s not all that much. I adapted the recipe to what I had on hand. It called for a hot shredded cheese or sharp cheddar, but I just had normal cheddar on hand.  I also added more jalapenos because there is so much mixture that I wanted to use it all. One last thing I lowered the oven temperature to they would slowly roast. 

 

These are amazing and I hope you guys try them either for an appetizer or for your game day party.

 

 

Adapted from Rachael Ray's Roasted jalapeno Popper

 

Ingredients:

• 16 large jalapeno peppers
• 2 ounces feta cheese
• 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 ounces shredded Cheddar Cheese
• A small handful fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons grated onion

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut 1/3 of each pepper off lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place on a baking sheet. If peppers do not sit flat on the baking sheet, slice a thin piece off the bottom of the pepper so it will not roll around.

Mash the feta, cream cheese, shredded cheese, cilantro, and onion together and stuff the peppers with the mixture. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the peppers are tender and the cheese is brown at the edges and bubbly.

Enjoy!