Nachos Quest: Making my Own Healthy Nachos

There’s no doubt about it: when live give you lemons, you make a lemonade. That’s why when I got my nutrition plan from my personal trainers and saw an option for “24g of Low-Fat Corn Tortilla Chips” in my carb  option lists for lunch, I immediately thought about NACHOS (it was a loud thought). Scanning the other options for protein, fats, and veggies I realized I had all the necessary ingredients to make myself one of my favorite meals completely guilt free. How could I be any more happier? I made it today and it was so good, I decided to share the recipe with all of you, because it’s easy, and now you know you can make those and have something yummy for lunch or dinner and still keep your weight-loss goals.

Here’s what you’ll need for a single serving:

• 24g Low-Fat Corn Tortilla Chips
• 38g Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (if you want Cheddar instead, use 28g)
• 75g Black Beans (reduced sodium)
• 1/4 of an onion, diced
• 1/3 of a jalapeno, diced
• 1 Roma tomato, diced
• 80g of Plain Greek Yogurt (this is your sour cream substitute, trust me, it’s really good)
• Optional: green onions, fresh cilantro

Making it is super easy. Just put the first 5 ingredients in a oven-safe container (I just use aluminum paper wrapped as a bowl) and stick it in the oven or toaster oven till all the cheese is melted. Then add your tomato and Greek Yogurt on top, and you’re done! It’s very onion-y, but I like it. Use less if you’re not a big fan, and maybe substitute for bell peppers so you still get a good amount of veggies. 

If you try it out, you’ll have to let me know how you like it!

Now you probably want to know the breakdown of calories, proteins, and carbs right?  Here it is (according to the tracking I did using myfitnesspal.com):

Calories: 303 kcal
Carbs: 42 g
Fats: 3 g
Protein: 25 g

Pancakes have healthy (and delicious) alternatives too!

I don’t think it’s news to anyone that knows me that I’ve become a healthy eater in the past few years. One of those obnoxious people that are vegetarian, ride their bikes (or the bus) to work, and work out almost on a daily basis. A lot of my old friends probably look at me like I’m a total weirdo now, since that’s really not how I used to be at all. But times change, and as I grow old and my metabolism slows, I had to get into this healthy living stuff, or just hate myself for being fat and unhealthy. And even though I’m not skinny as I wish I was, I’m very happy with where I am at in life in terms of health and weight. I can see that on the long run this will pay off.

But the truth is, till the beginning of this year, Mike and I were mostly just trying stuff out on our own, and we felt like nothing worked and we had no idea what to do, and our morale was low. So my friend Heymi recommend me her personal trainer/nutritionist/fitness expert/you name it, Jared Hansen from Resolute Health & Wellness. We stick around with him for about 3 months, and we learned tons.

One of my favorite things that I took out of that experience was actually this extremely handy recipe for protein pancakes. They are ridiculous easy to make, and since they are not “real” pancakes, we do them all ahead of time then store a giant pile of them in the fridge and just take out and microwave what we want to eat.

Since I’ve been eating those guys for almost 6 months (on and off), I ended up figuring a bunch of different ways to eat them. My favorite right now is to use them to make pancake sandwiches with some sort of nut butter and a fruit. When I’m feeling like I deserve a little bit of a treat, I add a small amount of whipped cream and eat them with strawberries. It works, it’s awesome, and I get all the calories I need to eat for breakfast, and am always full.

Here’s how we do them, adapted from Jared’s Recipe:

• 2 cups of quick oats
• 2 cups of low fat cottage cheese
• 2 cups of egg whites
• Ground Cinnamon

Mix everything on a blender till it’s a paste, then with a measuring cup (I like the 1/4) scoop the paste and cook them on the griddle at 350 F. This recipe makes about 16 pancakes, and you can cook them in big batches and just put them in a tupperware in the fridge.

For a few serving ideas, here are my favorites besides just the plain old maple syrup and fruit:

Pancake Sandwiches

Spread 1 tablespoon of almond butter to one pancake. Slice half a Granny Smith apple, and place the slices over the pancake with the almond butter. Close it with the other slice and eat it! This sandwich has about 300 calories and it is really filling!

Pancake & Strawberries with Whipped Cream

The name on this one says it all! Pile up 3 pancakes with sliced strawberries in between the layers. Add some whipped cream on top and a few more slices of strawberries. Eat with a fork! Did not calculate the calories on this one, sometimes it’s better not to know.

Caprese Pasta Salad, Easy and Perfect for Summer

I am very excited to be sharing this recipe here today. I am not a fabulously gifted cook, actually, I’m a regular person who really likes eating, and I try to eat healthy, so when I stumbled upon this ridiculously easy recipe on Sandra Woodruff’s The Good Carb Cookbook (I seriously recommend this book if you can’t face the low-carb diet like me), I had to share with everyone.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz (225 g) Whole Wheat Pasta (I like Barilla’s Whole Grain Penne or Rotini)
• 3 cups of diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup fresh basil
• 1/2 cup diced fresh mozzarella
• 1 to 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 to 2 tbsp of Olive Oil
• Salt and Black Pepper

Preparation:

The preparation basically consists of cooking the pasta (we’ve all done that), then mixing up the rest of the ingredients together and dumping everything on top of the pasta and mix it together. Yes, THAT easy. Serve it cold.

I think this recipe is perfect for summer, and it sits well in the fridge over night, so you can prepare it and take it to work, or to a picnic (oh, there’s a good idea).

According to Sandra Woodruff’s original recipe (I substituted the Parmesan cheese she asked for fresh mozarella because it matched better with the test of the other ingredients) this recipe is good for 4 servings of 1 and 3/4 cup each. It has about 300 calories per serving, 49 g of carbs and 11 g of protein.

If you prepare this recipe, let me know how it goes! And if you want more recipes of this kind, do get the The Good Carb Cookbook, it’s one of my favorites for healthy eating. There’s some pretty nice pancake and muffin recipes too. Just too much good stuff, and you can be healthy and eat a somewhat low-carb diet without going hungry!

Happy Easter!

I love Easter. Easy one of my favorite holidays, just because of the sheer amount of treats involved in it. And all the pastel colors and cute baby animals, of course. But one think I miss greatly from Easter “traditions” in Brazil is the exchange of big chocolate eggs. So to not feel lacking this year, I made my own chocolate egg. I bought the plastic molds for them on Amazon, and got creative. For the egg, I put crunch mix-ins on the inside, for the wow factor. And I also made a bunch of bombons to stick inside the eggs, in this case, an army of penguins (this mold was from Christmas). But to make the penguins a little bit more special, I added crunch mix-ins and other decorations on their bottom. I also made some peanut-butter heart cups. And to top it all off, I bought some pink candy melts and made a few roses. Happy Easter!