Mushroom and Jalapeno Burgers with Pimento Cheese

Burger Deluxe!

When I saw this recipe on Food Done Light, I knew I had to modify it for Medifast.  It combines a lot of great flavors and textures, with the earthiness of the mushrooms, the slightly sour spiciness of the pickled jalapenos, the meaty goodness of the beef, and the creamy, cheesy topping. 

When I first tasted this burger, I was a bit underwhelmed. Then when I grilled up another one the next day, wowza!  The flavors had time to blend and develop, so I would definitely recommend mixing these up the day before.  The first two times I made this burger, I put it on an Oopsie Roll.  Tonight for a change of pace, I put it on top of a spinach salad tossed with Walden Farms Bacon and Ranch dressing.  This was a definite improvement.  The strong flavor of the spinach contrasted nicely with the flavors in the burger.  The Oopsie Roll doesn't have a strong taste, so it didn't work as well.  Maybe next time I will try adding some garlic powder to the Oopsie Rolls.

The original recipe calls for two slices of center cut bacon, which aren't allowed on the weight loss phase of the Medifast plan.  Next time I make these, I will add a little liquid smoke to imitate the smokiness of the bacon.  I also omitted the diced onion called for in the original recipe and substituted onion powder.  Next time I will try adding the diced onion, because I think it will improve the texture of the burger.  I will also increase the amount of jalapenos, or try Serrano peppers.  It wasn't spicy enough for my taste.  The yogurt-cheese topping was tasty, but I think a bleu cheese topping would also work well with these burgers.  Stay tuned for version two!

Ingredients

1 lb 93/7 ground beef
2 cups mushrooms
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp pickled jalapenos, diced
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp fat-free Greek yogurt
2 tbsp diced pimento
1/4 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder

Instructions

Dice mushrooms.  Saute mushrooms in a nonstick skillet (use a little pan spray if needed) until the mushrooms release their liquid.  Drain off liquid from mushrooms.  In a large bowl, combine ground beef, mushrooms, onion powder, pickled jalapenos, salt and pepper.  Mix well, and divide into four portions.  Form into patties.

In a small bowl, combine yogurt, pimento, cheddar cheese, garlic powder, and onion powder to make the cheese topping. 

Grill burgers to desired degree of doneness.  Top each burger with a quarter of the cheese topping and allow cheese to melt slightly.  I found it easiest to microwave the burger for 20 seconds to melt the cheese.

Serve on an Oopsie Roll with two more green servings, or on top of two cups of greens with some additional protein (to bring calorie total for lean to 250-350 calories) for a complete lean and green meal.

Makes 4 servings
Per serving, 194 calories, 9.9 grams fat, 787 mg sodium, 1.8 grams carbohydrates, 25.1 grams protein

Spicy Asian BBQ Stir Fry

Adventures in Asia

This recipe was an all-around winner:  easy, simple, and quick to prepare.  And the flavor - sweet, spicy BBQ with an Asian twist - is satisfying and delicious.  The soy sauce marinade tenderizes and adds flavor to the beef.  According to Nutrition Support, half of the marinade counts toward the recipe totals.  So in this case, we use 4 tsp soy sauce (2 condiments) to marinate the beef, but only count 1 condiment because the marinade is discarded when the beef is cooked.

Ingredients

14 oz beef eye of round - should yield 10 oz cooked (2 leans)
4 tsp low sodium soy sauce for marinade (counts as 1 condiment)
4 tbsp Walden Farms Thick and Spicy BBQ sauce (2 condiments)
2 tsp low sodium soy sauce (1 condiment)
1 tsp garlic powder (2 condiments)
8 oz package House Foods spaghetti-shaped tofu shirataki (2 greens)
1 cup bamboo shoots (2 greens)
1 cup shredded cabbage (2 greens)
1 tsp peanut oil (1 healthy fat)

Preparation

Slice partially-frozen beef against the grain into thin strips.  The thinner you can slice the beef, the more tender it will be.  Marinate the beef in 4 tsp soy sauce overnight.  If you want to prep several batches of beef ahead of time, you can freeze the beef/soy sauce mixture, and it will marinate as it thaws.

Instructions

Combine 2 tsp soy sauce, BBQ sauce, and garlic powder in small bowl to make sauce.  Rinse shirataki as directed on package.  Heat peanut oil in wok.  Remove beef from marinade; discard remaining marinade.  Stir fry beef in peanut oil.  Remove to plate.  Stir fry cabbage and bamboo shoots until crisp-tender.  Add shirataki, beef, and BBQ/soy sauce mixture.  Stir fry until combined and shirataki is hot.

Serves 2
Per serving, 1 lean, 3 greens, 3 condiments
321 calories, 10.0 g fat, 11.4 g carbohydrates, 4.8 g fiber, 45.6 g protein, 853 mg sodium

Red Hot Buffalo Chicken Dip

Saturday Night Adventures

I used to have a go-to recipe for a Medifast-friendly buffalo chicken dip  that I would make to take to parties, so I would be sure to have something I could eat that was on plan (or so I thought).  I made a double batch of it one day because we were scheduled to host small group at our house.  However, a blizzard hit and the meeting was cancelled.  I figured, no problem, I've got my lean and green meal prepared for the next few days then.

And then the scale stopped moving.  I'm not as consistent about logging my meals as I should be, but it's one of the first things I do when I hit a plateau.  Frequently, I find that something I've eaten has taken me out of the optimal fat burning zone of 800-850 calories and 80-85 carbs.  When I calculated the nutrition values for the original recipe, I found it had 413 calories and 19.6 grams of fat, not counting calories from any veggies added to the meal.  To be on plan, your entire lean and green meal, protein and vegetables, should be no more than 400 calories.  Eating this put me at the top end of the allowed calories and fat for the entire day on the 5 and 1 plan, and far away from the optimal fat burning zone.  No way!  Not this mama.

So it was recipe makeover time.  It was surprisingly easy, much easier than I thought it would be.  I substituted fat-free cheddar for the reduced fat cheddar, and used a tablespoon of 1% milkfat cottage cheese in place of the cream cheese.  I also cooked the chicken in the crockpot in broth, so it stayed hydrated and didn't shrink from its raw weight.  By changing two ingredients, and the way I cooked the chicken, I was able to eliminate 135 calories and over 10 grams of fat.  Same delicious taste, just like hot wings.

Ingredients

18 oz boneless skinless chicken breast (3 lean)
1 cup fat-free chicken broth (1 condiment)
1 cup fat-free cheddar cheese, shredded (1 lean)
1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce (I used Frank's Hot Buffalo) (4 condiments)
1/2 cup Hidden Valley Ranch Light or light blue cheese dressing (4 healthy fats)
1/4 cup 1% milkfat cottage cheese, blended (1/6 lean)

Instructions

Cook chicken in broth in slow cooker on high for 4 hours.  Depending on your slow cooker, you may need to turn it to low after a couple of hours.  Remove chicken from the cooking liquid and shred.  It should be falling apart, so it will shred easily with two forks or you can use the food processor.  Discard cooking liquid.  In a bowl, mix chicken, buffalo wing sauce, dressing and cottage cheese until well combined.  Place in baking dish and top with shredded cheddar.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until bubbly and cheese is melted.

Makes 4 servings, 1 lean, 1.25 condiments
Nutrition information will vary depending on what brand of salad dressing you use.  I calculated nutrition values using Hidden Valley Ranch Homestyle Light
278 calories, 9.1 grams fat, 1708 mg sodium, 3.8 grams carbohydrates, 37.8 grams protein

Serve with 3 cups of on-plan vegetables for dipping

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken

Mother's Day Adventures

I received (at my request) a new slow cooker for Mother's Day.  My TSFL health coach, Carol Roberts, challenged me to make over a buffalo chicken recipe that was too dry.  It was the perfect way to test out my new crock pot.  Because the cooking liquid kept the chicken moist, it did not shrink in weight during cooking.  This would be great on a salad, or in lettuce wraps (photo below). I used two cups of leaf lettuce, which was four leaves by weight, and half a cup of diced celery for added crunch.

This recipe requires the addition of a healthy fat per serving.  I used light blue cheese dressing on my lettuce wraps.  Many buffalo wing recipes include butter to cut the heat of the wing sauce.  You could add 1 tsp of butter or 1 tbsp of light margarine per serving, or a serving of light ranch dressing if you don't care for blue cheese. See the condiment guide for healthy fat options.

Ingredients

18 oz (raw) boneless, skinless chicken breast (3 leans)
1 cup fat free chicken broth (1 condiment)
6 tbsp Frank's RedHot buffalo wing sauce (3 condiments)

Directions

Cook chicken in broth on high in slow cooker for 4 hours.  Depending on your slow cooker, you may need to turn it to low after a couple of hours.  The chicken should be falling apart.  Remove chicken from slow cooker.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid and discard the remainder.  Shred the chicken with two forks, or with the slicing blade of a food processor.  Return chicken to crock pot and add reserved cooking liquid and wing sauce.  Mix well.  If serving right away, cook on low for 1 hour.  Otherwise, wait to heat chicken in sauce until ready to serve.

Serves 3
Per serving, 1 lean, 1 condiment
221 calories, 4.0 grams fat, 1279 mg sodium, 0.3 grams carbohydrate, 37.6 grams protein

Complete lean and green meal:  6 oz chicken (1 lean), 1/2 cup sliced celery (1 green), 2 cups leaf lettuce (2 greens), 2 tbsp light bleu cheese dressing (1 healthy fat)

Assembled lettuce wrap

Fiery Shrimp and Noodle Stirfry

Adventures with Shirataki

I have been wanting to try shirataki for some time. According to Nutrition Support, 1/2 cup of shirataki noodles counts as one green. However, they recommend consuming shirataki in limited quantities, because it is not as nutritious as other vegetable green options. I love spicy foods, and shirataki is best in strongly-flavored sauces, so this recipe from New Beautiful Me seemed like a good one to adapt for my first shirataki experiment. The results, while not visually appealing, were delicious. I'd say that this is as good as anything I've eaten in a restaurant.

If you use preshredded cabbage and precooked frozen shrimp, this recipe is very quick and easy to prepare.

I had to cut the amount of sriracha in the original recipe in half, because 1 tsp of sriracha counts as one condiment.  Other hot pepper sauces count as one condiment for a 2 tbsp serving.  This is because sriracha has added sugar.  I am looking forward to this summer, when I can get some Thai chilies at the farmer's market and make my own sriracha with Splenda instead of sugar.  I have included nutrition information for this recipe with an additional tbsp of sriracha below (1 1/2 additional condiments per serving).  It increases the carbohydrates in this recipe, but they are still below the maximum value of 15 carbohydrates per lean serving.

I also reduced the amount of shrimp in this recipe to bring the overall calories down.  A lean needs to have a minimum of 25 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat.  This recipe meets both these criteria, even though each serving contains a little less than a full lean serving of shrimp and less than two healthy fats as listed on the program guide.

Preparing Shirataki

I used House Foods Tofu Shirataki for the first time in this recipe. From what I've researched, it has a better, less chewy, consistency than other shirataki products. It is critical to follow the preparation instructions on the package, or you will be very disappointed in the results.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. Hold your nose. You've been warned. Shirataki noodles have a very distinctive, pungent odor right out of the package. No, your package is not spoiled. And no, they will not smell like a dead goldfish once they've been cooked.
2. Open the package and dump the noodles into a colander to drain off the liquid.
3. Rinse the noodles well, for at least a minute.
4. Microwave the rinsed and drained noodles for one minute.
5. Dry them off by patting with a paper towel.
6. Stirfrying the noodles for a minute improves the consistency before adding sauces or serving.

Ingredients

8 oz package tofu shirataki, spaghetti shaped (2 greens)
2 cups shredded cabbage (4 greens)
4 tsp low-sodium soy sauce (2 condiments)
1 tbsp sriracha sauce (3 condiments)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (1 condiment)
12 oz cooked shrimp, tails off and deveined (14 oz = 2 lean)
1 Laughing Cow cheese wedge - light not regular (1 healthy fat)
2 tsp peanut oil (2 healthy fat)

Instructions

In large nonstick skillet, stirfry cabbage until crisp-tender. Add soy sauce, sriracha, and garlic powder and stirfry until sauce ingredients are blended and cabbage is coated with sauce. Add the noodles and stirfry. Add the shrimp and stirfry until shrimp is heated through. Cut cheese wedges into chunks, and stirfry until cheese is melted and combined into sauce.

Serves 2
Per serving, 1 lean, 3 greens, 3 condiments, 1 1/2 healthy fat
315 calories, 10.0 g fat, 1242 mg sodium, 12.6 g carbohydrates, 3.8 g fiber, 42.4 g protein

With 2 tbsp sriracha
320 calories, 10.0 g fat, 1350 mg sodium, 13.8 g carbohydrates, 3.8 g fiber, 42.4 g protein