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

Luscious Lasagna Bake Redux

Adventures in Italy

I took another pass at the recipe for Luscious Lasagna Bake.  My goal was to make it lower in fat and easier to prepare, and contain all the protein and vegetable servings for a full Lean and Green meal.  With a few minor tweaks, I came up with something that had my vegetable-hating preschooler begging me to make it again.  The additional spinach and mushrooms really lend great flavor to the meat sauce.

First, I took the sausage out of the recipe.  The Jennie-O Italian turkey sausage isn't that good, and adds a lot of fat.  Then I subbed out the ricotta with 1% lowfat cottage cheese, mostly because I didn't have any ricotta on hand.  But it had the benefit of reducing fat and calories, and made very little taste difference.  Then I reduced the cheese in the topping to 1/2 cup.  Didn't miss it at all in the final product. 

Beppo's Skinny Sister's Marinara

2 14 oz cans petite diced tomatoes (7 greens)
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic (1 1/2 condiments)
1 1/2 tsp onion powder (3 condiments)
3 tbsp fresh basil (3/32 condiment)

Combine tomatoes with garlic and onion powder in saucepan and cook over low heat for at least 30 minutes, stirring often, until sauce thickens. After the tomatoes cook down and soften, you may mash with a potato masher or puree in food processor if you like a smoother texture. Remove from heat and add basil.

Meat Filling

10 oz lean ground beef, cooked - about 1/2 lb raw (2 leans)
2 cups raw spinach, chopped (2 greens)
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms (3 greens)

Add beef, sausage, and spinach to marinara and cook until spinach is wilted.  TIP:  Mash the ground beef with a potato masher as it cooks to create a fine, even texture.

Cheese Topping

1/2 cup 1% lowfat cottage cheese (1/3 lean)
1/2 cup reduced fat mozzarella cheese, shredded (1/2 lean)
4 tbsp parmesan cheese (4 condiments)
2 tbsp EggBeaters (1/8 lean)
1 tsp Italian seasoning (2 condiments)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (1 condiment)

Blend cottage cheese until smooth, if desired.  Combine cheese topping ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Additional Ingredients

3/4 cups reduced fat mozzarella cheese, shredded (3/4 lean)

Instructions

Put meat filling in bottom of 8 by 8 baking dish. Cover with cheese topping. Top with additional mozzarella. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!

Serves 4
Per serving, 1 lean, 3 greens, 3 condiments
328 calories, 14.1 g fat, 11.4 g carbohydrates, 301 g fiber, 40.9 g protein, 538 mg sodium

Cauliflower Mac n Cheese

More Cheesy Adventures

The cauliflower "mockeroni" and cheese recipe on Sandy's Kitchen is delicious.  Everyone I have served it to has agreed.  I love it.  Problem is, if you're on Medifast, it's not on plan.  Using nutrition values for Kraft 2% shredded cheddar and colby jack, Sandy's version weighs in at 421 calories and 29.5 grams of fat.  For optimal weight loss, Medifast recommends keeping daily calories around 850.  The maximum allowable amount of fat on the Medifast program is 30 grams, and the maximum allowable calorie count is 1000.  Considering that all Medifast meals are around 110 calories and contain some fat, if you ate this you would be very close to maximum calories, and over maximum fat grams.  I don't love that.

So the lesson I learned is that I need to analyze every recipe I make, using the plan guides and an online recipe analyzer.  This enables you to use the brands of foods you buy to figure out the nutrition information for the recipe the way you are going to make it, with any additions, substitutions, or tweaks.

So I set out to lighten up this recipe, while preserving its cheesy goodness.  It was surprisingly easy.  I just substituted 1% milkfat cottage cheese for half of the cheese in the original recipe.  Macaroni and cheese recipes with cottage cheese are very popular, and I can see why now.  I think the results are even better than the original!  I also added some parmesan for depth of flavor.  We'll see if it passes the toddler test tomorrow.

Ingredients

3 cups cauliflower (6 greens)
1 cup cottage cheese, 1% milkfat (2/3 lean)
1 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar (1 lean)
1/4 tsp garlic powder (1/2 condiment)
1/4 tsp onion powder (1/2 condiment)
1/4 tsp ground mustard (1/4 condiment)
2 tbsp grated parmesan (2 condiments)

Directions

Chop cauliflower using the slicing blade of food processor.  Microwave the cauliflower until it is tender.  It needs to be soft, without any crispness, to mimic the texture of pasta. 

Puree cottage cheese in blender or food processor.  In a large saucepan, combine cottage cheese, cheddar, parmesan, garlic powder, onion powder and ground mustard.  Heat until combined and cheddar is melted.  Add cooked cauliflower, breaking up the larger pieces with spoon. 

Pour cheese and cauliflower mixture into baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.


Makes 2 servings
Per serving, 1 lean, 3 greens, 1 5/8 condiments
292 calories, 14.8 grams fat, 1026 mg sodium, 9.2 grams carbohydrates, 2.6 grams fiber, 32.1 grams protein

Cauliflower Cheese Breadsticks

Cheesy Adventures

Here is my Medifast-friendly version of the Cauliflower Breadsticks recipe from Jamie van Eaton, inventer of the cauliflower pizza crust.  There is another version of this recipe on Sandy's Kitchen.  I had a head of cauliflower that I needed to use up, and this recipe is simple and tasty.  I add garlic powder to mine to make garlic cheese bread, so I guess I'm not going to have to worry about vampire attacks tonight.  The rest of your family will enjoy these as well.  Tonight I made a double batch, because the last time I made these my kids (ages 3 1/2 and 20 months) devoured them.  So they pass the picky preschooler and toddler test.

Next time, I will add a tbsp of grated parmesan for additional cheesy pizza goodness.

The original recipe suggests freezing these after the first baking, if you want to make them ahead of time.  Sounds like a good way to stock your freezer with quick and easy lean and green meals.

Ingredients

1 cup grated fresh cauliflower (2 greens)
1/4 cup egg substitute (1/8 lean)
1/2 cup reduced fat mozzarella (1/2 lean)
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (1 condiment)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (1 condiment)
1/4 cup reduced fat mozzarella, for topping (1/4 lean)

Directions

Line a 9 by 5 bread pan with parchment.  I doubled the recipe, so I used a 9 by 9 baking pan.  In a mixing bowl, combine cauliflower, egg substitute, 1/2 cup mozzarella, Italian seasoning and garlic powder.  Press into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until set.  Extend baking time if you double the recipe.

Line cookie sheet with another piece of parchment and increase oven temperature to 450 degrees.  Flip the breadsticks out of the baking pan onto the cookie sheet.  Slice into breadsticks with a pizza cutter, cutting along the width not the length of the dough to make several short breadsticks.  Return to the oven and bake about 15 more minutes.  Top with reserved 1/4 cup of cheese and return to oven until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 more minutes. 

Serve with 1/4 cup of pizza sauce that does not contain added sugar (1 green).

Serves 1
Per serving (breadsticks only, not including pizza sauce), one lean, 2 greens, 2 condiments (3 condiments if you add parmesan)
280 calories, 14.3 grams fat, 781 mg sodium, 10.0 grams carbohydrates, 2.6 grams fiber, 33.8 grams protein

With 1 tbsp parmesan cheese
302 calories, 15.7 grams fat, 858 mg sodium, 10.1 grams carbohydrates, 2.6 grams fiber, 35.7 grams protein

Luscious Lasagna Bake

Carnivale Adventures

Lasagna originated in Naples, and is traditionally eaten on Carnivale/Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday as a final indulgence before Lent (the literal translation of Carnivale is "Farewell to Meat").  Here is my version, based on a very popular recipe from Sandy's Kitchen. 

The marinara recipe is based on the one in the Buca di Beppo cookbook.  Do not omit the fresh basil or use dried.  You can find pre-chopped basil in tubes in the produce area of most supermarkets.  Buca's marinara is my favorite tomato sauce, and it is super-simple to make at home.  While the marinara is cooking, brown the meats for the filling and prepare the cheese topping.  Or, to save time, I cook the entire 3-lb package of ground beef and use the rest for other recipes.

Beppo's Skinny Sister's Marinara

2 cans petite diced tomatoes (7 greens)
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic (1 1/2 condiments)
1 1/2 tsp onion powder (3 condiments)
3 tbsp fresh basil (3/32 condiment)

Combine tomatoes with garlic and onion powder in saucepan and cook over low heat for at least 30 minutes, stirring often, until sauce thickens.  After the tomatoes cook down and soften, you may mash with a potato masher or puree in food processor if you like a smoother texture.  Remove from heat and add basil.

Meat Filling

5 oz lean ground beef, cooked - about 1/2 lb raw (1 lean)
2 links Jennie-O hot Italian turkey sausage, removed from casings and cooked (1 lean)
1 cup raw spinach (1 green)

Add beef, sausage, and spinach to marinara and cook until spinach is wilted.

Cheese Topping

1/2 cup part-skim ricotta (1/2 lean)
3/4 cup reduced fat mozzarella cheese, shredded (3/4 lean)
4 tbsp parmesan cheese (4 condiments)
2 tbsp EggBeaters (1/8 lean)
1 tsp Italian seasoning (2 condiments)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (1 condiment)

Combine cheese topping ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Additional Ingredients

3/4 cups reduced fat mozzarella cheese, shredded (3/4 lean)

Instructions

Put meat filling in bottom of 8 by 8 baking dish.  Cover with cheese topping.  Top with additional mozzarella.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 4
Per serving, 1 lean, 2 greens, 3 condiments
377 calories, 17.2 g fat, 13.5 g carbohydrates, 2.7 g fiber, 41.3 g protein, 831 mg sodium

Making Better Medifast Pancakes

Breakfast Adventures

I love, love, love my sandwich maker.  Various folks have come up with ways to use it for alternate preparations of Medifast products, such as this grilled cheese sandwich out of the Medifast cream of tomato soup.  I have a Cuisinart sandwich maker.  You can get one at Bed, Bath and Beyond for about $20 and if you sign up for their email list, they will give you a coupon for 20% off. 

At first I was disappointed with the Medifast pancakes, because they were so thin and difficult to flip.  I found a recipe for making a muffin out of the pancake mix by adding a little baking powder and then microwaving.  This was convenient to prepare and gave the pancake more volume, but it lacked texture.  So I decided to try making the pancakes in the sandwich maker.  Fabulous! 

Here's how to do it

Add 1/8 tsp of baking powder (1/4 condiment) to the pancake mix

 

Mix it well to combine the baking powder and get all the lumps out of the pancake mix.  Once you add the water, you want to stir the pancake batter as little as possible.

 

 

 

Add water as directed on the package and mix until just combined.  The pancake batter will be bubbly.  You can do this while waiting for the sandwich maker to preheat.



 

 

Pour into one side of the preheated sandwich maker.

 

 

Close the sandwich maker and bake pancakes for about 3 minutes.  Check the pancakes for doneness after a couple of minutes.  Don't rely on the sandwich maker's indicator light.  On my sandwich maker, it turns green well before the pancakes are done.

 

 

Keep in mind that the pancakes will get browned more on the bottom than the top.  Remove from the sandwich maker when they are cooked through.  Use a silicon spatula so you don't scratch the non-stick finish.

 

 

I found that spreading a thin layer of cream cheese on the pancakes takes away the soy aftertaste.  I used about 1 tsp (1/3 condiment).  Here they are, with a drizzle of Walden Farms syrup.

 

 

Here they are, fluffy pancakes with nice, crispy edges, ready to enjoy!