Chicken Salad-Stuffed Avocado

A friend of mine found this awesome idea somewhere online: chicken salad stuffed into half of an avocado. Low-carb, high in healthy fats, high in protein, and sounds delicious.

I decided to make my own version. Packed up the chicken salad and half an avocado to bring to work for a yummy lunch.

I dug through my fridge and pantry and made a yummy chicken salad with things I could find.

I happened to find some canned chicken breast from Costco in my pantry. The thought of canned chicken breast used to kind of disgusts me, but if you think about it, it's kind of similar to canned tuna. And I sample the Kirkland version at Costco and it wasn't bad. Definitely easy to have on hand and perfect for a simple chicken salad!

I can't stand mayo so I used a few different things to add some moisture, creaminess, flavor, and kind of bind the chunks of chicken together. One thing was Bitchin' Sauce!!

This stuff is AMAZING.  It's a San Diego company that often sells their product at farmer's markets in San Diego. I have also seen it at Whole Foods in LA! It tastes creamy, cheesy, garlicy, and has some nice spices, but is vegan, gluten-free, and made of some pretty good stuff! I use it as a veggie dip, spread, dressing, WHATEVER.

Check out their website, for nutrition info, recipes, where to buy, or order online here: Bitchin' Sauce

I mixed some Bitchin' Sauce with a little part-skim ricotta, mustard, relish, and extra virgin olive oil for my creamy, flavorful, and mayo-free base to bind the chicken together.

For spice, I added a few dashes of one of my fav hot sauces.

I discovered this hot sauce when I was visiting my brother up at Humboldt State. It's from a local company up there and it is AMAZING. Had to bring some home. I'd never heard of Te Jas-Wini peppers until I tried this hot sauce, but it has some really nice heat and a different feel on your tongue than most hot sauces. LOVE IT. Weitchpec Humboldt Green Pepper Sauces

I also mixed in some red bell pepper, celery, red onion, green onion, chopped almonds, and sliced grapes to make one of the best chicken salads I've made in a long time.

This deliciousness was amazing when stuffed into the avocado half!

Meal Planning

Meal planning - seriously one of the best ways to make sure you stay on track.

I know when I don't plan, I tend to stray.... I end up eating out or I binge eat any unhealthy things I can find in my kitchen.

Make sure your kitchen is always stocked with ingredients to make your meals. Make sure you always have quick healthy snacks on hand that you can just grab and munch on. And most importantly (for me at least), make sure you have something to satisfy your serious chocolate cravings... haha. I like to keep a bar of dark chocolate hidden away for absolute emergencies.... If I have a bad chocolate craving and don't have any chocolate, I will end up eating everything in sight and never get full until I have some chocolate..... it's really a problem.

If you're like me and tend to be very busy all the time, plan out your meals in advance! It will help you to stay on track, so you don't have to stress about it when you're hungry. And always have healthy snacks on hand too!

Examples:

I baked a big breakfast fritatta for Rommel and I to slice up and have for breakfast for the next few days.

Frittata (mostly egg whites) with broccoli, onion, jalapeno cheddar, and leftover ham from our NYE dinner

Last night while making dinner and our breakfast frittata, I marinated some chicken, grilled it, chopped it up, then saved it to throw on my salad for lunch today.

Chicken breast marinated in lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, and dill

Salad with heirloom spinach, arugula, grilled chicken, dill, green onion, lemon juice, and pumpkin seed oil

For dinner tonight, we have  lentil soup cooking away in our slow cooker right now :) I prepped everything for the soup last night so it is quick to throw in the slow cooker this morning. All veggies chopped up in a bag with herbs and dried lentils. Tube of tomato paste sitting on top of the bag in the fridge, so I didn't have to search for it. Chicken broth and all seasonings sitting right next to the slow cooker.

All the ingredients ready to go!

Everything thrown in the slow cooker in 1 minute this morning!

Tonight, I will marinate some flank steak, grill it, and chop it up for our lunch salad tomorrow.

Tonight, I will also start to prep dinner for tomorrow night. I will bake a spaghetti squash and get ingredients ready to make make marinara sauce in our slow cooker tomorrow morning. I also saved a little bit of the grilled chicken to mix in there.

Happy New Year! Eat well, plan well, exercise, and meet your health goals!

Lunch: Salmon-Salad Sandwich

Here's a quick, simple lunch I put together early this morning before work:

I made a salmon-salad (like chicken-salad but salmon instead) by mixing canned salmon with a little bit of reduced-fat cream cheese, reduced-fat olive oil mayo, lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon pepper, and a little salt. I made an open-faced salmon-salad sandwich by topping one slice of Trader Joe's European Style Whole Grain Bread (the kind that's super thinly sliced and dense and all whole grains, seeds, and nuts that you can actually see... SUPER nutritious) with arugula, some avocado, and my salmon-salad! Yummy!!

Lunch! And products I'm currently obsessed with

This was my lunch the other day! I was STUFFED and it was only 430 calories! It was 19g of fat (only 1 gram of saturated fat from the avocado), 25g of protein, 49g of carbs, 17gs of fiber (NICE!), and only 4g of sugar. I've decided I need to start eating bigger lunches (but still healthy) to hold me over until well after I leave work. This way I can work out right after work without feeling hungry and tired. I still give myself an afternoon snack, but eating a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner definitely makes this easier for me.

I made myself a wrap from FlatOut light flatbread, Bitchin' Sauce, a little bit of turkey breast, avocado, red bell pepper, and some mixed lettuce greens. SO GOOD! I made another one exactly the same for lunch the next day too... haha 

I also made a massaged kale salad. "Massaging" kale with a little acid (citrus or vinegar) and salt breaks up a lot of the toughness in raw kale, making it more enjoyable to eat. I made my kale salad with red bell pepper, cilantro, green onion, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

Then I added some snap peas and hummus and some Chip'ins to my little lunchbox and voila! My awesome lunch!! :)

A lot of products I used in this lunch I am currently obsessing over:

Bento Box Lunch Box

I saw this at Fresh & Easy the other day and I HAD to get it. It has little handles (like a lunchbox) that can fold down to flatten out with the box and fit nicely in the fridge or other tight spaces.

It separates in to 2 levels - each with it's own lid. One lid has a little section with attached utensils! The bottom compartment is one big section and the top compartment is divided in to two smaller sections (see very first picture). And everything is microwave and dishwasher safe!

FlatOut Light Flatbread

http://www.flatoutbread.com/

I found these at Sprout's the other day when I was looking for a whole wheat flatbread. I was kind of disappointed by a lot of them because they were higher calorie than I wanted and had more sugar and fat than I wanted... Then I saw just one pack of FlatOut Light Flatbread kind of hidden in the back! Each flatbread is only 90 calories and is made with low fat, whole grains, and no sugar!

Chip'ins Jalapeno Ranch

http://www.popcornindiana.com/product_type/chip%27ins

These are popcorn chips!  They're whole grain and gluten free and because they're air popped, they're fairly low calorie. I'll usually only eat about half the serving size with something else I'm eating. These aren't actually South Beach Diet Safe because corn has a high glycemic index, but if I'm craving some chips these are still decent and better than most other chips! And the Jalapeno Ranch flavor is yummmmmm. I don't normally eat a lot of chips, but my boyfriend LOVES chips... I originally bought these for him and now I love them :P

Bitchin' Sauce

http://bitchinsauce.com/Bitchin_Sauce/Bitchin_Sauce_Home.html

This actually isn't something new I discovered, I've been obsessed with it for a while... but it's definitely "bitchin'!" It's vegan, gluten-free, and (if I remember correctly) raw. It's made from almonds, grapeseed oil, nutritional yeast, garlic, and spices. It's just a creamy, savory sauce that tastes AWESOME! The website lists their servings size as 2 tablespoons, but I never use more than a tablespoon on anything I spread it on - 2 tablespoons seems like way too much for anything - so split all the nutrition info in half for a more realistic servings size. These can only be found in farmer's markets in San Diego right now. It looks like they are working on a method of ordering online, but don't have anything yet. I like the original and chipotle flavors the best. It also comes in a pesto flavor and they have a limited time "heat" flavor right now that I haven't tried yet.

Trader Joe's Grounded Flaxseed with Blueberries

And of course there has to be something from Trader Joe's on here! I first tried this a long time ago when they were sampling it at Trader Joe's when it first came out. I don't know why I never bought it until recently. I've used this stuff on the majority of my breakfasts lately: on top of plain oatmeal, non-fat cottage cheese, or vanilla yogurt (I always buy plain, non-fat yogurt then flavor it myself with vanilla and splenda so there is less calories than buying the pre-flavored yogurts with sugar). It adds a really nutty and a little bit fruity flavor to whatever you top it on. And if you don't mix it in completely, it adds a little bit of crunch too! Like Bitchin' Sauce, the back of this package says the serving size is 2 tbsp, but I think that is way too much and never use more than a tablespoon. So I would half the nutrition info on the back to more like 45 calories per serving.

Trader Joe's trip!

Mostly all I've had in my fridge lately is lettuce, veggies that need to be cooked, and frozen chicken/fish that needs to be thawed then cooked, so I needed more foods that require quick prep and some healthy snacks. Of course, that means a Trader Joe's trip! Here's what I bought (and why):

- sugar snap peas: yummy, healthy snack with a satisfying crunch; probably one of my favorite veggies to dip into hummus
- hummus: for a snack with the sugar snap peas, of course =P ; also sometimes I will mix this with a little lemon juice and olive oil to thin it out and use as a protein-rich salad dressing
- kale: an awesome superfood!! for soups, sautees, massaged kale salads, and KALE CHIPS (my boyfriend's fav right now haha)! I like to buy it in the pre-chopped in the bag like this, so we can quickly toss it in olive oil and salt then throw it on a baking pan to quickly make some kale chips
- brussel sprouts: have lots of fiber and vitamins and taste AMAZING when roasted
- canned marinara sauce: just to have on hand to add to veggies, fish, or other meats I may be cooking
- sundried tomatoes: pretty much same as above... just to have on hand to add flavor to something I might be already cooking... it's important to me that my food still tastes really good or I wouldn't be able to keep this up!
- goat cheese with kalamata olives: definitely broke my rules on buying this.... because it's not reduced-fat.... but I LOVE goat cheese and I LOVE kalamata olives, so I thought I'd give it a try. I just need to make sure to eat very little at a time. I'll probably throw little chunks of this in to my salads.
- chicken sausages (I bought a pack each of spicy italian and andouille): this is just to add flavor and some lean protein to something I may already be cooking. I'm planning to stick to only using half a sausage chopped up per serving of whatever food I add it to
- steamed lentils: already cooked and ready to go! I love these lentils because of their texture - they stay more in whole pieces compared to when you cook them yourself. plus they are rich in protein, fiber, and vitamins. one of my favorite ways to eat this is to sautee it with garlic, onion, cumin, and cayenne then top with fresh cilantro - tastes kind of like ground taco meat!
- plain non-fat greek yogurt: I use this in place of mayo for tuna, egg, chicken salads, etc. or I just eat it plain (sometimes with a little splenda) for breakfast or a snack. I bought a few of the smaller sizes with added fiber, so I can take it to work and feel satisfied for longer.
- lemon pepper grinder: just because that stuff is awesome
- artichokes: one of my weaknesses... LOVE anything with artichokes.
- red wine vinegar: for salads
- peanut butter: all natural with no added sugar or weird ingredients... be careful when buying peanut butter!! most have a bunch of sugar in it!!! I honestly bought this JUST for making flourless peanut butter cookies... lol. I still need something to satisfy my sweet tooth! when I get to phase 2 and reintroduce fruits, I like to mix a little bit of peanut butter with some plain nonfat yogurt, vanilla extract, and a little splenda to make a peanut butter dipping sauce for apples. you still get lots of yummy peanut butter flavor, but not as much fat and calories compared to apples with straight peanut butter.
- pork florentine (frozen): bought this for nights when I don't feel like doing too much cooking. it's pork tenderloin stuffed with spinach, tomatoes, and a little cheese. it's not THE BEST thing to eat, but it's something that's still decent that I can leave in my freezer until I have a night where I want a meal with little effort. you pretty much just throw it in the oven - I think I remember it takes about 45 minutes to cook.
- canned salmon: bought this so I have some protein that I can easily just open up and throw on salads. I was also thinking of making a salmon salad type of thing (by adding plain greek yogurt, lemon zest, capers, and dill) then using that in lettuce wraps.
- low carb dark chocolate with almonds: to satisfy my serious chocolate cravings! this is still probably not the best thing to buy, but I know myself... and if I can't have at least a little bit of chocolate when I have a craving, I'm doomed... instead of sugar, it's sweetened with sugar alcohols - which are OK for South Beach Diet as long as you limit yourself to 75-100 calories per day. the biggest problem I have with these is limiting myself to just 2 little squares of chocolate (there's 12 squares per bar).
2 squares have 73 calories, 6 g of fat, and less than 2 g of net impact carbs.
- seaweed snacks!!!: in wasabi and plain flavor. LOVE these for when I just crave something salty with a satisfying crunch. there are 2 servings per pack and each serving is only 30 calories.

So that's it!! I usually go to Trader Joe's for more snacks or food that's fast to prepare. I get most of my produce from Sprout's and most of my fish and meat from Costco. I pretty much do all of my grocery shopping at these three places - I LOVE all three of them and luckily they are all close to or on my way home from work. Anyways, I just thought I'd post some yummy and South-Beach-Diet-phase-1-friendly foods that are good ideas to buy. Thanks for reading! :D

Simple Sole Fish with Beans Baked in Garlic and Wine

Another simple recipe made with things I happened to have in my fridge...

 Sole Fish with Beans

Ingredients:

- whole sole fish, scales and guts removed

- dry white wine (I used Chardonnay)

- several cloves smashed garlic (adjust depending on your taste)

- canned chopped tomatoes

- canned white kidney beans, rinsed

- green beans (I really have no idea what kind of beans I used... I know they're not exactly green beans, but I don't know what they were called... they were frozen from Trader Joe's, in a pack with both green and yellow beans, and are pretty wide sized beans)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Marinate whole fish in wine and several cloves of smashed garlic (I marinated for about an hour).

3. Place whole fish and all of marinade in a deep dish baking pan.

4. Lightly salt and pepper the fish.

5. Arrange the white kidney beans and green beans (or whatever kind of beans they are) around the fish.

6. Arrange canned chopped tomatoes on top of the sole fish.

7. Pour a little more wine into the baking dish so all of the fish and beans are sitting in a shallow pool of wine.

8. Salt and peper the whole dish and lightly drizzle with olive oil.

9. Bake until the center of the fish flakes easily.

10. Eat! Scoop out a little bit of fish, a little bit of the beans, and a lot of the yummy sauce from the bottom of the dish :)

This was one of those dishes that I surprised myself with. I just made it with things I already had and didn't expect it to taste that amazing, but it was pretty good. I had it with a grilled vegetable salad I had made a few days before - grilled eggplant, grilled zucchinis, grilled bell peppers, grilled tomatoes, lots of chopped fresh parsley and mint, a little fresh cilantro and oregano, red chili flakes, lemon juice, and olive oil.

Quick & simple, healthy meal: Blackened Hake Fillet with Seasoned Italian Squash

I used to make quick, simple, and delicious meals like this all the time in college. But for some reason, in the past few years I've started trying to get all complicated with my cooking. But a lot of times, simple meals made on a whim are the best - quick to cook, less cleanup, more time to relax, and still tasty food.

This was a simple meal I made with things I found in my fridge. My mom and I almost always buy frozen Hake fillets from Costco. They aren't the most tasty fish... just a pretty plain, white fish... but they're cheap (under $10 for a large bag of frozen and individually wrapped fillets at Costco; sometimes they have a coupon and it's around $7), have very low levels of mercury, easy to always have in stock (because they are frozen), and Costco always has good quality products. I blackened the fish (blackened as in the method of cooking rather than the typical spice blend) then lightly sauteed some seasoned squash in the same pan to pick up some of the flavor - plus easy clean-up. For some freshness, I topped the squash with fresh cilantro and the fish with pico de gallo salsa I found in my fridge (my mom makes AWESOME pico de gallo). Dinner done in about 10 minutes!! You can tell this was a fast meal because there's actual sunlight in the picture. I usually get home from work so late because of working extra and of a long commute.... then on top of that, long prep/cooking time = eating dinner late and dark, bad quality pictures (and these are all pics from my iPhone, so they already aren't the best).

Blackened Hake Fillet with Seasoned Italian Squash (serves 1)

Ingredients:

- 1 hake fillet, thawed (or any simple, white fish)

- chili powder

- 1 yellow italian squash or zucchini, sliced

- taco seasoning blend (check for no sugar in the ingredients)

- a few stems of fresh cilantro, chopped roughly

- pico de gallo salsa

- olive oil

- butter (I used Earth Balance buttery spread with Olive Oil for a healthy option that still has the buttery flavor)

- salt

Directions:

1. Dry the hake fillet thoroughly with a paper towel. It is important to dry the fish, so you get a nice browned crust on the outside of the fish.

2. Season both sides of the fish with a little bit of salt and a generous sprinkling of chili powder. After sprinkling, press the seasoning in to the fish with your hands to make sure they stick well.

3. Heat a heavy, cast iron skillet to medium-high.

4. When hot, add a light drizzle of olive oil and a pat of butter. Move the pan around so that the melted butter and oil mix together and coat the pan evenly.

5. Put the fish fillet in the pan and cook until each side has a nice, dark-brown crust and the thickest part of the fish flakes easily. Remove from pan and set on a plate.

6. Add a little more olive oil in the pan and throw in the squash.

7. Season with store-bought taco seasoning and salt (if salt is not already an ingredient in the taco seasoning blend).

8. Sautee until squash is just barely soft, remove from pan, and add to your plate.

9. Top the squash with cilantro and the fish with pico de gallo.

Grilled Squid with Thai-style Dipping Sauce

OF COURSE I failed at posting in here... I've taken so many photos of meals I've cooked in the past few weeks meaning to post them here.... I was going through them today and honestly forgot what was in a lot of them... Oh well... We'll see what I can do...

I'm rarely ever home, so I never have time to sit down at my computer. I've downloaded the Blogger app on my phone, so I can try to keep up with this and do quick posts on the go :P

Anyways, here is one of the AWESOME dishes that I do remember. I remember everything that was in it because it tasted amazing and was so simple. My boyfriend came home with a GIANT squid to cook for dinner. Honestly, I was kind of scared of it.... So he gutted it for me and we sliced off the tentacles and cut the body into rings. I think this could also be done with smaller squid, but the large, meaty, giant squid did taste pretty good. :) We went for Thai flavors and served it with a dipping sauce similar to the flavors in Thai larb.

Grilled Squid with Thai-style Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

- squid

- dry vermouth (or white wine)

- fresh ginger

- fresh lime juice

- fish sauce (Thai fish sauce would be best)

- splenda

- serrano chili (or Thai chili would be better, I just had serrano already)

- cilantro

Directions:

1. Marinate sliced squid in vermouth (or white wine) and 1/2 to 1 inch of chopped ginger, depending on how much you like ginger - I love a lot. I marinated it for less than an hour.

2. In the meantime, prepare the sauce. Squeeze lime juice and mix with several dashes of fish sauce, a light sprinking of Splenda, 1/2 of a thinly sliced serrano chili, and a few leaves worth of chopped cilantro. This can all be adjusted to taste. If you want more saltiness or savory flavor, add more fish sauce. If it needs more freshness or something to cut the flavor, add more lime juice. This came out very, spicy - and I have a pretty good tolerance for really spicy food - so if you have a normal person's tolerance for heat maybe only use 1/3 or 1/4 of the serrano chili. If you know you have a weaker spiciness tolerance, then maybe only put a one or two thin slices of the chili.

3. Let the sauce sit in the fridge while you cook the squid to allow the flavors to come out.

4. The squid is cooked simply and in a healthy way - GRILLED! Make sure to stand next to the squid and check often for doneness while you grill. Squid cooks quickly and overcooked, chewy squid is probably one of the worst things ever...

5. EAT! Dip grilled squid in the sauce, so you get a very thin coating - the flavors are very strong, so you really don't need anything thick.

Since I actually have some free time today, I'll post a few other things that I can remember a little bit about  :) but this squid was definitely the most memorable.