Boring to Amazing

Spaghetti

Since cutting out some of the unhealthy foods I eat, I've fallen into a rut of cooking the same foods often. A friend inspired me to spice up my regular old spaghetti recipe...so that's exactly what I did!

The internet is great! I researched different things I could do to turn boring spaghetti into amazing spaghetti and I found this article, which was chocked full of suggestions. Here's what I chose to do:

Ingredients:
~ a little over a pound of ground beef
~ half of a turkey sausage link, diced
~ Ragu Traditional spaghetti sauce
~ half a box of thin spaghetti noodles
~ half an onion, diced
~ a few frozen carrot cubes, thawed
~ 1/2 tbsp. of sugar
~ a few leaves of spinach, chopped
~ a few strings of shredded parmesan cheese
~ 3/4 tbsp. of butter

Instructions:
1. Sauté the diced onions in a little olive oil. I like to season my onions with a bit of salt, pepper, and onion powder for some extra flavor.
2. Add the sausage and allow the sausage the onions to cook together.
3. Before removing that mixture from the pot, add the carrots and allow them all to cook for a few minutes.
4. Remove the mixture from the pot, brown, and drain the ground beef. I seasoned the beef with salt and pepper only. I didn't want to add different seasonings since I was using so many new ingredients.
5. Combine the sausage/onion/carrot mix with the ground beef and add as much or as little spaghetti sauce as you'd like. I used half of a 45 oz. jar.
6. Add sugar and stir. I usually don't use sugar, but my mom does so I knew this would be a small but perfect addition.
7. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
8. Cook noodles.
9. Add spinach and parmesan then stir. The cheese is supposed to make the sauce creamy and rich.
10. Add about 3 tbsp. of pasta water into the spaghetti sauce. This is supposed to bring the flavors together and improve the texture of the sauce.
10. Add butter before serving the sauce. This is supposed to make the sauce rich and smooth...a tip from the professionals!

You want to talk about some good spaghetti?! THIS was some good spaghetti. Introducing a few ingredients to the pot turned boring spaghetti into Amazing Spaghetti! The portion sizes of this recipe are little on the small side. I usually cook a larger pot of spaghetti, but I didn't think I would want to eat spaghetti all week. I cut the portion sizes in half but I was still able to get 4 significantly sized portions out of this. Next time I'm definitely making a bigger pot! Also, if you want to make a homemade spaghetti sauce, these instructions would work well for that!

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

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Modified Taco Salad

Healthy Taco Salad

My original taco salad post was the taco salad I've always made. The taco salad I'm talking about today is a healthier version of that...yes, I said healthy!! I'm excited to share. This post also reminds me that I need to update you all on how my diet journey to a healthier me is going. I'll be doing that soon, so look out for it.

Taco Salad

Ingredients

-Ground Beef (92% lean/8% fat)

-Ms. Dash Salt Free All Natural Taco Seasoning

-Rice (I prefer white rice, brown may be a little healthier)

-Low Sodium Black Beans

(which is what I prefer BUT you can also use

Fat Free Refried Beans which is just as good)

-Fat Free Shredded Cheese

-Light Sour Cream

-Medium Chunky Salsa

- Shredded Lettuce

Directions

1. Brown the ground beef
2. Cook the beans

3. Put the beef back into the pot and add the taco seasoning

4. Put the ingredients on the plate in the order you choose

(I stack mine in this order: rice, beans, beef, cheese, sour cream, salsa, lettuce)

& VOILA!!

My boyfriend actually introduced this healthy meal. He saw this Physiques of Greatness video and wanted to try it. I'm open to all sorts of healthy meal ideas, so we tried it. If you prepare your plate the way it's done in that video your macros will look like this: 61g of protein, 7g of fat, 121g of carbs. His plate was pretty huge and I used white rice so my macros look a little different. This has now become one of my go-to meals when I'm having a busy week and need something quick to cook! This video also introduced me to Roasted Garlic Salt which has become my favorite seasoning, for everything!

This meal will fill you up. You can eat it with tortillas; you can turn it into tacos; or you can eat it as-is, like I do! The main thing I want you to take from this post is that you should definitely give it a try...lol. It's kind of my home version of a Chipotle bowl. It's quick, very good AND it's a lot healthier than the other recipe!



Did you think a taco salad could be a healthy meal?

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A Healthy Gravy Recipe!

I posted a post earlier in the week about my amazing French toast. This recipe falls into that same category. It's amazing and it's healthy. I must admit, I haven't been working out lately. I've picked up my old hobby of playing softball and that's replacing my exercise routine. I'll eventually find some type of schedule that'll allow me to get a workout or two in throughout the other days of the week, but supplemental to my physical exercise is the healthier eating which I'm indeed doing better with.

This post talks about one of my favorite things to cook and eat! Since making a choice to eat healthier, I haven't had any meals with that one ingredient in it for a long time!! I did a little researching over the weekend to look for healthy ground beef recipes and just so happened to find this jewel: Meatballs and Peppers (via)!! Your level of excitement for bell peppers will determine the level of turnt-upness you reach when you hear the name of this meal! I love peppers! This meal included two of my favorite things to eat AND was under 300 calories. I got excited so I decided to make this recipe my own!

Taco Salad

Someone a few years ago taught me how to make Taco Salad. I used to make it all the time back in the day but had forgotten all about it! I guess with the recent Super Bowl and all the pizza/taco/nacho commercials...it kind of jogged my brain a little.

This recipe, like many of the recipes I try out these days, is an easy one. It's just like making tacos!!

Ingredients

• 

  Because I put the sour cream on top of the
  salsa, the red smears into the white...
  BUT don't let that look fool you!
  It's a masterpiece!

  1 pound of Ground beef
• Taco Seasoning
• Lettuce
• Sour Cream
• Shredded Cheese
• Salsa
• Tortilla Chips ( I prefer Tostitos Scoops)

Steps

1. Brown the ground beef and add the taco seasoning.
2. Drain the ground beef
3. Layer the taco salad as you see fit!!
• for instance, I layer my salad laying the tortilla chips down first, then the lettuce, ground beef, cheese, salsa, and sour cream

Easy, peasy right! Lol. This is a meal that doesn't last long so I'd suggest doubling, even tripling, your portions if you have a bigger family.

Try this quick recipe and let me know how you like it!

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Loco Moco, Mionna Style

I was browsing the blog world one day and I came across a post at Love Bakes Good Cakes! It was a swing on an a meal I already make. I talked about my Green Bean Casserole in this post. You can see the hamburger, onions, and gravy over rice on the side. This is one of my go-to meals. I love it!! It's so good and such a hearty meal after a long day.

Well...at Love Bakes Good Cakes she posted about this meal called Loco Moco! I had to try it. Here's how I did it!

Ingredients

rice
1 pound of ground beef

1 can of beef gravy

1 white onion
1 egg

salt and pepper

butter

Steps

1. Cook your rice the way you cook your rice
(my boyfriend taught me how to cook rice after many years of doing it incorrectly
so I'm holding it a secret...I will never reveal it!!)
2. Next I cook the hamburger. I begin by seasoning the hamburger meat to taste with salt and pepper.

(some times I'll add an egg or milk with bread crumbs, 

but I like for the hamburger to taste as much like hamburger as possible)

3. Then I'll shape the hamburger and put them in the pan that's been coated with butter

4. I'll cook the hamburger until the outsides are brown, 

then cut each patty in half and let it cook until it's completely done.

5. After the hamburgers are done, I'll take them out of the pan 

and cook the onion in the hamburger juice left over in the pan.

6. I'll then add the canned gravy.

(I know I should make my own gravy, 

but the canned gravy is just as good and much quicker!)

7. I fried and egg in a separate pan, then joined everything on one plate (seen below!)

My version of Loco Moco!

This meal was DE-licious!! During Thanksgiving my mom makes giblet gravy, which includes the leftover parts of the turkey and diced boiled eggs. I love that gravy. I've learned over time that gravy is one of my favorite foods!! LOL. So, when I saw this meal with the egg there, a light bulb turned on. If I love eggs in gravy so much, why not use them in my gravy meals more often?! I even went to Johnny Rockets this past weekend and ordered a Patty Melt with a fried egg on it!! I made chicken and gravy yesterday and guess what?? That's right, I added a boiled egg in it!!! I'm definitely learning a lot about my palate.

I'm recommending you trying this meal out!! If you do, let me know so I can check it out!!

Also, this is my favorite post for the week!! I loved this meal so much,

I can still taste it. It's just something about that egg!!!

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Sloppy Joe Casserole

Another goal I've decided to take on this year is to be more proactive about making dinner. Towards the end of last year, I was getting pretty slack with my meal planning. Dinner would sneak up and I wouldn't even know what I was cooking for the night!! Then I would rush through dinner, just to get it done, only to end up unhappy with the results...but having to eat it anyway (because food is too expensive to throw it away!). There's just something about feeling rushed and unorganized that works my nerves. There's also something about eating the same things every other week that irritates me as well!

During my virtual couponing expedition, I stumbled across the Pillsbury website. I get at least 2 to 3 emails a day from them (for different things). When I finally got a chance to sit down and look at all the emails I'd accumulated since starting my accounts, I discovered that a lot of the emails I had contained some excellent recipes.