Happy 17th Anniversary! Chicken, Wine, Mushroom & Swiss Romantic Dish

Chicken, Mushroom & Swiss Romantic Wine Dish

Okay, I'm giving a recipe today, but I'm also giving you the beginning of an amazing love story:)

Today is my 17th Anniversary.

SEVENTEENTH!!

I don't feel old enough to have a 17th anniversary yet!

First things first.  Here is the recipe (the clean version of the recipe that my husband cooked for me on our first date when we were 19:)
Ingredients:
2-3 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins
3 cups of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of white wine
6 slices of thinly sliced Swiss cheese
2-3 cups of whole grain bread crumbs

Directions:
Line a lightly oiled baking pan with the chicken

top with slices of cheese
Mix wine & mushroom soup and pour over the cheese

bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes
top with bread crumbs and return to oven for 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

This tastes great with a baby spinach salad and a glass of white wine!

And for dessert... for the one who can't choose, a little of everything! (that's a tiny plate, btw:)

A slideshow of pictures from our marriage and life... all of my hair style & color changes (I have changed a lot over the years!!!:)  

Oh, and I'm singing the background vocals to one of our favorite songs to dance around the living room to:)

This was what we looked like way back when (1990)... although my hair often changed color weekly

My husband and I met when we were 19.  It was definitely love at first sight for him.  He still insists that he knew the very moment he saw me that I was his 'one true love' and that he knew at that moment I was the only one for him.

I didn't have quite that intense of a reaction, but then again, we met when he pulled up to a party on his motorcycle and I was a bit inebriated... so that might excuse it.  (No, I'm not proud of my partying days, but I'm not going to pretend they didn't happen either)

He sat and talked with me for a while and asked where I lived.  I had just moved, or rather I was staying with some friends and literally could not remember the name of the street I lived on.  I didn't have a phone and really had no way for him to get a hold of me.  I finally told him that I lived at the green house with the pink door.  Boy, did I beat myself up for that after he left.

All was not lost, because he was a pretty determined guy.  He hunted down the green house with the pink door and found me three nights later.  You might be able to imagine a hint of how shocked I was after spending three days mooning over this guy I'd just met, sure that I would never see him again, when he knocked on my door.

Ahhhhhhh!!!  I was so SO shocked.  I didn't have good luck with guys in the first place, and certainly hadn't expected him to go to all the trouble of hunting me down.  (Wow, that makes him sound like a creeper.  He wasn't:)

Anyway, we spent the next six weeks blissed out of our minds.  He worked at his dad's bar, so he came over at 2:30 every morning when he got off of work and we would go for walks for hours, just talking and feeling all those 'love bubbles' floating around.

On our first "real" date, he took me to his house and cooked me dinner... the same dinner I posted above.  He definitely stole my heart completely.  I had never had anyone treat me the way he did (and still does), look at me the way he did, or give me himself completely the way he did.

We danced to Billy Joel in the living room... and then he played the piano for me and our 'magic' song was born:

Clean Eating #144: Meatloaf made healthier

Meatloaf

Okay, my poor meat eating son has been tortured for over three months.  He turns 16 this month, but he'll be out of state on his birthday, so I took pity on him and bought ingredients for one of his favorite dishes:  Meatloaf.

My soon to be 16 year old, Kainan AKA Squatchmo

He was SO shocked and got right to work making some.

Ingredients:
5.5 pounds Extra Lean Ground Beef
1 large onion, finely diced
2 Cups of crushed whole wheat crackers or bread crumbs
8 Egg Whites
2 Cups of Clean Marinara

Sauce:
1 1/2 cup Clean marinara or ketchup
1/2 cup Xylitol brown sugar substitute OR 1/4 cup Agave Nectar

Mix all ingredients except the sauce.  Form into loaves or burgers (I often do burger sized because then they cook a lot faster:) and cover with foil.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes for burgers, 30 minutes for larger loaves.  Uncover, top with sauce and bake an additional 8-15 minutes until the sauce looks almost caramelized.

I usually bake my loaves on a broiler pan so that any grease can drip off.

Serve with a big green salad to offset the meat:)  Enjoy!

Clean Eating #137: Super Easy Cajun Tilapia w/Rice and Corn

Broiled "Cajun" Tilapia

Okay, so the title says with rice and corn, because I served it with rice and corn... however, my silly old camera died as soon as I took a half was decent photo of the fish.  I actually had my fish with a salad, but my kids love corn, and the rice fills them up enough so that they eat something other than four pounds of fish!  

Rice:

I cook a mixture of brown and wild rice according to directions.

When it is nearly done, I throw in a bag of frozen corn and about a 1/2 a cup of finely chopped red bell peppers that I stuck in my freezer on prep day.

I add a bit of paprika as well as some pepper, and they're good to go.

"Cajun" style Tilapia

This is SO easy:)

Take your Tilpia filets and place them "dull" side up on a baking sheet (one side should appear more shiny than the other, so put the dull side up)

Rub the fish with your preferred oil (I use cocount oil)

Rub with a sprinkle of Paprika and Ground Red Pepper

Broil on the top shelf with the oven door vented open a little for about 7 minutes until the fish flakes apart easily with a fork.

Serve hot and enjoy (with a lot of water!  Its spicy!:)

Verdict:  This was SO easy, so simple and I always have these ingredients on hand.  It was great with a salad and the kids loved it with rice.  I will definitely be making this again.  Especially since I'm really trying to drink more water and the spiciness of this dish forces me to drink a LOT!

Clean Eating #131: Tuna Patties

Tuna Patties

Ingredients:

3 packges of 2.5 oz Albacore or Regular Tuna

 (I found these on sale w/ a coupon for around 50 cents each.  I bought a lot)

3 egg whites

3 green onions, chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped or shredded

whole grain bread crumbs

Mix ingredients together, form patties, and cook on a lightly oiled skillet or griddle until browned on each side.

Verdict: These were okay.  I definitely prefer salmon patties, but I had to give these a try.  I also think I'd probably add more ingredients.  Maybe some chopped spinach, peas, red bell peppers, etc.

Now, Happy Holiday Weekend!!

I'm off with my family to go camping!

I'll see you Tuesday with some camping food recipes.

Clean Eating #129: Onion Stuffed Green Bell Peppers & Other Varieties

Onion Stuffed Green Bell Peppers

Green bell peppers were on sale at our local grocery store for 2 for $1.00.  The guys in the family love green peppers, so I bought a few, thinking I could surely find something to stuff them with.  They were HUGE, too.

Onion Stuffed Pepper 

Ingredients:

Large Green Bell Peppers

Onions

Garlic

Skim Ricotta Cheese (Seasoned with Italian Seasoning, parsley & finely chopped Kale)

Mozerella Cheese

Directions:

Take your onions of choice and either halve them or quarter them.

Stuff the pepper until almost full.

Stuff in some garlic cloves as well

Fill cracks with seasoned Ricotta Cheese

Top with Mozzerella

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, until onions are cooked through

I also made another pepper the same way, but added some marinara sauce in it as well.

I then proceeded to drop it on the floor.  I was careful to make sure it hit several things on the way down.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS:

Resulting in THIS:

Although someone still ate it... it was really REALLY annoying, because it was SOOOO pretty before:(

 Then, my onions didn't cook all the way through before the pepper was nearly burned...

So I recommend cooking the onions for a bit in an oven safe dish first...

Like I had to do AFTER I had already baked it in the pepper.

All in all, this was not my best night.  The peppers were still tasty and got eaten by very appreciative guys, but still.  I hate it when I mess up something and I also hate cleaning, so having to stop in the middle of three activities to clean up a mess that I made out of carelessness did not put me in a chipper mood:(

There!  Happy now???  Its finally DONE!

The next day went much better:)

Clean Eating #121: Breakfast Stuffed Tomatoes w/Parmesan and Egg Whites

Cheesey Eggwhite Stuffed Breakfast Tomatoes

While perusing the AWESOME recipes posted on Spicy Foodie's "Your Best Recipe" monthly feature, I saw this recipe for Stuffed Breakfast Tomatoes by Pip & Ebby's Recipes and was inspired to try a version of my own.

Ingredients:

6 ripe tomatoes

8-10 egg whites *I made a scrambled egg dish with the leftovers w/extra veggies for my hubby, the # of eggs will of course depend on the size of your tomatoes, and the only ripe looking tomatoes I could find this time of year were pretty small

1/4 cup ricotta

1/4 cup low fat/non fat cottage cheese

1 Tbsp finely chopped kale

1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 small onion, diced & sauteed

2 green onions, finely chopped

Grated/Shredded Parmesan

Directions:

Empty out your tomato, and clean them out (I set aside the insides and made a breakfast scramble with all the leftovers and some green peppers)

Mix together the cheeses, chopped kale, parsley, green onions and egg whites

Pour fillings into tomatoes

Set on a lightly oiled baking dish and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until the egg whites are firm (there will be some melted cheese, so it won't be completely firm.

What I'd Do Differently Next Time?  Make more.  These were delicious!!  I forgot the salt and pepper, but that was easy enough to add afterwards.

Clean Eating #120: Ricotta Stuffed Eggplant w/Marinara Sauce

Ricotta Stuffed Eggplant w/Marinara Sauce

**Don't forget to SOAK your eggplant in salt water, then drain on a towel before trying to cook it!

Chop two eggplant into extra thick slices

Sprinkle liberally with salt and soak in a big bowl of water.

While that's soaking, you can mix up your filling.

Filling:  

**I made more than I needed for a recipe for the next day, so you can half this if you don't need extra!:)

1 cup Skim Ricotta Cheese

1 Cup Non/Low Fat Cottage Cheese

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 Kale leaf, chopped

1 small onion, diced & sauteed

Slice half way through your thick slice and empty out a bit of space for the filling.

I did this two ways and they both worked, but we preferred the breaded one.

First I used the top and bottom of each eggplant and hollowed them out and baked them like this:

With the other, I did it just like I did for my Eggplant Parmesan, dipped it in egg whites, then covered it with whole grain bread crumbs & ground flax seed before cooking in a skillet for about 3-5 minutes on each side.

They both turned out yummy!

I baked these for about 20 minutes on 350.

The cheesey filling in the middle was definitely a good addition to our 'normal' eggplant parmesan.

These baked until soft... about an additional 5-8 minutes after cooking in the skillet.

Clean Eating #115: Vegetarian Black Bean Rice Fiesta Burgers

Vegetarian Black Bean Rice Fiesta Burgers

Served with mustard, tomatoes, lettuce and a whole grain bun.

I adapted this recipe slightly from this book (because I was missing some ingredients)

This is adapted from the recipe "Chipotle Black Bean Burgers" on page 91.

(My) Ingredients:

3/4 cup of cooked lentils
1 1/2 cups of cooked black beans
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 cup cooked mixed wild and brown rice
1 cup cooked (frozen) corn
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 dried Japanese red Chile Peppers
3 Tbsp salsa (My salsa recipe is here, I make several gallons at the start of every month and freeze them in small bags in the freezer)
Juice of 1 lime
4 pieces of bread dried and crumbled.
2 egg whites
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese

Mix all the ingredients except the eggs,  corn and onions.
Puree about half of the ingredients.
Add the egg, corn and onions.
Form into patties and cook on a griddle/pan lightly oiled on medium for about 10 minutes on each side.

Verdict:

Paris, Jaedin and I loved these.  They had a MUCH firmer texture than the last ones... and MORE texture with all the different ingredients.  Patrick still didn't care for the texture.  He said the flavor was fantastic, but he can't get past the 'soft' texture.  I ate two of them yesterday... and I was full ALL day.  They are crazy filling!  I call it a win... and I'll keep trying different ingredients and recipes to see if I can change my husband's mind!