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Before I start this post, I just want to let everyone know that it is Little Mommies’ birthday.  Please, please refrain from comments about how old she is, or how old she looks, it’s our little secret.

Welcome to Mexican cooking at the TFC.  I hate that Mexican food has the connotation of always being so unhealthy and loaded of cheese.  The basics of Mexican cooking–lean meats, spicy peppers, tomatoes–are all so healthy and there is a true possibility for a low-cal Mexican meal.  Plus, Mexican food is an excuse to drink tequila.  I’m so much more fun when I drink tequila.

Stolen from Kitchen Parade.

Ingredients:

  • 1 poblano pepper
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 pound pork tenderloin or boneless pork loin, cubed small
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 white onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire (don’t skip)
  • 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro

 

Slice pepper in half vertically; remove core, membrane and seeds. Flatten halves, skin-side up, on foil on a baking sheet.

Place under broiler until skins blister and blacken. Remove from broiler, fold foil over the pepper to form a tight packet; let rest 5 minutes.

Lift off and discard skins; slice flesh into strips.

Meanwhile, in large skillet, heat oil on medium high until shimmery.  Add pork, salt to taste and stir often until meat is brown, about 5 minutes.

Leaving liquid behind, remove meat, keep warm.

Add onions and garlic, cook until beginning to brown, adding water and Worcestershire when skillet begins to dry.

Stir in tomatoes and poblano. Cook down a bit, about 5 minutes.

Return meat to skillet; cook 15-20 minutes until sauce darkens and thickens,

adding cilantro in last 5 minutes.  Makes 4 servings.

Around 274 calories a serving.

Kitchen Parade serves these with slow cooker beans.  Nice Jappy girls don’t know how to cook beans, so I used canned.  Choose your path grasshopper.

Ugly Stew

As I forage further and further into the deep waters of lazy cooking that is my slow cooker, I am finding that more and more recipes are delicious yet, well, unpresentable.  This stew is delicious, easy, low calorie, yet has the fair qualities of a naked mole rat swimming in mud.  Ignore my pictures and try this, you won’t be sorry.

Adapted from Fix It and Forget It Lightly.

  • 10 3/4 oz can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
  • half a soup can of water
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, each cut into 4 pieces
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms cut up, preferably half Portobello
  • 1 cup baby carrots
  • 2 ribs celery, cut into small pieces (don’t over do it on the celery, your stew will get watery!!)
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Combine soup and water in slow cooker.  Rub the salt and pepper into the chicken, then add to the pot.  Add the mushrooms, carrots, celery, garlic powder and mix.

See, right now it’s relatively attractive.  More in the “hairless cat zone” than the mole zone.

Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours until chicken is done.  Enjoy.  Each serving is around 230 calories, about 5 ounces after cooking the chicken.

 See?  Ugly. If someone really loved me, they would buy me a food photography class.  I take pictures like  a 5 year old with rabies.

Ratatouille

The French work hard for their food.  Every French recipe I read takes hours and usually consists of chopping.  I chopped and chopped and sautéed and chopped and sliced my finger and chopped…  This is a time if you have children, make them work.  Make them chop.  Isn’t that what they are good for anyways?

From the Silver Palate Cookbook

  • 2 cups good quality olive oil
  • 4 small eggplants
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/2 pounds white onions
  • 7 medium zucchinis
  • 2 medium bell peppers
  • 2 medium green peppers
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  • 3 cans (16 ounces each) plum tomatoes, drained
  • 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
  • 1/4 cup dill, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons dried basil
  • 2 tablespoons dried oregano
  • Fresh ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cube the eggplant and put in a roasting pan. 

Toss with 1 cup of olive oil and sprinkle with the salt.  Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 35 minutes.

Dice the onion.

Quarter the zucchini and then cut into 2 inch strips.

Slice the peppers.

 In a large skillet (you probably need two) heat the second cup of oil.  Add the onions.

Then the zucchini.

And the peppers.  Saute the onions, zucchini, peppers, and garlic over medium heat for 20 minutes. 

Mix together the tomato products.

Mix the herbs–I used dried parsley because I’m lazy.

Add tomatoes, tomato paste,

the herbs,

and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes. 

Add eggplant and cook for another ten minutes.  Taste for salt and pepper, then serve.  Makes 12 servings.

Counting the calories in this is very hard based on the different-sized vegetables.  Most of the calories come from the olive oil and tomatoes, so if you are worried, cut down on the amount of olive oil you use on roasting the eggplant.  I made a quarter of this recipe, and guessed each serving was around 200-300 calories.

Baked Eggs

Today I am going to show you something that will change your world.  I want you to take eggs as you know them and forget about them.  A good woman can make a good breakfast.  A really good woman can make a good breakfast, keep it low calorie and with minimal clean up. 

Meet the baked egg, courtesy of the lovely ramekins that the Girlfriend bought me for Christmas.  They will make you feel good, reallll good.

Ingredients:

  • 2 large eggs
  • Olive oil Pam
  • 1/2 ounce shredded cheddar cheese

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

 

Place ramekins on cookie sheet.  Spray the inside of the ramekins with Pam.

 

Crack an egg into each ramekin and sprinkle some cheese on top.

 

Bake for 10-15 minutes.  I find 11 is perfect for super runny, 12 is medium, and 14-15 is cooked through.

 

The best part about this recipe is you can really put whatever you want in the ramekin.  Sometimes I add cooked bacon, ham, sausage, diced tomatoes, more sausage…

Each egg is around 100 calories.

It’s been really cold in NYC.  Like painfully cold.  Like I need hot food smothered in cheese kind of cold.  However, I need to put this blog on a diet, so the cheese to meat ratio will be lessened and vegetables will be our main filler.  Result?  Spinach and Feta Stuffed Chicken Breasts.  I used feta because it’s a strong cheese in which a little can go a long way.  Frozen spinach tastes almost identical to fresh when stuffed inside some meat, so it was a perfect choice.  I suggest weighing your cheese for optimal calorie counting, but hey, that’s just me.

Ingredients:

  • 2 chicken breasts, trimmed  (Mine were about 7 ounces each before cooking.)
  • 2/3 of a 10 oz package frozen spinach, cooked as directed on the package and drained
  • 1 ounce feta cheese, crumbled
  • 1/4 cup of a no salt, low calorie marinade  (I used Mrs. Dash Zesty Garlic.)
  • Olive oil Pam
  • Toothpicks

Rinse and trim the chicken breasts. 

Make a slit in the side of the chicken breast, without cutting all the way through, making a pouch. 

Marinate the “pouched” chicken from 30 minutes to overnight. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Stuff each of the chicken breasts with half of the spinach and cheese, and close the pouch by threading through a toothpick. 

Heat up a large pan that can go into the oven and spray with Pam.  Sear the chicken on both sides for 3 minutes each, then move into the hot oven. 

 

Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  Remove toothpick.  Enjoy!

I didn’t serve these with anything because I felt that the vegetables were kinda inside and I was really tired.  Rico told me it would have been better with a Mediterranean side to make it all fit together.  I think he should keep his mouth shut.  Ah, love.

Each breast is around 300 calories and they are quite filling!

Let’s talk buffalo wings.  They are delicious, yet fail in many aspects of a perfect food.  They are messy, not attractive to eat on a date, and can rank up to 200 cals for just one!  This recipe, made by Rachel Ray who is normally the queen of “this is healthy because I only used 1 cup of butter instead of lard”,  is pretty low calorie and solves the above messy issues.  Meet the Buffalo Chicken Meatball, ala Rachel Ray, introduced to me by Rico’s wonderful cousin.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground white meat chicken
  • 1/2 small onion, grated
  • 2 cloves garlic, grated
  • 1/2 cup parsley, chopped
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup hot sauce (such as Frank’s)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

I mixed this with my hands.  It made me nauseous.  It was cold and slimy.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground chicken with the onion, garlic and parsley, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Flatten out the meat in the bowl and score it into four portions using the side of your hand. Shape each portion into four balls – you should have sixteen meatballs in total.

Arrange the meatballs on a nonstick sheet pan and drizzle them with EVOO. Place in the oven and bake until the meatballs are cooked through and golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the hot sauce and whisk to combine. Toss the baked meatballs in the hot sauce to coat.

Makes 16 meatballs at around 30-40 calories each.

This leads to the great debate of accoutrements for buffalo chicken products–ranch or blue cheese dip.  I dread putting out blue cheese or ranch at any party because it always finds its way all over my sink when I’m cleaning up at the end of the night.  And my table.  And my hands.  And face.  It’s crusty.  I might or might not be cleaning up after these right now.

Sincere Apology

I think I owe all of you, my loyal readers, a sincere apology.  I have done nothing but throw fattening, sugary dishes at you for the holiday months when it’s been nothing but zero degree wind chill and all we want is some type of food comfort.  So from this point on, TwoFacedChef is on a diet.  I will support your New Year’s Resolutions.  Bolster your healthy thoughts.  I’ll be your sarcastic Richard Simmons, ready to kick your ass.  Who’s with me?

Challenge 3–Keep dried cranberries away from me for the sake of all humanity.

Review:  These tasted great.  However, they were ugly.  They were pale and didn’t look cooked through at all.  I was slightly embarrassed.  However, if you are making these just for your family or for someone who does not eat just with their eyes, they are great.

They are almost as pale as me.  Almost.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together 1/2 cup sugar and vegetable oil.  Stir in the egg and vanilla until smooth.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt and stir until combined.  Mix in chocolate chips and cranberries.  Make tablespoon sized balls and place on a parchment paper-lined or Silpat-covered cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Makes around 20 pale cookies.  Guess this is a time we needed butter for browning.

Challenge 2–What the F&%^ do you do with extra molasses?

Review:  These were great.  The apartment smelled heavenly while baking them, and they were chewy in the middle and crispy on the outside.  Don’t forget to keep a piece of bread in the packaging to keep them from hardening the next day.

I hate rolling cookies in sugar.  You really need to for a cracked top cookie, yet I always get sugar everywhere.  I’m still finding it in my kitchen every time I step on the tile or touch the counter–and I’ve cleaned twice.  I’m a disgrace.

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 egg with yolk broken before adding
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • Extra sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix oil, 1 cup sugar and egg; beat well.  Stir in molasses, 2 cups flour, baking soda and spices.

Shape dough into rounded tablespoons and roll in extra sugar.  Place on a silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet, with some room for growth.  Bake for 10 minutes.  The tops should crack and they should be brown.

Made like 30 or so cookies.

Here I will commence the Butterless Baking Challenge.  Why did I take on this challenge?  Because I need to get rid of the baking ingredients in my cupboard FAST before I start going on them by the handful.  All my Christmas and New Years baking left me in this hole, and the world around me will benefit from my lack of desire to eat sugar.  Now, why butterless?  I could say that Rico put me to this challenge, or the almost Vegan girlfriend begged me to try this out, but no.  This challenge came from my war with the 6 delis/Bodegas around me that only have salted butter sticks.  Oh, and no Crisco.  Screw them, I have vegetable oil!

First, some notes about cooking with vegetable oil:

  • Your cookie will be more cakey.
  • They cannot hold as much “stuff’–chocolate chips, cranberries–as butter cookies can.
  • They get kinda hard the next day.  Keep a piece of bread in the bag with ‘em to keep ‘em fresh.
  • They can still be delicious.

Challenge 1–Rid myself of Peanut Butter Chips.

Review:  Cookies were delicious, cakey and wonderful.  I made them both as flat cookies and in mini muffin tins.  Both cooked with the same amount of dough for the same amount of time.  Both delicious.  They were pillows of happiness and delight.

See, I think the flavor combination of peanut butter and chocolate is delicious, but am I the only one that finds there’s a small border between loving this and overdoing it?  I only say this because I’m writing this post nauseous after “trying” the cookies around 10 times.  Peanut Butter Overload.

Ingredients:

  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups peanut butter (or any type) chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl.  Add chips and mix well.  Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto parchment or Silpat-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until they don’t jiggle and only a few crumbs come out with a tester.

Makes like a billion cookies.  I think 36 is about right.

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