Ingredients:

• 1 8 ounce box Goya Mexican-flavored yellow rice, or the like (around 160 cals per 1/4 dry cup)
• 4 green zucchini, diced
• 16 ounces sliced mushrooms, preferably baby bellas
• 2 teaspoons taco seasoning (or more to taste)
• Toppings of your choice (salsa, fat free sour cream)

• 1.5 pounds (or whatever Fresh Direct gives you over a pound when you ask for a pound) white meat, ground turkey
• 1 small onion
• 1 small shallot
• 1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce, like Hunts
• 1 can (4 ounces) green chilies
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 scant teaspoon chili powder, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• Fresh black pepper to taste

Chop up the onion and the shallot, and feel free to throw in a minced garlic clove if your garlic doesn’t look green like this.

Spray a dutch oven, or a high sided saucepan, with Pam.  Let onions begin to soften for a few minutes.

Add the turkey, and break up so it browns evenly.  Brown for 5 or so minutes.

Add the tomato sauce.

Then the chilies, cumin, chilli pepper, and then the secret ingredient!

Cinnamon!  Best thing for spicy food–totally rounds out the flavor.  Totally, dude.  Add pepper to taste.

Let simmer for ten minutes or so, then enjoy!

With 1.5 pounds of meat, a massive serving of a quarter of the stew is around 300 calories.  I suggest throwing it over a salad or just hitting it with some sour cream.  Or you can throw it in a taco shell, but my ass doesn’t need those carbs.

I created taco bowls with a friend of mine from high school before she turned vegetarian and made me wear the above orange jumpsuit in a dance performance number.  Needless to say, we are no longer friends.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 large zucchinis
• Olive oil or regular Pam
• Pinch of salt
• Salsa of choice
• 8 to 16 tablespoons of sour cream
• 2 cups shredded lettuce
• 1 cup fat free shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare meat as described on package using taco seasoning and water.  While meat is cooking, thinly slice zucchinis and place on pan greased with olive oil or regular Pam.  Season lightly with salt and roast in hot over for 15 minutes.  When cooked, line 4 deep, but not too large–I use small, deep cereal bowls–with the zucchini.  Fill each bowl with a quarter of the turkey mixture.  Cover with a layer of salsa, then 2 to 4 tablespoons of sour cream, a layer of the lettuce, then a 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar.  Enjoy!!  Feel free to microwave each bowl for 20 seconds to melt the cheese, or eat as is.

This recipe makes 4 servings at about 270-300 calories each.

The aftermath was totally worth it.  I can now never ever see a reason for store bought guac.  It’s as blasphemous as Doritos having calories.  If I had a choice, I would just inject Doritos straight into my veins and subsist on cheesy goodness and MSG alone.

Ingredients:

• 2 avocados
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 4 scallions, well chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
• 1 plum tomato, chopped
• Juice of half a lemon
• Kosher salt, freshly ground to taste

Mix the above ingredients together, altering the addition of cilantro, lemon and salt (or any ingredient) to taste.  Yum.

Yup, we ate the whole bowl, as well as the bag of Red Tortilla Chips we scooped with.  Look at all those healthy fats and Vitamin E.  OK, I know I’m not justifying our consumption very well, but it was totally worth it and left us all so full we couldn’t eat dinner until after we were all out on the town from 7pm to 2am using only vodka as fuel.  Whoops…

So now I faced a double challenge–low-cal Mexican and vegetarian for the girlfriend.  This is when I decided to bring back an old favorite from when we first started living together, veggie soft tacos!  All you meat eaters will be pleasantly surprised by what some zucchs can do with some spicy flavor, and a little bit of red wine .

This recipe serves two, or one really, really hungry ground feeder.  It rounds out to 250 calories for two soft tacos without adding sour cream and salsa.  I suggest fat free sour cream–in this case it tastes the same.  You can add a tablespoon per taco for 30 calories, leading to a 280 cal dinner.

My old roommate, Maggie, and I used to eat sour cream like it was a container of yogurt. Shortly following our sour cream adventures, tiny Maggie took all my old jeans that suddenly became “too small”  for me.

Ingredients:

• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 4 small flour tortillas (The ones I use are 80 cals each.)
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 cup of baby portobello mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon of dry sherry/chicken broth/any liquid of choice
• 1 single serve package of frozen corn–prepared as stated on package (Mine is 80 cals a package.)
• Fat free sour cream
• Salsa
• Olive oil Pam

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice up the zucchini and squash and place on greased pan.  Mix together the garlic powder, paprika and cumin and sprinkle over the veggies.  Roast in hot oven for 15 minutes.  While the duo-colored squash is cooking, slice the mushrooms and throw into a hot frying pan that is coated with Pam.  Cook for about five minutes until they start to shrivel, then pour the tablespoon of sherry/chicken broth/liquid of choice over the mushrooms and allow the liquid cook off.  Arrange vegetables (corn, mushrooms, zucchs and squash) on tortilla, salsa and sour cream away and indulge!

Look at that veggie extravaganza–a miracle burst of vitamins in a tortilla.  This is a great alternative to high calorie, restaurant Mexican food.  Don’t be afraid to throw on your sombrero and whip out some high school Spanish skills.  The red wine definitely made me do so.