Tequila Lime Shrimp

Easy shrimp seasoned with fragrant spices and spiked with tequila, takes weeknight sauteed shrimp from ordinary to amazing in less than 10 minutes!

I'm not much of a tequila drinker, but cooking with tequila... well let's just say I don't object to boozy shrimp. The alcohol actually cooks out so you won't get intoxicated eating this, but the flavor is spot on. I also add some red pepper flakes to give the shrimp a little spice. 

You can serve this over salad, brown rice, cilantro lime cauliflower "rice" or make some guacamole, heat up some corn tortillas and turn them into shrimp tacos (SO GOOD)! Any brand of tequila will work, I went with George Clooney's Casamigos Tequila just because... (wink wink). Enjoy the shrimp!!

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Blackened Fish Tacos with Cabbage Mango Slaw

Blackened cod fish seasoned with a spicy rub and cooked in a cast iron skillet. The mango-cabbage slaw is the perfect balance of sweet and sour which compliments the fish perfectly. I served these for dinner last night with some guacamole on the side (not pictured here) and my husband was a very happy man.

I cooked the whole thing outside on the grill which is a great way to keep the fish smell out of your house, but you can also do this indoors on the stove. The only thing that would have made this meal better would probably be a margarita on the side. Hope you enjoy!

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Mustard Herb Crusted Chicken Breasts

These chicken breasts are are lightly brushed with Dijon mustard and herbs and breaded with panko and parmesan cheese. Then they are lightly pan fried until golden and finished in the oven. 

A quick and easy weeknight chicken dish that I served with a simple green salad on the side. This would also be great with roasted parmesan green beans or roasted broccoli with smashed garlic on the side.

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Stir Fried Pork and Mixed Veggies

Stir-fries are perfect for busy weeknights because they take under 15 minutes to prepare, and you can us any protein or vegetables you wish!

I chose to use lots of colorful veggies and lean pork, but you can also make this with chicken, beef, shrimp or even tofu if you wish. The stir fry sauce has a slight kick from the sriracha which I love, but if you're not a fan of spicy food, leave it out (or add more if you like it HOT!)

I ate a big bowl of this and felt completely satisfied, but if you want to serve this with brown rice, perfect! I am loving Trader Joe's frozen brown rice, it's so good and such a great time saver! If you want to keep it low carb you could make my favorite Cauliflower "Fried Rice" on the side.

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Asparagus Egg and Bacon Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette

I love the combination of this simple salad of asparagus, hard boiled egg and bacon tossed with a Dijon vinaigrette – it has Spring written all over it!

I'm sharing this from the archives because asparagus is in season right now, and this is one of my go-to salads this time of year. Asparagus and eggs are a match made in heaven, but not just for breakfast, it's great for lunch too! I always keep hard boiled eggs on hand in my fridge to use throughout the week, therefore this salad came together in less than 10 minutes. It's perfect to pack for lunch, and you can easily double or multiply the recipe to feed more. It's also very inexpensive to make, low-carb, high in protein and fiber and perfect for gluten-free and Paleo diets.

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Petite Crust-less Quiche

Loaded with turkey kielbasa, veggies and cheese, this slimmed down quiche will not dissapoint.

I like to make these on weekends, and reheat leftovers for the week. I usually refrigerate them for up to 3 days or freeze them to reheat at a later time.

You can swap the veggies for anything you like, and the kielbasa can be swapped with ham or sausage. Two muffin sized quiches are perfectly satisfying, and to be honest, who needs the crust? If you try, let me know what you think!

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Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

This chocolate chip cookie pie is secretly good for you, but don't tell anyone! You won't believe it's made with beans, dates and oats! And because it's made with such wholesome ingredients, it's very filling.

I can't tell you how excited I am to share Katie's new cookbook, Chocolate Covered Katie! I've admired Katie's blog for years and have always been amazed by the sweets she dreams up and her healthy approach to making dessert. Oh and by the way, the back of her cookbook has a blurb from yours truly! Thumbing through her book I wanted to make so many things, but I'm a sucker for chocolate chip pie, so I knew I wanted to try this.

Katie says: "So famous it's been featured on ABC's Five O'Clock News, this gooey cookie pie sparked a complete beans-in-dessert revolution on the Internet..." I knew I HAD to make this! She has two versions, one with xylitol or sugar, and this more natural version using dates as a natural sweetener. If you prefer to skip the dates and use a sweetener, she used 1 1/2 cups.

I topped this with a little fat free vanilla frozen yogurt but that's completely optional. Everyone in my house enjoyed this!


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Avocado Toast Egg-in-a-Hole

The perfect 5 minute breakfast to make the one you love! Whole grain toast with mashed avocado, eggs over easy and a few dashes of hot sauce – 5 ingredients, 5 minutes to make, doesn't get better than that!

I'm obsessed with avocado toast and eggs lately as you might have noticed! I was thinking about Valentine's Day breakfast ideas and forgot I had these heart shaped cutters, so immediately this came to mind. I bought heart shaped cutters on Amazon last year, but even if you don't have fancy cutters, you can keep it simple and use the rim of a glass to cut out a hole.

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Chicken Barley Soup

Warm up with a bowl of this Chicken and Barley Soup! My entire family loves this including my five year old, and the leftovers are better the next day!

This week's forecast – snow, snow and more snow! Making soup is my way of dealing with February and the cold. I like to use chicken on the bone when making soup because it adds more flavor. If you prefer to use water instead of broth, that is fine too, just add salt to taste.

Make a big pot of this, and freeze the leftovers if you wish! Enjoy and stay warm!

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Chicken Sweet Potato and Kale Soup

This hearty soup – loaded with chicken, kale, sweet potatoes and veggies, will warm your bones on this cold winter we are having! And the leftovers are perfect for heating up for lunch the next day and can also be frozen for another night.

I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes unless they are savory, so I loved them in this soup! There's no grains in here, but a large bowl is very satisfying. The jalapeño adds the perfect flavor, and just a trace of heat. Of course if you like your food spicy, you could add more! This is naturally gluten-free, Paleo and a great One-Pot meal – enjoy!

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Avocado Toast with Sunny Side Egg

This is MY kind of egg sandwich! Whole grain toast with mashed avocado, a runny egg and a few dashes of hot sauce – only 5 ingredients, 5 minutes to make, doesn't get better than that!

I'm not much of a breakfast person, most mornings I usually grab a cup of coffee, a hard boiled egg and a piece of fruit, or whip up a smoothie. But lately, I've been obsessed with avocado toast for breakfast, especially when I have avocados in my fridge that need to be used up.

If you're like me and love avocado toast, I'd love to hear how you top yours!


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Lasagna Soup

Everything you love about lasagna – all in one bowl of soup! Loaded with chicken sausage, lasagna noodles, marinara and cheese. It's easy, filling, hearty and perfect for a cold winter night.

This soup is SO darn good! Very family friendly – my kids love it! The dallop of ricotta on top really makes it! I used chicken sausage which gave it such great flavor.

Some of my favorite soups are those that are adapted from classic meals. A few examples of this: my Stuffed Pepper Soup, Baked Potato Soup, Chicken Pot Pie Soup, Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup, and in my cookbook my yummy stuffed cabbage soup.

What I love about turning classic dishes like lasagna into soup is that it's a great way to enjoy those dishes with less calories and it's all made in one pot meal!

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BLT Salad with Avocado + The Skinnytaste Cookbook and OXO Giveaway

I LOVE bacon – who doesn't? And I love a BLT sandwich. This salad, featured in The Skinnytaste Cookbook has all the flavors I love in the sandwich without the extra calories you get from eating it on bread! Plus it's easy – only FIVE ingredients not counting s + p!

OXO sent me these Chopped Salad Scissors which made chopping the lettuce in the bowl easy. Although I only chopped the lettuce for this salad, they are also perfect for chopping anything you would eat in a chopped salad – cooked chicken, cucumbers, peppers, onions, etc.

And I'm excited to share that OXO and Skinnytaste have teamed up to bring you an awesome January giveaway!

We are giving away 10 copies of The Skinnytaste Cookbook, Chopped Salad Scissors, Healthy Portions Scale and 2-in-1 Salad Servers to TEN LUCKY WINNERS! If you want to enter, simply fill out the Promo Simple form below! Giveaway ends next Monday January 19th, US only.

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Bangin Good Chicken Salad

Here's an EASY dinner solution: tender chunks of chicken, breaded and baked until golden topped with Bang Bang sauce. I served this over mixed greens and swooned with every bite!

This is a fun spin on Bangin Good Shrimp recipe. My friend posted her dinner the other day on facebook and it basically looked like this, it looked so good I knew exactly how I was going to make it. I basically modified my Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets and topped it with this banging good sauce. Results... AMAZING!! And it's SO easy to make, I promise! You can easily halve the recipe for two.


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Thai Chicken Peanut Lettuce Tacos

Not your ordinary tacos – these chicken tacos are spicy and exotic, made with my light peanut sauce which I make with PB2 (powdered peanut butter) sriracha, ginger and spices. To balance out the spice, I chose to serve these in crisp cool lettuce wraps but tortillas would work great too!

A few months ago while visiting Asheville, NC with my friend Sandy (such a great food scene there!) we stopped for lunch at the White Duck Taco Shop, a creative taco joint where we had Bulgogi Tacos, Bangkok Shrimp Tacos and Duck with Mole Tacos.

What do food bloggers talk about while eating lunch together? Well we talked about food, recipes ideas, and decided we were going to come up with our own creative taco recipes and share them together. Well it took longer than we hoped, but finally today we are both sharing our fun unique spin tacos. Check out Sandy from The Reluctant Entertainer's Black Bean Tacos with Roasted Salsa recipe here.

And if you're in the mood for Thai without the guilt, you'll love these spicy peanut chicken lettuce tacos! Enjoy and happy Taco Tuesday!

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Butternut Stuffed Turkey Tenderloin with Cranberries and Pecans

Turkey tenderloins stuffed with a sweet and savory filling of butternut squash, cranberries, sage and pecans – this tastes like Thanksgiving, all wrapped up in one dish!

Honestly, the photos don't do this justice. I was having one of those days that I couldn't take a decent photo, but the turkey – it's amazing! And the leftovers were just as good the next day for lunch.

Turkey tenderloins (the tender long strip of white meat hidden under the turkey breast) are very tender and excellent for weeknight cooking. Because it's so lean, you want to be sure you don't overcook it or the meat will be dry.

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Slow Cooker Lemon Feta Chicken Drumsticks

EASY chicken dish – only 5 ingredients not counting s + p! Skinless chicken drumsticks are seasoned with lemon, oregano and spices then slow cooked in the crock pot. When done, they are topped with fresh grated feta – YUM!

Every now and then I like to take recipes I would normally make in the oven and try them out in my slow cooker. Some of you might recognize this Roasted Lemon Feta Chicken recipe from the archives. Often they convert great for the slow cooker with some slight modifications. These drumsticks were fall of the bone, with great flavor and the only difference was rather than adding the feta and broiling them in the oven, I served the chicken on a platter and added the fresh grated feta cheese after which melted from the heat of the drumsticks. I highly recommend buying a chunk of feta and grating it yourself, it's moister and tastes so much better. I served this with this massaged raw kale salad using feta instead of parmesan – an easy inexpensive meal.

And since so many are asking, I have the 6 Quart Hamilton Beach Set 'n Forget Programmable Slow Cooker. I love it because you can adjust the time you want it to cook, and it automatically turns to warm when it's done. It also has a probe for meat that automatically shuts off when done. I hated my old crock pot, it burnt everything and my food had a weird taste. This crock pot is so great, I actually own two!

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Mini Turkey Meatball Vegetable Soup

This family friendly soup is perfect to warm up to on a chilly autumn night. It's made with mini turkey meatballs, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, spinach and my secret ingredient for the best tasting soup – a parmesan cheese rind. I always keep the rinds in my freezer just for making soup, so don't throw them out!

It also makes great leftovers and can be frozen if you want to make this ahead for the month. Enjoy!

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Stuffed Chicken Breast with Prosciutto, Pears and Brie

Roasted stuffed chicken breast is the perfect Fall dish, filled with a savory-sweet stuffing of prosciutto, pears, sage, brie and arugula. It's delicious with a salad on the side, but also can be served with roasted butternut squash or brussels sprouts to make it a meal. It also happens to be naturally gluten-free and low-carb.

I've teamed up with Harry & David with the launch of The Skinnytaste Cookbook, and have some fabulous things planned, so stay tuned! This recipe was created with their Royal Riviera pears exclusively for their blog Field Notes. Please head on over to their blog to see the full recipe.

Stuffed Chicken Breast with Pears and Brie
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 4 • Size: 1/2 stuffed breast • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 6 pts
Calories: 233 • Fat: 9 g • Carb: 6 g • Fiber: 1 g • Protein: 31 g • Sugar: 4 g
Sodium: 316 mg • Cholesterol: 97 mg

Ingredients:

• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (16 oz total)
• Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 slices prosciutto, chopped
• 2 sage leaves, chopped
• 1 Royal Riviera® Pear, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 oz Brie, skin removed, divided
• 1/4 cup baby arugula
• cooking spray
• cooking twine

Directions:

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No Bean Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili

A quick and easy chili made with ground turkey, sweet potatoes and spices – the perfect weeknight meal. It has just the right amount of spice to compliment the sweet potatoes without being too spicy for those of you who prefer a milder chili (you can of course bump up the heat if you wish).

This is one of my favorite chili recipes which I came up with last year. Since it's chili weather now I thought I'd revive it from the archives.

I served this with some sweet potato chips which I found in the grocery store and set out some chopped cilantro, scallions, sour cream and cheddar on the side as optional toppings. Because this has no beans, it's perfect for picky eaters (my youngest daughter is not a fan) and it's also gluten-free and Paleo-friendly. This will be a part of my regular rotation, I highly recommend this one… enjoy!!
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