Turmeric-Garlic Shrimp with Cabbage-Mango Slaw

Tons of flavor in this quick, shrimp dish! The perfect balance of spicy, savory, sweet & sour – and ready in less than 30 minutes.

I seasoned the shrimp with turmeric, cumin and red pepper flakes, then gave it a quick saute with garlic and finished it with some fresh lime juice and cilantro.

 

To balance out the heat (it's mild, although you can make it spicier or leave milder to your taste) I served this over a quick slaw with sweet mango, red cabbage and lime juice.

My husband gave it two thumbs up! This dish is perfect for most diet restrictions: gluten-free, low-carb, paleo, whole30 and of course weight watcher friendly!

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Skirt Steak, Baby Bok Choy and Zucchini Stir-Fry

 

This quick stir-fry has some of my favorite foods; skirt steak, baby bok choy and zucchini plus carrots, scallions, garlic and ginger finished with a delicious sauce that has the perfect balance of savory, sweet, sour and spicy.

I wanted to make this a quick one-pot meal, so I loaded this up the veggies and skipped the rice. I adapted this from Jackie Ourman's recipe with some changes. I reduced the oil, added more veggies and changed the sauce because I wanted that salty, sweet, sour and spicy flavor combination. To do that I cut back on the ponzu, (I used Eden) which was pretty vinegary, and added soy sauce and oyster sauce for sweetness. If you don't have oyster sauce you can substitute it with more soy sauce and some honey or sugar. To give it some heat, I used chili sesame oil which gives it great flavor. If you don't have that you can use regular sesame oil and add some red chili flakes to the stir-fry. SInce it was just me and my husband eating, I made this for two, but you can easily double this for 4!

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Tuna Lettuce Wrap with Avocado Yogurt Dressing

Here's a tasty way to transform ordinary canned tuna into a delicious lunch. These low-calorie, low-carb lettuce wraps are filled with hearts of palm, tomatoes, carrots and onion and topped with a light avocado dressing. I found two to fill me up, but the calories are low enough you could easily eat three. Using a good quality tuna in oil makes all the difference in flavor here.

I made the avocado yogurt dressing in my magic bullet, it makes a larger portion than is needed in this recipe but it can easily be stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator and used a veggie or cracker dip, salad topper or drizzled over grilled fish.

If you're not familiar with hearts of palm, they come canned or in a glass container available at Trader Joes or in most supermarkets. They make a great addition to salads.

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Grilled Pesto Shrimp Skewers

Homemade pesto with basil from my garden makes a scrumptious addition to shrimp. Serve these for dinner or make them at your next BBQ!

These are EASY, and now that it's grilling season I am sharing them from the archives.

Inspired by a dish served at my sister in laws garden baby shower (pictured below), this is so simple and delicious, I knew I had to make them myself.

They served them on a platter over a bed of greens, but this is also great served as skewers so you can hold them in your hand.

These have been making a regular appearance at my house since I first posted the recipe. I often keep the nuts out of my pesto to keep the fat content down and everyone always loves it. And bonus, these are low-carb, gluten-free and delicious!

Note: Keep in mind that when you remove the shell from the shrimp it will weigh less, so I started with about 2 lbs of shrimp to get 1 1/2 lbs after I peel them. Depending on the size of your shrimp you will get different amounts. I used jumbo, so that gave me about 35 shrimp, 5 on each skewer. One skewer is the perfect serving size but if you want to serve this as an appetizer, you can put 3 as a small bite.

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Turkey Burgers with Zucchini

My trick to making the juiciest turkey burgers EVER is by adding grated zucchini! A huge bonus if you want your kids to eat more veggies – they'll never know!

I started experimenting with adding zucchini to my turkey burgers back in 2010 and never looked back. They come out so juicy, and the flavor is delicious. This recipe is from the archives, my sad photo needed a makeover so I made them for lunch outside on the grill and re-shot them.

Adding zucchini also lowers the calories per serving because you get five patties out of 1 pound of ground turkey them instead of four. Serve them with your favorite burger toppings, on a whole wheat bun or skip the bun and serve them on lettuce to keep the carbs low. These can be grilled or cooked indoors. If you want to make them on the grill, it's best to make the patties ahead (overnight is best) and keep them refrigerated so they hold their shape. You can also freeze them and thaw them right on the grill.

For best results: use a hand grater to grate the zucchini, onion and garlic super fine. Get the pan hot before you put the burgers on to get a nice sear, then lowered the flame to the lowest setting to let the burgers cook all the way through, turning a few times so the burgers don't burn. 


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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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Baked Chicken with Dijon and Lime

Easy weeknight dinner solution – grab some chicken, remove the skin, brush it with this Dijon-lime sauce and put it in the oven. I've been making this recipe for years using thighs until the USDA changed the calories and fat contact for thighs. Now I do this with drumsticks, you can use any parts you like.

While the chicken's cooking, grab a bag of lettuce, and top it with one of these delicious DeLallo SaladSavors® that make life so easy. These are the BEST, and come in 6 varieties with top quality ingredients. All you have to do is add some oil and vinegar, and you have an amazing salad in 5 minutes.  My favorite is the Zesty which has marinated artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and Asiago cheese pictured below.

And because I love you ALL so much, I've teamed up with DeLallo to bring you this awesome giveaway! One lucky winner will have a chance to win all SIX SaladSavors® PLUS....

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    -  One (1) copy of the Skinnytaste Cookbook
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    -  One (1) Pair of Orange Kate Spade Earrings
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    -  One (1) of each kind of DeLallo SaladSavors® (six total)
    -  One (1) of each kind of DeLallo Whole Wheat Pasta
    -  One (1) 16.9 oz. bottle of DeLallo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
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To enter fill out the rafflecopter below. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
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Oven Roasted Cauliflower

Roasting cauliflower brings out its nuttiness flavor and caramelizes the edges. This is such an easy way to prepare it, I toss it with garlic, lemon juice and olive oil and top it with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and some lemon zest when it comes out of the oven.

I can eat a whole bowl of this for lunch, but I usually make this as a side for steaks, pork chops or chicken. An irresistible side dish, even to people who don't like cauliflower.

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Turkey Sausage Patties From Scratch

Making your own turkey sausage patties from scratch is easy –  and bonus, no processed ingredients! I'm so honored to have my friend Jackie share this recipe here on Skinnytaste as a guest post. Jackie is an incredible chef with Celiac, and has a blog called CAFE, Celiac and Allergy Friendly Epicurian where she shares her gluten-free recipes. I made these for breakfast today with my Red Pepper Egg-In-A-Hole and it was delish! Jackie will be guest posting once a month here on Skinnytaste, please welcome her...

I am excited to be here on Skinnytaste again. A lot has happened since my last guest post. This past summer I was offered the opportunity of a lifetime (or at least my lifetime) to work as a test kitchen contributor at Bon Appétit Magazine. I interned there after completing culinary school last year but it was quite a different and incredible experience to actually contribute to the magazine and website.

After working at Bon Appétit for 8 months I am happy to be back home with the kids and focus on developing recipes on a freelance professional basis as well as for my website. In addition to gaining a ton of experience while working in the test kitchen, I gained a few pounds. Occupational hazard, I suppose. I decided to re-join weight watchers and work on creating and maintaining healthy eating habits once again.

I used weight watchers after the last 2 of my 3 sons were born and it is my favorite weight loss program. The balanced approach is not only physically healthy but I’ve found it to be the best for my long-term success. Once I started calculating points for all of my recipes, I immediately thought of Gina and of course all of you here at Skinnytaste. I am looking forward to visiting here from time to time and sharing my healthy recipes with you. I hope you will stop by my page to say hi to me there as well.

Today’s recipe is for Turkey Sausage Patties. They are extremely flavorful and savory. You could serve them for breakfast with eggs or even for lunch and dinner. I soften the onion and garlic and then toast some fennel with the mix to add a depth of flavor you wouldn’t get by just adding everything raw It’s a short extra step that is definitely worth taking.



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Chicken Zoodle "Lo Mein" For Two

This faux lo mein dish is made with zoodles (zucchini noodles) in place of noodles and the results are DELISH (and bonus under 300 calories)! Each bowl is loaded with chicken and vegetables in a savory sauce. If you want to make this meatless, tofu would also be great in this dish. Start to finish this takes about 20 minutes to make... quicker than waiting for your take-out to get delivered!

To make the zoodles you can use a vegetable spiralizer such as the Paderno Spiral Vegetable Slicer or a mandolin fitted with a julienne blade although the spiralizer is so much easier and safer.

Since zucchini releases a lot of water as it cooks, I use it to my advantage and purposely leave the sauce a little thick. Once the noodles cook and release their liquid (I only cook them 2 minutes TOPS) the liquid from the zucchini thins the sauce and it comes out perfect.


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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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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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Raw Spiralized Zucchini Noodles with Tomatoes and Pesto

I combined all of my favorite end-of-summer garden vegetables and created this simple, raw, vegetarian spiralized zucchini and pesto dish.

As much as I look forward to the Fall, I'm not quite ready for summer to be over. Having fresh herbs at my fingertips is what I'll miss the most, so I'm taking all my basil and making skinny pesto with it to freeze and use throughout the year.

I'm also going to miss eating zucchini 4 days a week, especially in a zoodle form... although I'm not putting my spiralizer away just yet!! I have lots of fun Fall recipes planned for it, so if you don't have one, you probably should run out and get one!! (btw, love my Paderno Spiral Vegetable Slicer - the easiest way to make zucchini noodles, sweet potato spirals, carrot ribbons and more!)

And let's not forget to mention summer tomatoes, this is the best time to eat them!!  One thing I should note if you're making this for one, I would make the whole batch of pesto, but only spiralize 1 small zucchini and add 1/4 of the pesto. This needs to be eaten right away, if it sits too long it will get watery.

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Kung Pao Chicken Zoodles For Two

You can enjoy these Kung Pao Noodles without the guilt (under 300 calories), because I replaced the noodles with zoodles (zucchini noodles) and the results were fantastic!!

Each bowl is filled with chicken and vegetables and the sauce has the flavor combination of of salty, sweet, sour, and spicy flavors. Topped with crushed peanuts – it's pretty hard to pass this up!

If you're spiralizer has more than one spiral blade, use the thicker setting to replicate a thicker noodle feel. I tested out the Spirooli Spiral Slicer from Bed Bath and Beyond for this and it worked fine, but my Paderno Spiral Vegetable Slicer is still my favorite. Since zucchini releases a lot of water as it cooks, I used it to my advantage and purposely left the sauce a little thick. Once the noodles cook and release their liquid (I only cook them 2 minutes TOPS) it thins the sauce and works out perfect.

This is such a quick meal – you can easily halve this to make it for one, but if you want to make this for four, I would prep everything and cook it twice rather than doubling it and cooking it all at the same time so the chicken browns, and the noodles fit in the wok.

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Naked Salmon Burgers with Sriracha Mayo

Some burgers are just meant to be eaten without a bun. These salmon burgers are the perfect example. So much flavor in these burgers made with wild salmon, served on a bed of arugula with sliced avocado and a spicy sriracha mayo – a bun would only disguise it.

These burgers can be formed earlier in the day, or even the night before. Refrigerating them before cooking helps them hold together firm during cooking. Another tip is to put some of the salmon in the food processor or chopper. It creates "glue" that keeps everything together.

Last fall, Calphalon released a new line of Dishwasher Safe Nonstick Cookware and they sent me a few items of my choice to review. I've been using their nonstick cookware for years, as you may have seen in many of my photos so I replaced some of my favorites items with their new line, because I don't know about you, but as much as I love cooking – washing dishes is not for me! I put this grill pan to the test with these salmon burgers and was very happy with how they cooked. 
 
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Mediterranean Boneless Pork Chops

Talk about a delicious weeknight summer meal! These thin and lean thin pork chops are pan seared and served topped with julienned summer squash, roasted tomatoes, lemon juice, olives and Feta cheese. So much flavor and color in this dish!

And it's hard to believe how light this is! One serving is two thin chops with a generous amount of vegetables on top for only 230 calories (or 6 Weight Watcher Points) I had to actually double check that to see if I was wrong because it sounded too good to be true. If you have a spiralizer, you can use that instead of a mandolin to cut the zucchini and squash.

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Chicken Ropa Vieja

This Cuban inspired dish is made with shredded chicken breast cooked in the crock pot, then sauteed with bell peppers, onions, cumin and lots of Latin flavor!

Cuban cuisine is a favorite of mine and Ropa Vieja, which translates as "old clothes" is a dish I love. It's traditionally made with shredded skirt steak, and served over white rice and fried plantains.

I created this lighter version a few years ago using lean chicken breast instead, sometimes I even use boneless skinless thighs or a combination of both. I like to serve it with baked tostones (plantain chips) and a salad. Leftovers make a delicious burrito bowl (I love Chipotle!) served over brown Cilantro lime rice, Southwestern black bean salad, lettuce and shredded cheese.

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Lemon Feta Chicken with Oregano

Mediterranean ingredients such as lemon, oregano and feta cheese turn ordinary chicken into a spectacular dinner. The cheese forms a light crust on top when broiled – you won't even miss the skin!

This is sooo easy to make with only a few ingredients; simply marinate the legs with lemon juice and oregano and bake. Once it's done, top it with fresh grated feta cheese and broil until golden.

I keep this simple and serve it with a salad on the side or you can make this with one of my favorite summer sides, Sauteed Zucchini with Summer Tomatoes.

I first published this recipe back in 2009 using skinless chicken thighs, but a year or two ago the USDA changed the data for chicken thighs and the calories, fat and points increased so much, I started using drumsticks instead. There's a part of me that hopes they made a mistake but until then I use thighs less often.

The drumsticks I used were pretty small, so if yours are really large the points may increase slightly.  Hope you enjoy!

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Naked Turkey Bruschetta Burger

Lean, delicious, juicy turkey burgers made with zucchini and topped with a summer garden tomato bruschetta topping over a bed of baby arugula – no bun required!

I thought I would share this fabulous turkey burger recipe from the archives for those of you who may not have tried this.

This dish was inspired by a meal my girlfriend ordered during a girl's night out. I always get inspired when I go out to eat, and created this lighter version which turned out delicious. For the turkey burger, I went with my skinny turkey burger recipe I posted a few years back, it's made with shredded zucchini which gives it lots of moisture and great flavor. They are delicate, so I prefer to make them on a skillet instead of the grill.

This is the perfect summer meal for under 300 calories, especially if you have lots of tomatoes in your garden. You can easily make these vegetarian by using a boca burger or veggie burger of your choice. By the way the lovely fork is by For Such A Time Designs. Hope you enjoy!

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Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps

This is my go-to turkey taco recipe. It's delicious and light – On nights I want to go low-carb, I forgo the taco shells and use lettuce wraps instead!

This is an oldie from the archives, but since I make this so often I thought I would update the photos just in time for taco Tuesday! It's naturally gluten-free, low-carb, and paleo & dairy-free without the cheese and sour cream. I find the outer leaves of Iceberg lettuce makes the best wraps, it's crisp and pliable and the leaves are large enough to make decent size wraps.

Add your favorite taco fixins such as shredded cheddar, light sour cream, chives, black olives, jalapeno, tomatoes or whatever you like on your tacos. The portions are generous, and if you're kids want shells, you can easily bake a few for them and use the same filling.

Making your own taco seasoning is a healthier alternative to buying packaged taco seasoning, and uses less sodium, no sugar, no preservatives and no msg. It also saves you money if you are on a budget. If you prefer to use the package seasoning, simply replace it with the spices listed here.

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