Shannon's Kitchen Creations

Do you ever crave a cheeseburger? I know I do.  Yesterday I took my first trip to Whole Foods supermarket with the kids and my cousins.  My cousin Brittany went to college in Santa Cruz, California and she loves to cook healthy, organic meals. So she took me around the store and told me about some of her favorite foods. I also picked up some fun stuff to try, Laloos Deep Chocolate goat’s milk ice cream (it is super yummy), Applegate spinach and feta sausage and some quinoa. I have never used quinoa before, but my cousin told me it was delicious, so I bought a bag in the bulk section. She told me that you cook it just like rice and it is much higher in protein! So when I got home I started looking through my pantry and decided to create something healthy and yummy! Here is your cheese burger without the bun! Very filling and very good!

Don’t forget to enter the Alexia Food giveaway. Delicious and healthy onion rings and fries!

image from Simply Recipes

Cheeseburger Stuffed Zucchini

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I love Greek food! As a child I lived in Greece and Cyprus and it was the norm for our family to be eating calamari, taramosalata (fish egg dip), lamb and octopus. When we moved back to the states we were always on the lookout for real “Greek” food. When we moved to New England all the pizza restaurants are owned by Greek families so the restaurants are named things like “Acropolis” and “Athena”. Whenever we would see these restaurants my father would eagerly pull into the parking lot and we would storm in looking for Greek food. Unfortunately, most did not have any Greek food on the menu at all, but we did find a new favorite at most diners…Gyros. It is actually pronounced “Yer-os” and you can find it everywhere now, but it is always super fattening. The average Gyro with toppings will run you at least 20 points +! Yikes! It is however, one of my favorite things to eat. This summer I decided to experiment and find a gyro recipe online and see if I could replicate it at home. I found a recipe on food network and the main meat in it was lamb, I went to the grocery store and bought a pound and then came home and made the recipe. It was really good! The kids and my husband loved it. So yesterday I was craving it and decided to try it with ground turkey. It came out awesome! Use a very lean turkey like this:

I wrapped it in my favorite pita (totally worth the 4 points +) warmed on the griddle-

and topped in my fat free Tzatziki !!(recipe follows) Yum Yum and I really felt like I was indulging! Side it with baked fries or a Greek salad for the full diner experience!

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The word paella usually evokes the thoughts of sweating over the stove for hours or a big dollar sign might be popping into your head….don’t you need lobster? The answer is no, you can make a healthy, really delicious, inexpensive paella in 30 minutes. My husband loves to cook and he undertook this recipe and tweaked it to fit our tastes and my weight watchers points. I must say, he did an awesome job! It was slightly spicy and I liked that it was a meal in one. Your veggies, meat and starch all in one plate!….and for only 7 pts + for a big helping, you can’t go wrong!!

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We love lasagna. I like to experiment with different ingredients, but I have always cooked it in the oven. I was very excited when I saw a slower cooker lasagna recipe on the weight watchers site. The crock pot is my friend this time of year. We do a lot of soups, chilis and stews, but never lasagna! The recipe online called for lean beef, but we like to use turkey in the majority of our meals, so I decided to start to experiment. This lasagna was so easy to put together. I was shocked! You just stack the items in your crock pot, turn it to low and then forget about it. Not having to cook the noodles before had is a huge time saver and you don’t need to buy those special non cook noodles, any type is fine. My husband suggested turkey bacon and that added a nice smokey flavor. This lasagna was DELICIOUS! It was soft and flavorful and the pieces came out looking like any lasagna I have made in a pan.  We ate it with a huge salad and garlic bread! I would definitely try this the next time you are craving Italian and don’t want to the extra hassle of using the oven.  Yum!

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