It's a Bye Week - Pittsburgh Style

So it's week five in the NFL season.  The Steelers have a bye this week, and since every other week we have been creating food from the opponent's city; this week we are creating food from Pittsburgh.

 Pittsburgh is known for the open faced turkey sandwich, chip chopped ham, Heinz ketchup, the Clark Bar, the Klondike Bar and the Primanti Brother's sandwich.  We went with a Primanti Brother's sandwich (which includes meat, fries, and coleslaw all between two slices of bread).  And to go along with the open faced turkey sandwich, we made sure our sandwiches were turkey.

Our sandwiches were awesome, and how can you resist homemade potato chips.  The Steelers didn't play so there was no chance of them losing.  And who doesn't love leftover turkey sandwiches for lunch today! 

Lets go Steelers!

Next week the Steelers play the New York Jets (who are really from New Jersey if I had to say so).  And being from New Jersey, our Sunday Funday Football Feast is going to be amazing!

Never Stop Cooking ~Melissa

Week Five Menu

Loaded Crock Pot Cajun Turkey Breast Sandwiches

Homemade Baked Potato Chips

Loaded Cajun Turkey Breast Sandwiches 

Ingredients

turkey breast (mine was 3lbs, but use whatever you would like)

cajun seasoning

sweet potatoes (1 yields enough for two sandwiches), sliced into fries

broccoli slaw with your choice of dressing (I used light coleslaw mix)

Crusty bread, sliced an inch thick

Directions

Rinse off turkey breast and coat it with cajun seasoning.  Place it in the crock pot and add about 1 cup of water.  Cook on low for 7-8 hours.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and cover sweet potatoes with cooking spray and salt.  Place them out evenly on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Mix broccoli slaw with the dressing of your choice and let chill.

Once the sweet potato fries are cooked and removed from the oven, turn the oven to broil. Toast up the bread, making sure you watch it so it doesn't burn!

Remove the turkey from the crock pot and slice thin.  

Assemble your sandwich by piling it high with turkey, slaw, and fries.  Enjoy with some homemade chips!

Homemade Potato Chips

Ingredients

potatoes of your choice

olive oil

salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Slice your cleaned potatoes very thin (1/8 inch ). (Use a mandoline in your have one, and set it to 1/8 inch thick.) Coat the potatoes with olive oil and salt to your liking.  Spread out evenly on a cookie sheet.  Cook for about 20 minutes, flipping half way through.

Sunday Football - Burgers and Fries

Sunday Funday, can the Steelers win a game!?  The Steelers played the Minnesota Vikings this week, so my football menu revolved around food from Minnesota. 

After doing a little research I found out that Minnesota is known for a cheese stuffed burger called a Juicy Lucy.  Perfect football food!  I paired them with some Cajun sweet potato oven fries.  

We started our Sunday food madness with a hot corn dip (Minnesota is a big corn producer) with pita chips, and a caramelized onion dip with fresh veggies because you always feel better when you eat some veggies when you are having a little pig out.  

Our Steelers may not have done very well, but my Minnesota themed healthier menu was awesome!

Lets go Steelers!

Next week the Steelers have a bye week, so we decided to cook some goodies from Pittsburgh, which is known for the open faced turkey sandwich, chip chopped ham, Heinz ketchup, the Clark Bar, the Klondike Bar and the Primanti Brother's sandwich.  So many ideas, it will be hard to shorten my list!

Never Stop Cooking ~Melissa

Week Four Menu

Juicy Lucy Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries

Hot Corn Dip with Pita Chips

Caramelized Onion Dip with Veggies

Juicy Lucy Burger

Ingredients

1 lb 93% lean ground beef

4 oz sharp cheddar cheese, divided into 1 oz and sliced

salt and pepper

Choice of bun, and condiments

Directions

Preheat pan to medium heat and spray with cooking spray.  

Divide beef into 8 two ounce balls.  Using a frying pan and saran wrap flatten each ball out. Place the cheese in the center of one patty and top with a second patty, making sure you seal the edges. Continue for the three remaining burgers.  Season with salt and pepper and cook to desired temperature flipping only one.

Serve on a bun with condiments of your choice.

Nutritional Facts

Servings per recipe: 4

Just the burger patty and cheese

1 Serving: Calories 240 Fat 14g Carbohydrates 0g Protein 30g

Hot Corn Dip

Ingredients

3 oz light cream cheese

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup light sour cream

1/4 cup canned green chilies

1/4 cup pimentos or roasted red peppers

1/4 green onions, diced

2 cups frozen or fresh corn

1 tbsp hot sauce

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Choice of dippers

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Combine all ingredients except the shredded cheddar cheese in a mixing bowl.   

Spread mixture out in a pie pan and top with cheese.  Cover with foil and cook for 20 minutes.  Remove the foil and turn on the broiler cooking for another 2-5 minutes, watch it!!!

Let dip sit for about 5 minutes before serving.

Nutritional Facts

Servings per recipe: 4

1 Serving: Calories 212 Fat 12.9g Cholesterol 30mg Sodium 361mg Carbohydrates 24.5g Fiber 3g Sugar 6.5g Protein 10g

Caramelized Onion Dip

Ingredients

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

1/2 cup fat free plain yogurt

1/2 cup light sour cream

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Directions

Heat a pan with cooking spray over low heat.  Saute onions for 20-30 minutes until they are brown and caramelized.  Let cool.

Combine onions, yogurt, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl.  Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.

Nutritional Facts

Servings per recipe: 20 Tbsp

1 Serving: Calories 16.4 Fat 0.6g Cholesterol 2.1mg Sodium 68.4mg Carbohydrates 2.1g Fiber 0.2g Sugar 1g Protein 0.9g

Crock Pot Roasted Chicken is My Favorite!

Slow cooker season has started! I love using the crock pot, almost as much as I love roasted chicken.  It may just be my favorite meal of all time.  Give me some roasted chicken, a sweet potato, and some veggies and I am a happy girl.  Add some stuffing and cranberry sauce and I am in heaven.  

The idea of putting a whole chicken in the crock pot and coming home to deliciousness sounds perfect, so lets do it!

Never Stop Cooking ~Melissa

Crock Pot Roasted Whole Chicken

Ingredients

4-6lbs oven roaster chicken

Seasoning of your choice (mine is below)

2 Lemons

Directions

Place chicken in the crock pot.  I like to remove most of the skin before I cook the chicken, keeping the fat content down.

Season chicken with your favorite seasonings.  My seasoning blend is below. Slice the lemon and squeeze the juice all over the chicken.  Place the lemon slices in the cavity and tucked around the chicken. Do not add water.  Cook chicken on low for 7-8 hours or until the chicken reaches 185 degrees.  Remove the chicken and slice it up, or just use a fork because it WILL fall apart!  

Nutritional Facts

Depending on what part of the chicken you are going to eat, will alter your nutritional information.  Below is the nutritional facts for white meat and dark meat (both without the skin)

1 Serving (4 oz) white meat no skin: Calories 186 Fat 4g Cholesterol 96mg Sodium 84mg Carbohydrates 0g Fiber 0g Sugar 0g Protein 35.1g

1 Serving (4 oz) dark meat no skin: Calories 232 Fat 11g Cholesterol 105mg Sodium 105mg Carbohydrates 0g Fiber 0g Sugar 0g Protein 30.9g

Seasoning for Crock Pot Roasted Chicken

Ingredients

3 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Sunday Funday - Week Three

Sunday Funday, can the Steelers win a game!?  The Steelers played the Chicago Bears this week, so I decided to create some lower fat Chicago style deep dish pizza. 

Deep dish pizza either calls for toppings or lots of cheese to fill it up.  I went with the toppings so I could keep this a lower fat, healthier option.  The easiest way of doing this would be to add lots of veggies, but it's football season.  Veggie pizza and football don't seem to go hand in hand.  So I took my italian beef meatballs which are low in fat and carbs and loaded them on this pizza.  Since I have an obsession with having to eat your veggies,  not one of my football meals will be without one, I made a BLT salad with a buttermilk mustard dressing.  

Hopefully only my Chicago Deep Dish is better than the Steelers tonight.

Lets go Steelers!

Next week, we play the Minnesota Vikings...juicy lucys coming your way!

Never Stop Cooking ~Melissa

Week Three Menu

Deep Dish Meatball Pizza

BLT Salad

Pretzel Bites with Pizza Sauce

Deep Dish Meatball Pizza

Ingredients

1 pre-made refrigerated pizza dough

6 Italian beef meatballs (recipe to follow), sliced

1/2 cup pizza sauce

3/4 cup mozzarella cheese

2 Tbsp parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Cover a large cutting board with a dusting of flour and corn meal.  Roll out the pizza dough (make sure you let the dough come to room temperature first).

Place dough into a cast iron skillet sprayed with cooking spray.  If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, try using a round pie or cake pan to get the deep dish affect. Once you have the dough evenly spread out in the skillet, spread the pizza sauce leaving about a half an inch sauce free for the crust.  Spread the sliced meatballs evenly on top of the sauce and half of the mozzarella and parmesan on top of the meatballs.  Bake pizza for ten minutes.  Remove pizza, and top with the remaining cheeses and bake for an additional ten minutes.  

Remove from skillet and cut pizza into six slices.

Nutritional Facts

Servings per pie: 6

1 Serving: Calories  Fat 2.9g Cholesterol 23.2mg Sodium 51.2mg Carbohydrates 0.5g Fiber 0g Sugar 0.3g Protein 8.9g

Italian Beef Meatballs

Ingredients

1 lb 93% lean ground beef

1 slice whole wheat bread (I use Arnold’s), torn

1/4 low fat milk

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried parsley

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Place torn bread and milk in a bowl, letting the bread absorb the milk.  

In a mixing bowl, combine beef, cheese, garlic, basil, and parsley.  Season the mixture with salt and pepper.  Add in bread and milk mixture and mix ingredients together.  Form mixture into 12 meatballs approximately 1.5 ounces a piece.

Place meatballs on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes, turning over halfway through.

Nutritional Facts

Servings per recipe: 12

1 Serving: Calories 63 Fat 2.9g Cholesterol 23.2mg Sodium 51.2mg Carbohydrates 0.5g Fiber 0g Sugar 0.3g Protein 8.9g

BLT Salad with Buttermilk Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

lettuce, shredded

tomatoes, diced

cooked bacon, crumbled

store bought croutons

buttermilk mustard dressing (recipe below)

Buttermilk Mustard Dressing

2 Tbsp mayonnaise

2 Tbsp grainy mustard

2 Tbsp lowfat buttermilk

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried or fresh chives

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Make the dressing by combining all ingredients.  Toss dressing with the lettuce, tomatoes, and bacon. Top with croutons for the bread in the blt!

Nutritional Facts

Buttermilk Mustard Dressing

Servings per recipe: 6 Tbsp

1 Serving: Calories 34 Fat 2g Cholesterol 2mg Sodium 131.4mg Carbohydrates 0.5g Fiber 0g Sugar 0.4g Protein 0.3g