Thursday, January 10, 2013

SKINNY GOUDA CHEESEBURGERS & ROASTED ROSEMARY POTATOES


Are you questioning the true health of these meals yet? Ha ha! I know, I have overlooked a lot of healthier routes I could of gone such as using more whole wheats, but for the sake of our finances, I made a list of all the ingredients each of these meals required, and eliminated the ones we already had. Our goal is to start living a healthier lifestyle, and start exploring healthier options in eating home-cooked meals versus our college-foodie like instincts to eat Taco Bell and Kraft macaroni and cheese every night. (Really, it's a problem!) But that being said, if anyone decides to use my recipes for their own experiments, I would definitely recommend using whole wheat substitutions!

We are however feeling so much better during our everyday activities. Scott feels so much more energized after he's up for the day, and says he's much less snack-ier through the day as well. (Could be a placebo, but we'll take it!) My days recently haven't required a whole lot of energy, so I can't necessarily attest to that, but my muscles have felt much more loose, and a lot less tense too which is nice. That's probably from our visit to our apartment's gym. It's right outside our building, how convenient is that? We're trying to cherish that as much as we can!

Anyways, on to the food! Last night's meal was great! We had "Skinny" Cheeseburgers with Gouda cheese, and Roasted Rosemary Red Potatoes on the side.



You can find the recipes for the Skinny Cheeseburgers here, and the Roasted Rosemary Potatoes here.

I really digressed from the cheeseburger recipe, other than the fact I used hamburger meat, and tortillas to make it. This may sound much more tricky than it actually was, I apologize in advance for not including pictures of my process, but if I can do it, you definitely can!

Skinny Cheeseburgers


1/2 lb ground beef
Olive oil
Pepper and salt to taste
Garlic salt or powder to taste
4 flour tortillas 
Sliced gouda cheese

Due to the fact that we are just a family of two, I halved the original recipe, and it worked out well for us. I always season my hamburger meat with olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper. I made four mini patties and grilled them in a skillet. While they were browning, I sliced my tiny wheel of Gouda, to make small cheese slices. Microwave the tortillas for about 15 seconds. After they have cooled for a second, place a couple of cheese slices in the center of the tortilla, followed by a small hamburger patty. Here comes the tricky(ish) part, I then folded over the tortilla in a circular pattern, a lot like how Taco Bell's Crunchwrap's are folded, if that gives you a better picture (I told you, we're total addicts). Then spread the thinnnest layer of butter on each side, and place seam down until ready to grill on a skillet. Grill on each side until brown, about 45 seconds, then flip, starting with the seam side down first so it will stay closed. And done! It's much easier than it sounds... and I think it sounds pretty easy... 

For the Rosemary Red Potatoes, I followed her recipe exactly for once, so I recommend just using her blog for the instructions. 

If you want a somewhat sneak peek of what other recipes are to come in the next few weeks there is a whole compilation of the meals that inspired my healthy(ish) eating meal plan on my Pinterest.


Wednesday, January 9, 2013

NIGHT 2: A NEW TAKE ON PASTA SALAD



I know, I just posted, but I have some catching up to do. It took me three days to muster up the energy to start a blog (I won't tell you how long I took designing the layout, which isn't saying much.) But I'm proud to say our dinner from night two was a Hutson original! We had a pasta creation in which I kind of just winged-it with the recipe. The technical description of it was bowtie pasta with Rosemary-Sage and Thyme chicken, pinto beans, mozzarella, and olive oil. I'd describe it more or less as a Simple Pasta Salad. It was really light, which made it really enjoyable to be able to go work out afterwards. It actually reminded me a lot of a Chipotle-like entree. It was probably the pinto beans. Anyway, check it out! 
                                         
Garlic Wheat Toast 

I can't imagine that anyone would have too hard of a time figuring out how to make this one, but just in case, here's the recipe: 

Simple Pasta Salad:

Bowtie Pasta
1 Chicken Breast, Diced
1 tsp Sage
1 tsp Rosemary
1 tsp Thyme
1/2 can of Pinto Beans
Mozzarella Cheese
Olive Oil

Not to sound like a total amateur, but for most of this recipe I just eyeballed a lot of it.
Boil the noodles until al Dente. While the noodles are cooking, fry the diced chicken in a skillet with some olive oil. I used pure, but EVOO would be fine too, I'm sure. Sprinkle each seasoning over the chicken while frying, and cook until all pink is gone (about 10 minutes.)
Drain and microwave the pinto beans (or follow directions to cook in the skillet, if you prefer.)
Drain the bowtie pasta, and move into serving bowl. Mix in seasoned chicken, pinto beans, and mozzarella. Use Olive oil as a dressing to taste. Voila! Great for a light and fresh meal, and can make in under 30 minutes!

I'm still a little behind on these, but I'll post tonight's dinner tomorrow: Skinny Cheeseburgers with Gouda, and Roasted Rosemary Red Potatoes. Yum!




ABOUT THE HUTSONS



Hello Blogworld!
I take it that I should introduce myself, I am a 21-year-old newlywed (of 6 months, as of Sunday), and am temporarily living as a stay-at-home wife, (yes, it is as luxurious as it sounds, although without any kids or animals to take care of, your life seems a lot more frivolous after a fews weeks of it) due to being laid off from my job as a part-time receptionist last month. My husband, Scott, and I happily subside in a 640-square-foot apartment in the middle of a upper-middle-class suburban area. We love it, however, the space is constantly being pushed to its limits being that we are major social butterflies, and also host a smallgroup for our church every Thursday night. 

This past week my husband and I decided that we needed to step it up in the health department, and I made my first ever meal plan! It was nice to have something to do during the day besides housework, and it's been going great so far! The purpose of this blog is to document our adventures in trying to be healthier 20-something-year-olds, and our experiences in living in 600-square-feet of a blessing! Yeah, I'm sure it doesn't sound very interesting, truthfully, I really just wanted a blog. It's the cool thing to do nowadays, isn't it? 

Anyway, here are some pictures of our first few meals on my 3 week healthy(ish) meal plan! 
I'll try to include the recipes that I have adapted, although Scott is pretty picky, especially when it comes to health food so you might find that my revisions are pretty bland. 

Night 1:

Chicken Pesto Bake

Garlic Rice with Black Quinoa (Uncle Ben's of course)

Please ignore my amateur photography skills, needless to say our lighting isn't the best, and that's the least of the sum of my skills, ha. 

Anyway, the Chicken Pesto Bake was awesome! I myself am a huge fan of pesto, so I knew I would have no problem eating this meal, it was a great kick off to our meal plan. I was apprehensive, however, about the rice with quinoa (any takers on how to pronounce that? I've heard it's "keen-wa," but that hasn't be confirmed as of yet). I've heard great things about Quinoa and seen recipes all over Pinterest lately, so I thought it'd be the perfect time to introduce it into our diets. Scott was actually really accepting of it, excepting the fact that he first compared it to "little black ants" in our food. We both really liked it! The whole meal took probably 30-ish minutes to prepare, super easy! I'll post my way below (which is pretty much identical), but you can find the original recipe here.

Chicken Pesto Bake:

2 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breasts 
4 Tbsp Basil Pesto
A Handful of Mozzarella per chicken breast
A Dash of grated Parmesan Cheese


Preheat oven to 400º F. 

I cut my two chicken breasts in half for leftovers for lunch the next day, but if you do this, just know the serving size decreases dramatically when baking. We're just a family of two, so we don't need much.

Spread 1 Tbsp of basil pesto on each chicken breast. Cook for 15 minutes, then remove from oven and spread mozzarella and parmesan cheese and continue baking for another 3-5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. 

And that's it! So easy, and DELICIOUS!