Mexi-Plop

Not the most appetizing of names, I know.

There have been many variations of Mexi-Plop in my household over the past 16 years. It started with layering tortillas, refried beans, salsa and cheese in a casserole and baking it, much like a lasagna.

It has mutated into nacho-type dinners, or plop made with both hard and soft taco shells, or just plop on top of a fried corn tortilla. Regardless of the combination and ingredients, it always just looked like some form of plop on a plate. Not attractive at all, but always yummy. It hits the Mexican spot without having to go out to a Mexican restaurant and suffer through the strolling caballeros, gorging on the chips and salsa and never finishing the main entree, or even worse…having a well-meaning waiter place one of those lice-filled sombreros on your head if it's your birthday!

Since starting the 17 Day Diet I don't have too many cravings. Once in a while one will strike and I will usually indulge. This week I have been having some Mexi-Plop cravings so I thought I would see what I could do to make something that would satisfy and stay within a healthy range.

I present to you….Healthy Mexi-Plop Salad

I started with some ground beef mixed with taco seasoning. Ground turkey would be even healthier…but I was really in a red meat mood! I bought some 90% lean beef and used that.

Honestly, that's all the real work involved!

The rest is some salad thrown in a bowl, some shredded low-fat cheese, black olives, and a half of an avocado. For dressing I just added a touch of reduced-fat sour cream. It blended with the taco seasoning from the meat and made it a great choice instead of a bottled dressing.

I did break the no carbs after 2 pm rule and tossed in a couple of tortilla chips. I know, I am going straight to hell. I figured 5 chips won't kill me as long as that doesn't open the door to further carbohydrate temptation!

There you have it. Lightened up Mexi-Plop. Ole!

Thai It, You'll Like It!

Or maybe you won't. I don't know…

I was never a big Thai food fan. The only thing I really liked was ridiculously unhealthy Thai Iced Tea where they dump sweetened condensed milk into some cold tea. Yeah. I know. How else do you think I got this way?

After the great cauliflower debacle of 2014 last week, I was a bit leery about making Pad Thai.

What? You don't know what happened with the cauliflower? Let me give you a brief summary.

There has been a photo/recipe making the rounds online of a head of cauliflower that is covered with a spice/yogurt mixture and roasted whole. With all of the great recipes I have tried with cauliflower lately (pizza crust, fried rice) I thought this would be a winner.

It wasn't.

It was terrible.

As a matter of fact, it probably tasted worse than the time when Rachel on Friends accidentally made a trifle with jam, pudding, cream, beef and peas.

Words can not express how rancid that thing was. I tried to puree it with some vegetable stock to make a soup and managed to make it even more disgusting. Eww. On top of that, my house reeked of curry and coriander and dog farts. And we don't even have a dog.

So you can imagine my lack of total enthusiasm when cooking this Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai.

My husband wandered into the kitchen and commented about the questionable smell that was happening, and I was worried we were going have a repeat of last week. Mercifully, the Pad Thai was pretty damn good. It actually grew on me after a few bites and tasted even better the next day when I had it for lunch! I would imagine you have to have some affinity for tofu to enjoy this, as it is chock-full of squishy tofu cubes. I don't mind that at all, and I did not notice anything funky from using the Nam Pla, or fish sauce, that the recipe called for. I didn't miss the noodles at all, and that's saying something!

Here is a link to the recipe from Fitness Magazine, and thanks to my friend Terri for pointing it out when we were gabbing/exercising on the recumbent bikes at the gym. I added some of the Hoisin Turkey Meatballs to mine, and another friend is going to try it with shrimp. I would imagine you could alter this with other proteins and veggies to your liking. Have fun with it!

Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai

I've Got Balls

You can tell by the crowds at the supermarket this past weekend that the Superbowl is a major eating event. Some people are in it for the game, some are in it for the commercials, and it seems like everyone is in it for the food!

Basically, it is an excuse to eat a big bunch of crap. Our Superbowl parties always consisted of nachos, wings, pizza, chips and other random garbage followed up with the old favorite, the Carvel football cake.

This year, the day before the big game I hit my first 40 pounds lost. That was pretty major for me. I knew I wanted to eat some junk for Superbowl Sunday, but I also wanted to limit it to an appropriate amount. My new lifestyle was going to change up our usual buffet of gluttony!

We did pizza, but it was a flatbread with some veggies on it. I did some pizza rolls for the kiddo with turkey pepperoni, reduced-fat crescent rolls, and low fat cheese. There was hummus, whole grain pita, baked falafel and tzatziki. And then there were my balls….

I found these beauties on Pinterest a while back. They are Hoisin Glazed Turkey Meatballs, and they were delicious! The chopped water chestnuts gave them some nice crunch, there was a kick from some crushed red pepper, and the tangy sweetness from the Hoisin. They were very easy to make, and can probably be cooked and frozen, then defrosted and rolled in the glaze before heating. I know the Hoisin isn't 17DD compliant but in the grand scheme of things how bad can it be? 1/4 cup for the entire recipe won't be too detrimental. These would probably be great with some Cauliflower Fried Rice!

Here's the link to the recipe:

Hoisin Glazed Turkey Meatballs

Enjoy!