Mock Beef Stroganoff with Zucchini

It snowed today so I was in the mood for something warm and creamy! Enter this faux beef stroganoff.

• 1 lb. lean hamburger
• 1 can French onion soup or beef broth
• 1 onion, chopped
• Sliced white mushrooms
• Fat free sour cream
• 3 large zucchini, shredded or spiral cut into “noodles”

Sauté the hamburger with onion and sliced mushrooms. Add about 1 cup of French onion soup and simmer. Meanwhile, blanch the zucchini in salted boiling water just until tender. Add about a cup of the sour cream to the meat mixture, or more depending on your preferred consistency. Don’t cook the sour cream too long or it will curdle! Serve over the drained zucchini “noodles.”

This was a hit with the whole family! Or course you could use stew meat, ground turkey, or even chicken!

Zucchini Lasagna

We’ve had some zucchini in our fridge for a week and it was time to use it up! I found a recipe online that included ricotta and other things we didn’t have, so this was a clean out the fridge and pantry kind of meal!

• 3 zucchini sliced into “lasagna noodles” with a mandolin
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 jar pizza sauce (check nutrition info for low sugar ones)
• 1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 lb. ground beef
• Sliced provolone (or shredded mozzarella)
• Minced garlic, to taste
• 2 chopped onions

Bake the zucchini noodles at 375 degrees for about 9 minutes on a greased baking sheet. Meanwhile, sauté the beef, onion, and garlic. Drain. Then, add in the tomatoes and the pizza sauce. Squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible and add to the beef mixture. Let simmer for 15 minutes.

In a 9×9 pan, layer in the zucchini noodles and the meat mixture. Alternate layers until the pan is nearly full.

Top the last layer with the provolone slices. You could certainly use mozzarella too, but we had provolone on hand. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes at 375 again. Uncover and cook another 10 minutes.

Yum! We all agreed we’d eat this again! I paired mine with a spinach salad and got one n a ton of veggies for this meal! The family each had garlic bread with it. Anybody got a recipe for carb-free garlic bread? Haha! Enjoy!

Hearty Vegetarian Chili with Beans Meal Replacement

I received a sample of the chili from my coach last week and I haven’t had a chance to try it until today. I like my chili with beef and beans so I was afraid this might be a tough sell. When I opened the pouch I was pleasantly surprised with a bold wave chili spice smells!

If you make the chili according to direction you probably won’t feel even remotely full. I added some cooked cauliflower rice, leftover fajita veggies and some shredded cheddar cheese.

I was slightly disappointed in 2 things: the small portion of beans (I think I had 3?) and the need for salt. I always add salt to the creamy chicken soup meal replacement too, so maybe I should just calk it up to my taste buds! All in all I’d eat it again with the veggies. It certainly filled me up!

Cabbage Enchiladas

When it comes to enchiladas, we are a house divided. I much prefer green sauce while my husband will only eat red. It makes it a little more expensive, but we all get what we want!

This time around we omitted the tortillas to make them Profile-friendly. This is where the cabbage comes in–as a replacement for a tortilla!

• Enchilada sauce
• Ground beef or sliced chicken breast
• Cabbage leaves
• Bell peppers
• Onion
• Taco seasoning
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Fat-free sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Blanch the cabbage leaves in boiling water so they will fold without cracking or breaking. Brown your beef or cook the chicken with taco seasoning. Sauté the vegetables with your meat until soft.

Stuff the cabbage leaves with meat and vegetables, then roll them up like an enchilada. Cover the cabbage rolls with extra enchilada sauce and cheddar cheese. Bake for 20 minutes.

When the enchiladas come out of the oven, top with sour cream and serve!

Pizza Stuffed Bell Peppers

I miss pizza, it’s true. We went to Aldi last night and all I wanted was pizza and pizza ingredients. I found turkey pepperoni and got a little excited! We made this one up, and I’ll share what we did.

• 3 bell peppers cut in half, seeds removed
• 1 bag riced cauliflower
• 1 chopped onion
• 6 Provolone slices (sub for mozzarella if preferred)
• approximately 8 white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 jar pizza sauce
• Italian seasoning, to taste
• Minced garlic, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Sauté the cauliflower rice until tender with the onion, 1 clove minced garlic and Italian seasoning. Place the peppers in a foil lined pan and fill with the cauliflower rice and onion mixture. We sautéed mushrooms separately for some family members, but you could put them in there too. Bake the peppers for 15 minutes or until the peppers are tender. Add a spoonful of pizza sauce to each pepper. Add the pepperoni and provolone to the top of each one, then bake again for 15 minutes or until the cheese is golden.

You could certainly add pepperoncini peppers if you like some spice, or whatever other vegetables you’d like! I’m also not sure if turkey pepperoni is “on plan” but I’m calling it “turkey sausage,” which is right on the list of lean protein! Ask your coach if you’re worried about fat content. I like the turkey pepperoni because it’s not greasy but that great flavor of regular pepperoni is still there!

It’s not terribly pretty, but it’s pizza enough for me!

Chicken Stir Fry

We’re running a little low on groceries over here, so tonight’s dinner was the remnants in the refrigerator and freezer! We made a decent meal out of it and one that I’m happy to put in our regular dinner rotation!

• 1 bag of mini bell peppers, chopped
• 2.5 yellow onions, chopped
• 2 c. broccoli florets
• low sodium soy sauce, to taste
• 1 head of riced cauliflower
• 5 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

Cook the chicken until it’s halfway cooked, then add the vegetables to your wok or frying pan. Add the soy sauce to the pan and mix well. In another pan, sauté and steam the cauliflower.

My family enjoyed the stir fry with real rice while I got in my full 2 cups of veggies from the cauliflower!

Philly Cheesesteak Peppers

Sometimes we like to improvise a little on a recipe. When I first proposed this recipe to my husband, he said he’d try it if we switched to real beef instead of deli beef. Well, why not?

• 4-5 bell peppers
• 1 beef roast, sliced
• 1-2 onions, chopped
• 1 container white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 clove minced garlic
• Steak seasoning to taste
• 1.5 slice provolone cheese per pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut off the tops of your bell peppers and remove all seeds. Place peppers on a foil-lined pan that will fit all of them. Sauté seasoned beef, onions, mushrooms and garlic until the beef is nicely browned. (We cooked our mushrooms separately because my husband won’t eat them!) Place a half slice of provolone in the bottom of each pepper. Fill each pepper with beef, onion, garlic and mushroom mixture. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until the pepper is tender. Add a full slice of provolone for the last 5 minutes to melt.

The whole family gobbled this one down! My oldest daughter even loved the sautéed mushrooms!

Turkey Kielbasa

We are big Aldi fans at our house. Their fresh produce is so cheap it’s hard to pass up, which is super convenient for me being on Profile.

On a routine shopping trip last night I discovered this lovely turkey kielbasa in the meat section. According to my chart, this qualifies as “lean” and I can have 3 oz.

Normally, we’d make kielbasa with fried potatoes and onions. Not anymore!

• 1 turkey kielbasa
• 3 chopped bell peppers (I used orange, yellow, and red)
• 3 chopped onions
• steak seasoning of your choice
• Pam cooking spray

Spray your skillet or wok with Pam. Sauté the vegetables a little bit before adding the meat. The meat won’t take long to warm up in the pan. Add seasoning to taste. Cook until vegetables are soft, then serve it up!

This is the seasoning we used.

My whole family loves this dish, including my kids! Here is how it turned out. Yummy!