Low carb Enchiladas

Last night for dinner I made Low carb Enchiladas!

1 lb lean ground turkey
1/2 large yellow onion diced
1 med carrot shredded
1 can vegetarian or ff re fried beans
low fat or fat free cheddar cheese shredded
3 medium zucchini
salsa or enchiladas sauce.  I used the salsa!

Brown the turkey, onion and carrot together. In a large bowl I mixed the re-fried beans, 1/2 cup of cheese and 1/2 salsa/sauce.  Once the meat was cooked I mixed it into the large bowl.  (this does make a lot, I froze the remainder for later use).

Take the zukes and remove both ends. Next, take a potato peeler and make long, length wise passes of the zuke. (You want what looks like lasagna noodles.)

Layer the slices length wise on a piece of plastic wrap.  You want to overlap to create a sheet. Drop a large spoon full of the mixture onto the zuke and roll!  I place in a small baking sheet with about a 1/2 cup of the salsa/sauce on the bottom to prevent sticking.  I then sprinkled the top with cheese and baked for about 4 minutes on 350.  very tasty!

Asparagus Soup

1 lb Asparagus fresh or frozen
1 cup diced bell peppers ( any color)
1 Celery Stalk
1 cup carrots
1 small red onion
1 dried poblano pepper ( can use fresh)
Bay Leaf
1 large clove garlic
1 tbs smoked paprika
2 tsp dried thyme
3 cups or so of stock (I used chicken for the protein)
1/3 cup potato flakes (optional)

Bloom the poblano pepper in hot water for about 10 minutes to soften.

Chop all vegies and saute in olive oil for 5 to 10 minutes on med low heat.  Add garlic, thyme and paprika and saute an additional few minutes.  Chop up poblano pepper, seeds and all and add to pot. I add the water as well.  Now add the stock and bay leaf. Simmer for about an hour and blend. I use a immersion blender, but you can you your regular blender.  Be sure to do this in small batches as the soup is hot. I add 1/3 cup of potato flakes for consistency, but is totally optional.   

This makes 4 servings!
   
Nutrition

Calories        110
Carbs             15g
Fat                   4g
Protein             4g
Fiber                5g
Sugar               6g

Pumpkin Bake

Yummy eats tonight with the fresh pumpkin I baked the other day.  I made a pumpkin bake, or crustless pumpkin pie if you will!

A 1 cup serving has 113 calories, 15 carbs and 9 sugars!  I added light cool whip for about 25 more calories.  This was test batch one and turned out really well.  The only thing I may try different next time is light coconut milk to reduce the sugars and more ginger!

1 cup Splenda (or sugar, or 3/4 cup honey)
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3 Cups pumpkin puree (can use canned here)
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3 whole eggs
1 12oz can fat free evaporated milk.

Mix well.  Spray one 9 inch pie pan, or several small oven safe dishes and bake at 350 for about 90 minutes. Mine was ready at about 70, but it depends on the baking dish.  The filling will be lose but will set up while cooking!

You will know it is done when the center is set and when a knife inserted comes out clean.

Very yummy and fall like!

Fresh Pumpkin Puree

I acquired 2 sugar pumpkins this year and really wanted to do something with them besides have them sit on the counter and get soft.  Plus, I am really trying to reduce the amount of preservatives I take into my body.  Hence the following!


This is a Sugar Pumpkin, or Pie Pumpkin.  Different from the pumpkins you carve, which are Jack o' Lanterns! These are smaller, more sweet and less stringy.

Once I washed the pumpkins, I cut them in half with a serrated knife and scooped out all the seed. I actually keep the seeds, wash them and bake them.  Yummy treat and garnish if I make soup!  Once I had both pumpkins cut and seeded I placed them cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet and covered with more foil.  I baked them at 350 for about an hour.  Poke them with a knife, when very tender they are done!  

Once done, I flipped them over to cool quicker.  They are seriously steaming when they come out!  After about 10 minutes I could pick them up. I used a large table spoon and scooped the meat of the pumpkin out and into a mixing bowl.  This was very easy, the meat honestly just falls out.  Super simple. 

This step took a small amount of experimenting on my part.  The website I was looking at to figure this all out suggested to use an immersion blender to puree, I don't have one. I first tried my trusty 3 cup food processor, however, there is very little liquid in the pumpkin, so that didn't work.  I then took out the hand mixer and it worked perfect!  It took about 1 min, and I have this lovely puree!  I am going to let it stand for about 30 minutes and then drain any water that surfaces then package to freeze. My thought is that I want to make some no crust pie next week, so I will measure out the amount for that and mark the bag, then I want to make some soup this winter so I will freeze the rest! 

These are the pumpkin seeds rinsing in salted water before I bake them.  I like the salted water because it doesn't make them too salty.  Sometimes if you sprinkle the salt on before baking, it can be to much. 

Yea for fall!