Baked Oatmeal Caserole

I have started a new routine of working out in the morning. This is a big deal.  I have been attempting to do this for 3 years and have not be successful   It seems to be going well, however one issue is that now I am starving as soon as I get to work.  The last thing I need is to run across the street and grab a bagel and throw my workout efforts away so quickly!
We had tried smoothies (which I love and have a few good recipes for) but I didn't want them pre-workout, and haven't found a way to keep them somewhat frozen for post-workout.  I had been looking around for healthy but filling things I could bring to work and I think I found it! Thanks to this blog, I found a great idea that is also Gluten-Free!  I made a big dish on Sunday and then each night I can just cut a square and throw it in Tupperware.  I grab it in the morning and then after I work out and get to work I just heat it up for a few seconds! I used bananas and blueberries this go around as we had them on hand.  I think next time I will add strawberries.  I also think that I will double the recipe to make it a little thicker.  My version is below with some substitutions. 

Baked Oatmeal Casserole

*gluten free

What you Need:

-2 cups of gluten free rolled oats

-1/3 cup of brown sugar

-1 teaspoon of baking powder

-2 teaspoons of cinamon

-1/2 teaspoon of salt 

-1 cup of walnut pieces

-1 cup blueberries

-1/8 cup of chocolate chips

-1 cups of Almond Milk

-1/4 cup of egg beaters

- 1 Tablespoon of melted butter

- 1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract

-1 large banana 

Directions:

1) Preheat over to 375 degrees and spray a casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. 

2) In a large bowl mix together: oats, sugar, salt, baking powder, half the walnuts, half the berries and all of the chocolate chips.

3) In another medium sized bowl whisk together: milk, eggs, butter and vanilla

4) Add the dry oat mixture to the casserole dish spreading evenly along the bottom. 

5) Pour the egg mixture evenly of the oats. 

6) Sprinkle the top with the remaining berries and walnuts. Add banana slices to the top.  Gently shake back and forth the dish to ensure the liquid is evenly spread throughout. 

7) Bake in middle of oven for about 45 minutes or until golden.  Enjoy all week! 

Roasted Garlic and Soy Asian Salad Dressing

I have been trying to come up with different ideas for the Mason Jar Salads so that we don't get tired of them.  I thought an Asian style dressing might be a great idea for a veggie based salad.  I looked around at different recipes and finally settled on trying this one from Eating Well.  If you don't know me, I must admit that my decision was based solely on the amount of garlic used in the recipe.  I figured with this much garlic it has to be great... and it is! I think this would also be a great dipping sauce for veggies and chicken as well! My version is below, with a few small changes. 

Roasted Garlic and Soy Asian Salad Dressing

Garlic after roasting  *mine is a little burned as I
did not have any aluminum foil.  It turned out just fine
but I am sure would be better covered

What you Need:
- 1 head of garlic
- 4 Tablespoons of Olive Oil 
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons of lime juice
- 2 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon of rice vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon of low-sodium soy sauce
- Freshly ground pepper to taste 

**Yields about 3/4 of a cup
















Final product

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rub excess
papery skin off of garlic but leave all the gloves together. Slice off tip of head in order to expose the top of the cloves. Place the garlic on a small piece of foil and drizzle with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil. Wrap in the foil and place in a baking dish. Bake in the oven for about 45-60 minutes. Unwrap and let cool slightly.

2) Squeeze the garlic bulb into a food processor or a blender.  You will want to discard the skin but the cloves should be so soft that when you squeeze they slide right out.  Make sure to get all of them as some may be smaller than others. Add the remaining ingredients (Only 3 Tablespoons of olive oil now as you used one to season the garlic) and process until well blended. 

BBQ Chicken Pizza

We absolutely love this! So easy and tasty! 

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:
-Slow Cooked BBQ Chicken (recipe found here). I use 1 large breast for the whole piza. 
           *If you are in a rush you can always bake the chicken with some BBQ sauce.  If you do this, I would use a little more BBQ sauce on the actual pizza as as the flavor in the chicken won't be as strong as when slow cooked. 
- 1/4 cup of extra BBQ sauce.  I use Sweet Baby Ray's
-About half a red onion, sliced thinly
-About 2 Tablespoons of cilantro, minced 
-Whole Wheat Pizza Crust (Pillsbury has a great Artisan Style if you don't want to make your own). 
-About 1/4 cup of crumbled Blue Cheese or Gorgonzola
-About 1/2 cup of Mozzarella or a shredded cheese blend. 
**If you aren't a fan of the Blue Cheese, just omit this topping and use a little extra of a the cheese of your choosing.  
**I think it is important to remember not to cover the whole thing with layers of cheese.  You really don't need all that much to have great flavor! 

Directions:
-Preheat over to 375 and spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray. Roll out crust onto sheet. I tend to like it thinner but you can play around and see what you prefer. 

-Bake crust by itself for about 6-8 minutes.  Remove from over.  Using a spoon layer a very thin layer of BBQ sauce on partially cooked dough.  Next layer the chicken evenly on top of sauce.  Layer onion slices evenly on top of chicken.  Sprinkle evenly with all cheeses.  Lastly, sprinkle mixed cilantro on top. 

-Bake on middle rack of over for about 12-15 minutes depending on oven.  Chicken has already been cooked and crust has been partially cooked so you are really just wanted to let the crust finish up and cheese to melt. 

**This makes about 10 medium sized pieces of square pizza. You could also use a pizza stone for a more traditional look. 

Skinny Enchiladas

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and knew it would be a hit at our house.  I also think next time I might try to turn it into a vegetarian dish. You can find the original recipe here.  My version (although it is not very different) is below.  I think the best thing about this dish was the surprisingly quick prep time! Additionally, I read it freezes well so would be a good thing to whip together one night while you are already cooking to save yourself the fuss a night you will be more busy! 

Skinny Enchiladas 
 

*yields about 8-10 servings.

*approximately 7 weight watchers points per serving (will be different depending on how many layers you make)

Ingredients:

-Two chicken breast, cooked with taco seasoning and shredded 

-1 can of diced tomatoes

-1 small can enchilada sauce (about 3/4 cup) *I like the green

-1/2 cup of low fat cottage cheese

-1 can of corn (14 oz)

-1 can of black beans (14 oz)

-6 High fiber small tortillas

-1 cup of vegetable broth

-1.5-2 cups of shredded mexican blend cheese

Optional:

-Black Olives

-Sour cream

-Green Onion

 

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 375 and spray casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.

2) In a medium bowl mix chicken with first 4 ingredients   **In order to get a good consistency with the cottage cheese I used an immersion blender to smooth it out.  If you do not have an immersion blender I would recommend using half cottage cheese and half softened low fat cream cheese. 

 

3) In a separate small bowl, mix the corn and black beans together.

 

4) Pour the vegetable broth in a shallow bowl and soak tortilla shell one by one in broth (just like you are making french toast).  Place two of the broth soaked tortillas in the bottom of the casserole dish. You will layer the chicken mixture on top and then the corn and black beans mixture  Next, layer 2 more tortillas on top and continue to layer.  **I used 6 tortillas total and ended with the top being one layer of tortillas. 

 

5) When done layering sprinkle shredded cheese on top.  Place in over and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until bubbly.  

 

6)  If you desire to serve with any of the optional ingredients then place on each serving once the casserole has been removed from the over and sliced. 

Oat Flour Pancakes

I have a personal goal to try to start making my own bread.  This isn't working out well as I keep forgetting that is my goal and buying bread when I go shopping.  I decided I could at least make a transition from white flour with little effort.  Last time I was shopping I bought some Oat Flour and have been trying to test it out here and there.  For brunch on Sunday we thought Pancakes sounded like a good idea as we had been working out hard all week.
Below is a recipe for Pancakes using Oat Flour.  I will say that you can tell a difference, to me they are a little more dense, but they were really good and definitely a recipe worth ditching the white flour.

 

Oat Flour Pancakes

Ingredients:

-1 cup of Oat Flour

-1/4 cup of Egg Beaters

-1 cup of Almond Milk

-4 Tablespoons of melted butter

-1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

-1 Tablespoon of Organic sugar

-sprinkle of salt 

Directions:

1) Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl.

2) Slowly whisk in the wet ingredients into your dry mixture. Whisk until well blended. 

 

3) Using a ladle, pour batter in small circles onto a greased griddle.  I like to do small to medium sized pancakes but will work well for larger ones as well. Wait until you see air bubbles forming before you flip pancake over.  

**This recipe will make about 8 medium sized pancakes.  This recipe will double easily if cooking for a crowd. 

 

**If you make medium sized pancakes this recipe comes out to where each pancake is 2 Weight Watchers points.

**Pictured with Egg Beaters scrambled with Kale and thinly sliced turkey  

Hot and Sour Soup

Hot and Sour Soup

- 1 cup of mushrooms of your choice, cleaned and sliced. 
- 32 oz. of low sodium vegetable broth
- 1 1/4 cups of water, divided
- 1 Tablespoon of minced (peeled) fresh ginger
- 1 Tablespoon of minced garlic
- 1/2 cup of rice vinegar
- 3 Tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 carton of extra firm tofu, cut into cubes
- 2 1/2 Tablespoons of corn starch
- 1/2 cup of chopped green onions
- 1/4 cup cilantro, minced
- 3 teaspoons dark sesame oil, divided
- 1 Tablespoon to 1/4 cup of Sriracha 
- 1/2 cup of bamboo shoots (I buy canned already sliced)

1) Heat 2 teaspoons of sesame oil over medium heat.  Saute mushrooms and tofu until tofu is browned and mushrooms are becoming soft. 


2)  In your soup pot add vegetable broth and 2 cups of water and bring to medium heat.  Add ginger and garlic, and bring to a boil.  Add mushrooms and tofu, reduce heat and let simmer for about 3-5 minutes.  Add vinegar, soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and sriracha and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, and let simmer for about 3-5 minutes. *** I love this to be a hot soup and use lots of sriracha.  I recommend adding it in by the Tablespoon until you reach desired level of heat.  It would work out to just add 1 Tablespoon here and then at the very end add more until you reach the level of heat for which you are aiming.

3)  In a separate small bowl whisk together corn starch and remaining water (1/4 cup).  Slowly pour into soup and continue to stir.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes.  The soup will start to thicken during these 5 minutes and you should stir occasionally during that time.

4) Remove from heat and stir in green onions and cilantro.  Serve.  You can let the soup continue to simmer at this point until you ready to eat.  This recipe makes a large amount of soup.  We like to made the whole recipe and then have it for leftovers during the week.  If you aren't interested in that, this recipe cuts in half very easily.

Tomato Mozzarella and Basil Flat Bread

Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Flat Bread

What you need:

- Wheat crust 

- Fresh Mozzarella Cheese

-2-3 Roma Tomatoes 

-6-8 Fresh Basil Leaves 

-2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil 

-Salt/Pepper to taste

-2 large garlic cloves

Directions:
1) Preheat over to 350 degrees.  On a greased cookie sheet roll out pizza crust evenly.  For the flat bread, spread out the crust pretty thin.  If you like more of a traditional style then leave the crust about1/2 inch thick.  

      *I am working on a recipe for wheat crust but for now we used Pillsbury Artisan Whole Wheat Crust

2) Drizzle crust with 1-2 Tablespoons of the Olive Oil. Bake the crust for abut 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven.

3) Slice tomatoes and layer evenly over the crust.  Use the amount you desire.  I tend to like lots of tomatoes, but others like them more spread apart.  Cut the fresh mozzarella into chunck or slices and layer evenly over crust.  Stack basil leaves together and roll up into a cigar shape.  Slice in order to create small ribbons of basil.  Sprinkle evenly over crust.  I like to then sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

      *I also like to use red chilli flakes

 

4) Slide flat bread in over and back for an additional 12-17 minute or until crust in golden and cheese is melted. Enjoy!