Low Calorie, Low Fat and DELISH Chunky Potato Chowder

This soup is SOOO GOOD. I will make this, A LOT. Even Kayla loves it! I doubled the recipe so I could freeze some.
Its chunky, its meaty, its full of veggies and potatoes, its creamy, its delish!

8 oz 90% lean ground beef, ground raw turkey or ground raw chicken ( I used turkey)
2 cups skim milk
2 cups frozen diced hash brown potatoes
1 can reduced fat and sodium condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup frozen mixed veggies
2 tbs snipped dried tomato ( I omitted this because I forgot to search for this at the store)
1/2 tsp dried basil crushed

Cook and stir meat in large saucepan over med-high heat until brown. Drain fat. Stir milk, potatoes, soup, veggies. Bring to boil. Stir in tomato bits and basil. Reduce heat. Simmer covered about 5 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

New label

In my quest to lose weight, get fit and eat healthier and provide good, nutritous, wholesome meals for my family...I will be starting a new label of meals, Low Calorie meals.

You will soon be able to find all my low calorie meals by clicking on the 'Low Calorie'
label on the right hand side of my blog.

I'm excited for this and cant wait to start cooking!

I'm also, I think, going to do a small makeover on this blog.

Although, I wondering if I have enough readers here for a makeover to worth my time.

Any readers out there? Please leave me a comment!

Low Fat Low Calorie Chicken Salad- I made up!

Like I said in my last blog post, I been craving chicken salad but didnt want all the calories of the mayo in it. So I threw this together hoping it would turn out good, and it turned out better than good. It was GREAT!

1 large can chicken drained
1 cup red seedless grapes, all cut in half
salt and pepper to taste
fat free mayo to taste
green onion to taste

Mix all together, serve on wheat bread!

Ingredient Substitutions

So with my new diet and exercise I been looking at healthier meal alternatives. Today I decided to make chicken salad but was really highly against using mayo after reading the nutrition facts on the bottle.

So, I had some people give me helpful ideas about what to replace the mayo with in the chicken salad. Some website sites suggested oil. Ugh. With chicken salad? Really? No thanks. Someone else suggested dijonnaise, which I may have to try in the future. Another suggesting was to go to a health food store and get a soy based mayo which would be a good idea to try....if I didn't live on Guam where health food stores to my knowledge dont exist. Another suggestion was to mix plain yogurt with something, but not sure what.

I ended up just going with the plain old old fat free mayo with only 10 calories and 0 fat calories per serving AND cholesterol free, so cant beat that! My chicken salad turned out great. It will be lunch tomorrow too! And Yes, I will post the recipe...which really just came off the top my brain!

Here are some other helpful ingredient substitutions:
Buttermilk
Amount: 1 cup
Substitute: 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar plus enough regular milk to make 1 cup (allow to stand 5 minutes)
Flour, All-Purpose White Flour
Amount: 1 cup
Substitute: 1/2 cup whole wheat flour plus 1/2 cup all-purpose flour.
TIP: It's generally recommended that you replace no more than half the all-purpose white flour with whole wheat flour. Too much whole wheat flour in a recipe calling for all-purpose flour might result in a reduced volume and a heavier product.
Flour, Cake
Amount: 1 cup
Substitute: 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Garlic
Amount: 1 small clove
Substitute: 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Herbs, Fresh
Amount: 1 tablespoon, finely cut
Substitute:
- 1 teaspoon dried leaf herbs
- 1/2 teaspoon ground dried herbs
Lemon Zest (fresh grated lemon peel)
Amount: 1 teaspoon
Substitute: 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
Marshmallows, Miniature
Amount: 1 cup
Substitute: 10 large marshmallows
Mayonnaise (for use in salads and salad dressings)
Amount: 1 cup
Substitute:
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup yogurt
- 1 cup cottage cheese pureed in a blender
- Or use any of the above for part of the mayonnaise
Sugar, Confectioners' or Powdered
Amount: 1 cup
Substitute: 1 cup granulated sugar plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch; process in a food processor using the metal blade attachment until it's well blended and powdery.
Tomato Juice
Amount: 1 cup
Substitute: 1/2 cup tomato sauce plus 1/2 cup water
Tomato Soup
Amount: 10 3/4 ounce can
Substitute: 1 cup tomato sauce plus 1/4 cup water
Wine, Red
Amount: Any
Substitute: The same amount of grape juice or cranberry juice
Wine, White
Amount: Any
Substitute: The same amount of apple juice or white grape juice

Aggression Cookies

1 c. brown sugar
2 c oatmeal
1 c. flour
2/3 c. margarine or butter
2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. Place all ingredients into a bowl. Knead and play with this dough as long as you wish. The longer the dough is worked, the better the cookies are.
Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet, bake 12 minutes. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:
1/4 c. melted butter
2/3 c. sugar
1 egg
3/4 c. milk
1/4 tsp salt
2 c. flour
3/4 c. frozen blueberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Mix all ingredients except blueberries. Gently stir in blueberries. Spoon into muffin pans. Bake 20-25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.