Recipe: Stir Fry and Spicy Tuna Patties

I sure do love a good stir fry. I put two cups of frozen stir fry veggies and one cup of frozen broccoli into a pan with 1/4 cup water, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1/2 tablespoon ground ginger, and 1 teaspoon granulated garlic. I cooked it until the water was pretty much evaporated. To make the patties, I drained a can of chunk light tuna in water, added 1 tablespoon of sour cream, a dash of tabasco sauce, and about 1 tablespoon dried chopped onion (as a binder). I gently shaped the mixture into four round patties and browned the outsides on a pan with cooking spray. They probably would have held together better if I had actually used oil to fry them, but I'm trying to be healthy here :)

Recipe: Bean "Meatballs" and Gravy

This turned out so good. I'm a total meat-and-potatoes gal, but it's not the most conducive diet to getting healthy. This totally hit the spot though!

I used the last of my bean "meatballs" and made 1/3 cup of brown gravy using 1 tablespoon of dry brown gravy mix. I used instant mashed potatoes to make a single serving. Instead of using butter and milk, I just made them with water. But I added garlic salt, chives, and rosemary to the water while I was heating it up and it made for some deliciously fragrant and savory potatoes, so I didn't even really miss the dairy. I heated up some canned green beans (they really aren't as good as fresh, but they're much cheaper and you can have them all year around), which I seasoned with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Oh, and you can make this whole dish from food storage items! See, food storage doesn't have to taste bland! Really, this dinner was delicious and it's definitely going to be made again!

Recipe: Spicy Bean "Meatballs"

I used a food processor to mash up one rinsed and drained can of black beans with oregano, thyme, garlic salt, dried minced onion, sea salt, fresh pepper, crushed red pepper, and fennel seeds. I pulsed until everything was combined well, but it still had some bean intact to give it more texture. Form the mixture into balls (about the size of a ping pong ball) -- I got 9 out of this. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet. Cook bean meatballs, browning on all sides.

The texture is definitely a lot softer than a traditional meatball, but you can still pack some great flavor in these and (BONUS!) it was made entirely from things that you can have in your food storage!

Squash Spaghetti and Bean Meatballs

"Meatball" Sandwich

"Meatballs" and Gravy

Recipe: Canned Garden Trio

I'm running low on vegetables, but wanted to have them for dinner, so I decided to see if I could use some of the hundreds of canned foods we have in our pantry. I pulled out green beans, sweet yellow corn, and black eyed peas -- all things you could potentially grow in a garden if you had a green thumb. Which I don't. So I have to settle with a canned garden instead. Anyway, I don't usually experiment with seasonings (I'm more of a follow-the-recipe-baker kinda gal), but I decided to give it a go. I guess this is technically three mini recipes that I prepared for the same dish.

Savory Green Beans
I seasoned the green beans with rosemary, garlic salt, and dried chopped onion. I wish I hadn't cooked them for quite so long, since they lost their natural, vibrant color (which would have made this dish look really pretty).

Sweet and Sour Corn
I seasoned the sweet corn with lemon pepper.

Spicy Black Eyed Peas
I seasoned the black eyed peas with cumin, garlic salt, garlic powder, paprika, ground red pepper, thyme, sea salt, fresh cracked pepper, ground white pepper, and a dash of tabasco sauce. I served it with a dollop of sour cream.

I was actually really pleased with the result. They were each really delicious and balanced each other out very nicely. The plates I used in the picture were entirely impractical, but so much prettier than the compartmentalized plastic plate I ended up eating off of. I ended up having 1 cup of each which made the meal about 400 calories (not including sour cream, but I didn't add too much of it).

Recipe: Teriyaki Salmon and Chop Suey

My grandparents sent us home with lots of leftovers, which I want to use up before they go bad. But I get tired of eating the same thing over and over, so I wanted to use the leftovers to make something else. So what I came up with was a bed of white rice (1/2 cup), surrounded by 1 cup of vegetable chop suey, topped with 2oz canned pink salmon, and drizzled with teriyaki sauce. Fresh salmon would have been amazing, but in addition to losing weight, I'm trying to be better about budgeting and saving money. So canned salmon it was. I've had a few cans of this sitting in the pantry, and have never really known what to do with it. Like I said, fresh salmon would have been wonderful, but this was pretty dang good too. It wasn't as visually stunning as it could have been with a nice grilled salmon fillet on top, but the taste was all there. It came out to about 250 calories (I thought it would be more) so I decided to make myself a second plate. It was delicious, satisfying, and filling. Since I don't actually know how to make chop suey, I'll just make stir fry veggies next time. And there will definitely be a next time. And next time I'd love to make it with brown rice (the white rice was leftovers, as was the chop suey). And have more vegetables. After eating this tonight, I've been craving vegetables. Do you know how wonderful it feels to actually crave vegetables? This is definitely something new to me, and I'm totally stoked because it means my body is growing accustomed to being healthy!