Back To School

Today is a momentous day in our home... Evan is starting his 3rd and FINAL year of law school!! I can't believe that he is almost finished! The past 2 years have literally flown by (for me, at least)! :)

But with the beginning of the school year comes a lot of busyness! It seems that when school starts back, EVERYTHING starts back! I know that there are lots of nights coming up that I will need to cook dinner but I will either be pressed for time or too exhausted from the busy schedule to spend a lot of time working on dinner! I know that the "school year" can be crazy for so many families so I thought I would share a few ways that I have found to get dinner on the table with a lot of help from the store and very little work!

Here are three of my favorite "cheat dinners"!

1. Tortellini with Pesto-

I buy fresh Buitoni Three Cheese Tortellini and Buitoni Pesto with Basil. Simply boil the pasta until it is tender, drain and toss with the pesto. SO fast and SO delicious!!!

2. Sloppy Joes-

Haha Don't laugh! We LOVE sloppy joes!! I buy the McCormick Sloppy Joe seasoning packet. On the back of the packet, it gives you two choices of how to prepare the sloppy joes... I always choose to prepare them with one can of tomato sauce instead of the tomato paste/water combo because I prefer a more savory flavor and tomato paste is sweet. I also add a few dashes of hot sauce to my sloppy joe mixture and put a slice of American cheese on the hot sandwich! YUM! I like to serve these with sweet potato fries!

3. Dirty Rice-

I LOVE Zatarain's Dirty Rice mix. It's so easy to make... you just have to follow the directions on the box! haha I usually serve it with 2 or 3 different veggies to brighten up the plate!

Cooking (without cheating) is always my first choice but we all know that sometimes that just isn't practical! Hopefully some of these ideas will be helpful to you on your extra busy "school year" nights!

Now it's your turn to help us all out!! What are your go to "cheat dinners"?

Tips For Healthier Cooking

I don't believe in diets. I have tried every single diet that you can think of and I always get the same two results:

1. a constant bad mood

2. gaining back every single pound I lost once the diet is over

So what's my solution? I try to live a healthy lifestyle and I don't deny myself the foods that I love. The easiest way that I have found to do this is by simply substituting a few ingredients in every recipe that I cook in order to lower the calories in each meal. For example, I always buy skim milk, low fat sour cream, low fat cream cheese, 2% shredded cheddar cheese, turkey bacon, reduced fat syrup, reduced fat sausage, whole grain bread, etc. I find that when I use reduced fat ingredients to cook with, I don't notice a difference in flavor but I do notice a difference in my waistline. However, I am not super strict about these rules... if I try a lower fat version of something and I don't like it, I don't buy it again. I rarely buy fat free ingredients because I feel like they don't taste the same. I use full fat ingredients when I am cooking for company and when I am baking. I simply cut where I can and over time, it makes a difference.

Here are a few of my favorite substitutes:

Laura's Lean Beef:

I use Laura's every single time I use ground beef in my cooking. They have 4% fat and 8% fat available and I usually choose the 8% fat, especially if I am making hamburgers, because the tiny bit of extra fat helps the meat to hold together.

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter- Spray:

I use spray butter for EVERYTHING. It's a delicacy at our house. Basically, any time you would throw a pat of butter on something (veggies, bread, pasta, etc.), I use spray butter instead. And let's be honest, I usually don't use the spray top. I usually take the top off and pour a little butter on my food!! haha I may turn 0 calories into 20 calories or so... but that's still basically nothing, right? :)

Splenda:

Our biggest use for Splenda is to sweeten our coffee and tea but we also use it for several other things. I don't typically cook with Splenda, although I have before. Basically, if we ever feel the need to sprinkle sugar on something, we use Splenda.

Frozen Yogurt:

I don't really like low fat ice cream but I love frozen yogurt and it is naturally low fat! Every single time we buy "ice cream", we get frozen yogurt!

Speaking of frozen yogurt, I found a recipe today that uses frozen yogurt and it just so happens that it is a recipe for one of my favorite things!! Every night... usually right after dinner... I hear the song, "It's a Small World After All" and when I look out my window, this is what I see:

and immediately, this is what I crave:

So I found a version of this delightful treat that will keep me from being the only adult chasing the ice cream truck and will also keep me from eating the extra calories in the ice cream truck's version of this treat:

Strawberry-Shortcake Parfait Pops

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

1 1/2 cups Special K Red Berries cereal

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

3/4 cup vanilla frozen yogurt, slightly softened

3/4 cup strawberry sorbet, slightly softened

Directions:

Spray the insides of six 3-ounce paper cups with cooking spray. Pulse the cereal and coconut in a food processor until coarsely ground. Put about 1 T. cereal mixture in the bottom of each cup and top with 1 T. frozen yogurt. Add 2 T. sorbet and press into the cup, then pack in another T. frozen yogurt and sprinkle with more cereal mixture. Insert a wooden stick into the center of each pop and freeze until hard, at least 4 hours. Before serving, snip the paper cup and peel it off.

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What are some of your favorite low fat substitutes?