English Muffin & Fresh Fruit


1 Hearty Grains, 100% Whole Wheat English Muffin- 130 Calories
1 Tbsp Smuckers Strawberry Jelly- 50 Calories
1 C. Tropicana Orange Juice- 110 Calories
1 Medium Banana (Sliced)- 105 Calories
4 0z Cantaloupe (Sliced)- 39 Calories

Total: 434

You can cut calories by drinking water instead of orange juice and/or by skipping the Jelly and using the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spray. Sure was tasty!

Italian Sausage & Veggie Pasta

Pasta: Serves 2
Prep time: 30 - 40 min

• 2 C Ronzoni Smart Taste Rotini pasta- 180 Calories per cup
  
• 2 Turkey Sausage Links- 160 Calories each
  
• 1 1/2 C Spaghetti Sauce (We used Ragu: Tomato Garlic & Onion)- 100 Calories per 3/4 C
• 1 Medium Zucchini (or 1 C chopped)- 10 Calories per 1/2 cup
  
• Optional: Mushrooms (you can also use a sauce that has mushrooms)
  

Total: 450 Calories

1. Spray a frying pan with cooking spray and cook sausage links on high until cooked all the way through (we decided we're going to try the George Foreman next time).
   
2. Slice zucchini and then chop slices in fourths. Spray another pan with cooking spray and cook them on high until they are tender (DON'T over cook). I also like to add a little lemon juice to mine when it's done.
3. Place your spaghetti sauce into a pan and add zucchini and let it simmer. You can also add the sausage if you'd like or you can place it on top of the pasta.
   
4. Boil noodles (don't add oil to water it just adds more calories! Just use a dash of salt.)
5. Dish and serve!
   

Salad

• 1 C Romaine Lettuce- 8 Calories
• 1 Roma Tomato- 10 Calories
• 2 Tbsp Kraft Caesar Vinaigrette w/Parmesan- 70 Calories (I usually use less than 2 Tbsp)
  

Total: 88 Calories

Meal Total: 538

Tomorrow: Spicy (or non-spicy) Oriental Stir Fry

Turkey, Crackers & Cheese

• 6 Brenton Original Crackers- 160 Calories
• 6 Slices of Oscar Mayer Oven Roasted Turkey Breast (shaved)- 45 Calories
• 1 Light Frigo String Cheese- 60 Calories
  
• 20 Baby Carrots- 35 Calories
  
• 1 Medium Peach- 38 Calories

Total: 338 Calories

Sometimes I use bread with mustard only instead of crackers but I get sick of sandwiches all the time so the crackers are a nice change. If you use Orowheat 100% Whole Wheat bread just add 40 calories to the total (100 calories a slice) and you still have an awesome lunch!

Special K & Bananas

• 1 1/3 C Special K- 160 Calories
• 1 C 1% Milk- 100 Calories (I usually use skim but 1% was on sale)
• 1 Medium Banana- 105 calories (I don't always slice the whole thing but I eat it all)
• 1 Splenda packet- O caloires (personal preference, you can eat it with out sweetener or use sugar but that will add calories.)

Total- 365 Calories

I fell in love with Special K about two years ago when I was working out with my trainer. It's a guilt free cereal with lots of good stuff. You can add bananas, strawberries, blue berries, etc to make it more fun or you can eat it plain. It's great for a quick breakfast and the family size box lasts forever.

Turkey-Avocado Melt

(Disclaimer: This is not an actual picture of what I made but recipes are always better with pictures!)

2 Slices Orowheat 100% Whole Wheat Bread- 200 Calories

1 Slice Pepper Jack Cheese- 80 Calories
6 Slices Oscar Mayer Oven Roasted Turkey (Thin Slice)- 45 Calories
1/4- Sliced Avocado- 60 Calories

Served with 4 oz of Cantaloupe sliced- 36 calories

Total: 421 Calories

I coated the outside of the bread with "I Can't Believe it's not Butter" spray (0 calories) and cooked them on the George Foreman Grill. Perfect summer dinner and REALLY delicious and filling according to Bud the official "taste tester". You can add other things to the sandwich such as tomatoes and or cucumbers if you don't want to toast it and you can serve it with any fruit of choice. Enjoy!

Tomorrow: Italian (Turkey) Sausage & Veggie Pasta

Welcome!

Welcome to Delicious & Nutritious! I've been wanting to start this blog for a long time and I've finally done it. Eating healthy is something that has become really important to me over the last few years. I would by no stretch of the imagination call myself a health nut but I have learned a lot about food as I've struggled to lose weight and reach my goals. I always knew that "diet" was about eating less and exercising more but for some reason that never really clicked. To me that just meant exercise a lot and eat as little as possible. Well folks...I like food WAY too much so that never worked for me. Long story short I knew I needed to get educated. So I joined a gym and invested in a personal trainer (best investment I've ever made by the way). Maybe I was just lucky but I think I got the best guy they had. He pushed me hard and helped me to realize that meeting my goals was possible as long as I wanted it bad enough. But even more important he taught me about the importance of nutrition. I came to understand that being healthy is about making good food choices not about depriving yourself of food or eating what you hate just because you think that it's good for you. It's about eating the food you enjoy in moderation and paring foods together correctly so that you have a well balanced meal so that you stay satisfied and have energy to do the things that you enjoy doing.

So now to the point...I really enjoy cooking but I don't get to spend a lot of time in the kitchen since I work full-time so I am always looking for meals that are quick, easy and healthy. I go online a lot looking for recipes but often get discouraged because the "quick easy meal" ideas out there are generally high in calories, use foods I don't enjoy, require ingredients I don't normally buy or are complicated to prepare. Hence the reason I decided to start this blog. I wanted to share some of the recipes I have found that are quick, easy, delicious and nutritious. But I don't want to have all the fun and that's where all of you come in. I invite all of you to share your recipes and meal ideas too. If you want to submit something to be posted send it to the email listed on the sidebar and I will review and post it. But first you have to do your homework...if you don't know how many calories are in your recipe use my favorite website (also in the sidebar) called CalorieKing to find out how many calories are in each ingredient and then add them up, divide by the number of servings and WALA! You know your total. Not only will this make it easier for me to post your recipes but you will also learn a lot about what you've been eating. I was shocked when I first started doing this. I realized that even pairing a lot of good, healthy foods together can cause a meal to be high in calories. So regardless of where you are in life, losing or maintaining, I hope this can be a good resource to get ideas. So happy cooking!

Note: If you find your recipe online please provide the link so that I can make a reference to it in your post. Thanks!