Sun-Dried Tomato Meatloaf

I'm sure you could probably use more ground turkey in this, but I pretty much stuck to the recipe (except adding ground turkey sausage instead). Oh, and I cut back on the liquid just a touch as I thought it would be too wet. Although, I was surprised when I started mixing it that it really wasn't. So you could probably double the milk and get away with it. The only thing I might have added was a little chopped garlic. For the version in the picture I cooked two servings in a meatloaf pan (two piece that allows you to drain the fat easily). That's why it's so flat as the pan would likely have taken 6 servings easily.

3 pounds lean ground beef (85% used)
1 pound hot italian turkey sausage (500g package)
2 small onions chopped (8oz used)
2 cups instant potato flakes (150g)
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups beef broth
1/2 cup milk (could probably use the full cup)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp italian seasonings
6 Tb chopped sun-dried tomatoes, not oil packed (used 50g)

Mix the beef and sausage together. Add in the rest of the ingredients, mixing well. Divide into portions and freeze (I use plastic sandwich bags). I basically weighed the ingredients as I went and totaled them up, dividing it into 12 servings. For me this was 260g per serving.

To cook, thaw overnight in fridge, press into an appropriate pan and bake uncovered at 350F for an hour. If possible, drain the fat off after about 45 minutes. I usually brush a little ketchup over the top as a glaze.

Calories (per 1/12th): 410 cals (24g fat, 34g protein, 14g carbs)

Citrus Loaf

I don't usually share the recipes for my high-protein bread baking attempts. Mainly because they don't usually turn out as well. This is meant to be a lemon loaf, but I use mixed dried peel. For the purposes of the calorie count I used 3oz of raw peel. What I do is peel oranges, lemons, and/or grapefruit - bring to a boil in water, then dehydrate them. The original recipe called simply for peel.

Layer the following into breadmaker (in order, roughly):

1-3/4 cups water
2-1/4 tsp oil
2-1/4 tsp salt
15 oz white flour
4 oz soy flour
2.5 oz unflavoured protein powder (283 cals, 54g protein, 5g carbs, 6g fat)
1 oz vital wheat gluten
1 oz skim milk powder
1.5 oz sugar
1 oz dried citrus peel
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp cardamom
3 tsp yeast (I think it was quick rise)

I used the dough cycle only, lifting it out before the first rise (mainly because it rises too high in the machine). Put into greased bowl (I use canola oil spray), cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. I usually turn the oven on briefly as our kitchen is never warm enough to give a good rise. This was about an hour.

Turn out onto floured surface and sprinkle with a little flour (weighed out another ounce, but only used a little over half). Punch down, knead briefly, divide into two loaves and place into baking pans. Cover and let rise another 30-40 mins. Bake at 350F until ready (took about 22 mins today). Loaves should be brown on top and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

This made 2 x 20oz loaves (so 1.25 pounds).

Total calories: 2737 cals, 29% protein, 9% fat, 62% carbs

per ounce: 68 cals, 5g protein, .67g fat, 10.5g carbs

Turkey/Beef Minestrone

This ended up making a lower calorie/lower protein serving than I had expected. I thinned it down with another 8 cups of beef broth when it was made (as it really was pretty thick). Next time I might divide it first, adding the beef broth, if needed, when reheating. I find big pots of soup hard to divide, so I usually just do it by weight. This made 33 x 12oz servings.

1-3/4 lbs lean ground beef
2 lbs ground turkey
4 medium onions, chopped (14.7oz)
2 cups celery, chopped (10.3oz)
2 cups carrots, chopped (9oz)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 28oz cans chopped tomatoes
2 19oz cans kidney beans
2 14oz cans baked beans
16-24oz beef stock and/or broth (24 used)
6-8 cups shredded cabbage (24oz)
6oz mixed small pasta

Brown beef and turkey in large stock pot, adding a little stock if needed. Add onions, celery and carrots and cook until softened. Add in garlic, tomatoes, kidney beans and at least half of the stock. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmering for 60 minutes.

Turn heat up. Bring back to a boil and add baked beans, cabbage, pasta, and more stock. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for another 30 minutes, until pasta is cooked.

Total calories: 6485 (32% protein, 34% carbs, 6% fiber, 28% fat)

per 12oz serving: 197 cals (16g protein, 20g carbs, 4g fiber, 6g fat)

Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

This is an old favourite that I haven't made in a while. For my current plan it's a little low in protein, but not too bad. It makes up for it by being low in calories. I also think it would be a really nice appetizer, although I've never served it as such. The baby bella mushrooms are simply small portabella mushrooms, usually 6 to 8 in a 1-lb package. It works nicer with bigger mushrooms, but this is what Costco sells (better quality and price than the local grocery store). I've got into the habit of putting weights into recipes, so I'm adding them in brackets at the end of each line.

16-oz package baby bella mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped (3.5oz)
1 clove garlic, chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped (2.5oz)
120g can of crabmeat, drained (little over 4oz)
2oz grated cheese blend (~100 cals/oz)
1 Tb bread crumbs
2 Tb parmesan cheese
2 Tb oil

Clean mushrooms, removing stems and most of the gills. Chop stems and reserve for filling.

Preheat oven to 400F. Place mushrooms (gill side up) on lined baking sheet. Brush lightly with some of the oil and seasonings of choice. Sometimes it's salt, pepper and garlic powder. Tonight I used a touch of chili powder with pepper and salt. Bake for 20 mins and remove from oven. Set aside.

While mushrooms are cooking heat remaining oil in a skillet. Add in onions, celery and mushrooms and cook over high heat until onion is softened and slightly browned. Add in garlic and remove from heat. Let mixture cool slightly and mix in breadcrumbs, crabmeat, and grated cheese. I'll generally use whatever blend is handy, but tonight's choice was a Nacho blend (and why I used the chili powder).

Place mushrooms into an oven safe dish and top with filling, sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake until cheeses are melted (~15-20 mins, depends on how much you cooled the filling).

Total calories: 754 (49g protein, 39g carbs, 10g fiber, 47g fat)

Serves 2 as a main dish

Per serving: 377 calories (25g protein, 19g carbs, 5g fiber, 24g fat

It is a little skewed to higher fat, which is from the cheese. You could easily cut it back, however, it's really quite nice. And the overall calories are pretty low. I tend to serve this with a side of veggies as well. That makes it a pretty filling, still lower calorie meal.

Eye of Round Roast

The original recipe for this was for a 3-lb roast. You were to do 7 mins/pound for the first stage, and then turn the oven off. I read some of the comments on the site it came from, and made some adjustments to the seasonings. I would think that with a smaller roast you would have to go back closer to the original recipe. I didn't trim the small amount of fat until the meat was cooked (as the entry I used from my calorie counting program didn't have a 0 fat entry anyway).

1 eye of round roast (7-lbs used)
salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder

Preheat oven to 500F. Season the roast on all sides with the salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Place on a rack in a roasting pan, with a little liquid beneath it. Do not cover. Put roast in oven and reduce temperature to 475F. Cook at this temperature for 5-mins per pound (7 if a smaller roast). Reduce temperature to 200F and continue cooking for approximately 3 hours. Check internal temperature of the roast, cooking until 145F (this is medium rare).

Trim any remaining fat and wrap roast in aluminum foil and let cool. Putting it in the fridge overnight will make it easier to slice. Slice as thinly as possible, as thick pieces will be tougher. A 7 pound roast yielded just over 5 pounds of cooked beef. The pictured roast was about 143F when I took it out of the oven. The second time I went to 146F, which sliced up slightly better.

Cals: 1oz cooked - 53cals (19 fat, 34 protein)

Orange Pork

I wasn't sure that this was going to have a lot of taste, but served with the orange slices on top it was really quite nice. The recipe below is for two servings and cooked for 6 hours on low and came out perfectly. I used sirloin chops that had been trimmed of excess fat. If making a larger amount you might need to increase the cooking time.

1 Tb butter, melted
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried minced onion
2 tsp chopped garlic
2 Tb white wine
2 Tb orange juice
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp tabasco sauce (used generic hot sauce)
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 pound pork chops (recipe called for boneless center-cut)
1 navel orange, sliced

Melt butter in a dish or measuring cup. And remaining ingredients except the pork and the orange. Put the pork into the crockpot. Cover with orange slices and pour other ingredients over. Cook on low for 6 hours.

Just before serving, pour liquid out of crockpot, skim fat off (there really wasn't much) and thicken with a cornstarch solution. I did this in a glass dish in the microwave. I counted 1 tsp of cornstarch in the macro but didn't use it all. Serve pork chops with orange slices and sauce on top.


Calories (sauce/orange) per serving: 132 cals, 6g fat, 16g carbs, 3g fiber, 2g protein, 1g alcohol

Calories (pork) per serving: 322 cals, 13g fat, 48g protein

Note: I usually save the sauce ingredients in my calorie counter separately, then weigh the specific amount of pork used. ie. tonight it was just under a pound of meat.

Turkey Spaetzle Soup

Well, considering I've never made spaetzle before, the soup turned out fairly well. Normally I wouldn't recommend messing with a recipe that you've never made, but hey, why not? The recipe I found online for soy flour spaetzle was so far off though it almost turned into a disaster. The recipe called for 1 cup soy flour (which weighs ~4oz), 2 eggs, and 1 cup of milk. Once I worked in the eggs I knew there was no way that it needed a cup of flour, so I only added 1/2 cup. This was a mistake as probably 1/4-1/3 cup would have done. Anyway, I just added more soy flour and adjusted the recipe accordingly. The same with the veggies. I started with a head of celery and adjusted the onions and carrots to match. I estimated 24 cups of stock as I used homemade, quite concentrated stock. I added water to thin it down. I did not add salt as I had put some in the stock originally. You may wish to adjust the seasonings to taste.

24 cups turkey stock (start with 18 and add more if needed)
26 oz roasted turkey (again, this is what I had)
17 oz chopped onions
17 oz chopped celery
17 oz chopped carrots
28 oz can diced tomatoes
2 Tb chopped garlic
2 Tb dried basil
1 Tb dried rosemary
2 tsp black pepper
3 bay leaves

Bring above ingredients to a fast, rolling boil. Boil gently for 30 mins. Add:

3 pkgs edamame shelled (750 cals, 60g protein, 23g fat, 60g carbs, 30g fiber)

Mix together spaetzle ingredients:

6 oz soy flour (defatted used)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup 2% milk (skim would do)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper

This is where I'm completely guessing. I think it should be a medium to firm dough. I used a metal cheese grater to get the strands into the soup. Bring the soup back to a rolling boil. You kind of rub it and press it through at the same time. Here's a close-up of what they look like:



Cook for a few minutes longer. That's the best I can say. If you look at the above picture they float on top, although later they blended in more with the soup. You could probably chose to leave them out. I added them to boost the protein level, but I had enough pieces of turkey that it really didn't matter. However, they are an alternative to noodles (and 50% protein to boot).

Calories (total): 4715 cals (511g protein, 144g fat, 309g carbs, 97g fiber)

I divided it into portions by weight (12oz) to freeze. I ended up with 26 portions from the above. It's approximately 12 fl oz as well (ie. a decent sized portion).

Calories (12oz): 182 cals (20g protein, 6g fat, 12g carbs, 4g fiber)