August Recipe Roundup

I've been trying A LOT of new recipes lately, so much so my parents are referring to me as their personal live-in chef haha! I have always loved cooking, it's so relaxing for me and I've had fun lately trying to find healthier recipes that actually taste good. With all that being said, I'd like to start a new series on this blog where I put together some of the new recipes I tried over the month and let you all know the good, the bad, and if Pinterest recipes are really all they're cracked up to be (thank you besties Ariel and Jackie for this idea)!

Healthy Banana Pancakes

 

First off, I have seen this recipe probably a million times all over the place because it's so simple but I feel like I never have ripe bananas lying around lol (and I also don't generally like pancakes/sweet breakfast, don't hate me)! Earlier this month on a Saturday morning, I decided to whip these up as a treat: two eggs, one ripe banana, and a little cinnamon. Topped mine off with fresh fruit and sugar free syrup, plus Applegate uncured turkey bacon (my fave)! As I mentioned in a post a while back, I've been following the Weight Watchers program so for those wondering this whole meal was 6 SP's (4sp for just the pancakes).

Garlic Shrimp in Coconut Milk, Tomatoes and Cilantro

I mentioned this recipe in my last Fridays post but OMG, I'm serious you have to try it. I made it twice this month and the whole family loved it! I added to the recipe half a chopped white onion and green bell pepper instead of red but followed the Skinny Taste recipe pretty closely. I served it over basmati brown rice from the rice cooker (3sp for 1/2 cup) and the recipe itself is 5sp for 1 1/2 cups. Delicious if you love shrimp and something a little spicy!

Cauliflower Fried Rice

Another recipe I've seen on Pinterest time and time again but finally made it this month! I cheated and bought cauliflower already "riced" at publix on bogo but who can blame me when my food processor is a postage stamp in comparison to the huge ones you're supposed to use. I made this as a light dinner/side dish one weekend and had tons of leftovers, next time I'd love to add chicken or shimp. 100% guilt free chinese food at 2sp per serving! The sesame oil is what really gives it that take-out flavor so make sure to follow that part of the recipe.

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

I loosely followed this recipe for the lasagna but used plain ground turkey cooked with italian spices, crushed red pepper, garlic, and onion instead of the ground turkey sausage and omitted the Parmesan since I didn't have any on hand. I also used the innards of 2 spaghetti squash. I always get asked by friends how I cook my spaghetti squash so here it goes: I poke a few holes in the squash with a fork or knife and microwave it for about 5 minutes which will make the squash much easier to cut in half and remove seeds (careful because it's really hot!), then I place the halved squash face down in a baking dish with about a half inch of water in the bottom and bake at 400 degrees for 45 min to an hour and use a fork to scoop out the innards. Voila, steamed spaghetti squash! Anyways, this recipe was so good and honestly made even better leftovers. I calculated points using the weight watchers app and the whole pan made 8 servings which were 7sp each and so filling!

Taco Stuffed Zucchini Boats

And my final recipe was made last night! Stuck to the recipe, but I used 3 zucchini's instead of 4 and used a whole red bell pepper because I just really love peppers. These kind of took a lot of work to make but I really loved them! I probably doubled all the spices in the recipe too because they just didn't seem flavorful enough. I topped mine with fresh salsa and a tablespoon of greek yogurt (if you haven't tried this as a replacement for sour cream you're really missing out) and served with my mom's delicious black beans (3sp for 1/2 cup). Since I didn't follow the recipe exactly, I recalculated the points and it came out to 5sp for one zucchini boat. 

Let me know in the comments, what new recipes have you been cooking this month?

P.S. do you sense a theme? I'm clearly obsessed with Skinny Taste #noshame and the shrimp recipe was hands down my favorite from the month!