Chipotle zucchini boats

Everyone who tried this recipe absolutely loved it!

Ingredients 

• 1 lb ground turkey 
• 1 lb ground beef 
• onion 
• garlic 
• poblano - diced
• zucchini 
• shredded cheese
• can of diced tomatoes - trader joes fire-roasted with green peppers
• chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped - as many as you want, 2 minimum 
• fresh cilantro, chopped 
• cumin
• oregano 
• smoked paprika 

optional 

• crema 

Directions

1. preheat to 400
2. halve and hollow zucchinis
3. spray with olive oil and bake at 400 for 20 min  
4. meanwhile, sautee the onions and poblano peppers with a little bit of olive oil 
5. once they are reasonably cooked down, add in the garlic - make sure it doesn't burn 
6. add in the ground meats
7. add in the chipotle peppers and diced tomatoes
8. season with salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, and smoked paprika 
9. fill zucchini boats with ground meat
10. sprinkle on cheese 
11. bake for 10 minutes at 400

Mini Zucchini Pizzas

Guilt Free Snackable Pizza

Pseudo Bagel Bites! Great snack for everyone, regardless or not if they want to eat healthy. I brought these to a girls night once and the girls loved it.

This is a great carb free, gluten free, and paleo excuse to snack on pizza. SOLD!

Ingredients

• Zucchini
• Homemade Marinara, or store bought
• Low Fat cheese of choice (Mozerella, Swiss, Parmesean, etc)
• olive oil in misto spray (optional)
• turkey pepperoni, cut into smaller pieces (optional)

Directions

1. Turn broiler on high
2. Slice zucchini into medallions or longer ovals, place on baking sheet lined with foil and broil for a couple minutes. Option two is to quickly saute in skillet on medium heat. (It's not entirely necessary to cook the zucchini medallions, so you can skip this step if you like)
3. Place a dollop of marinara sauce on the zucchini
4. Top with cheese
5. Broil for a few minutes or place in oven at 400 F

Notes:

If you do not have marinara sauce made, or any on hand

• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• ground celery seed
• salt and pepper
• little bit of cumin and paprika if you like

Cheesy Garlic Popcorn

Cheesy, Garlicy, Salty

I, for one, love garlic. That being said, the one thing I love more than garlic is cheese. Well, my go to seasoning on pretty much anything used to be garlic salt, but, I switched to garlic powder now that I know better. Garlic salt, although deviously delicious, is terrible for your body.

Anyways, once I started eating healthy, I started popping popcorn in brown paper bags. At this point I didn't really season much since I didn't know any better and hadn't really seen popcorn seasoned with anything other than butter and salt. One day I must have automatically just gone for the garlic powder and then had to roll with it. I ended up adding nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor and I added a touch of salt, because I am not a savage.

I freaking loved it. This is my go to popcorn recipe and now popcorn almost tastes weird without it.

My family sees me do it and thinks its kind of weird to put garlic on popcorn... but I'm not sure if they've tried it or not. Honestly, I haven't really made any effort to let them try some because I don't like to share my popcorn anyways!

The way I see it, is it's just more grown up popcorn. Gourmet maybe? Who cares, its good, I'm putting it on here for anyone who cares!

Okay so there are several easy methods to popping popcorn

• Brown paper bag

• Microwave popcorn maker: Joie (this is what I use now), Nordic Ware, Presto

• Air popper

• Stove top (not recommended since you have to use a lot of oil)

Easy peasy.

Ingredients:

• Popcorn
• Garlic Powder
• Nutritional Yeast
• Salt, easy on the salt there tiger
• Olive Oil, keep in mind we're trying to be healthy here! LIGHT sprays!
     -- or Pam

Directions:

1. Make popcorn, as mentioned above there are several different ways. If you have some sort of popcorn maker, then I'm sure you know the drill or have access to the instructions and measuring cups on the machine, etc
2. Brown paper bag:
• grab a handful or two and toss in the bag
• fold over brown paper bag a couple times (leave as much space for popping as possible)
• Put in the microwave for 2 minutes, or until you can't hear popping for 2 seconds!
3. Use Misto to spray olive oil lightly / spray Pam lightly (it doesn't really have zero calories!) 
4. Season with garlic liberally
5. Season with nutritional yeast moderately (it has more calories, fat, etc)
6. Season with salt LIGHTLY

Enjoy!

Cheesy Vegetable Tian

What is a tian you ask? Glad you did! It's basically the the most impressive easiness to deliciousness ratio ever.  A tian is a mix of vegetables that are roasted in a shallow dish (which is where it get's its name) and is usually severed with melted cheese/au gratin. The dish I mentioned is a cooking pot from France, but obviously, that's not what is important here..

So. My mom was pretty unimpressed with this as I was making it, and then was blown away by w how much she loved it. Sounds simple enough... cheese and vegetables, and well, maybe that's the beauty of it.

It's AMAZING. Eat it now.

Ingredients

• Garlic, finely minced 
• Onion, sliced into medallions with mandolin
• Zucchini, sliced into medallions with mandolin 
• Squash, sliced into medallions with mandolin
• Tomatoes on the vine, sliced into medallions with mandolin
• Parmesan Cheese
• Olive oil
• Ground Rosemary
• Italian seasoning

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Lightly pray the inside of a 2.2 Quart / 2 Liter baking dish with the Misto filled with olive oil
3. Randomly layer the vegetables on their side until the dish is full
4. Sprinkle the finely minced garlic all over. Make sure it gets everywhere - in between the slices, around the edges, etc. 
5. One more light spray of olive oil over the veggies
6. Sprinkle the ground rosemary, and Italian seasoning very liberally
7. Cover with Parmesan cheese, use as little as you can to make it as low calorie as possible
8. Season lightly one more time with Italian seasoning
9. Cover with aluminum foil, bake for 30 minutes (a tad less if making for meal prep). 
10. Optional to bake uncovered for another 15 - 20 minutes but not recommended if making meal prep.