Healthy Spicy Jambalaya!

If you’ve ever had good Jambalaya then you know how amazing it can be! I mean what is better than shrimp, sausage and chicken all in one bowl? Uh..nothing. These are 3 of my favourite things so when I went out for dinner the other night I knew what I was ordering! Plus I love everything spicy..so that was just the cherry on top of the cake. After devouring my delicious meal, I knew I had to try and re-create this awesome dish at home..because well, let’s just say the restaurant version could not exactly be considered “healthy”. So I went to work in the kitchen and created this little masterpiece! And although it took a little more work, it was totally worth it and turned out better than I had expected! I hope you enjoy this dinner for one as much as I did!

Ingredients:

-1/2 tbsp olive oil

-5 Jumbo shrimp, cooked, peeled, deveined and thawed

-1 cooked sweet italian turkey sausage or spicy italian turkey sausage sliced (I used the maple leaf sweet italian brand)

-1.5 ounces of barbecue or blacked chicken chopped into bite sized pieces (or you could sub regular plain chicken!)

-1/4 of a large green pepper sliced thinly

-1/4 of large onion sliced thinly

-1/8-1/4 tsp  garlic powder

-1/4-1/2 tsp paprika

-1/8 tsp thyme

-1 tsp fresh oregano(could sub 1/4-1/2 tsp dried)

-salt/pepper to taste

-1/4 tsp chili pepper flakes(or to taste)

-sprinkle of cayenne pepper(More or less based on how spicy you want it)

(All amount of spices can be changed to fit your own taste!)

-1/4 cup brown rice uncooked=1/3 cup cooked (cook as directed, I cooked it with just a dash of salt)

-1/4 cup prego pasta sauce or another tomato/marinara sauce

-Optional: Grated or dry parmesan cheese and additional oregano for topping.

Directions: Cook your rice. Heat a pan over medium-low heat. Add olive oil and rotate pan to coat it. Add your garlic powder. Once hot, toss in onions to cook for a minute or two, using a little water and a lid to help steam them.(make sure not to burn them!) Then add peppers, stir for a bit until cooked to your liking, then add meats and all other seasonings expect fresh oregano (if using dry then just add it now). Next add your rice and sauce. Stir it all a bit more to combine everything and warm the entire dish. Now add your oregano and pour your Jambalaya into a bowl. Top with optional (but recommended!) parmesan cheese, additional fresh oregano and  dig in. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts(using homemade BBQ chicken): 387calories 14g fat, 38g carbs, 29g protein, 5g fibre

My Snack Today…

Did you guys know I just recently started a seafood diet? Yup that’s right! I see-food and I eat it! lol, okay that’s probably one of the most over-used jokes around but I just had to say it. Today I had this awesome snack of shrimp with cocktail sauce and veggies with hummus. This whole ring of shrimp was all mine!! I’ll be honest I ate about 15 shrimp and had some cocktail sauce with them but seriously the shrimp were already so good on their own I only used about 1/2 tsp of the whole sauce! It’s crazy how much they give you haha. Anyways I will definitely finish off this beautiful platter tomorrow. Question: Do you like seafood? I used to hate anything remotely fishy but since opening up and trying new things I fell in love with it! A lot of people never give it a chance though so I definitely recommend you try something simple to start like some grouper, snapper, tilapia etc. then move on to maybe shrimp, scallops..or even conch! (That stuff is amazing!). So goal for today: Try something new.

Talk to you all tomorrow :).

 

P.S: New workouts/recipes are soon to come!

Tropical Shrimp Dinner For One!-Recipe

Oh my gosh guys, this one is a winner. I created this recipe today and I fell in love! This dish is spiced coconut shrimp kabobs over mango/avocado quinoa with a side of lime and homemade tzatziki sauce. Wow, Just like a restaurant menu item! I recently got back from vacation in Turks and Caicos where they are known for their seafood! I missed the delicious flavours I had there and so of course I had to try and re-create them at home. This recipe does just that. Grilled shrimp, coconut, avocado, mango..and more all come together to form the perfect dish to take you back to that vacation atmosphere. Hope you try it out!

Avocado-Shrimp Salad with Lime Dressing

This salad is such a wonderful light and filling but not stuffing dinner. I loved how it had no mayo so it lets the other flavours really shine! Perfect for a summer picnic :).

Serves 2
Ingredients:
-20-30 large shrimp frozen, thawed under cold running water & chopped (pre-cooked kind, but you could cook/peel/devein your own if you’d like, just let them chill for a bit afterwards.)
-1 ripe avocado cut in chunks
-2 tbsp chopped red onion
-1-2 cups romaine lettuce chopped
-1/2 a large tomato or 1 small, chopped
-1/8 tsp garlic powder
-1/8 tsp onion powder
-1/4-1/2 tsp dried basil
-1/4-1/2 tsp dried oregano
-1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
-salt/pepper to taste
-1 tbsp chopped pecans
-2 tsp olive oil
-juice of one lime
optional:-chopped cucumber, pinch of coriander

Directions: Combine the olive oil and lime juice in a bowl along with some salt/pepper and the red onion and allow to marinate for about 4-5 minutes. Then throw in the rest of your ingredients and add your spices/pecans & possibly additional salt/pepper. Toss to coat everything with dressing. Chill in the fridge for a few hours or serve immediately! Enjoy! 🙂

What I Ate-Dinners

I just thought that I would sum up all my specific dinners/lunches/snacks in separate posts since I have had so little time to write and so many meals I’ve eaten haha. So to start off, this was a super tasty dinner of chicken, onions & red and orange peppers cooked with fajita seasoning and topped with tomatoes, romaine lettuce, avocado, a sprinkle of cheese and a little sour cream & salsa..yum!

This Dinner was a throw together kind of one because I had to babysit so I packaged up a simple shrimp salad with walnuts, goat cheese and a homemade light mayo based dressing!


Another dinner I ate when I had more time was this delicious butternut squash soup and a side of chicken…I will post the recipe soon! 🙂

Paleo Coconut Curried Shrimp Over Stir-fried “Rice”

I made this recipe because of my recent obsession with shrimp! I used to hate them because the first time I tried them was in a greasy chinese food dish that just didn’t taste that great. But once I tried them fresh I completely changed my opinion of them. Honestly shrimp are so versatile and super good for you!  Now I just buy frozen and thaw them overnight in the fridge and they  are great in many dishes..so far this is my favourite dish. It reminds me of being on vacation eating tropical food! 

What I’ve been eating…

Just a few of my meals lately.

The first is a super tasty chicken greek salad with crumbled feta cheese, black olives, 1/2 cup plain chicken(with salt and pepper of course!), assorted vegetables(tomato, lettuce, cucumber, red/green pepper, green onion, carrots etc.) Topped with greek feta olive oil dressing! (I have also eaten this with italian dressing and pecans and it is amazing!)

Another recipe I had been dying to try was redoing my lemon sweet sauce with shrimp and creating a shrimp stir-fry. It turned out really well! If you look at my past recipe I just decreased the amount of lemon a bit and added a few extra green onions/ginger/ and red pepper flakes. I also toasted the almonds a little more for a nicer flavour. Yum!

Dinner was some leftover spaghetti sauce & meatballs from another one of my recipes on top of half a cup of rice with a sprinkle of parmesan. I actually preferred the sauce after it sat in the freezer for a few days! It’s as if all the flavours combined together better than before and I loved it on top of rice vs. pasta. It just changes thing up a bit!

Let me know what you think of my latest eats 🙂 Talk to you all later!