Trying to Eat Healthier

In an effort to try and eat better and shed a few holiday pounds, I made a healthy dinner last night that was easy to split into two meals. One healthier version for hubby and myself & one more kid friendly version. In addition, it was easy, cheap, and quick to prepare.
What I used:
1 bag of the steamfresh Cheese Ravioli
1 box of frozen spinach
2 tablespoons of crushed red pepper (in the jar, some call it hoagie spread)
1 tablespoon of crushed garlic
salt & pepper
fresh grated parmesan cheese (or shakeable if you prefer)
bag of frozen broccoli
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
I also had about a cup of left over ground turkey from taco's the day before (optional)

Steam up your ravioli as per directions on your bag
In the microwave I nuked the block, of frozen spinach for 1 minute to get it kick started
In a hot sautee pan I put in the olive oil, turkey meat, crushed garlic, and red pepper
-let that cook for just a minute stirring to break up the meat thoroughly
Add your spinach which should be just frozen in the middle and break it up into the pan


Meanwhile, boil your broccoli until tender in another pot & take your butter and melt in the microwave.


After your spinach and turkey meat appears to be hot and done, add salt & pepper to taste. If you can't use salt due to dietary restrictions, you can substitute about a tspn of paprika instead. Tip: If your mixture looks a little dry, simply add a tablespoon or two or water and mix throughly.

In a separate bowl, empty out your ravioli which should be cooked by now. Drizzle very lightly with aprox. 1 tspn of olive oil and mix to coat each ravioli to prevent sticking.

For the kiddo's -> plate the raviolis and broccoli, drizzle the melted butter, top with shredded parmesan cheese, & salt & pepper. (my kids' will eat broccoli, but not the spinach mixture)

For the adults -> spread the spinach mixture on each plate, top with raviolis & aprox. 1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese.

By my own calculations on my products I used, this dinner for the adults ended up being about 450 calories.

Tip: I try to use regular olive oil or "light" olive oil instead of EVOO because of the caloric content.

Healthy Lifestyles

During my endeavor to live more affordably, I encountered a nifty website called Calorie Count. It's not JUST about counting calories so don't close out my blog just yet :> Check out their blog as well as their site! You can get great healthy recipes even your children will love. Recently, I found two for the holidays. I think the kids will love the cranberry pancakes and I found a potluck meatball recipe which will be cheap and tasty for entertaining! Anything with the Crockpot is a big hit because it's easy, saves me time, and is much cheaper to run than my oven!

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