Legally Ill

I don't have much time today, but I wanted to share two recipes that have made up my last 3 meals (give or take a banana)!

Lunch in the Mediterranean

First, we have my delicious Mediterranean Tuna Salad lunch, which I am eating as we speak for the second day in a row.  (I don't recommend letting it sit.  I prepped it fresh both days).

Ingredients

• around 1/3 cup Cedar's Chickpea Salad (if you can't find it, a copycat recipe is here: http://www.thenakedkitchen.com/tangy-chickpea-salad/)
• 2.5 oz (1/2 5 oz. can) solid white albacore tuna, packed in water, drained
• 1/4-1/3 cup balsamic mushrooms from Whole Foods (again, copycat recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/mediterranean-balsamic-mushrooms-229948)
• 1 (1.5oz) packet Ken's Lite Olive Oil Vinaigrette (don't judge me.  I'm at work and can't always whip up my own dressings on a moment's notice.  These are low-cal, have no HFCS, and are 29 cents at Wawa.  I've turned my boss onto them after pointing out that FF italian has HFCS.)
• 3 cups baby arugula (mine happened to be organic.  If you haven't noticed, I don't care if yours is.)
• 1/2 small to medium orange, in segments (optional - I added it the second time I made this and I loved it both ways)

Combine in a tupperware container with a very tight lid and give it a good shaking.  That's it!  Enjoy!

As a lunch, this salad is flavorful, filling, healthy and full of tons of fiber (8g w/o orange, 12g with) for only around 300 calories! 

Guilt Free Comfort Food

The next recipe is one I found on "Lose 5 Lbs with Good Housekeeping" with Melissa D'Arabian.  It looked so good, and I loved the idea of comfort food without the guilt, so I could not wait to run out and get the ingredients and try it!  It's basically a waaaay slimmed down mac and cheese, with pureed cauliflower and carrots added to the cheese to give it the color and creaminess of mac and cheese with about 1/3 the fat.  The best part is you can have a HUGE portion (see the plated up pic below) and still keep the calories low, and its got fiber and calcium and veggies.  You can find the recipe here.

Some notes:

• I used Dreamfields pasta to make it even more diet-friendly
• I prepared the entire recipe, then put half in a casserole dish in the oven as directed and saved the other half.  I'm going to freeze it, then defrost it and make a second casserole another night.  The recipe makes 6 huge servings, and that's way too much for us!
• I really enjoyed this because it gave me the savory, creamy, mac and cheese feeling without the guilt, but I have to say my BF was NOT a fan.  He labeled it "bland" and only had a few bites.
• I served this with fried chicken cutlets, a somewhat healthier version-- one scrambled egg (with a few tbsp water added), one pound thin sliced breast cutlets, 1/2 cup 100% whole wheat bread crumbs, and 2 tbsp olive oil.  Dip the cutlets in egg then bread crumbs, heat oil, and fry.  The end.

Without further adieu, here are some pics of my guiltless comfort food dinner: