Facelift Number Eleven - Sweet and Firey Tofu

Happy 2010, everyone! In celebration of a newer and healthier year for you all, I've answered a request I've gotten a few times from you guys: make a vegetarian version of a fast food dish.

I'm not much of a fan of Chinese food and never have been; however, it's hard to escape Panda Express when you go to a mall or airport. My boyfriend loves a lot of their food, so I decided to undertake their SunFire Chicken dish... but with a vegetarian twist.

BEFORE THE FACELIFT




INGREDIENTS

2/5 block Trader Joe's Extra Firm Organic Tofu
1 cup pineapple chunks in juice (not syrup), drained
1/4 medium red onion
1 tsp Trader Joe's Chili Pepper Sauce
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 fl oz orange juice
1 tbsp pineapple juice
1/2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tbsp honey









LET'S COOK!


I cut up the tofu into die-sized pieces and blotted the excess moisture from them on a paper towel.


Toss the tofu pieces in orange juice until coated.


Put the tofu in a bag with the panko bread crumbs until the pieces are coated.


Bake at 425 degrees F until golden. Now, for the veggies and sauce...


Chop up onion into large pieces and put in a pan with the pineapple. Cook on medium heat until pineapple browns a bit and the onions are cooked yet still crunchy.


Mix the remaining ingredients together until combined. A little goes a long way!


Combine all of the components together until coated in sauce. Enjoy!

FACELIFT RESULTS

217 fewer Calories (-50.7%)
5g less fat (-72.2%)
4g less saturated fat (-100%)
0mg cholesterol (-100%)
22g less carbs (-41.3%)
5g less protein (-27.6%)
no difference in fiber
349mg less sodium (-94.4%)

I definitely didn't mean to decrease the protein, but if you add another 1/5 block per serving to this recipe, you'll only increase 100 Calories (per 1/5 block of tofu) while increasing the protein like crazy! Or, serve this on some quinoa for a great carb with tons of protein!

Full recipe HERE. Keep commenting and sending me e-mails as well!

Have a happy and healthy new year!

Facelift Number Ten - Easy Peasy Mocha Frappe

I guess I owe you all another apology since I did not post the facelift I had done last week until, well... now. So, I'm very sorry for waiting so long to do this!

If you are like me and millions of others around the world, coffee from Starbucks is quite the addiction, especially their frozen concoctions. Here is one of my old favorites, re-done for your enjoyment!

BEFORE THE FACELIFT




Note: Just for fun, I made this exactly how I'd order it -- Grande with no whipped cream.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup coffee
1/2 cup Edy's Fat Free Yogurt Blends, Vanilla
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 packet Truvia sweetener (optional)
ice cubes











LET'S COOK!

As the subject of this blog post says, this is very very easy!


Put all ingredients in a blender. (My blender is a really amazing single-serving one by Fit-N-Fresh. I own a lot of their products and they're awesome!) I started with 2 ice cubes, as I wasn't sure how the consistency would be with more.


Blend until smooth! If you like you're thicker, add more ice cubes and blend until it's to your liking.

See? I told you it was easy!

FACELIFT RESULTS

137 fewer Calories (-52.7%)
2g less fat (-54.3%)
1g less saturated fat (-55%)
23g less carbs (-43.1%)
no change in protein
5g more fiber (from 0 to 5!)
177mg less sodium (-77.1%)

This was a really delicious and extremely quick treat to make! You can always make it to your own liking. If you want to make it minty, add some peppermint extract. If you want it even more chocolatey, use chocolate frozen yogurt instead of vanilla. The nutrition change will be negligible!

Full recipe is HERE. As usual, shoot me an e-mail or leave me a comment (or two!) with suggestions, comments, ideas, etc.

I will not be posting another facelift until sometime in mid-January 2010 (wow, how time flies!) so I wish you all the happiest of holidays. Be safe and enjoy the time with family and friends!

I'm sorry for the delay!

Hi, everyone! I apologize profusely for being inactive with my blog. The weekend after my last post was busy, then I left for the Thanksgiving holiday, and this weekend was busy again.

I am, however, in the process of making something tonight and I will post a blog about it either tonight or tomorrow evening.

I hope you all continue to read this blog despite my tardiness in a new post!

Thanks for your patience!

Facelift Number Nine - Chili's Southwestern Egg Rolls

Thank you all so much for your patience! As I explained in my last blog post, last weekend was my birthday and Halloween so it was busy!

I've done a previous facelift for a Chili's dish, but until today I haven't attempted my favorite appetizer of theirs: Southwestern Egg Rolls. My boyfriend and I would split this as an appetizer nearly every time we'd go to Chili's in college. It's so yummy, but as you'll soon see, it's so easy to make at home!

BEFORE THE FACELIFT





INGREDIENTS

For wontons:
16 wonton wrappers
.5 cup canned corn (no salt added variety)
.5 cup black beans (low sodium variety)
1 cup baby spinach
1 tsp minced garlic
1/8 haas avocado
1/2 tsp Trader Joe's Chili Pepper Hot Sauce
1 tbsp cilantro

For sauce:
2 tbsp nonfat greek yogurt
1 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb
juice from 1/4 of a lime

Ready? You better be!

LET'S COOK!


Cook the spinach with the garlic until wilted.


Rinse the beans under cold water for 1 minute and dry on a paper towel.


Put spinach, corn, beans, hot sauce, and cilantro in a food processor and...


...blend until combined and beans are broken down a bit.


Dice 1/8 of the avocado.


Put a teaspoon full of the mixture in one wonton and top with a couple of pieces of avocado.


Lightly moisten two edges of the wonton and fold in half, pressing down lightly so it's sealed. (I keep a small bowl of water next to me so I can just dunk my finger in it to use for the wontons.)


Moisten one of the corners of the wonton and pinch it to the other corner.


Arrange on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 7 minutes at 400 degrees F...


...until golden brown!


For the sauce, mix the yogurt, Mrs. Dash, and lime juice until combined.


Makes 2 servings of 8 wontons each and half of the sauce for each serving. Enjoy!

FACELIFT RESULTS
Remember this is for one 8 wonton serving!

635 fewer Calories (-69.8%)
55g less fat (-96.1%)
14g less saturated fat (-100%)
14g less carbs (-18.8%)
15g less protein (-53.7%)
1g less fiber (-17.1%)
1499mg less sodium (-76.5%)

If you were to eat all 16 of these wontons and all of the sauce, you'd still have consumed less than half of the original's Calories, sodium, fat, and saturated fat!

Similar to other facelifts of mine, protein and fiber decreased, which was not intentional. You could counteract this by adding some kind of meat substitute (just watch out for the sodium!) but you can just pair this with brown rice for some more fiber, or quinoa for fiber and protein.

Full recipe HERE and, as usual, please leave a comment here or on SparkPeople or e-mail me at FastFoodFacelift@gmail.com with your ideas, suggestions, critiques, etc.

Birthday delay & bento boxes!

I apologize profusely for not posting sooner!

This weekend was Halloween and my birthday, so needless to say I did not do a facelift!

I plan on making my next dish this weekend (11/6-11/8) so keep checking back. :)

In other news, I've been on a hunt to find a better way to pack my lunches to work. In order to keep tabs on my portion control, I have a huge drawer full of a variety of plastic containers in many sizes and shapes. They're great and I enjoy them (along with my awesome thermal lunch bag) but I've always been intrigued by bento lunch boxes.

In essence, bento boxes are like lunch boxes in Japan. They come in a variety of sizes based on gender and age in order to allow for proper portioning of your meals.

One of the most endearing things about bento is how artistic it can get! I joined the flickr bento group to get some inspiration and have read through and am now following BentoLunch.blogspot.com.

I went on Amazon.com and found some really cute and handy bento sets! At one point I had 5 or 6 of them in my shopping cart, but I limited myself to getting the following two:


Zojirushi Mini Stainless Thermal Lunchbox
I like this one because it keeps the taller cylinder's contents hot and separated from the rest of the meal. Also, it comes with that cute bag and chopsticks.


Japanese Style Bento Box Lunchbox w/Chopsticks
This one is more traditional bento and also comes with chopsticks.

To stay with the classic bento style, I also got some veggie cutters and rice molds:





I'm thinking about heading to Michael's crafts to get some other supplies, but these were all really good deals and I'm very excited in anticipation for their arrivals!

So, what do YOU use to pack your lunches? Do you bring your lunch to work, or do you buy?