Great Southwest Favourites!

I've always thought that Nutrisystem did a great job with their Southwest style entrees, which is why I was so disappointed when I heard that they were discontinuing their Southwest Style Wrap as well.

Fortunately, with the help of Garlic Gold's new Southwest Style nuggets, I can still recreate one of my favourite dinners.


Mexican Pizza (Take Two) (Dinner):



1 pkg Nutrisystem Grilled Chicken breast (or 4oz boneless skinless chicken)
1 whole wheat pita or tortilla
1 tbsp Roasted Red Pepper hummus
1 tbsp taco sauce
1 oz shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp Garlic Gold oil
diced onions, green peppers, tomatoes
2 tsp Garlic Gold Southwest Style nuggets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice up your chicken and fry it in the Garlic Gold oil until fully cooked. Add vegetables and taco sauce and cook until soft. Spread the hummus on your "crust" and add the chicken/veggie mix. Top with cheese and bake in the oven until crust is crispy and cheese is melted. Sprinkle Garlic Gold Southwest Style nuggets on top and enjoy while it's hot!

The nuggets give this a great zesty flavour and I really enjoyed my dinner. This counts as a dinner entree plus dairy/protein, fat, veggies (depends how much you use), and a free food.


I was chatting with a friend about the food served in a particular restaurant, and she told me how amazing their nachos are. That gave me such a craving so I decided to try and make my own.

Beefy Nachos (Dinner):



1 pkg Nutrisystem Beef Taco or Chili with Beans or Vegetarian Chili
1 pita or tortilla, cut into "chips"
Garlic Gold Sea Salt nuggets
PAM spray (or Garlic Gold oil in a mister)
sour cream, diced green onion (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the chips with PAM olive oil spray or else mist them with Garlic Gold oil. Sprinkle the Sea Salt nuggets on top. Bake for 5-7 minutes or until crispy and golden.

These are delicious and taste exactly like tortilla chips! They have that slight salty flavour, a great crisp, and a nice garlicky touch. Top the chips with your dinner entree of choice and use salsa or sour cream for dipping if desired.

The reason I like to use the (discontinued) Beef Taco for this is that I can simply throw away the taco shells and use this as my carb serving; for the other entrees you do need to add a carb to enjoy this. However, it's easy to eat a lunch like the tuna or chicken salad with a salad and skip the included carb to look forward to a decadent dinner like this one!

I really enjoy cooking with Garlic Gold. When I received an email asking me if I wanted to review their two newest seasoning nuggets (watch for a recipe soon using their new Herbs de Provence nuggets!) I said yes definitely, and asked if they could please send me some more oil as we've gone through the whole bottle already! My husband loves it- one of his favourite quick fixes is to add 1 tsp to his tomato soup and he says it tastes fantastic like that. I find their products add so much flavour.

Disclosure: I received this product mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. (And I really, really love Garlic Gold and plan to continue writing about their products!)

Wow

Tonight my dinner was absolutely unbelievable. I wouldn't have guessed that it was designed for weight loss! SOOO good. I had the Beef Taco and it was amazing. I made it into a taco salad with romaine lettuce, tomato chunks, cheddar cheese, and fat free sour cream, and I added diced onion and green bell pepper to the meat and sauce. It also came with three taco shells which I crunched up and put on top. It was one of my favourite meals!



Here are some other meals I have tried recently:

Cheesy Homestyle Potatoes (Lunch):


I confess to having been a little leery of this! Not only just at the idea of having mashed potatoes as a main course for lunch, but just generally instant mashed potatoes. I was pleasantly surprised by how rich and cheesy they were. I had them with steamed broccoli and a serving of fresh salmon and it made a yummy lunch.

Rotini with Meatballs and Tomato Sauce (Dinner):


This meal was pretty much what you'd expect- rotini pasta in a chunky tomato sauce with little meatballs. I found the meat plentiful and since I love pasta, this really hit the spot for me but wasn't anything special.

Beef and Noodles with Stroganoff Sauce (Dinner):


I love beef stroganoff, so I was hoping for a creamy beef and noodle dish. It wasn't really what I had in mind though (although I guess I was thinking of Hamburger Helper Stroganoff which isn't all that great anyway). The sauce was a little too thin for my taste and it was more of a broth based dish than a cream sauce. Would I eat it again? Sure, but I've adjusted my expectations.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pudding (Dessert):


This was the first thing I actively disliked, but then again, I'm not really a pudding person. I thought it would be really great to enjoy it as a fondue, so I cut up strawberries and bananas and got some graham crackers to dip in the pudding. It still just didn't cut it for me. This one is definitely not on my order again list.

But, the bottom line is, so far so good. I'm sticking to my program, I'm losing weight, and the food is definitely not bad. Nutrisystem is a win for me.