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!)

Tres Hurras Mexico!

I've said it before and I'll say it again- try everything twice before you give up on it or you may realize you're missing out! Maybe your taste buds have changed or maybe you just didn't like the way it was prepared the first time, and the second time it will knock your socks off!


Southwest Style Chicken Wrap (Dinner):



Mexican Pizza:

1 pkg Nutrisystem Southwest Style Chicken Wrap
1 tbsp roasted red pepper hummus
chopped onions and bell pepper
1 oz shredded light Tex-Mex cheese

Open the tortilla package and heat in the microwave for 10 seconds before attempting to unfold it. When it's warm, unfold it carefully and put it on a baking tray. Spread the hummus on the tortilla and top with the wrap filling. Add your vegetables and sprinkle with cheese, and bake for 12 minutes at 400 degrees. Cut into slices and enjoy!

I like a thicker "crust" to my pizza, so I substituted a Weight Watcher's whole wheat pita instead of the tortilla. If you choose to substitute out, follow the NS description of a carb serving, 80-120 calories, 15g of carbs. The included tortilla is 80 calories (per Nutrisystem Dietary Services) if you are counting calories and wish to substitute out. The hummus is your fat serving (~45 calories, 5g of fat), and I saved a dairy serving for the cheese. You may wish to use red bell pepper for a more authentic taste but I prefer green.

One thing I often think we miss out on when on a weight loss program is really gooey, messy food. It seems like most of the time, those are the items that are awful for us. Well, make sure you have a napkin when you eat this and a fork to pick the pieces off your plate- it will satisfy your gooey meal craving!

I read about food pairings in my Women's Health magazine and I found an online article that discusses it. Some foods complement each other well so your body is better able to absorb the nutrients. And if it happens to taste as great as roasted red pepper hummus, well then! :) Because of mass production, vegetables and fruits are becoming less nutritious as well, so we need to get all the nutrients that are available!

I am a little disappointed that I just submitted my order yesterday for January because I don't have any more of these and this dinner was awesome! I enjoyed it much more than I did just eating it on the wrap like I did before. Oh well- I have enough things to make that I can wait for a little while!

Disclosure: This post was written by me and was not edited by anyone. The opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own and have not been influenced in any way. Nutrisystem Canada is providing their food and program to me free of charge for my weekly updates. I was not compensated for writing this post.

New recipes and reviews!

I'm finally getting around to trying those NS entrees that are sitting in the back of my cupboard because I'm afraid I won't enjoy them. I guess I've been hoping I'll taste them via osmosis? I'll try to post at least one new item a week if I can get myself to eat them! I've been enjoying the other entrees I have so much that I haven't really needed to mix it up. But who knows- maybe like the trail mix bar, one of these mystery meals will become my new favourite!

Southwest Style Chicken Wrap (Dinner):



Well, it's not going to be this one. It's not that I found the meal bad, per se- it just wasn't really to my taste. It also felt like a smaller portion than the BBQ Pork Wrap or the Buffalo Chicken Wrap, for some reason. Either way- I really like those but didn't really care for this so I won't be ordering it again. It's heavy on beans and corn and didn't really feel like there was much chicken in it.


I got this recipe off the NS boards, and I was dubious at first but pleasantly surprised!

Cinnamon Bun (Breakfast):



Cobblestone Cake:

1 pkg NS Cinnamon Bun, cut into tiny pieces (try to save icing pieces for on top!)
1/2 cup Egg Beaters
cinnamon, Splenda to taste

Spray a small dish with PAM spray and place the pieces of bun inside it. Mix the cinnamon, Splenda, and Egg Beaters together. Pour the Egg Beater mixture over top of the bun pieces, ensuring that all pieces are covered. Put a piece of Saran Wrap over the bowl and put it in the fridge overnight to allow liquid to soak into the bun. In the morning, bake it for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, and enjoy!

When I took that bowl out of the fridge and saw the bun fragments were still swimming in a soup of egg, I figured this was going to be nasty. I mean, I was picturing cooked egg fragments adhering to the bun pieces, which doesn't really sound appealing. Much to my surprise, the entree did "stick together" and had morphed into a yummy smelling and tasting cake by the time it was done! I am going to try this again in the future for sure.


Pancake Mix (Breakfast):



Apple Cinnamon Cake:

1 pkg NS Pancake Mix
1/4 cup plain Greek Yogurt
2 tbsp Egg Beaters
2 tbsp milk
1 small apple, cored and cut into very small pieces (save one whole ring to decorate top of cake)
1/2 tsp vanilla
cinnamon, Splenda to taste
crushed walnuts (optional, fat serving)

Spray a cooking dish with PAM and preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Mix everything together in a bowl and pour into dish. Top with the apple ring and sprinkle with a little more cinnamon if desired. When cool, drizzle with Da Vinci Caramel Syrup if desired, but it's wonderful plain!

I've been experimenting with substituting Greek yogurt for milk in these pancake recipes because it has SO much more protein than milk and I find them much more filling. It does change the taste slightly but I like the flavour- some of you may not. But definitely give it a try to see if you like it. I wasn't able to eliminate the milk entirely because then the batter is too thick, but this was a much denser, richer cake made this way. Altogether, the milk, Egg Beaters, and yogurt only counted 80 calories and you're allowed up to 150 for your breakfast dairy (since you get 1/2 dairy extra with pancakes) so you can still have something else if you want to- I bet you'll be too full to need it though!