Use It Up, part Deux, Trois, and Quatre

To catch you up in case you missed last week's episode of "disastrous cleanse diet", Laurie went on a 7 day cleanse diet, and lasted 2 days. Laurie stocked up on 7 days worth of cleanse diet produce, and needed to put this to good use in other recipes. Laurie was so sick of plain fruits and veggies (and "wonder soup") after two days, that creativity was a must. Here is what she is featuring in this week's episode:

Chicken Parmesan:

This incorporated the marinara sauce made just after falling off the cleanse diet wagon. (loosely based on Ellie Krieger's recipe from Food Network)

Ingredients

• 4 slices bread (I used 2 bagel thins because that is what I had on hand and it worked great)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 teaspoons paprika
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup non fat milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 (6 ounce) skinless boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness
• 3 1/2 cups marinara sauce
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the bread in the bowl of a food processor and process until fine crumbs are formed, about 25 to 30 seconds. Put the crumbs on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, until golden. (You will wind up with about 1 1/3 cups toasted crumbs.)

In a medium bowl, toss the crumbs with oregano, garlic powder, paprika, parmesan cheese 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. In a third bowl stir together the flour, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Dip each piece of chicken, 1 piece at a time, in flour, shaking off excess, then egg, then bread crumbs, shaking off excess.

Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Place breaded breasts on a rimmed baking sheet prepared with cooking spray. Bake breasts until cooked though and crumbs are browned, about 25 minutes. Top with marinara sauce, mozzarella and parmesan and return to oven for an additional 10 minutes, until cheese is bubbling.

Serve over your favorite pasta cooked al dente.

Banana Bread:

I managed to use up about 5 bananas here, because I doubled the recipe and made two loaves. (loosely based on a recipe by Emeril Lagasse of the Food Network)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts (I used mixed nuts that had almonds, cashews, pistachios, and macadamia nuts and it turned out wonderful)
• 1/2 of a very good baking chocolate bar, cut with a knife into small pieces
• Pinch of cinnamon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Oil and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. (I just used baking spray)

Using an electric mixer, cream the shortening and sugar. With the mixer running on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time. Add the bananas and mix well. Add the baking soda, salt, flour, nuts, chocolate, and cinnamon and mix thoroughly. The dough will be sticky.

Pour the dough into the prepared pan and bake about one hour or until the center is brown and set.

Grilled Halibut Fish Tacos

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb Halibut Filet (or other mild, whitefish)
• Lemon Juice
• Packet of Taco seasoning
• 1 tablespoon Olive oil
• 1 head of green cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt
• 4 roma tomatoes, chopped
• your favorite salsa
• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 8 small flour tortillas

Directions

Prepare Grill by spraing with cooking spray and then heating. For the halibut, rub with 1 tablespoon olive oil, then squeeze the juice of one lemon onto the fish. Then rub in about half of the packet of taco seasoning onto the fish. Place on grill, and cook until halibut flakes easily with a fork and is cooked through.

While grill is still hot, place each tortilla on grill and flip after about a minute, until the tortillas have cooked just slightly and are warmed through.

Mix together sour cream and yogurt, and add a tablespoon of the taco season mix to it. Add the cabbage and toss with the dressing, set aside. Cook the pinto beans over medium heat in a small saucepan on the stove.

Once heated, use a fork to lightly mash the beans.

Assemble tacos by spreading the beans onto the tortilla, then add the fish, dressed green cabbage, chopped tomatoes, and then your favorite salsa.