New Recipe!  I made this today and actually measured stuff so I could calculate nutrition information.

My friend Brian came up with the name, though apparently other people have used the same name out there, thanks to the red/green/yellow bell peppers.

Anyway, here's the ingredients:

• 1 green bell pepper
• 2 yellow bell peppers
• 2 red bell peppers
• 2 zucchini
• 1 small red onion
• 8oz can pineapple tidbits, drained
• 1/2 cup peanut satay sauce
• 1/2 cup sweet thai red chili sauce
• 1-3 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• 6oz linguini
• 3 tbsp olive oil
  (I used "garlic-infused olive oil)
• 1 tbsp Mongolion Fire Oil (optional)

Cook the linguini according to the package insructions and set aside.  By the way, I used "al dente" brand Spicy Sesame Linguini.  Yummy.  You could use any kind of pasta, but don't use too much - this is a "lite" dish and so shouldn't be too heavy on the pasta.  Whole wheat penne would probably work pretty well too.

Cut all the veggies into "bite sized" pieces.  Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil and the mongolian fire oil to a LARGE frying pan and heat over medium-high heat.  Add cubed chicken and stir-fry for 5-10 minutes depending on the size of your cubes.  Add vegetables, continue to stir fry for 10 more minutes.  Add peanut satay sauce and thai chili sauce.  I get this from the "International" section of my local grocery store.  Stir fry for a few more minutes, add cayenne pepper.  Remove from heat.  Add shrimp.  Mix thoroughly.

Eat and enjoy.

Leave the cayenne and mongolion fire oil out if you're timid.  If you love the spicy food, use both and use 3 tsp of cayenne.  Otherwise.. somewhere in between.

We'll call this 8 servings, here's the nutrition information:

Calories	350 cal
Fat	11 g
Sodium	265 mg
Carbohydrates	41 g
Protein	27 g

You can't beat that with Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice!!!

You can probably cut the fat by using olive oil spray to coat your stir fry pan.  Personally when I'm cooking chickn, I like to use a little more olive oil, it just tastes better, and 11g of fat isn't too bad for an entry!

You could make this a low sodium recipe by finding some other sauce.  90% of the sodium comes from the peanut satay and thai chili sauce.  265mg isn't bad though for an entry, and it's yummy.

More experimenting this weekend with pasta dishes.

This one turned out fabulous, especially if you like a good spicy pasta dish.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 eggplant
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 2 zucchini
• 12oz pasta (like Al Dente Brand Spicy Sesame Linguini or Red Chili Pepper Fettucini)
• 1 tbsp cajun spice
• 1-2 pounds of spicy andouille chicken sausage
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup pasta sauce (any kind will do, I used Classico Tomato & Basil)

Cut the eggplant, zucchini, and peppers into bite sized pieces and set aside.  You may want to remove the skin from the eggplant, but you don't have to.  Cook pasta according to the directions, rinse, and toss in a bowl with a little olive oil, and set aside.  Add 3-4 tbsp of olive oil to the frying pan and heat over medium high heat.  Add eggplant, peppers, zucchini, and sausage, and about 1/8 cup of water (my pan was quite full so adding the water helped to steam the vegetables a bit).  Sprinkly on the cajun spice, and stir fry for about 8-10 minutes.  I covered mine when I wasn't stirring to help keep in the heat and moisture.  Add the pasta, and the tomato sauce, cook for another minute or two to make sure the pasta is heated nicely (in case it sat in your bowl for a while and got cold), and then serve.

Makes:  a lot.  Easily 10-12 servings.

Suggestions:

• Use less pasta for a dish that's richer in meats and vegetables (I used 12oz of pasta, but I think 8oz might've been the right amount). 
• Substitute or add other vegetables. 
• Stir fry some diced chicken or shrimp in a separate pan and add at the end instead of or in addition to the andouille sausage. 
• Top with grated parmesan cheese.
• If you can't get a spicy pasta like the two I mentioned, use regular pasta, but you may want to add more cajun or creole spices to the stir fry.  I also wonder if maybe adding a little shrimp/crab boil to the water when cooking the pasta would help make the pasta spicy.  Might be worth trying some time.

Nutrition-wise, this strikes me as a fairly healthy dish.  If you used 8oz of pasta and 2 pounds of sausage, like the Trader Joe's Andouille Chicken Sausage I used, and maybe 1/4 cup of total olive oil, you're probably looking at about 350 calories, 16g of fat, 26 carb, and 25 protein plus whatever is in the vegetables.  Those numbers are just for the pasta, sauce, sausage, and olive oil.  The vegetables only add about 40 calories per serving.

You could probably cut down on the fat by using less olive oil.  Maybe just some non-stick cooking spray, and a tablespoon of olive oil to toss the pasta with.

Last year I bought myself a pressure cooker in order to do "Lazy Man's Ribs".  You pressure cook some ribs for 20 minuts or so, then you stick 'em on the grill and cook on the barbeque sauce.  It works great, and the ribs turn out pretty good usually.

One thing I've found pretty easy to make is Jamaican Pulled Chicken.  Basically, I buy up some boneless, skinless thighs and breasts and pressure cook them for a half hour, drain the juice and put the chicken into a bowl where I mash it up good (the meat is usually falling apart by now anyway).  Then I mix in a jerk marinade made from the recipe on the side of McCormick Carribean Jerk Seasoning.  The recipe involves cider vinegar, soy sauce, and olive oil.  Then I throw the stuff into the crock pot to soak in for a few hours.  It's awesome.