Quick Bites - Reduced Calorie Lemon Parmesan Orzo

Hi everyone and welcome to another Quick Bite from Nikoli's Kitchen! I've started counting calories pretty regularly again because I'm trying to drive results, and it's a really great way of reminding yourself of what you're putting into your body. In that spirit, I decided to take my normal orzo recipe- which calls for a whopping 450 calories worth of butter & oil- and I doubled up everything while cutting those in half. So this recipe yields twice what the old one does, but only uses 1 T of each instead of 4! If you're trying to lose weight and watch what you eat, it's important to understand exactly where calories come from, and with a few tweaks of an existing recipe, you can reduce portion calorie counts substantially. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you so much for coming on this journey with me.

 

Featured Recipes for this Episode

2 c homemade chicken stock
1 c white wine
2 c dry orzo
1 T unsalted butter
1 T olive oil
Juice & Zest of 3 lemons
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 c freshly shredded parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper
Turmeric
Balsamic reduction
Scallions, chopped

Add butter & olive oil to a large saucepan over mid heat.
Once the butter melts, add your orzo and toss until well-coated.
Toast the orzo, tossing or stirring periodically so it doesn't burn.
Add the wine, chicken stock, garlic, and lemon juice to the saucepan.
Bring to a simmer and cover; reduce the heat to low.
Cook for 18-20 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.
Remove the cover and add your cheese & lemon zest and season to taste, cooking over mid for just another minute or two to bring it together.
Serve with a sprinkle of chopped scallions and a light drizzle of balsamic reduction.

Yield- about 6 cups. 
Approx 375 calories per 1 cup serving.

If you're looking to further reduce the calorie impact per portion here, halve the amount of parmesan cheese (it accounts for a whopping 70 calories per portion). If you really want to cut it even further you can skip the toasting step and omit the butter and olive oil altogether. Doing both of these would reduce this to about 300 calories per 1 cup portion.

 

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Guest Appearances

Please check out my segment of Heather's podcast at https://justheathers.com/nicholas-haskins/. Thank you so much for having me on the show Heather!

Watch me cook Keto Chocolate Chaffles LIVE with Tricia & Siana of 2 Girls on a Bench at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1039494727!

I was honored to sit down with Ashlee of the Rabbit Ears TV Podcast again to talk about all things Big Little Lies! Check it out at https://www.netflixnswill.com/rabbitears/2021/8/31/big-little-lies.

 

Credits

"Daybreak," and "The Climb" from Music for Makers. Sign up and get a royalty-free song delivered to your inbox every Monday at www.musicformakers.com!

"Tears" by Lucas King. Find this and more amazing music by Lucas and subscribe to him on YouTube by visiting https://www.youtube.com/user/LucasKingPiano!