To Roast or Not to Roast....

Now that the cold weather has arrived...and looks like it's here to stay. I love to make comfort food to eat. I have decided that I can make the comfort foods that my family and I love, but need to re-invent the recipes so that they are a bit healthier. Most comfort foods are loaded with gobs of butter, cream sauces, sugar, etc....basically if you can look at the picture and gain 15lbs then it's a comfort food..lol

I had done my grocery shopping on Sunday....yes my "Me Time", only to come home and try to put things away and realized I did not have enough room in my freezer to put everything. So, in trying to decide what I was going to cook on what day during the week, I pulled the Roasting Chicken and put it in the fridge to make Monday night (Sunday was already taken care of...it was Mom's birthday and we ordered Chinese food..lol).

So Monday afternoon arrived, and I started to panic about how I was going to cook this little bird. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, roasted chicken, roasted turkey and roasted potatoes....so it was a not brainer that I was going to roast it, but with what??? I really didn't have enough ingredients in my pantry to copy Dales Roast Chicken....but I did have a half bottle of Balsamic Vinegar Salad Dressing from Kraft in the fridge, and a half bag of baby white potatoes. Ta-Da...Dinner has emereged!

I poured the dressing over the Chicken and the halved baby potatoes....turned the oven on to 350 degrees, covered the chicken with tin foil, and put it in the oven for about 2 hours. I did baste the chicken about every half hour....it was sooo good! and super easy!

I served it with Asparagus spears, stove top stuffing, & the potatoes!

Enjoy!

Baked Teriyiaki Chicken

Being on a budget for groceries, means a lot of time is spent meal planning for my family. I do enjoy it though. I like looking for new recipes to try , and I like taking the time to go and do the shopping by myself. Grocery shopping is my "Me" time, and I love it!

I did the meal planning for this week, last Thursday and found a new wonderful website http://www.allrecipes.com/ You can join this site for free, and it allows you to make a recipe box. From this recipe box you can create a shopping list that is printable. Cuts down on tonnes of time! I loved it because I found 5 easy to make recipes that I had tonnes of stuff for already, (namely the spices..but it still counts)! The recipes I chose I have also made in some sort of way for my family so I knew that they would at least try the dinners when I made them.

Tonights dinner was Baked Teryiaki Chicken. Cole LOVES Teriyiaki Chicken Stir-Fry. So I figured that he would love the chicken (assuming that it turned out right....which it did). This chicken was soooo good! Although, I think I would use bone in chicken next time or at least breast meat next time. I used boneless skinless thighs, and they were a bit on the small side and cooked faster then what the time on the reicpe called for.

The recipe took no time at all to make. The most tedious part was the basting of the chicken every 10 minutes during the cooking process.

The recipe is:

1 Tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp water

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1/4 cup Cider Vinegar (I used just plain white vinegar and it turned out just fine)

1 garlic clove minced (I used the garlic in a jar)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

12 skinless chicken thighs

1. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the cornstarch, water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger & pepper. Let simmer, stirring frequently until sauce thickens and bubbles.

2. Pre-heat oven to 425

3. Place chicken in lightly greased 9 x13 pan. Brush chicken with the sauce. Turn over and brush again.

4. Bake for 30 minutes. Turn pieces over and bake for another 30 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Brush with sauce every 10 minutes during cooking.

It was simple, fast and really, really good! I served with rice, brocooli & carrots and a green salad!

Enjoy!!

Broiled Lobster & Butternut Squash Fries

I love sweet potatoe fries!

Yup, I do. But I don't regularly buy Sweet Potatoes, I don't EVER buy Butternut Squash. I have purchased Spaghetti Squash and quiet enjoyed it. So when we went to the Fruit Stand to buy Pumpkins for Halloween, and they had Butternut Squash on sale...I thought...why not? I definatley wasn't disappointed.

I have recently started going back to Weight Watchers, and have found myself searching for low point, yummy food. Butternut Squash now falls into that category! For a 1/2 cup I can use a 1/2 a point! I also learned that Squashes can keep up to 2 months! Who knew?

So in my search for a way to cook this sucker, I found many recipes that I wanted to try; but none that my family members would try...except maybe the one in the Kraft Magazine but I didn't have any Ritz Crackers...not to worry though, I will be trying that recipe now that I know I like Butternut Squash. Anyway, the old stand by recipe of making it into fries popped up. So I found myself in the kitchen tonight trying to peel the thing...that was difficult! I peeled it, cut it in half, de-seeded it (which made the whole place smell like Pumpkin!), cut it in to fry looking pieces, sprayed with Olive Oil and sprinkled with salt & pepper. I then cooked it at 425 for 20 minutes (along with the Fish Sticks...more on that). Half-way through I turned the pieces and added more salt & pepper. The fries turned out very yummy! Not a disappointment....well to me anyway...Ethan promptly spit it out and said it was yucky (and he eats sweet potatoe fries), and Cole wouldn't even try them because they were orange...lol.

I also served Broiled Lobster Tails...well to me and Adrian anyway. I don't like to serve shellfish to the kids. I know that they are not allergic to it, because they have had prawns and shrimp before. But I am always cautious. So for the boys I made Fish Sticks....or ..umm....Ahem...Chicken Fingers as they like to believe! MY KIDS LOVE FISH STICKS! Cole will eat 8 pieces! I will call the fish; chicken as long as I have to, to keep them eating it!!! Anyway, the Lobster Tails I just cut down the middle, put butter and lemon pepper seasoning on them, and broiled them at 425 for 15-20 min...mine were a bit frozen so they took a bit longer. But all the same they were delicous!

hmmm...I wlonder what other foods I can call Chicken and get away with it????

Enjoy!

Crunchy Garlic Chicken....AKA...Thank Heavens for Jamie Oliver!

We love Chicken! Done any which way....I even have to tell my kids that any meat we eat is Chicken. It doesn't matter if it's a pork chop, steak, homemade hamburger, fish sticks, etc...to them it's all Chicken!


So again this morning came and it was time for me to decide what to do for dinner. I had some Boneless Skinless Chicken breasts in the freezer and figured that I should be able to find something yummyand easy to do with them. Again, I was bored with the BBQ sauce and putting them on the grill, or shake and bake, and I didn't have anything else for a Stir-Fry, and had already made Chip Chicken this month!. I began my search. I looked at every recipe you could think of....of course there were tonnes that sounded and looked yummy, but I didn't have any of the other ingredients to complete the recipe and was not in the mood to go out and purchase them.


Being a fan of Jamie Oliver and every once and awhile being nudged in his direction from my cousin Dale, I decided to head to his website and have a looksy! MAN, was I glad that I did. I found this recipe. I will DEFINATLEY be making this recipe again, and again and again!


I didn't quite follow it to the letter though. I didn't have the acutal lemon in my fridge, so I opted to use my lemon/pepper seasoning that I have in my spice cupboard. I also added more then 1 clove of garlic. I used 1 garlic clove and 2 teaspoons of minced garlic from the jar (seriously the best invention EVER!). I also added more then the 6 saltine crackers becuase I had 3 pieces of chicken to coat, not 2.


I also didn't flatten my chicken pieces...1. Because I don't own a mallet for my kitchen and 2. Because I didn't want to!



I could have eaten this coating right out of the food processor! The smell coming from my kitchen was FANTASTIC! I can only imagine what it would be like with an actual lemon, and it would certainly be worth it to try this chicken dish with some Tzatziki and roasted Greek Potatoes!...hmmm....might be on the menu next week..lol!















Anyway, I loved it, the boys loved it and Dear Hubby Loved it! So it's going in the will make again pile!

I am so glad that I went and visited Jamie Oliver....I am going to have to search his website for more!!









Enjoy!

A Slow Cooker Kind of Day

I love my slow cooker! If I could use it all the time I would. It makes things so easy, especially with 3 little boys running around all day. You just set it & forget it!

In an attempt to save money, I did a HUGE grocery shop and had bought a big package of Pork Spareribs; which are some of my favorite foods! I was though, bored with idea of either BBQing them or Shake & Bake. I wanted something new, something that would taste good and look good!

I recently discovered a new Recipe website http://www.allrecipes.ca/ and spent some time perusing the Rib recipes....there were TONNES! Until I found one that sounded and looked good! You can find the recipe here.

The recipe wasn't anything spectacular, it was good. The boys ate it, which was my main purpose. Which IS my main purpose for most meals these days. The sauce had a nice heat to it. It does call for 1 cup of Chili Sauce....I only used a 1/2 cup because I had feed it to my children and I am attempting to NOT make more than 1 dish for dinner. I did use 2 teaspoons of a Hot sauce that is loved here in the house, which added the nice heat to the sauce. It could have been a bit thicker too. The meat fell off the bone, and was nice and tender which is a plus.

I served the Ribs with a Garlic Mashed potatoes....which were WONDERFUL. I didn't use any specific recipe for those. Just some minced garlic from a jar (which I have decided I LOVE), some butter, a bit of milk, and a green onion!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them...will definatley make them again with any meal!

Altogether, I am not sure if I would use this recipe again.....I might try a dry rub the next time.

But please enjoy!

Herb Crusted Salmon

In an attempt to get my family to eat different things, aside from the old stand-by Chicken, Pork Chops, Steak and Spaghetti...this last time when I went grocery shopping I bought a whole wild pink Salmon....yes a whole one. (Minus the head of course). I knew that my dear hubby would eat the fish without a problem, the trick was getting my kids to eat it to. Especially after they saw it defrosting in the fridge and almost had a melt down because I had gone fishing without them...lol. No, No, Mommy did not go fishing....well kinda at the fish counter!



I searched and searched for a different way to do the fish. Hubby likes it when I just lather it in butter, cover it in Lemon Pepper seasoning and add a couple of slices of Lemons and just bake it. I wanted something different. I normally don't have a lot of time to prepare dinner and get it on the table, so when a Girlfriend from my son's preschool posted this recipe on her Facebook I thought it looked so yummy! Then last night when I remembered that she had done so, and was amazed that I had all the ingredients in my kitchen I knew that I had to try it.



The recipe calls for Salmon Steaks, which the fish I had was not....so I just cut it up into steaks and discarded the tail and fins. The recipe was easy, fast and yummy. Although I think next time I might try bread crumbs instead of crackers and add a bit more garlic and cheese. You can find the recipe here. I served this with rice, veggies and a salad! But some Garlic Mashed Potatoes would probably be great too!



Enjoy!

Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays....Chistmas taking the #1 spot! There is just something about the crisp cool afternoons and the dim sunlight that gives everything a sleepy downhome feeling.


Normally I put up tonnes of decorations and go all out, but this year I went a little on the mellow side. I think it's just because both my husband and I were going to be out Trick or Treating with the boys. So in lieu of the decorations I opted to fill my children, and the little one that I care for during the day, full of Sugar Cookies and Cupcakes....


I "borrowed" the recipe for the Sugar Cookies from Dale over at "A CopyCat Cooks". You can find the recipe here.
as for the Cupcakes it wasn't anything fancy just the old stand-by Cake-in-a-box mix and some icing sugar, butter, vanilla and orange food coloring with Pumpkin Sprinkles! The kids had tonnes of fun decorating and I got some yummy treats...lol


Happy Haunting!

Pasta Free-Veggie Lasagna!

I am all for trying new things.....well sometimes. And since I am trying to limit my carbs in attempt to lose some weight, I found another recipe that I thought I would try.

I am not a big Lasanga lover. I will eat it, but only once in awhile. Even then I usually have a Ceasar sald and some garlic bread with it to fill me up! I will only eat one slice of Lasagna if it's served. Tonight I served it with baked boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts.

So when I saw this recipe in The Metabloism Miracle book, I thought I would give it a try. This one I was not as fond of. I think next time I would just use all Zucchini instead of the Eggplant & add more cheese. I found that it didn't set properly and needed something more to make it stick!

Here is the recipe:

Makes 12 Servings.

Count 1 4x4 inch serving as no carb.

Cooking Oil spray

1 large or 2 small eggplants, cut lengthwise into 1/2 incher slices

2 pounds part skim ricotta cheese

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella (reserve 1/2 cup for the top layer)

1 bunch fresh basil, chopped

1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning

Salt & Pepper

1 small onion, chopped

1 medium bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange), seeded and chopped

4 cups sliced mushrooms

1 bunch broccoli, florets only, coarsley chopped (I forgot to put these in)

3 ounces fresh Spinach, chopped

2 cups crushed tomatotes, or your own marinara recipe, made with no added tomato paste or tomato sauce

3 small Zucchini, cut lengthwise into 1/8-inch slices

or

3 small yellow squash, cut lengthwise into 1/8-inch slices

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a baking sheet with cooking oil spray.

Arrange the eggplant slices on the baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until flexibe but not completley cooked.

In a mixing bowl, mix the Ricotta with half of the chopped garlic. Stir in the Parmesan and 1 1/2 cups of the mazzarella cheese, chopped basil, Italian seaoning, salt, pepper, and set aside.

Saute the onion, remaining chopped garlic, pepper, mushrooms, and broccoli for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped spinach and remove from the heat. Allow to cool and then add to the ricotta mixure.

To assemble, spread a thin layer of the crushed tomatoes in a large baking dish, such as a 3-quart Pyrex lasagne dish (which I don't have so I just used my larges Pyrex dish), then layer:

Eggplant slices

Ricotta mixture

Zucchini or squash slices

Crushed tomatoes

Eggplant slices

Ricotta mixutre

Zucchini or squash slices

Crushed tomatoes

Ricotta mixture, and so on

Layer until you run out of ingredients. End with a layer of eggplant or zucchini and top with crushed tomatoes or your sauce. Sprinkle with the reserved 1/2 cup of mozzarella.

Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until hot & bubbly.

adapted from Diane Kress

Metabolism Miracle

Miracle Spaghetti

Ok, so I have been gone for WAY to long. But oh well, things happen; life happens! I haven't been in the mood to blog or cook anything for a long time now anyway.

However, since I recently stepped on the scale I have decided that it is time for me to do something about how it's crepping up there. So, I am going to start cooking fresh, using more and more organic foods; and I am going to follow The Metabloism Miracle. It's a diet similar to Atkins, where it limits your Carb intake. But it seems safer and healthier to me than Atkins. It was designed by Diane Kress, RD, CDE. You can learn more about it here at http://www.themetablosimmiracle.com/ I followed it breifly just before Christmas and lost over 6lbs in less than 2 weeks! I think I am more determined this time to follow it, and stick to it because I am unhappy with how I look and feel, and I don't want to turn 30 feeling/looking this way! So I have 1 month to turn things around!

Today was day 1. Tonight for dinner I chose to make a spaghetti dish from the book called 'Miracle Spaghetti'. IT'S PASTA FREE!!!

Here is the recipe. I added some things and took some things away. It turned out FABULOUS! I will definatley be making this dish again.

Miracle Spaghetti

It says that it serves 4 to 6 people, but I only managed to feed 2 people out of it. It may have to do with the way that I shredded the squash...that or I didn't get a big enough squash.

1 spaghetti Squash

Cooking oil spray

1 pound lean ground turkey or lean ground beef

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup of chopped onion

1/2 cup of chopped green bell pepper

2 (14 ounce) cans of crushed tomatoes with basil and herbs (I only used 1 can, and didn't get the kind with the basil and herbs...I added my own..I used garlic salt & powder, onion powder, Mrs. Dash seasoning, Oregano, Basil, Cayenne and some Brown Sugar)

1/2 cup of White Wine (I did not put this in)

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (this I did not use either)

Cut the spaghetti squash in half and remove the seeds.

Place, face down, in a microwave-safe dish with a 1/2 inch depth of water on the bottom.

Cover with plastic wrap. Make a few slits in the plastic wrap for ventilation.

Microwave on high until tender 20 to 30 minutes.

Over medium heat, in a large skillet sprayed with cooking oil spray, brown the ground turkey, garlic, onion, and green pepper for about 10 minutes, unti the meat is cooked.

When the meat is cooked, add the crushed tomatoes and wine, simmer for about 30 minutes.

After the squash is cooked, and has cooled enough to handle, use a fork to pull/shred it into a large bowl. It will actually look like strands of spaghetti.

Divide the spaghetti among four to six plates, top with the meat sause, and sprinkle with Parmesan.

ENJOY!

Adapted from Diane Kress, RD, CDE

The Metabolism Miracle