A Healthier approach....

I just spent a week in Kansas City training for my new job. Since I was staying at a hotel, I ate out everyday for lunch and dinner. There is nothing like KC bar-b-que! It was wonderful. By the end of the week, however, I was very tired of pork and beef! I was also not happy with myself and my size. I have gained a bit of weight back over the last year and it is not good.  Three of the nights in KC I spent pacing the floor trying to figure out if I had really bad heartburn or did I need to go to the hospital with chest pains.  Enough is enough.  Time for a new plan. One that I can live with and stick to. Tonight's dinner was the very beginning of that plan.

Tonight's dinner was oven-baked tilapia with roasted broccoli, scalloped potatoes and green apple slices. After consulting friends on Facebook, I put my tilapia in the oven with smashed and chopped garlic, a sprinkle of basil, sea salt and freshly ground pepper, a slice of tomato and a drizzle of olive oil.  While that  baked, I chopped some more garlic and put it on a baking tray with some fresh broccoli cut up and more olive oil.  The broccoli roasted while the fish baked.  Paulina made scalloped potatoes and I sliced some apple and tossed it with a little lemon juice so that it did not turn brown.

The tilapia was very moist and I liked the tomato and basil although the Italian in me was craving some cheese or something on it! Crazy huh?  I loved the broccoli.  I had just bought it fresh today at the Farmer's Market.  It was so good! The little bits of sliced apple were a wonderful palate cleanser and I even drank water instead of kool-aide!

I am off now to take a walk!

Luscious Lemon Bars

Tonight I am making some cookies for my family. I have to be out of town for a few days so I wanted to leave something sweet behind.  I recently re-discovered a cookbook I forgot about called "Grandma's Old-Fashioned Cookies" by Favorite Brand Name (Publications International, Ltd. 1996).

It is an amazingly simple recipe that does NOT require graham crackers.  Of all the baking ingredients I keep handy around the house, I never have graham crackers! The crust is simple and light and only consists of sugar, flour, butter and lemon zest.  It is baking in the oven right now and when the 15 minutes are up I will be pouring over the filling.

Here is a picture of the crust.  And here is what it looks like when I poured the filling over top of it:

It is now in the oven, all warm and cozy and baking away!  I can't wait for it to be finished.  The filling is a wonderful mixture of eggs (four of them!), sugar, lemon zest and a touch of vanilla.  Shoot me a message if you would like the recipe as I am not sure I can post it online because of copyright but I will be happy to email you!

As soon as this is out of the oven I suppose I should hit the hay and go to bed as I have a very long flight tomorrow! Goodnight all! Don't forget to be thankful for EVERYTHING, no matter what!

Hamburger Sliders

Today's challenge was to make something for dinner without spending more than $15 at the grocery store. I was inspired by watching Melissa d'Arabian's show on Food Network this morning called "Ten Dollar Dinners".

I went to the FN website and explored many of her recipes and decided on this one:

Beef and Black Bean Sliders

I had the ground chuck (poor Chuck!) in the freezer so I was already a few dollars up on my budget!  I went to the store and purchased some Bush's Black Beans in a can, a bag of shredded coleslaw, some Pepperidge Farm slider buns, Sargento's thin sliced provolone cheese and some generic brand frozen french fries.

I  put the french fries on right away as I knew they would take longer than the sliders.  However I did not send those generic fries into the oven completely naked....I sprinkled them generously with garlic powder and paprika.  Into the oven they were sent!

I did not follow the recipe exactly (You are not surprised, are you?). I defrosted my hamburger and put it into a large bowl.  I opened the black beans and rinsed them well.  Into a small bowl I put 1/2 cup of the beans with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of garlic powder.  I smashed them all together until they were a smooth paste using a fork.  Into the ground chuck (poor Chuck!) went the black bean mixture and I mixed well.  I formed the small burgers and put them onto a plate to rest.

There was no propane for the grill so this meant I had to fry my burgers. I rubbed my large skillet with some olive oil and heated it until it was good and hot.  I used the back of a large spoon and smeared the tops of the burgers with some dijon mustard.  Be careful putting them into the hot pan as you need to put them mustard side down and they sputter a little bit. After they go down in the pan, rub the top with some more mustard and let them cook at least a few minutes before flipping.

While the sliders were frying,  I made the dressing for the coleslaw.  I have never really made my own before so this was quite the new try.  Here is the dressing I made for my slaw:

(1) cup of Duke's Mayo (is there any other? I don't think so!)
(2) tablespoons of milk
(6) tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
onion powder
Soul Seasoning
Lemon Juice

Combine all the above.  The lemon juice is added to taste...I think I added about a tablespoon or so. I was tangy and tart.  Everyone seemed to like it.

With the burgers and fries done, we sat down to eat.  The black beans added a different texture to the hamburgers.  They were definitely moist, but quite frankly, did not hold together too well when fried. I am not sure if grilling them would have made a difference. Other than that, they were delicious.

Overall, I only spent $13 dollars at the grocery store and I think dinner turned out well.  It was eating within budget without tasting like budget food.  I consider that a success.

Crack Sticks (recipe from Shabby Chicks)

This recipe kept popping up all over Facebook and I just had to try them!  All the credit and the original recipe is located here:

Shabby Chicks

I was completely mystified how on these would taste good...it was the smooshed white bread that was throwing me!! I decided the only way to know for sure was to try them!

Here are the ingredients:

(1) loaf of thin sliced white sandwich bread
(1) 8 ounce box of cream cheese
(3/4) cup confectioner's sugar
(1) cup sugar
(1-1/2) teaspoon ground cinnamon
(3/4) cup butter, melted

Remove crusts from bread.  Flatten bread with a rolling pin.

In a bowl combine cream cheese and confectioners' sugar.
In another bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon, set aside.
Spread about 1 tablespoon of cheese mixture on each slice of bread.

Roll up, jelly roll style.

Dip in melted butter.

Roll in the cinnamon sugar.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Yield:  approximately 16 roll-ups.  Good warm or cold. (But I would not know about the cold because they did not make it that far!)

This was an awesome recipe and I would LOVE to know how it came to be! I have visions of a desperate housewife needing a dessert in a hurry! I am sure she was very smart!

Desperation Soup!!!

I had (and still have) no plans on attending family game night with the church youth group tonight. AND I thought none of my kids were attending either.  WRONG.  One decided to go, so I had to come up with soup REALLY fast for them to take with them.  I will not send my kid empty-handed!

So now, I go into the kitchen and do what I do best....make something wonderful out of whatever is in my cupboards. I should be named Little Miss Hubboard.  I ended up making Vegetable Beef Noodle:

This is what is in it:

1 pound of ground beef, cooked
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
Carrots
Green peas
Corn
Broccolli florets
Egg noodles
Salt & Pepper
Dry brown gravy mix (yes, I went there....)

While I thawed the hamburger out in the microwave, I sauteed the onion and bell pepper in a scant bit of olive oil. I added the smashed garlic in as well.  After the ground chuck (poor chuck) was thawed I added it to my pot as well. I guess I should explain I went ahead and started with my soup pot, no need to get TWO pans dirty.

Of course, the whole two pans thing did not, well, PAN out! I used a second pot to heat about 4 cups or so of water and added a generous dumping of the dry brown gravy mix.  I did not measure, sorry! I whisked this together until it began to boil then removed from the heat.

I drained the first pot of ground chuck (poor chuck), onions and peppers of the grease from the hamburger.  I then tossed in the vegetables I had from my freezer (the carrots, peas, corn, broccolli). Next came several cups of water and I turned the heat up to high to get a boil going. 

I then added the brown gravy mix I had set aside.  I stirred it well and then washed the pot so that I could use it again (I was determined not to get a THIRD pot dirty!) so I could boil the egg noodles.  I only used 2/3 of the bag of egg noodles.  When they were almost al-dente, I added them to the soup.

It actually tastes pretty good for a desperation move!! Now to go wash all those pots!!

There is actually a very good reason why I was not going to Family Game night. I am in the midst of preparing for something VERY big that I cannot as yet reveal on this website! But when I can, I will let you in on the secret!!!!

Garlic Lime Chicken (thanks McCormick!)

I saw this recipe posted by McCormick spices on Facebook today and I really wanted to try it.  Here is the recipe link:

McCormick Garlic Lime Chicken..

The ingredients that I used (now....you did not REALLY think I was going to follow it exactly, did you???)

1 1/2 pounds of chicken tenderloins
(2) packages McCormick Fajitas Seasoning Mix (garlic lime)
lime juice
orange juice
olive oil
(1) medium onion, sliced thinly
(1) red pepper, sliced thinly
warm flour tortillas (8")

Mix 1/4 cup of lime juice and 1/4 cup of orange juice plus (1) package of the fajita seasoning mix and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Put the chicken tenderloins either in a large Ziploc bag or a dish and pour the seasoning mixture over it.  Put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (or longer) to marinate.

Mix up a second batch of the fajita mixture with the lime and orange juice and set aside.
Heat a large skillet with some olive oil and add the chicken that has been marinating.  Cook until almost done then remove from the heat and take the chicken out.  Put the pan back on the heat and add the medium onion and red pepper along with about 1/2 cup of the second marinade.  Cook for approximately five minutes until tender.  Add the chicken back to the skillet and finish cooking through.

I served the fajitas by putting the chicken mixture in the warm tortilla, added a little Blanco Fresco and some sliced avocado that had been mixed with a little lime juice.

I also made some Mexican style rice.  The whole meal was so yummy! I can take no credit. McCormick, it was a great idea! Next time I will probably not use anything pre-packaged and go for the fresh garlic and who knows what else! I just know that this was a delicious dinner!!

Basics

It was a get back to the basics kind of dinner tonight.  Nothing heavy, hard or fancy. I have been sick a lot this week so I needed something that did not require a lot of standing in the kitchen.  The ticket seemed to be  my husband's favorite:  meatloaf.

My meatloaf was bare.  The only thing that I included this time was the following:

(1) pound of ground chuck (poor chuck)
(1) large yellow onion, chopped
(4) cloves of garlic, minced
(1) sleeve of saltine crackers, crushed
(1) good shake of Soul Seasoning
(1) egg

All the above mixed well and put into a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

While the meatloaf baked, I peeled potatoes and put some corn on.  Yep, it was a basic dinner.  My family really likes their meat and mashed potatoes.  The best part is that we got to sit at our table and all have dinner together. It doesn't happen as often as it should now that everyone is getting older but I am trying as hard as I can to hold onto it as long as I can.

Now, I am sitting in my kitchen making Italian wedding cookies and playing on my laptop.  I hate that I have to "sit" to do it but I am not back up to strength yet.  But soon - I will be adventurous again and trying something new.