Morning Star Farms black bean burger with oven baked idaho, and sweet potato fries

Tex-mex buttiro

Weight Watchers Wedding Soup with turkey meatballs = 2 pts per serving.

Chick Pea Salad - all sorts of veggies (cukes, peppers, carrots, celery), with dijon/vinegar/mayo/dill dressing

Steamed edamame with home-made soy, vinegar, sesame oil, pepper flakes dipping sauce

Curry lentils, with eggplant, peppers, squash, zucchini

Curry sauce - with chicken , baby corn and snow peas

This is from this month’s issue of cooking light - you an see the recipe here. I modified the recipe by using half the oil, and adding twice the veggies. It called for green onions, I also added broccoli and shiitake mushrooms. The recipe calles for one pound of beef also - but I used about half of that. Oh also make sure you watch your portions - the recipe is for a 1 Cup serving!

I also made up a little side salad - romaine, carrots, red onion, chopped peanuts. Dressing was lime juice, chili garlic sauce, honey, olive oil.

Sweet potatoes are so good for you. See this article for proof. I always have them on hand - whether I’m baking them , making oven baked french fries, or eating then for breakfast. Check out this sweet potato hash I made for breakfast this morning:

Ingredients:

• 1 very finely diced sweet potato
• 1/4 finely diced sweet onion
• 1/4 finely diced yellow bell pepper
• salt/pepper
• olive oil
• garlic powder

Heat 1/2 T olive oil in skillet. Add all ingredients and cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender. Keep skillet covered to keep in moisture. This was such a subtly sweet,warm,  flavorful breakfast. Perfect for a cold winter morning.

I served mine with scrambled egg whites tossed with cooked zuchini, and sun dried tomatoes.

Another experiment with no real recipe.

I pre-cooked a high fiber macaroni pasta. Also pre-cooked the butternut squash in the oven.

In a saute pan, to 1 tsp olive oil - I cooked a shallot, and a clove of garlic. Added in cubed cooked butternut squash. I then added in some fat free milk, Parmesan cheese, greek yogurt, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice,  and 1 C thawed frozen peas, salt/pepper and red pepper flakes.

I then added it to a cooking spray coated baking dish, covered with foil and put into a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Serve with a sprinkle more of grated parm. This was delicious, simple and really comfy feeling.

I promise to post a non-squash recipe soon!

I’ve been making this breakfast often. It is a simple, simple, very satisfying weekend breakfast. (I eat cereal on every weekday and get fancy on the weekends!)

Anyhow, I thinly slice whatever potatoes I have around, and get them into a saute pan with some olive oil. I lay them out flat or as flat as I can so they get to cooking right away. While those are cooking, I finely dice up, onions and peppers. And add those into the pan. I cook this dish for a long time - like 25-30 minutes - I let the potatoes and veggies actually start to stick to the bottom, and get black and sweet and sticky. It is so good - trust me. The only thing I usually add in is some salt/pepper and garlic powder. I cover this about halfway through cooking to keep the potatoes most. In this batch of potatoes - I used a blend of red potatoes and sweet potatoes…

The omelet, is a 3 egg white omelet. Before making the eggs, I sauteed zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms, and a tiny, slice of ham, chopped into very small pieces.

I topped the omelet with fresh parmesan.

And while I wait for the soup I am snacking on this deliciousness…

I have made this soup twice and am making it again tonight. My recipe is a modified version of Gina’s somehow mine winds up being thinker and I top mine with a few toasted pine nuts, greek yogurt, and even a little fresh grated parmesan. Maybe tonight I’ll take real photos.

Here is a link to Gina’s recipe. Though I see recipes all over the place. Cooking light, Weight watchers etc.. I really recommend making your own from fresh butterntu squash - it is a little bit of work, but I think it is sooo worth it.  http://weight-watchers-points-recipes.blogspot.com/2008/10/butternut-squash-soup-with-sage-1-ww-pt.html

Ingredients:

• spaghetti squash
• zucchini
• peppers
• onion
• 1 1/2 C pasta sauce
• 1/2 C ricotta cheese
• 1/4 C grated mozzarella
• 3/4 C veggie crumble

This was an experiment, and a mashup of a few recipes and throw in a little of “lets cook with whatever we have”. Anyhow, it turned out great. I cooked the spaghetti squash (refer to my earlier post for instructions). After squash is cooked, mash it into a pie pan like a crust. I used two mini deep dish pizza pans, but any kind of deep dish would work.

While that was cooking, I cooked up a  frozen veggie crumble (like a ground beef substitute), with diced green peppers, onions, and zucchini. Once these things were pretty well cooked, I added in about 1 1/2 C of pasta sauce. I really like Muir Glen’s chunky vegetable? (it is the one that is sold in the jar upside-down).

Oh, also I made a ricotta type of cheese (I didn’t have any in the fridge) by cooking 1 C fat free milk on the stove to 180 degrees, and adding 1/4 C vinegar and letting that sit, then straining and putting into a food processor with a few little fresh mozzarella balls and some Parmesan cheese.In total I wound up with about 1/2 C cheese stuff.

I then spread my cheese mixture onto the bottom of the spaghetti squash pie shell. Then I added my veggie/sauce mixture and put it into the over for 45 minutes at 375. Last 10 I added a little grated mozzarella to the top.

This made great leftovers too!!

Okay, I was a little intimidated by the whole idea of cooking spaghetti squash, but I love all of the other squashes and figured I needed to get on this spaghetti squash train too!

This was a total experiment - no recipe, no measuring. It turned out great. The squash is so subtly sweet.

Squash Casserole

Alright - first cut your spaghetti squash on half lengthwise. Next place open side up on a baking sheet. Salt and pepper and bake 50 minutes or so at 375 degrees (should do the trick). Remove when inside is tender. Let cool for 10 minutes.

While the squash was cooking….

I made a sun dried tomato, spinach mixture:

• steam big bunch of fresh spinach
• roast a handful pine nuts
• sauté garlic (1 clove) and shallots (1 shallot) in olive oil
• add in toasted pine nuts
• toss into saute pan - handful softened sun dried tomatoes (soak in water for 30 minutes if dry)
• toss in 3 artichoke hearts (chopped)
• Mix this all together and remove from heat, place in bowl and set aside

Next I made a very light cream sauce (in same pan as I sauteed the mixture above):

• melt 1 tsp. smart balance butter
• add 1 T flour, mix with whisk
• whisk in 3/4 C fat free milk  and 1 T greek yogurt
• When it thickens, pour it over spinach mixture and set aside

Now that squash is cool, scrap away the flesh from the sides - it naturally pulls away in spaghetti like strands. Easy easy easy.

Finally, I put the squash in a 9×9 pan, mixed in the spinach cream sauce mixture, added some fresh ground pepper and sea salt, and 1/4 C fresh grated parmesan  and baked in the over for 30 minutes at 400….

Wow, this was sooo good. Tracey was really craving Thai tonight, so I raided the pantry and made this up . This recipe is based way loosely on her old favorite from our local Thai restaurant.

Time: 20 minutes, Servings: 2, WW Points: 5

Ingredients:

• 1 clove garlic
• 2 t. olive oil
• 1 red pepper (julienned)
• 1 yellow pepper (julienned)
• 2 carrots (julienned)
• 1 zucchini (julienned)
• 1/3 sweet onion (julienned)
• 1 C.  bamboo shoots (drained)
• 1/3 - 1/2 C light coconut milk
• 1-2 T. curry paste (I used premixed variety with cumin and curry, you can also just use dried curry, but add in cumin too this really boosts the flavor)
• 1/2 t. anchovy paste, or fish oil
• juice from one lime
• 1/2 lb. chicken breast (cubed)
• salt/pepper
• sriracha sauce (to taste)

In skillet, heat olive oil and add diced garlic, quickly add in all vegetables and cook until onions start to turn translucent. At this point add in curry paste, and coconut milk. Mix well. Slide vegetables to one side of the pan and add in chicken on other side , and squeeze juice from half of the lime over chicken. Let cook for a few minutes. Lower heat to medium. Mix everything together in pan, and continue to add in coconut milk, anchovy paste, lime juice, salt and pepper (dont need much at all), siracha - add all of these to taste. I never really measure exactly so you should make sure and taste as you cook. Turn heat to low and cover pan and lets cook just a few minutes more.

We ate ours in a bowl, and I topped mine with Sriracha and loved it, but it would also be good over rice, or with snap peas, or chopped cashews or peanuts etc… we are going to be making varieties of this dish often I have a feeling!