I was really in the mood to make steak so I did just that. I pammed it, then put some salt and pepper on. I did it on the griddler with a meat thermometer. It worked really well for the pork chop I made for lunch tomorrow (which I am not going to post). Or, at least I hope it worked because of the way the temperature rose.

Anyway, with the steak I got strange readings so I eye-balled it. Well, when I cut it, it mooed at me so I cooked it a bit more. I did cook it with the fat the first time but I cut it off before the second.

I also made the chips again but this time I used a mandoline. I finally found one that cheap that WAS adjustable. Most of the cheap ones are fixed. It is still a junky-ish one that has a slightly serrated blade which left a strange texture but still good. Also, I overcooked them a bit but the chips were very thin and good. Also, one potato went very far!!!

The chips were around 3-4 points. THe steak was about 10-12.

First meal at Meredith’s. She doesn’t have a table yet but this worked fine. The chicken was just roasemary, some black pepper, a bit of crushed red pepper, and some salt. After the flip, we added the peppers. I thought they wouldn’t cook enough but with the lid on, they were fine.

The chicken side stuff is a side dish thing made by Korr. It is one of the few sides that is not too salty (though I do not remember how much) and not too high in calories (~400 total, two servings, low fat.). I like it a lot but I want to learn how to make it myself from the broth on. I think I will make chicken broth and pasta so that the broth is just barely over the pasta. Then let it cook down and thicken. Maybe some flour or cornstarch for thickening. If I get it, I will try to link back to it.

Points:

Chicken…about 3-4 (it is very lean and I trimmed off even more fat before cooking)
Side Stuff…4/person.

The frittata had onions, peppers, broccoli, tomato, a bit of leftover filling from yesterday’s burritos . It was very good. The broccoli really was good mixed in with everything else.

The points were really low with the only real thing to count was the egg beaters. So the entire thing had about 2-4 points. Plus some toasted Arnold’s rolls

Breakfast burritos. We grilled gimme lean on the griddler (which was very good) and made a miture of onions, garlic, a bit of pepper and other stuff I do not remember right now. Finally we had pieces of egg. We made the egg in pyrex then cut it. Plus a bit of FF shredded cheddar

After folding/rolling them, we put them back on the griddler to heat and get some lines.

We also had microwave potato chips…of course.

Below are pictures after and before prep. Below that is points (roughly)

Rough points for 4 (ate 1.5/person and had one left):

1/2 gimme lean…4
Egg…1 or 2
Cheese…2
La Tortilla Factory wraps…4 (1 each)

So, each one was 3! Not bad!

Very good meal that I cooked with my dad. The samosa’s were again with this recipe, but changed a bit. More salt and I added garam masala and I really did not measure the spices. I just kinda threw them in. Some notes though. I had a lot more trouble making them on this batch. You can see the one botched one we turned into somewhat of a dumpling. I think the key is to not over fill and to be careful with the dough. Shaping it better would help. Also, maybe kneading it more to make the gluten strands more pliable. Just thoughts for the future.

The mushrooms were the normal caps with laughing cow cheese. The stuffing was a really good grain mixture with butternut squash. I will ask him and add it here later.

Finally, just steamed broccoli. I think it was a bit undercooked but certainly not raw. My dad liked it the way it was.

Oh, and salad we barely ate.

We made pizza again from this recipe (or my site’s link). This time I tried with all whole wheat flour. It was okay but not incredible. Especially considering you go beyond 4 grams of fiber per serving, I will go back to their suggestion of roughly half and half. I started it in the food processor and then moved it to the dough hook. After a while on the hook, I finished it by hand. Also, it helps to flour or corn meal the pan. Some stuck

There were three of us with Meredith’s sister. The dough made 4 large pizzas and 4 small (or the equivalent of 6 large). Meredith and I each made 1 large and two small for lunch. Meredith’s sister made two larges.

The sauce was a mix of homemade and when we ran out, we used a mix of Clasico and Barilla tomato basil.

Also of note is I found fat free shredded mozzarella. I weighed out two servings for my large pizza and it was just enough. A bit dry because FF but acceptable. See very bottom for points.

The photo on top is Meredith’s large pizza. The rest of the photos are labeled above them.

Meredith’s were:

• Large: Tomato sauce, ricotta (skim), arugula and FF mozzarella cheese
• Small: Samosa Pizza with sliced (and par-cooked) potato slices, mint chutney, garam masala (spice), coriander, peas and topped with lite Jarlsberg
• Small: BBQ sauce, Canadian bacon, arugula and 2/3 lite Jarlsberg, 1/3 LF prov

Mine:

• Large: Tomato sauce, broccoli, FF mozzarella with some garlic powder (note, it was not too great)
• Small: BBQ sauce, Canadian bacon, red bell pepper and Jarlsberg
• Small: tomato sauce, potato slices, and provolone

Brooke’s

• Large 1: Jarlsberg, olives (yuk!) basil
• Large 2: Jarlsberg, Canadian bacon and arugula

My large:

Brooke’s Large:

Meredith’s Samosa pizza and my potato slices one:

Meredith’s and my BBQ:

Brooke’s second large one:

Points:

Crust

For the whole recipe. It makes about 6-8 servings.With all whole wheat flour. It gets a bit tricky with how you count the fiber from the flour.

3.5 cups whole wheat flour…1540/7/56

Oil…4 points
sugar…negligible

The points come from the flour plus a half from the olive oil. So, for 8 servings, we have 181/1/14. Plus you add more flour to it as you go plus some for the sugar and yeast. Therefore, I will say if you split it into 8 servings, 4 each. If you split it into 6, then 5

Toppings:

60 grams of FF mozz (covers a pizza lightly) is 2.

FF cheese is really low but flavorless. LF cheese is 1 or 2 a slice depending on cheese (Lite Jarlesburg and LF Sargento Prov are 1/slice).

I first read about this method on a Lifehacker article about cooking easy. As anyone reading in archives know, I have been trying to make healthy chips with varying degrees of success. I have not totally figured it out with the oven. So, I read more and eventually found enough people say it was possible that I tried it. (main site – But I used pam).

Interestingly, maybe I used to much potato, but despite the fact that my microwave is more powerful than any mere mortal ever needs, I was surprised that I still needed to do it for 8-10 minutes and not the 5.

But, it was a great success! I made three batches today. The first was for breakfast, then I made a snack and then I made some for lunch tomorrow. I usually refrigerate my entire lunch but I am going to leave this one out with the bag open to make sure I do not trap steam.

So, I tried to extend it. I had a parsnip that was going to be bad any minute now. I peeled it, cut it, pammed, seasoned and microwaved it. I have not been chomping at the bit while cooking so much since making mussels with my mom earlier in the summer. Anyway, it took about 8 minutes. I think it is a mixed success. They are good but they are not crisp. Also, the sweetness of the parsnips mixed with the flavors. It is definitely interesting but it needs more refinement. One thought is that I may be crowding them and that is producing too much steam. I do not know but worth exploring.

Next I tried carrots. My leftover carrots were small and that may have contributed to the lack of definitive results, but the jury is definitely still out. They did not really crisp and some may have burned. Also contributing to the results was I may have used too much pam (evident in the photo).

The next photo is the parsnips followed by carrots.

Equipment Note: My plates say they are dishwasher, microwave and conventional oven safe. As you would expect, they came out of 8 minutes in the microwave quite hot. I let them FULLY COOL before trying to clean them because I do not want them to crack. Also, while the plates may be microwave safe, apparently, the writing telling you that is not. They no longer say anything on the bottom. Oh well.

Future Ideas: I think moisture is a killer in this but I do want to try with bananas, and plantains (Jamaican themed meal maybe?). Other ideas?

Addendum: I was thinking about it and I was wondering if the microwave is essentially doing anything differently other than cooking the potatoes for “longer” (even though it is less)? It may have to do with how a microwave works or it may simply be the cooking. I have not given up on the oven method.

One thing I really think I need to get to help nail this method is a mandoline with a spacing adjustment so I can consistently cut  thin slices, and probably thinner than what I can do by hand at that. I may go buy one next week because I really want to test this out

There was my first attempt at microwave frying. I will talk about it much more here. Not really all the special other than the chips. See that post.

Meredith’s sister was in town and she wanted to try it so I tried to french onion soup again. I still have not gotten sodium-free beef boulion which may have made a difference but I used less wine and less boulion. Meredith and I agreed it was not as good. After I get sodium-free beef,  I will try again.

The chicken was just coated with Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. It is sodium free and, I think, similar to Mrs Dash. Because it was sodium free, I added a bit of salt. And a tab of black pepper. The pepper added a surprising spice.

And, steamed broccoli. It was a bit overdone because my timing got messed up at the end.

Chicken was 4 points for about 3.5 oz (three tenders approx) and the soup was the same as last time…more or less.

Today’s meal was (unintetionally) comfort food. First the soup: The french onion soup was fairly simple. First I sauteed a lot of onions (french cut) with just pam. Then I added about 3 cups of water and a cup of white wine (thanks Alton Brown for that tip). Then added 4 beef boulion cubes and a packet of no sodium chicken. I eventually added some more water. After the first taste, I thought the wine was too pronounced so I added another cube. A few notes for the future. First, a bit less wine. It was too strong. Second, I need to get some sodium free boulion to cut some of the salt.

For the croutons, we toasted a (pam) buttered english muffin and cut that. The cheese was low fat provalone. Since my bowls are (probably) not safe for the oven, let alone the broiler, I used the creme brulee torch to brown and burn the cheese.

The shepherd’s pie, pictured cut below, was just onions, ground beef (lean) and some frozen corn and peas. After satueeing the onions and vegetables and browning the beef, we lined the bottom of the pan with it (very bottom photo). The potatoes were a pound of yukon gold potaotes which we boiled for about 20 minutes. I do not know the details because Meredith did it, but the smashed potatoes (we kept the skin on) were made with some greek yogurt (less than 1/2 cup), Molly McButter, butter spray, garlic and onion powder, salt, pepper and a tad  of 1/2 and 1/2 to make it creamy. After mixing the two, we baked on 400 for about 20 minutes then broiled for 2 to brown the top. We ended up with too much potato for the beef but it was still good. (The original plan was to use a smaller dish but it grew). The recipe was loosely based on this recipe

Shepherd’s Pie (2 dinner/2 lunch)
meat:
8 oz 92/8 ground beef…8
1/2 cup corn + 1/2 cup peas…1.5
Potato
1 lb Yukon Potato…6.5
4 oz ff greek yogurt…2
! Tbsp 1/2+1/2..0.5

Assorted Pam, onions, etc…0.5

Whole pie had 19. Made two dinners and two lunch portions (around 6 and 3 or 4 respectively)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
French Onion Soup (made 2 servings)
1 cup white wine…2
2 slices LF cheese…2
1 Fiber One English muffin…1
Assorted Pam, etc…1

Wanted a pretty fast and simple meal so I sauteed up some spinach that did not have much lifetime left and made a tomato sauce. The sauce was diced tomatoes, with some mini-sweet peppers and cayenne. Both of the peppers also were on their last legs. So, it was a fast meal that also used up expiring produce. The pasta is just Barilla whole wheat rottini.

We made sushi because we needed to eat the avocado before it went bad. We used brown rice, imitation crab, mini bell pepper slices and carrot slices. It was a mixed success. It looks okay but far from great. We will see how it tastes.

The picture below is the prep stuff (neatly put together)

Points: (for 2)

1 cup brown rice…6
Imitation Crab…2
avacado…1 (I think)

I do not know about the nori but I do not imagine it is much.

We made grilled cheese with low fat provolone and or lite Jarlsberg. We each had one with a mix and half of one that was all one type of another. It was “gourmet” with the addition of banana peppers and tomato. Using the butter spray and butter pam on the griddler allowed us to do it without any butter. Also, the lines from the griddler makes it even more “organic” feeling

The tomato soup was canned tomatoes, chicken base (water+ regular and sodium-free bouillon) an onion and a lot of seasonings. I then used the immersion blender. It was okay but tasted a bit like tomato sauce. Well, that is not really a bad thing but still. We garnished it with some fresh basil.

(approx) point values:

Grilled Cheese (we each had two)

• Arnold’s Roll…1 for the first, 2 for the second
• 2 slices (per sandwich) low-fat cheese…2

Tomato Soup…~1 just to account for any oil and other.

First of all, I do understand that they do not really all go together but we wanted to eat the squash before it went bad.

The turkey burgers were made with all sorts of seasonings including a bit of sesame seed oil, worcestershier sauce and tobasco sauce. The chips were the usual. More ground black pepper than usual giving it a bite.

The soup was more interesting. I originally used too much cinnamon but added extra boulion base to even that out. I also used nutmeg and ginger. Finally, I put some Splenda in to give it an extra sweetness lacking in it.

(Approx.) Point Values:

Turkey Burgers…~1 point per oz (93% lean). Each [small] burger was 2 oz
Arolds Rolls…1 for 1. 3 for 2
LF prov. Cheese (1/2 slice per burger)…1/slice

Potato “chips”. Around 4 total. Maybe 5

Butternut squash is harder to figure out for sure. I am guessing about 2 per bowl.

We used this recipe for the black bean stuffed poblanos (we halved it). The stuffing was good but the tomato sauce inundated the flavor. We cooked the extra stuffing in a separate dish and that was great. The peppers themselves would have been better with less sauce. Maybe next time we will use salsa. Also, we drained and rinsed the beans to cut some salt

The salsa verde was too watery because we ran out of tomatillos. We used non fat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. The chicken which was just sauteed with taco seasoning was good but was also exactly what you would expect.

So, notes for next time are salsa instead if sauce (and less if it) and thicker salsa Verde.

Also, I tried using the cast iron for the chicken. It was really nice but you couldn’t cover it. Not really an issue for tenders which cook quickly but if I were using whole breasts, I would want the lid.

Approximate points:
Peppers
Beans…3
LF cheese…3
Corn meal…2

Chicken…~1.5 (or less) per oz

Salsa Verde… (not much and as barely ate it)