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Home > 340
KitchenKatalog: Blog 340
Friday, January 14, 2011, 09:58 AM
This is old and I meant to post it a while ago. We made sweet and sour chicken based on the sauce below. I doubled it but I didn't really need to. The sauce was just okay. I think I will look into sauce recipes that do not have soy-sauce as it is too overpowering in flavor. It was also spicy. I added some corn-starch to thicken but it didn't make too much difference. Also, when I doubled it, I replaced half of the brown sugar with splenda. We baked the chicken in the sauce
The zucchini was the same as last time again cutting the nuts and using low fat everything. It was good but not as good. I am not sure why. Still, I think it is pretty low in points.
Finally, the mashed potatoes were pretty standard. They were healthy because we did not use butter or sour-cream; just potato. I liked them dipped in the extra sweet and sour sauce.
Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe (from The Kitchn)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 884, 2011-01-14_095821
Thursday, January 13, 2011, 07:46 AM
We were looking for something fast and easy so we just seared the scallops and make frozen vegetables. They were okay. Not great for sure. We had to quickly defrost the scallops and that always seems to affect the flavor. The vegetables were just a frozen mix.
It was about 8oz of scallops each. That is about 4 points plus. The vegetables had some starchy ones so I do not know but they wouldn't be that bad.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 880, 2011-01-13_074624
Monday, January 10, 2011, 10:01 PM
The mushrooms were incredible! The recipe is inspired by here but we made enough changes that it is easier to explain. We sautéed the mushrooms (with a bit of Smart Balance) for a while. Then, we combined 1/2 cup of wine with 1/2 cup of water and 1 beef cube with some sodium free chicken. After heating that and mixing, we added it to the onions and let it cook down. Towards the end, we added some corn starch to thicken it. Actually, I accidentally added baking powder but that just created a lot of bubbles and went away. Then, I added the corn starch. I do not think the powder added any flavors. We used my Dad's trick and put a 1/3 wedge of Laughing Cow light Swiss into the mushroom caps and then filled it with the heavily reduced onions. We cooked it at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Very easy and very good.
The grain mixture was a bit stranger. We really didn't know what we were doing and it made if difficult. I do not remember the grains but there was definitely wheat berry. I know that one because they were less cooked and gave a chewy texture that we actually liked a lot. We put some fresh rosemary in and despite it seeming like not enough, it was actually too much. Very strong flavors. I do not remember what else was in there. Overall, it was okay. Definitely not great. Also, we put the mushroom stumps in.
I do not know the points for the grains but there were ONLY GRAINS for points so I do not imagine it was too bad. As for the mushrooms, the points really only come from the tbsp or so of Smart Balance and then the cheese. We made a bunch and had lunch leftovers.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 875, 2011-01-10_220148
Sunday, January 09, 2011, 10:52 PM
These were very, very good. We did do some interesting stuff. For the dough, we used unsweetened, vanilla almond milk. I think it affected the browning but other than that, it was really nice. I did the normal 10-minute knead and 30 minute sit. We were really able to stretch the dough thin! They were such small pieces but we just got it very thin.
Meredith made the filling and it was incredible. It started with two rinsed cans of beans (one black and one red kidney beans). In it was:
- 1/2 onion
- Peppers
- Corn
- Peas
- 2 cloves of garlic
- adobo powder
- cumin
- dried cilantro
- cayenne (just a bit)
- sauce from chipotles in adobo (not much, ~1 Tbsp)
- Regular and Habanero Tabasco Sauce (heavier on the latter)
We were able to fill them up a lot too because the dough was really pliable.
The soup was just onions, celery and carrots. We used a mix of chicken and beef broth because we ran out of chicken. It was good but nothing special.
The points are not high....sort of. I do not remember the beans exactly but it is around 2.5 points a serving and 7 servings in the whole thing so the filling for all is about 9 Points plus. The dough is 6 for three pieces but it is actually lower with almond milk. Still, 15 points plus for a lot of food is not bad
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 869, 2011-01-09_225207
Thursday, January 06, 2011, 08:06 PM
We made the ravioli again with 1/3 the pasta recipe. Unlike last time with ravioli, this dough needed an extra tsp of water (so a full recipe would need 1 Tbsp).We made the filling by just sautêing spinach with garlic and then mixing in fat free ricotta, seasonings and a tad of egg beaters We made way too much filling and I do not know the exact points. Unlike last time, we made bigger edges and crimped them. Overall, it was really just okay. Not incredible. The filling did not have a lot of flavor. The pasta was good but it is just pasta so it doesn't have a ton of flavor either. I would want to try again but with a more flavorful filling. And probably smaller edges so we can make more. With the extra filling, I added more egg
The soup ended up being less like soup because both the dehydrated mushrooms and the barley reabsorbed everything. Still, it was quite good. We had carrots and celery in it as well. For about 7 cups of broth (with 3 beef cubes, 2 regular chicken cubes, plus a bunch of sodium free chicken powder), we had 3/4 cup of barely. We also added about 1/4 cup of sherry. I do not know the exact amount or information from the mushrooms but they were dehydrated and from Costco. Even though it was less like soup, it was really good with a nice flavor.
Points plus:
Pasta for the ravioli was 6 points each. Filling is low but I do not know exactly.
The barely in the soup was 12 points plus but that was for many servings.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 865, 2011-01-06_200636
Wednesday, January 05, 2011, 10:54 PM
The chicken was from the recipe below off of the Whole Food Blog. We halved it and made a few changes. We halved it and used 5 chicken tenders. ALso, I do not know what the exact type of paprika we used but it is the normal, innocuous kind. Also, I used olive oil. Since we did not have white wine vinegar, I used half white wine and half apple cider vinegar.
Since it is boneless, skinless, lean chicken, I did not bother basting it. Plus, all of the chicken was under a rather hefty layer of onion and peppers. A note for the future, to coat the chicken with the paste, I put them all in a bowel and used my hand. Same with the onions.
It was okay. Certainly not incredible. I felt like the seasoning was a bit strong on the outside but the chicken could have used some kind of marinading. The onions and peppers on top were really good!
The Beets were pretty easy. I was crunched for time so I cut off the stem and base, then I microwaved them for 3.5 minutes. I then sprayed them with olive oil pam and put them in aluminum foil and baked it with the chicken at 425.
They were not cooked enough but we ate to eat them anyway. Also, peeling them was not as easy as many sites say. I cooked one of them more in the microwave but it had already been peeled. It developed a secondary skin in the microwave. Still, they were good
There are some points from the olive oil but it is relatively small. So the points really are only from the chicken.Beets are zero
Points plus:
Chicken (~3-4 oz)...4
Peruvian Chicken (Recipe from Whole Foods)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 861, 2011-01-05_225425
Wednesday, January 05, 2011, 08:55 AM
We bought beets with greens and all so we decided to use the greens today. (We will use the beets later in the week). We sautéed the stems for about 5 minutes and then added the rest of the leaves. There were about 4 cloves of garlic. Also, we topped it with low fat feta.
The burgers were from Trader Joes. We did not have the normal ones but these were okay. They tasted more salmon tasting than the normal ones from Costco but they were fine (I do not love the taste of salmon alone). When we get a chance, we will buy the Costco ones again. We topped them with Trader Joes 21 Seasoning Salute (like Mrs. Dash). A note for next time with these burgers: they drip a lot. Make sure to have a drip cup underneath the griddler.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 858, 2011-01-05_085531
Monday, January 03, 2011, 10:52 PM
Meredith found some good recipes on the Whole Foods Blog so we decided to give one a try (and we plan to do another one on Wed). The recipe is copied below.
We basically followed the recipe for the stew but added a jalapeno pepper, used hot salsa, used extra garlic, and used 93% lean beef instead of 85%. Also, we let it simmer for longer than stated. The points were rather low but I did not calculate them exactly. It made 3-4 servings easily.
Since we were cutting time a bit closer on the potatoes, we cubed them and then microwaved them for a bit to soften them. We seasoned them with the classic, parsley (dried), sage (dried), rosemary (dried) and thyme (fresh). I also added some salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Baked them on 400 for about 30 minutes.
See 2011-12-01 for Points plus
Mexican Taco Stew Recipe (from Whole Foods)
2014-01-07 Note: This has been added to My Recipe Book
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 853, 2011-01-03_225222