Roasted Potatoes, Onions and Garlic

A while ago I bought a box of Lipton's Vegetable Flavored Dip and Soup Mix. I had a coupon, so I bought it, with no idea what I was going to do with it. It's an impulse I've stopped fighting a long time ago! Anyway, needing a side dish for our chicken, I thought that perhaps the soup mix would be a nice little coating for the potatoes, so I threw in some garlic and onions, and it turned out delicious. Even the smell coming from the oven was heavenly, it has a very strong and sharp taste, but not too much that your kids won't like it. You could really make this kind of dish about a million different ways, that's what I love about roasted veggies.

Ingredients

4-5 red potatoes diced
1 onion, cut in half and then slice 1/2 inch thick
4-5 garlic cloves, roughly minced
1 packet preferred soup or dip mix
2-3 teaspoons olive oil
3-4 tablespoons water

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Combine potatoes, onions, and garlic in 8 x 8 pan. Coat with olive oil and toss with dip mix. Pour water into bottom of pan to help steam potatoes. Roast for 8-10 minutes, or until veggies are fork tender. Serve hot.

Chicken with Mushrooms and Green Onions

The thing about trying to eat healthy is that you tend to eat a lot of the same things, like chicken. And let's be honest, a boneless, skinless chicken breast can get boring FAST if you don't have good ways to prepare it. I was really happy with this recipe. It was like chicken Parmesan, with a twist (and minus the Parmesan!). I think the best part about it (besides the Italian breading) is that the base of the sauce is made with tomato paste, which is such a concentrated and rich flavor. I love it. I'm going to post the recipe as I found it, but I will tell you that when I make this again, I will probably cut the chicken broth down to one cup instead of two. It was still very good, but I would have liked the sauce to be a bit thicker, and I didn't have the time to let it reduce like I wanted. Definitely try this one though, it's very yummy.

Chicken with Mushrooms and Green Onions

Found in Weight Watchers 20 Minute Recipes magazine

Ingredients

2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
4 teaspoons Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 8 ounce package mushrooms, sliced
4 green onions, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl, and stir with a whisk. Set aside.

2. Sprinkle chicken evenly with breadcrumbs. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken, and cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned. Add mushrooms and broth mixture; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 7 to 8 minutes until chicken is done. Sprinkle with green onions.

Serves 4: one serving is one chicken breast and 1/3 cup mushroom sauce

Per Serving: 260 cal, 4.9g fat, 44.1g prot, 9.2g carb, 2.2g fiber, 99mg chol, 2.6mg iron

Points per Serving: 5

Panko Crusted Pork Chops with Creamy Herb Dressing

I know that I completely over do it on my Cooking Light recipes, but I just can't help it, they rarely disappoint. I think what I love the most about Cooking Light is that I never feel like I'm eating "diet food," which is good, because nothing is worse then choking something down that is void of taste and has the texture of cardboard. I also love it because I can eat something like a pork chop that has been breaded, shallow fried, and covered in a white sauce, and still lose weight. I tell you, they have miracle workers up there in Cooking Lightland! This is a FANTASTIC dish, it's a great way to spruce up an ordinary pork chop, it's got tons of flavor and how can you not love a crusty panko breading? Be sure to make the dressing with this recipe, it adds a cool and tangy flavor to the pork chops that you'll love!

Panko Crusted Pork Chops with Creamy Herb Dressing

Found in Cooking Light October 2009 edition

Ingredients

Pork:
2 teaspoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 tsp ground red pepper (I just used black)
1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 large egg white
1/3 cup Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs, really easy to find in the Asian section of your supermarket)
2 (4 oz) boneless center-cut loin pork chops
1 teaspoon canola oil
Cooking Spray

Dressing:
1 tablespoon chopped green onions
1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoons fat free sour cream
1 tablespoon fat free milk
1 tablespoon reduced fat mayonnaise
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

1. To prepare pork, preheat oven to 450.

2. Combine first 6 ingredients in a shallow dish. Combine soy sauce and egg white in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Place panko in a shallow dish.

3. Dredge pork in flour mixture; dip in egg mixture. Dredge in panko. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork to pan; cook 1 minute on each side. Place pork on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450 for 6 minutes, or until done.

4. To prepare dressing, combine onions and the remaining ingredients. Serve dressing with pork.

Serves: 2 (one serving is one pork chop with 2 tablespoons dressing

Per Serving: 268 cal, 9.5g fat, 30g prot, 13.6g carb, 0.7g fiber, 74mg chol, 1.3mg iron, 608mg sod

Points per Serving: 6

Naan

This is a recipe that I found on My Kitchen Cafe, one of my favorite food blogs. After I saw the recipe I knew that I wouldn't be able to completely enjoy my life until I tried it, and it's just as good as it looks. From what I read, Naan is an Indian flatbread that is meant to be eaten with garlic butter and curry. But it seems like you could make this bread for so many other things. It reminded me of "fry bread" that had been baked, and was great with honey butter on it. I could also see myself baking this bread and piling it high with chili, cheese, tomatoes, the works. It's also great by itself, I couldn't stop eating this bread! When you make this bread though, make it on a day that you know you could have it all eaten that day. It's delicious the day of, but didn't taste that great to us the next day. I hope you try it though, it's fun and easy to make!

Naan

Ingredients

14 ounces (about 2 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons instant yeast

1 egg

1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt

1/2 cup milk

Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl by hand), stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and yeast. In a small bowl, mix together the egg, yogurt, and milk. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir for about 1 minute, until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated into the wet ingredients. Increase machine speed to 2 (or by hand) and knead the dough until it is smooth and shiny. Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover with a towel. Leave in a warm place to rise until the dough doubles in size, about an hour. Put a baking stone or heavy baking sheet on the lowest rack of your oven. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees for at least 30 minutes prior to baking. Divide the dough into eight pieces and form into teardrop (mine were more like oval) shapes with your hands, about 6 to 8 inches across. Cook two or three pieces at a time. Drop the dough onto the hot stone and shut the oven door, watching until they are just starting to turn brown in places, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the naan and lay on a board.

I also got an award from MaryBeth at Dunkin Cooking the Semi Homemade Way. I love MaryBeth's blog and she's always got things posted that make my mouth water. Thanks so much MaryBeth, it's a really cute award!



Along with the award came this little quote:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."It also says : "Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So I would like to pass this on to the eight following food bloggers:

1. Lynette at Netts Nook
2. Donna at My Tasty Treasures
3. Melissa at Schweet 'N Savory
4. The gang at Eat at Betts
5. Rebekah at Yummy Tummies
6. Melody at Cheat Day Cafe
7. Christine at Cooking with Christine
8. Biz at Biggest Diabetic Loser

All of these blogs are definitely worth your attention and are always providing me great food ideas!

German Chocolate Cheesecake

This is a recipe I found on Priscilla Bakes, a wonderful food blog with gorgeous recipes. Shortly afterward I needed a good dessert to take to a baby shower, and this one instantly came to mind. I ended up being too sick to even go to the shower, but I still got great reviews on the cake, thanks Priscilla! The cream cheese filling is a great addition and even with all the layers, this is still a simple cake to prepare. I highly recommend this one, especially if you are a German Chocolate fan!

German Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 package (18-1/4 ounces) German Chocolate cake mix
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
FROSTING:
1 cup sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter, cubed
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups flaked coconut
1-1/2 cup chopped pecans (my husband is allergic to pecans, so I would probably sub almonds, just FYI)

DIRECTIONS

Prepare cake batter according to package directions; set aside. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour half of the cake batter into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Gently pour cream cheese mixture over batter. Gently spoon remaining batter over top; spread to edge of pan. Bake at 325° for 70-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. For frosting, in a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, milk, butter and egg yolks Cook and stir over medium-low heat until thickened and a thermometer reads 160° or is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla; fold in coconut and pecans. Cool until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Frost cooled cake. Refrigerate leftovers.

Yield: 16 servings.

Banana Pudding

Obviously this is not always green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I wanted to make a green dessert for the occasion, and I thought this would be perfect!

I LOVE this pudding. Several years ago a friend brought this to work and it was so good that I spent most of my day walking around with a plate of this in my hand and a goofy, sugar induced smile on my face. It's SO creamy and sweet, and so hard to stop eating! I wish I could show you a picture of the layers, but it's not time to serve it just yet, and I wanted to get it posted for the holiday. Definitely try this dessert sometime, it's so easy to whip up and your crowd will love it!

Banana Pudding

Ingredients

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 (small) box banana or vanilla flavored pudding mix
1 (12 oz) bowl Cool Whip
4-5 bananas
1 box Nilla Wafers
2 cups milk

Directions

Mix pudding with 2 cups milk. Add condensed milk, the Cool Whip. Mix all together. Line wafers on bottom of bowl, then bananas. Pour pudding mix on top and then cover with another layer of wafers. Refrigerate overnight.

Spicy Peanut Chicken Over Rice

Can you believe that March is already halfway over?? I haven't even had a chance to let the fact that it's March sink in yet, where is the time going? On the plus side, I have been enjoying the gorgeous weather lately, today was our first day back out to our favorite nature trail to feed the ducks. It was also a quick indication that I need to get my daughter outside and moving more because for a three year old, she sure does whine a lot about having to walk!



Anyway, I'm excited about this recipe. It was found in Cooking Light (surprised?) and it was a fun one to try because it's not normally something I would make. I've never combined these types of ingredients together, and so it was a gamble, but it turned out to be just delicious. The chicken was so flavorful and because of the peanut butter had a very velvety texture. The kids and hubs also loved it, which means I'm sold. Plus, it's rather pretty don't you think?



I'm going to post the original recipe as it appears in the magazine, but I'll tell you how I adapted it. Since I'm trying hard to keep my dinners as family friendly as possible, I cut out the red pepper flakes completely. I also didn't add the curry powder, which I know made a big difference. The biggest reason I omitted it was because I didn't have it when I thought I did, but to be completely honest, curry (at least in powder form) isn't my favorite flavor, I hope we can still be friends! I do plan to try more curry dishes in the future, but without it, this dish still came out wonderful.

This recipe makes a ton (12 servings!), I halved it for my family and there were still a lot of leftovers!

Spicy Peanut Chicken Over Rice

Found in Cooking Light August 2008 edition

Ingredients

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
2 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
3 cups chopped plum tomato (about 6)
2 (14 oz) cans chicken broth
8 cups rice
3/4 cup Greek-style yogurt

Directions

1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and garlic to pan; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes, or until chicken is done, stirring frequently. Stir in peanut butter and next five ingredients (through tomato paste); cook one minute. Add tomato and broth to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Serve chicken mixture over rice; top each serving with yogurt.

Serves 12: serving size is 3/4 cups chicken mixture, 2/3 cup brown rice, and 1 tablespoon yogurt.

Per Serving: 340 calories, 7.6g fat, 30g protein, 38g carbs, 4.6g fiber, 56mg chol, 2.1 mg iron

Points per serving: 7

Roasted Veggie and Hummus Sandwich

If anyone inspires me as a cook, it's definitely my mom. Growing up, I really can't remember a night that we didn't get to sit down to a hot, delicious meal. She was even able to turn leftovers into a lovely dinner. After all her years of cooking, she has perfected many of her dishes to be some of the best food I've ever tasted. To this day I still haven't have salmon or ribs that rival hers. Having moved away from her makes me long for her food as well as admire her even more for the person and cook that she is!

We were able to go home over Christmas, which was basically a two week GORGE fest of some of the best food imaginable. But there were points in the week that our bodies were screaming for mercy and begging for something light and healthy. To meet those needs my mom made these delicious roasted veggie sandwiches with her homemade hummus that were to DIE for. Her hummus had just the right amount of bite and sharpness, paired with the sweetness of the roasted veggies and the softness of the bread, oh, a veggie lover's dream come true. I ended up requesting the same sandwich three days in a row and I've been craving them ever since!

There is no wrong way to make these, and I did make mine a little differently then my mom's. She used kaiser rolls and added thick slices of provolone, and while I would LOVE to do that, I'm trying to keep things as light as possible. So I used these awesome Sandwich Thins that you can find at Costco. They are like thin hamburger buns, they are delicious, with just the right density and are only one point each! If you are trying to cut carbs or calories out of your diet, I highly suggest these, I use them for breakfast sandwiches, fill them full of lunch meat, and have even used them for burgers, they're great.


For these sandwiches you can either buy or make your own hummus. There is a huge variety of wonderful hummus at the grocery store right now, but I'm still a fan of my own. Hummus is really easy to make and there are a million different ways to make mine. Traditionally the base of hummus is chickpeas (garbanzo beans), but you could also use things like edamame, white beans, artichoke hearts, or roasted red peppers. My mom adds things like red onion and tahini to hers, which gives it such a rich tangy flavor. Mine is really simple, and very garlicky, here is the recipe.

Hummus

1 can garbanzo beans
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1-2 teaspoons cumin
1-2 teaspoons garlic salt
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
3-4 tablespoons olive oil

Combine beans, garlic, cumin, garlic salt, and lemon juice in a food processor. Blend until grainy. While blending, add olive oil in a steady stream until desired consistency. I love to serve these with pita chips.

I just recently tried this using water instead of olive oil to cut out some fat, didn't work! It took out all of the elasticity and I really missed the pungent flavor of the olive oil, it's worth the extra calories, trust me.

For your veggies, just chop up your favorite veggies in bite sized pieces, all roughly the same size so that they cook evenly. My favorites are asparagus, mushrooms (portabello or cremini), red pepper, zucchini, summer squash and onions. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with Kosher salt and pepper and toss on a cookie sheet. I roast them at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes until they are soft and browned.

Spread hummus on your roll or bread, pile on as many veggies as possible, add whatever cheese you like (provolone or Swiss are probably my most preferred) and enjoy! If you have a lot of veggies leftover, you can throw them back on your cookie sheet and roast them again another time, just not as long.

Hope you love these as much as I do!

Herbed Chicken and Dumplings

Okay, I got a bit excited with the summer food, but the weather is not quite there yet, and I figured I should probably put something up to help us through the chilly spring days.

I love chicken and dumplings, but I'd never actually made it before. When I told my husband I was going to make it, he threw a fit and complained that he didn't like slimy mushy dough in his soup! Apparently he's had a traumatic dumpling incident in the past. But, big man that he is, still bravely tried it, cleaned his bowl, and got up for more, what a guy! This was incredibly simple to make. The only thing I would do differently is probably double the amount of dumplings, the recipe makes enough, but they are the best part, and I want more! It is a Cooking Light recipe, but the soup is still light enough that a few extra dumplings couldn't hurt! Also, I didn't have chicken thighs, so I used chicken breasts. It was still good, but I know it would have been so much better with the thighs, so do your best to use boneless skinless chicken thighs.

Herbed Chicken and Dumplings
Found in Cooking Light October 2008 ed

Ingredients

8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
3/4 cup (1/4 inch) diagonally cut celery
1/2 cup (1/4 inch) diagonally cut carrot
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
3 parsely sprigs
1 bay leaf
3 cups fat free, less sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon fresh parsely
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup 1% milk

Directions

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spry. Add chicken to pan; cook four minutes, browning on all sides. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Add celery and next 5 ingredients (through bay leaf) to pan; saute 5 minutes, or until onion is tender. Reutrn chicken to pan; cook 1 minute. Add broth to pan; bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.

2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, chopped parsley, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Add milk, stirring just until moist. Spoon by heaping teaspoonfuls into broth mixture; cover and summer 10 minutes or until dumplings are done. Discard parsley sprigs and bay leaf.

Makes 2 servings (I doubled this recipe for my family of 4, we had leftovers): serving size 2 WHOLE CUPS!

Per Serving: 285 calories, 5.2g fat, 25g prot, 35.2g carb, 3.1g fiber, 55mg chol, 3.4 mg sod

Points per serving: 6

Sliders with Onion Relish

Hey there! Since spring is almost here, and the weather is getting warmer, I thought I would post an "outdoor friendly" kind of meal, because what is better to eat outside on a picnic table, then a juicy, hot hamburger, or in this case, a slider! We really love to eat sliders at our house, I don't know what it is about these mini burgers, but they just seem to hit the spot that much better then a regular sized hamburger, I think it's because there is so much more flavor concentrated in that thin grilled piece of meat. I think it's also because our kids feel like we have gone out of our way to make food that fits into their chubby little kid sized hands! There is really no recipe when it comes to making sliders (probably another reason I love them), but here is a guideline to how we make ours!

1 lb of ground beef

1 palmful onion powder

1 palmful onion flakes

1 palmful garlic powder

1/2 palmful seasoned salt

several grinds black pepper

2-3 shakes Worcestershire sauce

1 package potato rolls (the softer and smaller, the better!)

Combine all ingredients until well blended. Heat your grill, grill pan, or skillet (I just use my electric skillet, but anything would work). Form your patties to be very thin, but just slightly larger around then your potato roll (they will shrink when you cook them). Cook how you like them (with them being so thin though, I usually just cook them either medium well, or just well done). Place on potato roll with onion relish.

I believe the onion relish was an idea I got watching Michael Chiarello about a year ago (love that guy!). It's the easiest thing you'll ever do in your life.

1 onion thinly sliced

1 part ketchup

1 part mustard (this all depends on how saucy you want it and how you want it to taste)

Saute onions until soft. Combine ketchup and mustard in a bowl, add onions, serve hot. This would also be dynamite on your grilled hotdogs!

Ah, summer food! Bring on the sun, the heat, the pool and the Diet Coke!

Gorganzola and Tomato Pizza

Hello everyone! I'm sorry to have been out for so long, the winter sicks have gotten the best of my family and I. Fortunately, I think we're on the mend!

Pizza is without a doubt one of my favorite foods, as I have mentioned in the past. I know it's so common to hear, but I'm convinced that if I had to eat pizza everyday for the rest of my life, I'd be one happy camper. The best thing about pizza too is that you could make pizza everyday and not have the same kind for a long time, it's so versatile, there's a million things you could do with it. I found this recipe in Cooking Light (where else) and was surprised to find it a hit among my whole family. I'm a HUGE Gorgonzola fan, but it's a strong flavor, and not exactly kid friendly. Luckily, the tomatoes, mozzarella and nutty crust also add much deliciousness which may keep those afraid of blue cheese around! I can't wait to make this pizza again!

Gorgonzola and Tomato Pizza

Found in Cooking Light August 2008 edition

Ingredients

1 package active dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water (100-110)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten (I have no idea what this is, nor could I find it, the crust still turned out great)
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Cooking Spray
1 tablespoon cornmeal
3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1 pound tomatoes, sliced (recipe calls for "Mortgage Lifter" tomatoes, you could really use whatever you want, I used Camparini)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (I used dried, but fresh is always best!)
1 garlic clove minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

Directions

1. Dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Add flours, wheat gluten, oil, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; stir until a soft dough forms.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 3 minutes). Place dough in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85), free from drafts, 1 hour, or until doubled in size. (Press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough).

3. Preheat oven to 450.

4. Punch dough down. Roll dough into a 10x14-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Place dough on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover ad let rise in a warm place (85), free from drafts, 20 minutes.

5. Sprinkle cheeses evenly over dough. Arrange tomato slices in a single layer over cheese. Combine basil and remaining ingredients in a bowl; sprinkle mixture evenly over tomatoes.

6. Bake at 450 for 12 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cut pizza into 8 rectangles.

Serves 4: One serving is two rectangles

Per Serving: 261 calories, 9.2g fat, 16.3g prot, 29.5g carb, 4.5g fiber, 25mg chol, 680mg sod.

Points per serving: 5

I also get to pass on an award today! Donna, at My Tasty Treasures, was nice enough to give me this cool award. She posts the most delicious looking food and has a really fun blog that you should definitely check out! Thanks Donna! I will be passing this one to the following:

Lynette and Nett's Nook
Pam at For the Love of Cooking
Melissa at Schweet n Savory
Maria at Two Peas and Their Pod
Sara at Sara's Kitchen
Priscilla at Priscilla's Baking Adventures
Gianina at Gianina's Kitchen

These are all great blogs that I peek in on once a day and never disappoint! One of the funnest things about food blogging is keeping track of all the other food blogs. There are so many wonderful ideas out there!

Happy March everybody!