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KitchenKatalog: Blog 306
Monday, August 06, 2012, 08:33 PM
I made the pretty standard taco stew. Really nothing notable at this point. I made it so many times in the past. I also made butter nut squash. I cooked it at 425 for 20 minutes, flipped it and then for another 15-20 minutes.
The points are
Beef...11
Corn...4
Beef...8.5
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Assume the whole thing was 24. There was about 2.5 servings.
So say 15 for tonight and 10 for lunch.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2178, 2012-08-06_203329
Sunday, August 05, 2012, 08:29 PM
I made spaghetti squash with tomato sauce. I wanted something pretty easy and really low in points. I made a tomato sauce the pretty normal way with onions and a bunch of seasonings, just like last time. The only thing I did differently was no oil and I put a can of chick peas giving the only real points in the meal at around 10. Maybe add 2 for whatever incidentals.
I thought I took a photo but I couldn't find it.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2175, 2012-08-05_202952
Thursday, August 02, 2012, 11:46 AM
I wasn't looking for a huge meal so I made this. I was at Whole Foods where they were sampling fried pickles. They used a special breading mix and didn't use an egg wash. Instead, they relied on the water of the pickles. I decided to try this but with regular bread crumbs. I dried the pickles first so they weren't soaked and that may have been the problem. Not a huge amount of bread crumbs stayed on (except the one in the forefront of the picture). The good thing is that it saved calories, but more would have been better. I liked the ease of no egg wash, but next time, I will not try to get off as much water. They were still very good but tasted more of hot pickles than hot "fried" pickles. I baked them at 450 for 10 minutes, flipped them and then another 5.
I also made an open-faced hummus, cucumber and pepper sandwich. I toasted a whole wheat roll, and put down half a Laughing cow. Then I put on sliced cucumber, then low point horseradish hummus (2 tbsp for one point, from Trader Joes), then sliced sweet peppers. The sandwich was pretty good, but I should have not done open-face. It would have been easier to eat and I think I would have liked it more.
A lot of cucumbers in this meal, but it was good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2170, 2012-08-02_114641
Wednesday, August 01, 2012, 02:07 PM
This idea was inspired by something Meredith made and a few recipes, including this one. Basically, I started with a bit less than a cup of dry wheat berries. Supposedly, you are supposed to soak them overnight, but I googled how to cook them without soaking. Maybe they would have been less chewy had I soaked them, but I like the chewiness. Then, I used the mandoline to finely slice two zucchinis. I was supposed to salt and drain them but I forgot. I then mixed the wheat berries and zucchini. I added a bit of salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. I mixed a bit of apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and a really small amount of olive oil with some more seasonings. I mixed them up and added it. After that was all mixed, I added 4 oz of TJ's light feta crumbled.
It came out really, really good! I wish I knew exactly how much of everything I added so I could do it exactly again! There was a nice chewiness with good texture. Maybe a bit too wet from not draining the zucchini but not too bad. And pretty low points.
Points Plus
~1 cup dry wheat berries...16
4 oz feta...4
2 tsp olive oil...2
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22 for 2 meals.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2164, 2012-08-01_140756
Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 02:06 PM
First, the kale chips since they were better. I used dino/Lacinato/Tuscan kale. I cut off the stems but kept the leaves long. I used olive oil pam and and sprayed a tray, layed the kale on it, then pammed it again. I then sprinkled salt. Cooked them for 20 min @ 300°F. They really did crisp nicely, though I think they may have burned a bit. I like them a lot though they got rather "dust" as I ate them. I would definitely do it again. I wonder how it works with regular kale. Not that there is much to say about the kale, but I based it on this
I also made a rather awful tuna/shrimp/pasta concoction. I basically mixed canned tuna, canned shrimp (very tiny ones) and pasta with a lot of seasonings including curry powder. It was a dry higher-than-I-would-like point meal. Not to be done again without some improvement!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2161, 2012-07-31_140656
Monday, July 30, 2012, 02:04 PM
I made tacos again. I used the shell idea I posted here though I didn't pam them first. I do not know if that was what made the difference, but two or so of the shells really puffed up. The rest were fine.
Anyway, the beef was pretty standard with about 2/3 lbs of lean ground beef and sautéed onions and the Old El Paso low sodium seasoning. However, I didn't have a lot of "normal" taco toppings. So instead I did two interesting things. First, I finely chopped and sautéd mushrooms. Instead of lettuce, I chopped up andsautédlacinato (aka Dino or Tuscan) kale. Some of them got crispy like kale chips, but I didn't mind. I also used fat free greek yogurt for sour cream and sliced avocado.
They came out pretty good. Nice and simple with a good lunch for the next day. I could have cut the calories with if skipped the avocado or cheese
Points Plus:
2/3 lbs lean beef...11
avocado...8
~2 oz cheese...4
6 small tortillas...8
some greek yogurt...1
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32==>16 each
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2156, 2012-07-30_140445
Sunday, July 29, 2012, 09:19 PM
I followed largely the recipe from here. It called for 3 cups of quinoa and, according to a website, quinoa expands 4x. Well, I decided to use a cup of quinoa just in case. I am glad I did since It only made 2.5 cups. Good to know in the future. I made the quinoa with beef broth defeating the vegetarianism, but it can be done without. Also, it took about 18-20 minutes and not the 10-15 it calls for.
Otherwise, I used a bit of extra carrot but just one zucchini. I also added a bunch of seasonings including garlic powder, minced onion (a lot) and 21 seasoning salute. I had to use a bit extra flour (whole wheat) since there wasn't as much quinoa. It was still wet but it worked fine. I didn't have green onion. Also, I used a bit less than a tablespoon of ground thyme. I also used ricotta salata instead of parmesan cheese. I cooked them for about 17 minutes per side on 440 (yes, I cannot use normal values)
I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't be very good since when I tasted the batter it was just okay, but they came out really good! More pronounced flavor than last time and really good
Points Plus for the 11 patties:
Quinoa (1 cup dry)...17
Egg Beater (2 egg worth)...1.3
Whole Wheat Flour...2.7
Greek Yogurt...1.4
Ricotta Salata...7 (just a guess, but a very safe one)
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~29.4 for two servings.
So about 15 for all of dinner isn't too bad!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2151, 2012-07-29_211937
Friday, July 27, 2012, 10:46 PM
I had read a few recipes on shrimp and grits and they were all basically the same: make grits, make shrimp, combine. I figured that was easy enough. Some recipes called for grits to be made in just water while other wanted heavy cream. I made 3/4 cup of dry grits which calls for 3 cups of water. So, I did 1 cup of water and two of unsweetened almond milk for more creaminess. I also threw in some Smart Balance "butter."
I have been a fan recently of putting extra veggies in food, even if you won't taste them much. So, while that started cooking, I julienned (with the mandolin) half a zucchini and then I thinly sliced small sweet peppers. I sautéd them to get them semi cooked and then I added them to the grits.
I cooked the peeled shrimp (about 1/2 pound) in the sauté pan with a tiny bit of old bay. When the grits were ready, I added everything together. I also added some onion and garlic powder and crushed red pepper
I also added a small amount of low-fat mexican cheese mix and two ounces of goat cheese. That was probably the largest source of points in the meal and ended up not adding much flavor.
Anyway, it was extremely tasty, though as I just noted, you barely tasted the goat cheese. I did notice the peppers and zucchini though not much. The grits (which were from the Whole Foods bulk bin, BTW) came out very creamy and everything melded well. I would absolute make it again, but skip the goat cheese to save points. I do not know about the mexican cheese mix. I could probably skip that too.
Points Plus: I just guessed how much smart balance and mexican cheese I used
3/4 cup grits...8.7
2 cups almond milk...2.2
2 oz goat cheese...4.2
Smart Balance...2.6
Mexican Cheese mix...3.2
8 oz shrimp...4.5
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25.4
So the whole meal was pretty large at about 25 points plus, but it made a lot of food and could be cut down to less in the future. Also, considering how many points I have a day, this isn't too bad.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2145, 2012-07-27_224644