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Home > 340
KitchenKatalog: Blog 340
Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 09:06 AM
The shrimp were cooked on the griddler with each skewer having a different seasoning. They were Old Bay, then Trader Joes 21 Seasoning Salute, and McCormick Caribbean Jerk Seasoning. They old bay was the best and the other two were okay but not great. Still, the shrimp were good and rather filling. Shrimp is great because you can eat a half-pound for very few points. It is high in cholesterol so we do not do it often. I think this may be the first time I did not over-cook the shrimp too!
The soup was more interesting. It is based on the recipe below but with some changes. We replaced half of the smoked, hot paprika with regular and we put bread in at the end. We had french bread from something else so, even though it was higher in points, it was really good. Putting the bread in at the end make it not be as soupy but we liked that more. Also, we skipped the egg all together. Finally, we used half low sodium Better Than Bouillon and half the sodium free powder. Even with half the paprika replaced, it had a nice spice.
The vegetables were just frozen ones.
**Sopa de Ajo (Garlic Soup) ** (from Serious Eats)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 895, 2011-01-19_090656
Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 09:03 AM
We made the soup based on the recipe below from Gina's. We made a few changes to lower the points. Most notably, we used only about 8 oz of chicken and cut the potatoes. This brings the points down a lot which is good because it was just for two.
Overall, it was just okay. Not the most flavorful. I do not know what it was missing. I looked at other chicken pot-pie recipes and they tended to have the same ingredients so I do not know. I took leftovers for lunch and it was better for lunch than dinner.
Chicken Pot Pie Soup (From Gina's)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 893, 2011-01-18_090350
Monday, January 17, 2011, 10:06 AM
The Chicken Caccatore was really good and pretty easy. We followed the recipe below but used about 10 oz. of chicken breasts and some extra carrots. Also, we skipped the olive oil and used olive oil pam. The chicken was a bit overcooked but not too bad. This was better than our crock-pot version. For once, I do not think we changed the seasonings much if at all. We also didn't have fresh parsley. We meant to used dried but forgot all together. Finally, after simmering for 45 min, we boosted the heat and let it boil off some liquid uncovered.
The butternut squash was just seasoned with rosemary, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. The crushed red pepper added a really nice spice that was different but really good.
Chicken Cacciatore (from Real Simple))
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 888, 2011-01-17_100623
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