A Delicious Day

Two posts this month!  I'm on a roll, baby.  

This week I'm cooking all kinds of fresh veggies.  In my refrigerator/freezer/pantry right now are:

• Corn on the cob
• Beets
• Mushrooms
• Brussels sprouts
• Tomatoes (grape and regular)
• Onions (pearl, red, and scallions)
• Broccoli
• Snap Peas
• Squash and Zucchini
• Carrots
• Red bell peppers

Last night, I made a good old favorite:

White Chicken Chili  (456 calories)

You can follow the directions on the seasoning packet, but I often like to make my own seasoning to save a little money (and lower sodium!).  If you've got the spices to do it, do it!  Different recipes offer up different spice suggestions... garlic, oregano, cumin, onion powder, etc.  I always add a touch of cayenne pepper to spice it up.

I will say that I also always use ground chicken because I know when it's cooked.  Cook it in a bit of EVOO.  This was organic ground chicken and I added a can of chickpeas, a can of cannellini beans, and a cup of water.  Bring to a boil, let it simmer covered 10 minutes, then top with a healthy handful of cilantro, a bit of shredded cheese, and a dollop of sour cream.  The calorie count above included the cheese, light sour cream, and cilantro... and it was a third of the entire recipe.  Hubs got to take the last third for lunch today.  Lucky punk.

On the side... this was about 1/2 a yellow squash and 1/2 a zucchini (both fairly small).  I sprayed my grill pan (do you have one???) with a bit of PAM and grilled them up.  Mmm...

Grilled Yellow Squash and Zucchini  (45 calories)

Tonight's dinner was a little more ambitious because it was a new veggie recipe using my grill pan (best thing ever) and I cooked chicken tenderloins instead (which scare me because it's harder to tell when they're cooked!).  

Success and success!

Chicken Tenderloins (110 cal for 2)

Grilled Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Red Bell Pepper,
Grape Tomatoes, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions

Grill them all on the grill pan and then enjoy as much as you want!  Not a ton of calories for any of these veggies!!!  Have you ever had a pearl onion?  I hadn't had one before and they are a little bit sweet.  I like!

Summer Vegetables with Fresh Salsa

Okay, so I cheated a little bit with this recipe... I was going to make the Cherry Tomato Salsa that was recommended to go with the "Summer Vegetables", but I had fresh salsa in my fridge.  It included tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, so I just went with it.  Yum.

I seriously probably could have eaten the entire bowl of veggies.  They were that good.  Who knew that salsa would make them better?  Okay, maybe all of the veggies except for the bell peppers.  I don't really like bell peppers, but I ate them anyway in the attempt to get my little one to try some.  Hehe.  Fail.

Dessert, you ask?  Why yes, I did make some!

Pumpkin Pudding (Yes, that's a piggy whisk)

Pour into ramekins (1/4 Jell-O box is 130 cal if you use skim milk)

Add toppings!  Raisins?  Granola?  Fruit?  What do you like?

Today was a delicious day.  What did you eat that was delicious today?

Veggies

As I've been cooking lots of baby food lately, I've been learning more about different vegetables.  Squash, sweet potatoes, peas... all good things for baby!  Good for us, too. 

A new goal of mine is to try to use the veggies I've been using to make baby food in other recipes. 

Grilled Zucchini with Mint Gremolata

I know, I didn't say that I'd used zucchini to make baby food yet... that's next on the list.  I actually did make this with yellow squash today, but forgot to take a picture!  We chowed down on it before I remembered... doh.  Oh, and I used my new grill pan to cook it.  :-)  Pretty exciting. 

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic

So, there it is.  A sweet potato recipe to which I am totally addicted!  I've made two batches in less than a week... I think I like it.  Just chop, add seasoning, and bake!  Mmm.

I have yet to make something with peas yet... I'll keep you posted.  However, I did make this soup yesterday:

Lentil Soup with Eggplant and Zucchini

...and onion and bell pepper and carrot and tomato and garlic and... well, I think that was everything I had to chop up.  My arm was pretty exhausted after all of that!  This is a WW recipe and made a GIANT pot of soup.  It's a good thing it was a hit with the hubby.  ;-)  We'll be eating all week!!!

Happy cooking, people.  I'll come back with more recipes/updates soon...

Saucy Goodness

Snow!!!  Finally!  Bring it on.  :-) 

We actually got out of school an hour early, as I'm sure some of you did, and I came home to watch the last 10 minutes of Ellen and the saddest Oprah show I think I've ever seen.  Then, I cooked some shrimpies (pre-butterflied!) on my George Foreman grill (just to see how it would work versus a grill pan-since I don't have one of those...).  I made that yummy shrimp salad again (recipe posted here!).  Go here to see my pictures of it's amazingness.  Jimmy got a turkey version this time.  :-)  Not too shabby:

 I just left it open and flipped them around.  It was fascinating to watch because shrimp are weirdly translucent before being cooked and then they turn all orangish.  Hey, at least you can tell when they're done!  That works for me. 

While working on my shrimp, I decided to finally cook the spaghetti squash (per Beth's instructions from our cooking date) and it was equally fascinating.  It just comes out in strings!  If you've never cooked a spaghetti squash before, here's what I did.

Step 1:  Cut it in half.

 Step 2:  Put each half in microwave for about 10 minutes. 

(Sorry, no picture!  Imagine it...)

Step 3:  Use a fork to shred the inside.

Step 4:  Dump insides into a casserole dish.

Step 5:  Add sauce and cheese and then bake til gooey.

Step 6:  Enjoy!  :-)

All in all, I think I'd make the spaghetti squash again.  I made kind of a creamy sauce to put on top of it and spiced it up with garlic salt and pepper.  Jim really liked it, but I think I prefer regular squash just steamed up.  Crazy, right?  Who doesn't like saucy, cheesy goodness!?  

Sleeping on French Toast.

Less than a week until my birthday!  :-)  I'm pretty excited.  I love my birthday month, week, day, etc.  I'm not entirely sure why, but I still get that giddy little-kid feeling about it.  Despite the fact that I just keep getting older... hey, it happens.   

I changed the title of my blog (in case you didn't notice).  I thought "My Ramblings" was kinda boring so I didn't think you would mind.  Who's out there reading my blog anyway?  I see 7 followers... are you being stealthy in your reading?  I don't mind, but I would like to know what you think about some of the recipes (or if you have recipes I should try!).  Just don't be greedy with your delicious recipes.  :-)

See, the start of my cooking adventure was threefold:
1.  It's cheaper than eating out (most of the time).
2.  It's healthier.  You actually know what's going into your body because you made it!
3.  I've always wanted to learn how. 

So, if you have a delicious recipe that you're not sharing, that's just harsh.  Send it my way so I can try it!  :-) 

I found two recipes that I tried this weekend... the first involved acorn squash.  I didn't realize they looked like little pumpkins.  Or had seeds like pumpkins.  Apparently I haven't had enough pumpkin fun yet this year.  Oh wait. 

Basically, you chop an acorn squash in half and roast it.  It looked pretty in the pan!

Roasted Acorn Squash with Orange-Ginger Dressing

So, that's what it looked like all decorated on my plate.  The orange-ginger dressing smelled awesome and I was pretty pumped to give it a try.  I do have to tell you that neither Jimmy or I thought it was all that great.  I think we are just not big fans of acorn squash.  It tasted okay.  We also added a lot more brown sugar than you're probably supposed to add... and we may have ditched the effort of eating it about halfway through.  Oh well, not everything can be our favorite.

If you are a big proponent of acorn squash, then you might love it!  Try it and let me know what you think. 

Here's what I made this morning for breakfast.  This was really tasty.  :-)

Baked French Toast

First time I've ever made French toast in my life.  Yep, really.  Mmm... can't find the recipe to link it, so here's the gist of what I did:

Combine in a bowl
2 large eggs (or egg substitute)
1/2 c. skim milk
2 t. powdered sugar
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. ground cinnamon

Dip 4 pieces of bread (I used whole wheat) into the mixture to soak it up and then put them on a baking sheet.  Spray or "sprinkle" with butter (about 1 T.).  Bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes (my oven is quick, so I only did 7). 

Enjoy!  :-)

I'd say it was a complete success.  I've definitely been sleeping on French toast, though.  Who knew it was that good?

Until next time... Happy Cooking!  :-)

Starting November off right...

What a good food month already!  Mmm...

I made my very first soup all by myself today!  :-)  *beams with pride*  ...in my brand new giant soup pot... so exciting!  Not to mention, tasty.  AND healthy! 

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

I should tell you that I had off from school today for the election, so I went into a cooking frenzy mode.  I also made some eggsalad (my all-time favorite food) with some eggs that were on the verge of not being good anymore!

Every time I make eggsalad, it's a little bit different.  That's the beauty of it.  I just never add celery... or anything crunchy.  That ruins eggsalad.  Today I put in some light mayo, horseradish sauce, Old Bay, paprika, and garlic salt.  Amazing. 


Now, I just need some waffles.  :-)

The eggsalad waffle was concocted by my brother and I years ago.  It takes that long to perfect it.  Hehe, just kidding.  Seriously though, if you've never had eggsalad on a waffle... well, you just don't know what you're missing. 

Then, I went on to make the WW version of an Apple-Pear Crisp.  I used my new fancy microplane to zest a lemon and an orange!  Mmm... it smelled soooo good while it was baking.  The recipe said to let it cool for at least 2 hours, but I decided that I would probably have liked it better if it were still warm.  Don't get me wrong, it was awesomeness in a pan.  We ate it with some vanilla ice cream. 

Apple-Pear Crisp

...and finally, I made "Confetti Spaghetti"!  Basically, you cook the noodles and the meat and such separately and then you combine them and bake in the oven.  I used whole wheat noodles (which I love) and seasoned it up quite a bit more than the recipe called for.  We like spice! 

Confetti Spaghetti

It was soooo much fun to cook today.  I don't think I've ever bought that much produce at a grocery store.  The soup needed a lot!  I also got some acorn squash (which is shaped like little pumpkins) to try another WW recipe.  I love it when recipes come out just the way you want them to... and everyone gets to enjoy them!  :-)  Don't forget that the recipes are all linked to the captions!  (Just in case you didn't know that!) 

Happy cooking!  <3