Archive | September, 2015

Weekly Menu # 2

28 Sep

This is the 2nd of what I hope to be a series of weekly menus and shopping lists.  Each week I will include at least 1 or 2 “quick and easy” recipes in my menu that I can throw in the crockpot or on the stove quickly for hectic nights. This shopping list was designed to meet the following needs:

  • 6 nights of Kid friendly recipes
  • 2+ nights of quick and easy meals
  • Ingredients that can be used in more than 1 dish
  • Budget and calorie friendly (600 calories or less per dinner)

 

The Menu:

Bean Soup and corn bread (quick and easy) (1 ½ cups of soup and 1 jiffy cornbread muffin= 418 calories)

Oven Baked Chicken Tenders with Hungry Girl Onion rings (393 calories)

Penne Chicken Florentine and Stuffed Mushrooms (524 calories with 3 mushrooms)

Parmesan Tilapia with broccoli and Rice* (quick and easy) (340 Calories)

Unstuffed Peppers and simple salad (418 calories)

Roasted Red Pepper and Swiss stuffed chicken breast* with roasted potatoes and turnip greens (560 calories)

 

*I’m putting chicken bouillon cubes on your grocery list. When you cook your rice to go with your Tilapia, throw that in there. The extra calories are negligible but it enhances the flavor a ton. For the Broccoli, you’re just going to steam it and add a little spray butter and salt. I don’t have a recipe for steamed broccoli. Calories include 1 cup steamed broccoli, and 160 calories worth of Rice.

*For the Roasted Red Pepper and Swiss Stuffed chicken, You’re going to use the laughing cow garlic and herb instead of regular swiss that’s in the recipe. I’m doing this because the stuffed mushrooms also call for laughing cow, and this way you won’t have to buy 2 different types of laughing cow (it’s too expensive for all that, and combining these 2 recipes uses up a full container).

 

The List:

Produce:

Onion 3 (at least one large onion)

Onion- Red- 1

Celery

Carrots

1 lemon (or lemon juice)

12 large mushrooms

Broccoli

1 cucumber

1 tomato

2 bunches of turnip greens

 

Meat:

1 country ham hock

6 oz of country ham pieces for seasoning (chunks, not slices. an 8 oz ham hock could also work)

1 lb of chicken tenderloins (or breast meat, sliced into tenders)

12 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast

4 (5 oz) chicken breasts, boneless, skinless

Tilapia filets (fresh or frozen, 3-4 oz each)

1 lb lean ground beef

 

Center Aisles:

Olive Oil

Chicken stock (26 oz)

Chicken broth (1 can)

Minced garlic (sometimes found in produce)

Dry navy beans or great northern beans (1 lb)

Jiffy Cornbread mix – 1 box

All purpose flour, or seasoned flour if available

Panko bread crumbs

Fiber One Cereal

Ronzoni smart taste penne (1 box)

Brown Instant Rice

Diced tomatoes (1 can)

Tomato sauce (15 oz)

Worcestershire sauce

Chicken bullion cubes

Balsamic vinegar

Roasted Red Peppers

Fat free mayo

 

Cold:

Eggs

Milk

Low fat ricotta cheese (8 oz)

Grated parmesan cheese

Powdery parmesan cheese (optional)

Laughing cow cheese wedges- garlic and herb

Shredded cheddar

 

Frozen:

Frozen spinach

Mixed peppers

 

Seasonings/Spices:

Bay leaves

Salt

Pepper

Thyme

Rosemary

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Nutmeg

Oregano

Crushed red pepper

Italian herbs

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Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup

22 Sep

I put this recipe together while trying to recreate a soup I’ve had many times at Izzy’s restaurant in Cinci. This goes nicely with the Turkey Reuben sandwich I posted yesterday, and combined they’re only about 300 calories!

It’s a simple but yummy soup.  I really enjoyed it, and if you like cabbage, I think you will too.

Ingredients:

  • 1 small-medium head of cabbage, diced into 1 inch squares
  • 1/2 a medium onion, chopped
  • 40 oz of beef broth (use vegetable broth to make this vegetarian!)
  • 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
  • 1 TBSP splenda brown sugar blend
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a soup pot, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and cook, covered for about 1 hour, stirring periodically.

Note:  I tried to make this in the crockpot and it didn’t really work.  This one’s a stovetop soup for me going forward.

Makes 6 cups of soup at only 42 Calories per cup!

0 weight watchers points per cup

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Turkey Reuben

21 Sep

There is a restaurant in the greater Cincinnati called Izzys.  I love to go there and eat the turkey reuben, and I usually get a half sandwich, and cabbage soup, because that’s pretty low calorie and so, so delicious.  Inspired by Izzys, I decided this weekend to make turkey reubens and sweet and sour cabbage soup for dinner tonight. They pair well together, so I’ve even included a photo of them together for your viewing pleasure 🙂

There were 4 of us eating dinner tonight, so, this recipe makes 4 sandwiches.  You could adjust accordingly if you need more/less.

Ingredients:

  • 12 oz of Boars Head Golden Roasted Turkey, sliced to your preference
  • 8 Slices of 35 Calorie Bread (We like Aunt Millie’s potato bread)
  • Parkay 0 calorie spray butter
  • 3/4 Cup of sauerkraut
  • 6 TBSP kraft fat free thousand island dressing
  • 4 slices of Sargento ultra thin swiss cheese

Directions:

  1. Portion your turkey out into 3 oz portions.
  2. Spray 1 side of each piece of bread liberally with spray butter.
  3. In a small bowl, mix your sauerkraut and thousand island together.
  4. Please each slice of bread butter size down in a large skillet or electric griddle to grill your bread.
  5. Spray the skillet or griddle with non-stick spray, and place each of your 3 0z portions of turkey in the skillet separately.  Cook each stack of turkey on one side, and then flip to cook on the other side.  The idea is to warm the turkey through, not cook it crisp.
  6. Once your turkey is warmed, place a slice of cheese on top of each turkey portion and allow cheese to begin melting.
  7. Transfer each stack of turkey and cheese to a piece of “grilled side down” bread, and top each of the turkey portions evenly with sauerkraut mixture.
  8. Top each sandwich with a remaining slice of grilled bread, grilled side up.  Slice sandwiches in half, and enjoy.

Makes 4 sandwiches at only 238 calories each

Appx 6 weight watchers points each

 

  
  

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Oven Baked Schnitzel

20 Sep

My best friend’s Mom, who helped raise me when I was growing up, used to make Schnitzel, and it’s something I’ve always really liked, but only made a few times here and there.  Last week I got a craving for Schnitzel and decided to try my had and a lower calorie version that would satisfy my craving, without too many calories.  I like my Schnitzel with just a little lemon juice over the top, so that’s how we’re going to do it here!

Ingredients:

  • 4 (4 oz) boneless pork chops  (the ones I used were 130 calories each
  • 2 Eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup Flour (seasoned flour if you’ve got it)*
  • 1 cup Bread crumbs (I used roasted garlic flavored, but plain would do fine)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • 1 Lemon

*Seasoned flour.  I use it in all my savory dishes, and it makes a big difference. here’s the one I use, and you can even order it here if you are so inclined.

Editor’s Note:  Although the recipe calls for 1/2 cup flour and 1 cup breadcrumbs, and 2 eggs, I only counted calories for half this amount, because there was about half of each left at the end of prep.  However, you don’t want to just start with half as much, because you won’t have a deep enough pile to properly cover your chops evenly.

Directions:

  1. Place 1 chop at a time inside a large ziplock freezer bag.  Use a meat mallot to pound the chop on both sides until the whole thing is flat and no more than 1/4 inch in thickness.  The baggie keeps you from slinging pork-juice all over your kitchen.  You could pound it out directly on a cutting board, but  I wouldn’t recommend skipping that.
  2. Salt and pepper chops to taste.
  3. Using 3 shallow bowls, fill one with beaten egg, 1 with flour, and 1 with bread crumbs.
  4. Dip each Chop into the flour first, covering evenly, then into the Egg, and finally into the bread crumbs.
  5. Once each chop is covered in crumbs, place them on a broiler pan, which has been sprayed with non stick cooking spray.
  6. Spray a light coating of non stick spray on the top of each chop, and Bake on 425 for about 15 minutes, then flip each piece of meat, and bake another 5 minutes.  Broil briefly at the end if tops are not as brown as you like.
  7. Squeeze 1 slice (1/4 of a lemon) of lemon over each chop and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings= 231 Calories per serving

appx 6 weight watchers points plus each


  

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Parmesan Potato Wedges

16 Sep

I altered this recipe from one that I found online, which had much higher calories.  With just a couple tweaks of ingredients, it turned out both delicious and low calorie.  I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients: 

  • 3 russet potatoes
  • 2 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 11/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp italian seasoning
  • 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese (I used kraft)

Directions:

  1. Slice each potato into 8 wedges.  (I sliced down the middle longways, and then 3 cuts through each half, leaving me with 24 “wedges”)
  2. In a large bowl, cover the wedges with the olive oil, and stir it around so the oil coats all the potatoes evenly.
  3. Add all the seasonings as well as the cheese and mix well until all potatoes are covered.
  4. Spray a large baking sheet very liberally with nonstick spray.  Line the wedges up side by side with the potato skills facing down on the sheet.
  5. If there is any cheese left in the bowl, you might as well scoop it on top of the less cheesy wedges (you already counted the calories so you might as well eat the cheese!)
  6. Bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes.  If you put them skin side down, you don’t even have to flip them during baking.

Makes 5 servings= 234 calories per serving 

Appx 6 weight watchers points plus

BEFORE:


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Beef and Barley Soup

14 Sep

This is a soup that I’ve only experienced from a can.  Nobody in my family ever made anything with “Barley” in it.  I wasn’t even sure what barley was until probably college… I knew it came in a can of vegetable beef soup, and that was about it.  But for some reason the other day I thought to myself… self… “i’m gonna make beef and barley soup, and I already know what i want in the broth!”  So, I set out throwing together ingredients, and I have to say I was pretty pleased with the results.  Best part? This all cooked in the crock pot while I was 2 hours away at a baseball game.  It’s about as low maintenance as you can get.  My husband doesn’t enjoy soup, so I often share what I make with my neighbors.  They gave it their official seal of approval, so here we go!

Ingredients

  • 1 lb of cubed stew meat (beef)
  • 1/2 of an onion, chopped finely
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 1 stalk of celery, chopped
  • 1 cup sliced (fresh or canned) mushrooms
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 TBSP minced garlic
  • 40 oz of beef broth
  • 1 Tbsp Red Wine
  • 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
  • 3 Bay leaves
  • 1 can of condensed french onion soup (i used campbells)
  • 1/2 cup of uncooked pearl barley

Directions:

  1. The first thing I did was take the stew meat, which is already cubed into about 1 inch cubes, and i cut the pieces into 4’s.  I wanted this soup to have lots of pieces of easy to chew beef, vs having big hunks of beef like a stew.
  2. Once you’ve cut your beef, place it in the bottom of the crock pot, and throw everything else right in on top of it.
  3. Stir the mixture around a couple times and then cook the whole thing for 8-10 hours on low.
  4. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Makes 9 (1 cup) servings= 185 Calories per serving

Appx 4 weight watchers points plus per serving

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Curry Chicken Salad (for sandwiches)

14 Sep

Hey guys!  So, this recipe is an original that I threw together this weekend.  It was inspired by a deli that used to be near my work, that sold Curry chicken salad on croissants.  I loved the stuff, but the deli went out of business.  I hadn’t had curry chicken salad in years, but last week I got a craving for it, and so this low calorie version was born.  I think this is delicious, and I will definitely be repeating it in my own household.  Even the husband enjoyed it, although he was unsure about trying it at first.  It’s yummy, and not too overwhelming with Curry.   The sweet cherry craisins are a nice comliment to the curry flavor.  I served this with 2 slices of 35 calorie bread (not included in the calorie count below).

Ingredients:

  • 12 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast (cooked and shredded)
  • 1/4 cup + 1 TBSP fat free miracle whip
  • 1 stalk of celery, finely diced
  • 1 TBSP onion, finely diced
  • 3/4 tsp of curry powder (i used a 1/2 tsp and a 1/4 tsp to measure)
  • 1 TBSP slivered almonds
  • 2 TBSP cherry flavored dried cranberries (I used craisins)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Mix everything but the chicken together first, to be sure your curry is mixed in well.
  2. Add chicken to mixture, and stir until everything is well incorporated.
  3. Serve with saltine crackers or low calorie bread.  Add Lettuce and tomato if you like.

Makes 4 (1/2 cup) servings= 161 Calories per serving

Appx 4 weight watchers points plus


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Crock Pot BBQ Pulled Pork

7 Sep

This one is a great meal for those days when you have folks coming over for dinner, and you want to have as much done ahead of time as possible.  There’s not much fuss involved with this delicious crockpot concoction, and Pulled Pork is a delicious staple in the South.  My husband doesn’t like barbecue sauce, so i left a little out just for him, with only the rub, and it also went over very well.   Traditionally made with a fattier piece of pork, this slimmer version, in my opinion, really benefits from cooking in the liquid low and slow.  Try for yourself, and let me know what you think 😉

Ingredients:

  • 3 3/4 lbs- 4 lbs pork loin (i picked one that was 160 cal per 4 oz serving)
  • 1/2 a large yellow or white onion, chopped
  • 1 can (12 oz) diet Dr Pepper (you could use regular diet soda, or diet cherry soda too)
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1 1/2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

The Rub: 

  • 1 1/2 TBSP paprika
  • 1 TBSP garlic powder
  • 1 TBSP sea salt
  • 1 TBSP Black pepper
  • 1 TBSP Dry Mustard
  • 1 TBSP Splenda Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 TBSP Crushed red pepper

Directions: 

  1. Mix all spices together in a small bowl.
  2. Pat your pork loin dry, and apply rub liberally to all sides.  Press the rub into the loin so that as much rub as possible is used to cover the meat.
  3. Place your rubbed pork loin into a large crock pot, along with chopped onions.
  4. Pour diet soda on both sides of the pork loin, and gently life loin up with a fork so some soda gets underneath.
  5. Cook on low for 10 hours.
  6. After 10 hours on low, meat should be easy to shred with a fork.  Remove meat and set aside on a platter.
  7. Measure out 1 cup of the juice from the crock pot.  This is what you’ll use for the sauce.  The rest of the juice can be discarded.
  8. In your crock pot, mix your 1 cup of cooking liquid, along with 1 cup of ketchup and 1 1/2 TBSP vinegar.  Mix well until ketchup is well incorporated.
  9. Shred the pork and return to the crock pot with the sauce.  Stir the sauce and meat together well, and allow to sit on warm until you’re ready to serve.
  10. Makes 12-15 servings (depending on how much meat you started with) of about 1/2 cup each.

I served each serving with a “lite” hamburger bun, which was 80 calories.  Those calories are not included in the count below.

1 serving= 229 Calories per serving

Appx 6 weight watchers points plus per serving

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Weekly Menu #1

2 Sep

Hey Guys! We are going to try something new today, if that’s alright with you guys. A lot of folks ask me how I manage to organize my shopping list, get everything done, and cook for my family, with everything going on.   Well, we have a busy life, but I try my best to be super organized whenever possible. This means that on Saturday morning, I pick out all the recipes I’ll be making for dinner every day that week, and then I make a grocery list based on what I need for those recipes. I add any normal household things we need (eggs, milk, bread, laundry detergent, etc) to the list, fruit, a few snack items for the kids, and whatever my husband wants for lunch. At the end of my prep work, I head to the store. If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t go in the cart. Preparing ahead helps me avoid impulse buys on things that we don’t need, or are not healthy. It also helps me save a ton of money.

So, in the spirit of helping other busy moms I’ve put together the following menu, and shopping list. It includes dinner for 6 nights, and the shopping list for all that cooking! Just add any non-dinner items you need, and head out to the grocery store. Let me know if you guys like this, and I will see if we can make this sort of thing a regular occurrence on the blog. So, here we go. Happy shopping. Happy cooking. Happy eating.

Each week I include at least 1 or 2 “quick and easy” recipes in my menu that I can throw in the crockpot or on the stove quickly for hectic nights. This shopping list was designed to meet the following needs:

  • 6 nights of Kid friendly recipes
  • 2+ nights of quick and easy meals
  • 1-2 super low calorie dinners (in case i have a business lunch or bigger breakfast)
  • Budget and calorie friendly (600 calories or less per dinner)

So, here goes.

The Menu:

*Note: I don’t have a recipe listed for grilled cheese. I use 35 cal bread, spray butter, and 1 slice of velveeta singles= 120 calories

 

The List:

Produce:

Onion 4 yellow or white

Onion 1 small red

Minced Garlic

Cabbage (1 head)

Carrots (2 large)

Baby Carrots (1 bag)

Corn on the Cob (1 per person)

Celery

1 large Russet potato

6 Red new Potatoes (somewhere between golf ball and plum size)

6 Red new potatoes (about tennis ball size)

Romaine lettuce

1 tomato

1 cucumber

1 head of cauliflower

1 lemon, or bottled lemon juice

 

Meat:

Boneless, skinless chicken breast (12 oz)

Sirloin Steak (7 oz per person)

1 lb of stew meat

1 package (13 oz) turkey smoked sausage or kielbasa

4 oz fish filets (1 per person)  (fresh or frozen)

 

Center Aisles:

35 calorie bread

1 packet of Pioneer pepper gravy or country gravy mix

Chicken Stock (2 cans)

Veg all original mixed veggies (large can)

98% fat free cream of chicken soup (1 can)

98% fat free cream of mushroom soup (1 can)

Olive Oil

Apple Cider Vinegar

Hot Sauce

Corn Starch

1 packet McCormick beef stew seasoning

White or brown Rice, or other grain (to serve with beef stew. Optional)

Banana peppers (1 jar)

Balsamic vinegar

Flour (Seasoned flour if you can find it)

Panko bread crumbs

Fat free miracle whip

Sweet pickle relish

Dijon mustard

Horseradish (minced, this comes in a jar, sometimes in produce with garlic)

 

Cold:

Pillsbury reduced fat crescent rolls (1 can)

Low calorie spray butter

Light butter (50 cal per tbsp.)

1% milk

Parmesan cheese

Velveeta singles

 

Frozen:

Potatoes O’brien (1 bag)

 

Seasonings/Spices:

Garlic Powder

Paprika

Black Pepper

Salt

Sugar

Sea Salt (optional)

Bay leaves

Creole or Cajun seasoning (I use zatarains)

Italian herbs (AKA: Italian seasoning)

Cayenne pepper

Other:

Ziplock steamer bags

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