I realized something today. If I put together all the ingredients for a slow cooker recipe the night before, stick that in the fridge, and take it out in the morning when I wake up….. I would have lunch ready AND dinner ready for me when I come home. I’ve been stuck in this lunch rut lately, and have been trying to find new things to eat. This will definitely help me out I believe.

Anyways… the beef stew was really good. I read the reviews on Taste of Home website before I made this and quite a few people said that this stew was really bland and missing something. They have those beef stew mix packets that you can buy at the grocery store to help flavor and thicken the stew. I looked for a beef stew flavoring recipe on line and had most of the spices to make it. Also, the recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of oil, which I didn’t even use. Don’t need to even brown the meat in my opinion, since the meet cooks in the pan.

Ingredients from Taste of Home

Servings 8 (1 cup)
272 calories | 11 g fat | 23 g carbohydrates | 4 g fiber | 19 g protein
Points Plus: 7

1-1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch slices
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 celery ribs, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon browning sauce

Directions

Layer the potatoes, carrots, onion and celery in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Place flour in a large resealable plastic bag. Add stew meat; seal and toss to coat evenly. In a large skillet, brown meat in oil in batches. Place over vegetables.

In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, broth, mustard, salt, pepper, thyme and browning sauce. Pour over beef. Cover and cook on high for 1-1/2 hours. Reduce heat to low; cook 7-8 hours longer or until the meat and vegetables are tender. Yield: 8 servings.

I found a biscuit recipe on Weight Watchers site and wondered why it was so low in points. 1 biscuit was only 3 points. The canned biscuits I believe are 5 points a piece (and that’s only for low fat ones) The reason why these were only 3 points was because the recipe only called for 2 tablespoons of butter versus a regular biscuit recipe that calls for a stick and a half of butter sometimes. To my surprise the biscuits were actually quite tasty with out all the extra fat added in it.

With the biscuits, I made shortcakes. the berries at the grocery store weren’t super ripe either so I had to add some sugar in them. That helped a little bit. Use either fat free or light cool whip in place of heavy cream and enjoy.

Biscuit Recipe from Weight Watchers

1 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
2 Tbsp salted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup(s) Friendship Lowfat buttermilk, or other brand
1 spray(s) cooking spray

Berry Filling
1 pint of strawberries
1 cup of blueberries
2 tablespoons of sugar (if needed)

1 container of light cool whip.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife.

Combine flour and next three ingredients in a bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk; stir just until moist.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead 4 or 5 times. Roll dough to 1⁄2-inch thickness; cut with a 21⁄2-inch biscuit cutter. Place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450°F for 10 minutes or until golden. Serve warm with light butter and honey, if desired (may affect POINTS value). Yield: 7 servings (serving size: 1 biscuit).

Spoon on about 2 tablespoons of coolwhip and some fruit mixture.

Tonight, I’m sharing a meal with you that we had while in Jamaica. I had more fish while we were there, but we had some chicken in the house so we used that. For lunch one time, they had blackened fish which was really spicy and well… black. Still very, very good though…. Ben said the chicken kind of reminded him of blackened fish, and he said he wished that the chicken hadn’t turned black. Not sure whether or not to call this Blackened Chicken or just Jerk Chicken. While there, we bought a bottle of Jerk Seasoning blend by a company called Island Spice. I’m going to give you recipe to make your own Jerk Seasoning, or you can just go out to the grocery store and see if they have a bottle of Jerk Seasoning. I really haven’t looked for one yet. Let me know if you can find them.

It was also nice out tonight so we grilled. One night while we were there, they had a barbeque on the beach and I’d like to find a recipe for Jamaican barbeque sauce as well. To go a long side the chicken, I made rice and peas. We also ate that a lot while we were there. The locals called the rice dish, rice and peas, and Ben and I thought that was odd because we’re used to the peas being called beans. Who cares though, it was all good anyway!! The chef at the restaurant where we had the cooking class at said Jamaican food uses a lot of onions, green onions, garlic, and fresh peppers like Scotch bonnets. He also said that they use coconut milk in pretty much everything too.

Jerk Seasoning Blend from Food.com

Servings: 6
Calories 19.9 | Fat 0.2 g | Carbohydrate 4.6 g | Fiber 0.8 g | Protein 0.5 g
Points Plus: 1

1 tablespoon onion flakes
2 teaspoons ground thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon hot pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons dried chives

Directions:

1.Mix together all the ingredients.
2.Store leftovers in a tightly closed glass jar.
3.It will keep its strength for over a month.
4. 1- 1 1/2 tablespoon of seasoning for each pound of meat.

—————————————————————-

Rice and Peas Recipe
Calories 219 | Fat 5.04g | Carbohydrate 37.55g | Fiber 4.7g | Protein 6.43g
Servings: 10 (1/2 cup)

Ingredients from Jamaican Food.net

2 cups of rice
1 can of tinned or 1 cup of fresh red peas (either kidney beans or pigeon peas)
5 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 uncut scotch bonnet pepper (1 jalapeno pepper may be used as a substitute)
3 Scallion (spring onions may be used as a substitute)
1 tin (or one cup) of coconut milk
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of black pepper
2 sprigs of fresh thyme (2 teaspoons of dried thyme may be used as a substitute)

Directions:

1.Drain juice from beans, add coconut milk + sufficient water to make 5 cups of cooking liquid.

2.Put beans, “cooking liquid” and garlic in a pot and bring to the boil, simmer for 2 minutes.

3. Add scallions, thyme, and black pepper and salt to taste, simmer for a further 2 minutes.

4. Add scotch bonnet pepper (as this is not cut up it will not make the rice spicy, it will just add a subtle Jamaican flavour).

5. Add rice and let boil uncovered for 20 minutes (or until all liquid has been absorbed if this is sooner). Remove scotch bonnet pepper then serve.

Saw these yummy bananas made on the Pioneer Woman’s show today. She made hers on a camp fire. I didn’t feel like going outside and starting our new fire pit up, so I baked them in the oven instead. Actually, I was kind of impatient so I started baking these at 300 and then switched to my boiler. It was fun watching the little marshmallows toast. Ben always makes fun of me because I like my marshmallows completely burnt to a crisp, so I was nice and only browned them for a little bit.

These aren’t to bad points wise either. I found a recipe at Taste of Home that had the nutrition info so I was like score, I don’t have to figure that out myself. Love it when I can find nutrition info for a recipe that I like.

Cut open the banana down the middle and lay it on some tin foil. I just did that because the banana wouldn’t lay flat on the tray.

Layer on chocolate first and then the marshmallows and bake in your oven.

Recipe from Taste of Home

Servings: 4
Points Plus: 4 (per banana)
136 calories | 2 g fat | 32 g carbohydrate | 3 g fiber | 1 g protein

Ingredients

4 medium unpeeled ripe bananas
4 teaspoons miniature chocolate chips
4 tablespoons miniature marshmallows

Directions

Cut banana peel lengthwise about 1/2 in. deep, leaving 1/2 in. at both ends. Open peel wider to form a pocket. Fill each with 1 teaspoon chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon marshmallows. Crimp and shape four pieces of heavy-duty foil (about 12 in. square) around bananas, forming boats.

Grill, covered, over medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until marshmallows melt and are golden brown. Yield: 4 servings.

Wow, I was watching Food Network this morning and there are a lot of really good recipes that I want to try now. Especially all the ones that the Pioneer Woman had on her show. I have no clue where to go looking for a hamhock though, hopefully the meat department has one. I also thought that all the recipes on Ina’s show looked really good too. I had all the ingredients for this one so I thought I’d give it a try. If you’ve ever thought that making risotto sounded intimidating well it isn’t anymore. Ina made it look really easy like she always does and this sure was. It probably could have cooked in the oven a bit less than 45 minutes. The rice was done but it wasn’t really creamy after adding all the other ingredients in like when you make risotto on a stove top. Overall, it was pretty good though. I had a bowl of it for lunch.

I plugged in the points for the original recipe and it came out to be 11. I got it down to 7 points per cup by using light butter, and only 4 tablespoons of parmesan cheese. It still tasted really good too.

Recipe from Ina Garten

cals: 263 cal | fat: 6.77g | carbs: 40.85g | prot: 8.15g | fiber: 1.2
points Plus: 7
Servings 6 (1 cup)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
5 cups simmering chicken stock, preferably homemade, divided
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup frozen peas

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the rice and 4 cups of the chicken stock in a Dutch oven, such as Le Creuset. Cover and bake for 45 minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente. Remove from the oven, add the remaining cup of chicken stock, the Parmesan, wine, butter, salt, and pepper, and stir vigorously for 2 to 3 minutes, until the rice is thick and creamy. Add the peas and stir until heated through. Serve hot.

I just love soup. Can you tell? I think it actually helps with weight loss and I’m considering going on an all soup diet. I especially love soup when I see someone make over a classic dish like take for instant Enchiladas, Tacos, or this one: Spaghetti and Meatballs. Yum! What else are they going to think of next that hasn’t been done before? Dessert soup? Pizza Soup? Burger soup? You can’t go wrong with soup that’s for sure.

About a week ago my store had these mini meatballs on sale so I picked them up, thinking I’d be using them for my next treat day. They were so tiny, I didn’t think it would serve a lot. When, I saw this recipe, I was like great, I have something new to try and make with the meatballs I just bought at the store. This soup comes together really fast if using frozen meatballs. If you were really dedicated, you could make your own meatballs. I just like the convenience of these though. Try this one soon, and put it on your menu for next week. It’s a keeper.

Don’t have a food processor? You’re missing out. It chops veggies so fast and can do so many other things!

cook the veggies, including the garlic.

Add in the liquids, noodles and meatballs.

Recipe From Iowa Girl Eats
serings: 8
Calories 267 | Fat 10.98g | Carbs 29.65g | Fiber 2.2g | Protein 12.76g
Points Plus: 7 (1 cup)

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large carrots or 10 mini carrots, shredded
1 small zucchini, shredded
1/2 onion, shredded or finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt & pepper
42oz low-sodium chicken broth
24oz marinara sauce
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
1lb mini meatballs
1 cup cut spaghetti or other small pasta

Directions:

Heat oil in a large soup pot, add vegetables, season with salt & pepper, and saute until soft. Add in chicken broth, marinara sauce, Italian seasoning and red chili pepper flakes and bring to a boil. When boiling, add in meatballs and spaghetti. Simmer until pasta is cooked. Ladle into bowls and top with parmesan cheese, if desired.

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and you know what that means. CHOCOLATE! Alton Brown’s very last episode of Good Eats was on Friday night and he made these cookies. I’m very sad to see him not making any more shows anymore. He’s one of my favorites on Food Network. My husband and I knew we had to make these the next day after we saw that episode. Getting all the chocolate was kind of expensive, but it’s well worth it in the end.

There’s 4 different kinds of chocolate in these cookies, well 5 actually. We couldn’t find cocoa nibs at all so I just threw in some extra dark chocolate. I thought I wouldn’t like the bittersweet and dark chocolate together but I did. These were fantastic. If you’re craving chocolate or need something to make for your sweetie on Valentine’s day these will hit the spot. Who care’s if your on a diet right? Valentine’s day is the day to indulge, especially with chocolate! If you’re wondering where to find the different kinds of chocolate we found them in the organic section of our grocery store.

On a side note, I tried making some Jamaican food tonight. It didn’t turn out quite like the chef’s did in the cooking class I attended. Something was missing and I’m pretty sure I put all the right stuff in there. I don’t even know what the recipe was called either. I’ll try making something easier that has a recipe for it. We were supposed to get it before we left for our trip home, but we never did.

This was supposed to be Johny cakes, which are Jamaican dumplings and a fish soup with onions, green onions, garlic, tomatoes, scotch bonnet peppers, and coconut milk in it. I think maybe I should have used fresh thyme too because I just had dry in the house. The johny cakes were good but needed more salt.

Servings: 55
Calories 38.7 | Fat 2.0 g | Carbohydrate 4.9 g | Fiber 0.2 g | Protein 0.5 g
Points Plus: 1 per cookie

Ingredients:

6 ounces 54-percent bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 ounces light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ounces 70-percent bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 ounces 40-percent milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 ounces cocoa nibs

Directions

Place the 54-percent bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened chocolate in a medium glass mixing bowl and microwave on high for two 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval. If still not smooth heat for 10 additional seconds at a time and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool to 90 degrees F, approximately 15 minutes.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together, transfer to a paper plate and set aside.

Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until combined and looks like wet sand, about 2 minutes.

Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a small bowl. Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly add the egg mixture until fully incorporated. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix to combine. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until integrated. Add the 70-percent bittersweet chocolate, 40-percent milk chocolate and the cocoa nibs and mix until combined.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Scoop the dough using a 1 1/4-inch-diameter disher or ice cream scoop onto parchment-lined half-sheet pans, placing 2 inches apart, 12 cookies per pan. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, rotating after 5 minutes. Do not over-bake; the cookies may look wet and doughy.

Cool the cookies on the pan for 2 minutes, then transfer on the parchment paper to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Another super easy recipe to make. While the pasta is cooking (which only takes 8 minutes), brown the sausage and once the sausage is done add in the kale. It will turn bright green. Add in the chicken broth and scrape off the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. There were quite a bit on mine. It’s almost like making a gravy. Top with some parmesan cheese and enjoy. In no time you’ll have dinner on the table.

If you’ve never tried kale before it kind of reminds me of spinach but more leafier. Feel free to add in whatever greens you like. Give kale a try if you haven’t. I think the only thing I would do differently next time is cook the kale longer. This recipe is directly from Weight Watchers website. There were quite a bit of reviews for this website, over 1000.

Note: Measure out two cups of rigatoni and cook. Doesn’t seem like much but in the end it is.

Recipe from Weight Watchers

Servings: 4
Points Plus: 8

Ingredients:

2 cup(s) uncooked rigatoni
1/8 tsp table salt, or to taste, for cooking pasta
8 oz uncooked turkey sausage(s), sweet Italian variety
4 cup(s) uncooked kale, roughly chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 cup(s) canned chicken broth
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp table salt
1/2 cup(s) shredded Parmesan cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano recommended

Directions:

Cook rigatoni in salted water according to package directions.

Meanwhile, remove sausage from casing and cook in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking up sausage as it cooks, about 3 minutes. Add kale; cook, stirring frequently, until limp, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Add broth to skillet and scrape up browned bits on bottom of skillet with a wooden spoon; season with salt and pepper. Cover skillet and reduce heat to low; cook until kale is tender, about 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in rigatoni; heat through.

Sprinkle each serving with about 2 tablespoons of cheese before serving. Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.

I remember this being a soup that my brother and I would always like, whenever my Mom made it. Dare I say this, but the one she used was way too cheesy. This recipe had just the right amount of cheese and it didn’t require a whole brick of Velveeta. Yes, this soup has velveeta cheese. Don’t judge! The soup almost reminded me of making that velveeta cheese dip, where you just add in a can of rotel tomatoes. That’s exactly what I added too, since I didn’t have any salsa at all in the house. It was delicious and spicy. Even the lactose intolerant husband said he enjoyed it. He took his pills of course.

This weekend, I plan on posting some Jamaican recipes for you all to try. I’ve been doing a lot of research on the web for recipes and found some for Jerk Seasoning, Johny Cakes, and I’m going to try and make the recipe we learned how to make at the resort. I believe the chef said it was called Escovitch, but we didn’t catch what the name of it was. The resort is supposed to be emailing me the recipe hopefully.

Recipe adapted from Krista’s Kitchen via Tasty Kitchen

Servings: 8
Points Plus: 8 (1 cup)
Calories 310 | Total Fat 14.96g | Carbohydrate 16.08g | Fiber 1.7g | Protein 27.36g

Ingredients

1 envelope Taco Seasoning
1-½ pound Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Diced
½ cups Chopped Onion
2 T Butter
1/3 cups Flour
2-½ cups low sodium, reduced fat chicken broth
8-12 oz. 2% Milk Velveeta, cubed
8 oz. Shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack or Mexican 4 cheese blend shredded cheese
1 jar salsa (any Variety)
1 cup 1% milk

Additonal Toppings
Fritos, green onion, and sour cream (for garnish)

Instructions

In a skillet, add seasoning and diced chicken. Cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Drain, and set aside. (or cook chicken and toss with seasoning mix like I did)

In large saucepan (or pot), saute onion in butter for 2 minutes. Stir in flour until blended, then gradually stir in the broth. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for two minutes longer, or until thickened slightly. Add Velveeta, shredded cheese and salsa. Cook on medium-low until cheese is melted.

Stir in half and half. Add the chicken back in. Stir. Heat through but do not boil. Remove from heat. Garnish with Fritos (you can also use guacamole, sour cream, and green onions). Enjoy!

These little balls of energy have peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips, and coconut in them. There is no baking required. All it takes is a little effort to role the balls out and place them on a sheet pan. I had to use some water to help me roll the balls and a really small cookie scoop. I didn’t have any coconut so I used some rice crispies instead and they turned out pretty good. I also subbed some agave nectar for the honey. Be careful though, they’re very addicting. I think they’d be a great little snack to have after a work out.

Recipe from Gimme some Oven
Servings: 25
Calories 81 | Fat 4.43g | Carbohydrate 9.41g | Fiber 1.6g | Protein 2.21g
Points Plus: 2

Ingredients:

1 cup oatmeal
1 cup toasted coconut flakes
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla

Method:

Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour. Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. (Mine were about 1″ in diameter.) Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Makes about 20-25 balls.