Menu for the Week

Saturday -- Fish (for Mark)/Steak (me) with Baked Potatoes
Sunday -- Black Bean Soup and Sandwiches
Monday -- Chicken Kabobs
Tuesday -- Chicken Spaghetti
Wednesday -- Buttermilk Chicken w/Biscuits
Thursday -- Turkey Burgers
Friday -- Date Night (my choice this week)

Hungry Girl's Sloppy Janes!

Do you know Hungry Girl?? If you don't check out her website http://www.hungry-girl.com/ if you're interested in low calorie, low fat food that TASTES GOOD!! She also includes WW points for most of her dishes. This is the best sloppy joe recipe I have ever found - even if I'm not in a dieting mode (but I am, of course...still...again)

Sloppy Janes

Ingredients:
1 lb. raw extra-lean ground turkey
5 small hamburger buns (light, if available)
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped red bell peppers
1 cup canned tomato sauce
3/4 cup canned no-salt-added tomato sauce
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 1/2 tbsp. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dry steak seasoning blend
dash salt

Directions:
Spray a large pan with nonstick spray, and bring to medium-high heat. Add turkey to the pan. Spread the meat around in the pan to break it up a bit.

In a small dish, combine Splenda, salt and steak seasoning. Sprinkle this mixture over the meat, and continue to stir meat in the pan. Once the meat has browned, reduce heat to medium.

Add onions, peppers, Worcestershire sauce and vinegar to the pan. Stir, and then continue to cook for 5 minutes.

Add tomato sauces and paste to the pan and stir well. Reduce heat to low, and cook the mixture for an additional 5 minutes.

Toast the buns, if desired. Put 1/5th of the mixture on each bottom bun, and then finish off with tops of the buns.

MAKES 5 SERVINGS

Heads Up! These Sloppy Janes are a little sweet, because, well, that's the way we like 'em! If you don't like yours sweet, feel free to leave out the Splenda.

Serving Size: 1 sandwich
Calories: 271
Fat: 3g
Sodium: 835mg
Carbs: 32g
Fiber: 3g
Sugars: 8g
Protein: 31g

POINTS® value 5*

Unstuffed Cabbage

Unstuffed Cabbage

I love cabbage rolls; hate to make them! Changes to the recipe -- I used 2 1/4 pounds ground turkey and I added an extra can of tomato paste to make up for the extra meat. I also added season salt and some 'montreal steak seasoning' to taste. The dish needs a lot of salt. I give it a 6 out of 10...probably won't make again.

1 ¾ pounds ground beef(I used 85%)
1 medium sized onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 can (28oz) stewed tomatoes
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 ¼ cups water
1 ½ teaspoons dried parsley
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon sugar
¾ teaspoon black pepper

1 small head cabbage, shredded, about

8 cups

Heat a large nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Add beef and cook for 6 minutes until no longer pink. Stir occasionally. Drain fat. Stir in onion and cook 4 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and paste. Using a potato masher, break up the tomatoes. Stir in 1 ¼ cups water, parsely, salt, oregano, sugar, and black pepper. Simmer 5 minutes.

Add half the cabbage and cook covered 5 minutes. Add the remaining cabbage and simmer, covereed, 90 minutes to 2 hours. Stir occasionally.

Roast Chicken -- Gotta Love It!

This is my new favorite chicken. Very good flavor and gravy.... I give it a 9 out of 10. The only change is that I didn't have wine (unbelievable but true) so I used a cup of chicken stock (instead of half) and a couple of glugs of dry sherry. I also only needed to cook it an hour. I took it out when the thigh meat was at 170 and let it rest. By the time I was done with the gravy it was 180.





Ina's Engagement Chicken

Ingredients
• 1 (4 to 5 pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lemons
• 1 whole head garlic, cut in 1/2 crosswise
• Good olive oil
• 2 Spanish onions, peeled and thickly sliced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Cut the lemons in quarters, place 2 quarters in the chicken along with the garlic and reserve the rest of the lemons. Brush the outside of the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle the chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the chicken in a small (11 by 14-inch) roasting pan. (If the pan is too large, the onions will burn.) Place the reserved lemons and the sliced onions in a large bowl and toss with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Pour the mixture around the chicken in the pan.

Roast the chicken for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and a thigh. Remove the chicken to a platter, cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 10 minutes while you prepare the sauce, leaving the lemons and onions in the pan.

Place the pan on top of the stove and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the wine and stir with a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits. Add the stock and sprinkle on the flour, stirring constantly for a minute, until the sauce thickens. Add any juices that collect under the chicken. Carve the chicken onto a platter and serve with the lemons, onions, and warm sauce.

Menu for the Week

Saturday -- Schnitzel and Baked Mac and Cheese

Sunday -- Roast Chicken with leftover Mac and Cheese

Monday -- Hungry Girl's Sloppy Janes

Tuesday -- Italian Wedding Soup and Sandwiches

Wednesday -- Unstuffed Cabbage

Thursday -- Chicken Marsala

Friday -- Quesadillas

Anyone Out There?

Question is.... anyone in HERE! Here's a recipe from my new hero, The Pioneer Woman. These were very good -- I'd give them an 8 out of 10 -- and will definitely make them again. The only reason they weren't higher is because they kind of fell apart when I took them from the pan to the plate. The corn tortilla fell apart but that may be because I skip the 'quick fry' part. Wish I had a picture. I'll have to remember to move my camera back over to my work area so I'll have it handy. I'll try to get back into the swing of things here!

For some reason I can't cut and paste from the website to this template. So, here's the link to the recipe -- http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/09/simple-perfect-enchiladas/

And here's what I did different.

Sauce -- no changes. I prepared it as written. I did make this early in the day and let in simmer a bit.

Meat -- I had some shredded pot roast in onions that I mixed with the canned green chillies. Turned out wonderful. Although I can't wait to try with ground beef.

Assembly -- didn't quick fry the tortillas in oil. Big mistake. The tortillas fell apart as I said earlier. Also I didn't have any black olives so I left those out.

Tomato Soup

Another Pioneer Woman recipe - Tomato Soup. We have an abundance of tomatoes right now and it will be the last of them (due to the freeze) until the next crop is ready in March. I fried some green ones Friday night but had a bunch of ripe ones to use up. Decided on the soup since I'm traveling this week and I think Mark can manage to heat some of that up while I'm gone :)

Another non-picture post.... sorry!

Here's the link http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/02/sherried_tomato_soup/

My changes --

• I roasted tomatoes in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper. I pureed them with the stick blender and used them instead of the canned tomatoes.
• I used 1 cup of chicken broth instead of cooking sherry and the chicken base.
• I glugged in about 1/4 cup of REAL dry sherry.
• I pureed the entire soup so it was creamy.

At first I thought it tasted like NOTHING. Then I let it cool down a bit and I thought it was really good. I'd give it a 8 out of 10 and I would make it again!