Tag Archives: cooking

Random Dessert

28 Jan

I have noooooo idea what to call this but names don’t really matter, taste does, and it turned out surprisingly tasty. Definitely going to make it again!

Looks wise though, um, yeah, so not pretty!

banana-pancake

Take one banana, it needs to have a little brown on the peel so it is easy to mash. Mash the banana, add two eggs, mix. You’ll have a runny mix that may be slightly lumpy, depending on how well you mashed the banana so mash it well!

Pour the mixture in to a frying pan, cook, flip, cook some more.

Top with PB2 that has been mixed back to peanut butter consistency, or use almond butter, or real peanut butter, whatever takes your fancy. Actually, I might not use normal peanut butter because it is made with a decent amount of sugar and the banana makes this sweet enough as is, the PB2 is not as sweet as real peanut butter so it is a nice counter taste to the sweetness of the banana. That’s just my opinion though…

My picture shows the banana pancake (that is my working title for now) covered in PB2, I should have taken a pic of it prior to topping it, sorry ’bout that.

I maaaaaay have accidentally burnt the one side, well, maybe overcooked is a better description of what happened, but it didn’t ruin the taste so bonus! Also, it is such a runny mixture that when I flipped it well, it basically turned into a big ‘ol mess , which is why I say it isn’t a pretty dish. I think if I cook it on a lower heat so it cooks more in the middle before burning on the one side I can flip it and it just might hold its shape…maybe?

The final consistency weirdly enough reminded me vaguely of custard, despite the fact it is in pancake form, I guess because it stayed so gooey, but a good gooey, nothing gross happenin over here, I promise! The PB2 was a great topping because the banana made the pancake sweet and PB2 is sooooo not sweet, together they matched perfectly. 🙂

So yeah, healthy snack / dessert / treat…whatever you want to label it. If you wanted to make it thicker and more filling you could probably add some oats to it, or if you want only the egg and banana in it but not as runny I suppose you could use just one egg. Tweak it whatever way you want, lemme know if you try something and it makes a tasty result! Sharing is caring people! 😉

 

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Crackslaw

26 Jan

Yes you read that right, Crackslaw, that is the name of a recipe I tried out. It is so named because it is supposed to be freakishly delish and addictive.

It is super tasty, and I guess I could see how it could become a frequently cooked dish, especially if you are someone cooking for a family and you have to find something that will at least partially please more than just yourself while not going crazy over your food budget.

It is a definite keeper. 🙂

The original recipe can be found here…

http://www.food.com/recipe/crack-slaw-low-carb-434863

I of course made variations because heaven forbid I make it exactly like the recipe said to! Mostly the changes were because I wasn’t buying new ingredients for a recipe I might never make again when I had slightly different versions that I figured would work just as well. Also, I have it on good authority it is a good dish for customizing, you can tweak it to your preferences and my preference was to not have to buy any more ingredients than absolutely necessary lol

The ingredients for my version are as follows…

1 package of Coleslaw mix (14oz bag)

2 gloves garlic, minced (I have the kind in a jar)

chopped white onion, I didn’t measure how much, just diced till I had a bunch, maybe 1/3 of an onion?

1/2 tsp tabasco sauce

shake of jalapeno flakes

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp white vinegar

2 Tbls soy sauce

2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil

1 pound extra lean ground chicken

So my changes were:

(1) it is supposed to be sriracha sauce, I didn’t have any, so I used tabasco

(2) it is supposed to be toasted sesame oil, same as above, I didn’t have any, so I used evoo because I had that already

(3) it is supposed to be 3 green onions chopped, I already had white onion on hand so I chose to use that

(4) it is supposed to be beef, I was going to get lean ground turkey but the lean ground chicken was the cheapest of all the meats so chicken it is!

(5) it is supposed to be Splenda but I refuse to use things like Splenda or Truvia so I opted for real sugar

(6) there is supposed to be ginger paste in there but I am not a huge fan of ginger so I left it out

(7) the jalapeno flakes aren’t in the original recipe, shrug, I wanted it a bit spicier than what I thought the tabasco sauce would get me and I had jalapeno flakes on hand so I shook some in

So ya know, some minor changes…but nothing I feel ruins the overall structure of the dish.

To make Crackslaw you…

(1) brown your ground meat, season with salt and pepper to taste (if you so desire…I don’t use salt when cooking and I forgot to use the pepper so I added that later)

(2) remove browned meat from the pan and set aside

(3) put oil in pan, sautee garlic, onions, and coleslaw until the coleslaw is at your desired tenderness…remember it will wilt down so you don’t need as huge of a pan as you may be imagining…having said that I almost overflowed mine so use a decently large one…

(4) mix the tabasco sauce, sugar, white vinegar and soy sauce together, pour in to pan, mix (this is where I added the pepper)

(5) add back in the meat, mix well, keep in pan until meat has come back up to serving temperature

If you want you can garnish it with more chopped green onion (uncooked of course), and more hot sauce, for those who like things spicier.

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A bonus to using a bag of coleslaw rather than shredding your own cabbage is it comes with other veggies mixed in already but if you are really anti carrot you could always just shred a cabbage…ya weirdo 😉

It is dead easy to make, and because it is so flexible with what you put in it you can make it as tasty or as bland as you like. I ate a serving of it the day I made it then portioned out the rest for two more servings. I could probably have divided it up to 4 equal portions but the day I made it I was super hungry and took a bit more so I opted for 3 equal portions so I could calculate the Weight Watchers points easier. Cuz hey, this is all about me, right? 😉 Just like with pasta the flavours got stronger as it sat so when I heated up the leftovers it was noticeably spicier than my first meal.  Thank you jalapeno flakes! 😀

So yeah, I’d say it is a good dish to make. The ingredients aren’t too expensive to procure, the meat cost me $7 and the ready made coleslaw cost $1.47. I was lucky that I already had the other ingredients, or at least things that could stand in for the other ingredients, so minimal shopping had to be done. Bonus is most of the ingredients are things you’d have on hand anyways, like the garlic, oil, hot sauce, jalapeno flakes, soy sauce, etc, so you’d probably only really need buy the meat and coleslaw and maybe one other ingredient depending on how low you are running on other items…I’ll have to buy the garlic next time since this used up almost all I had left. But you get my drift right? Easy to make. Fairly cheap to make. Makes a large portion so if you are feeding a family it is definitely a cost effective dish to make, and if you’re feeding yourself you’ve just food prepped for 3 to 4 meals, depending how you divide it up. Go you go!

Oh, and if you are on Weight Watchers, my version, divided in to 3 portions comes out to 8 Smart Points a serving.

 

 

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Kodiak Cakes

7 Jan

Oh Kodiak Cakes, how I will miss you!

Kodiak Cakes, in case you don’t know, are a high protein pancake / waffle mix that make a pretty decent pancake. I don’t have a waffle maker so I can’t say from actual experience how the waffles made with this mix are but I’m sure they are also good.

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An Aunt Jemima pancake they are not! Don’t be tricked in to thinking they will be just like the pancakes you get from iHop or that you ate growing up as a kid, before we all got convinced white flour is devil food and never to be touched *rolls eyes*

Despite not being like a “real” pancake, they are good, and a less guilty indulgence on a lazy morning day when you have time and the inclination to whip up some pancake goodness.

Sadly though, I ate my last Kodiak Cake today and will not be buying more. Not because I don’t want to be buying more, but because Costco has stopped carrying them (meanies!) and the closest place to me to buy them is a Safeway that is an hours drive across the border into the States. sigh.

Every time I am in Costco I ask if they have them back yet, maybe nagging them will change their minds?

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Kodiak Cakes covered in PB2, Mmm!

So there they are, my last two Kodiak Cakes, I savoured every bite, *wistful sigh* Oh, and no, I don’t eat them with syrup, I regret to inform you I stopped eating syrup due to the high sugar content, ugh, who have I become? 😉 Instead I took two tablespoons of PB2 powder, added water, made it pretty close to peanut butter consistency and spread it on the Kodiak Cakes when they were still hot. It actually tastes good despite my being all whiny that I no longer eat syrup lol I use PB2 on a lot of things, quite the useful little food!

If you live somewhere that still has access to Kodiak Cakes I highly recommend giving them a try, and hey, if you end up not liking them send the rest of the mix to me, I’ll eat it! 😉 lol

(fyi, that is a joke! )

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Pulled Chicken

17 Nov

I cooked and it didn’t suck! Yay!

I saw a recipe on YouTube I wanted to try but couldn’t find one of the main ingredients when I was in the store today so I randomly decided to try making pulled sweet & smoky chicken in my slow cooker.

I’ve had my slow cooker for a while but never quite got around to using it. My intention was to try out slow cooker desserts, of which I have heard many a good thing! but well, yeah, didn’t happen, shrug.

But hey, why not try cooking in it today, right?

The inspiration for this meal was this…

Sorry for the ripped package, I forgot to take a picture before I oh so delicately opened it lol This is Club House brand seasoning mix for sweet & smoky pulled chicken. Mmm!

The recipe on the back made it seem super easy. Boneless skinless chicken breast, mixed with ketchup, water, brown sugar, and the seasoning mix. Pop it all in the slow cooker for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Remove it from the slow cooker and tear the chicken with two forks, put it back in the slow cooker to fully coat the chicken and bring it back up to a hot temperature, then serve on a bun.

I did everything the recipe said to, except I halved it. I own a small slow cooker, and I’m cooking for one person over here, an 8 portion dish is a tad much for me!

2016-11-17-16-12-46

See? Tiny slow cooker!

Oh! I lied! I also kinda changed the meat, but not really. It is supposed to be 2 pounds of chicken breast, I used 1 pound of chicken breast fillets. Same bird, same section of the bird, just cut a bit, and cheaper. I thought the thinner cut might be the better choice because of the size of my slow cooker, also, it came in packages closer to the size I needed where as the chicken breasts were all packaged in larger amounts and I didn’t want a bunch of extra raw chicken lying around, what the hell would I do with that?

Since the original recipe makes 8 portions and I made half the recipe even I can do the math that means what I made would equal to 4 portions. Lemme tell ya, it made 4 reeeeally big portions!

I put the entire contents of the meat and sauce in a measuring cup to see how much it made, it was 2.5 ounces or 2 1/4 cups which I attempted to then measure out, on my kitchen scale, so I’d properly divide the meat and sauce but um yeah, that so didn’t work…sooooo I guesstimated *rolls eyes*

So here is how much ended up on my sandwich…

pulled-chicken-sandwich

And here is how much ended up in my tupperware container…

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I suppose if you don’t care for meat, or pulled meat, or meat in sauces, the above pictures won’t look good to you but to me, they look delicious. Mmm!

The dish turned out quite good.  🙂 Easy enough even I could make it, and a tasty end result, yay!

For all you Weight Watcher people out there, one serving is 7 SP. For those of you not on Weight Watchers, I have not calculated the nutritional information, sorry! 😉

I didn’t do anything fancy with it, just put it on some toast and made a toasted sandwich. I know in restaurants they usually put coleslaw on pulled meat sandwiches, and it is crazy delish, but I didn’t think to get any and lets get real here, I didn’t need to add even more to this sandwich, making it even more unhealthy lol

I’ll probably eat one more serving of it tomorrow then freeze the rest. I may really like this sauce but that doesn’t mean I want to eat it 4 days in a row, seems a tad excessive.

The ease of making this meal, and how good it made my apartment smell makes me think I should use the slow cooker way more often. I just might have to try some experimenting over here! 😀

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Weight Watchers Thursdays an Stuff

8 Sep

So today was interesting but boring all at once…at least for me, shrug.

I had my WW meeting, which is at 12:30pm. The reason I am telling you the time of the meeting is because I sleep in Thursday mornings and get up when I will have juuuust enough time to make myself look partially presentable (this means hair styled but no make-up) and get to the meeting. I do this because (1) I’m lazy and don’t want to get up any earlier than absolutely necessary and (2) if I don’t get up until right when I need to then I don’t have time to eat (or get hungry) prior to the meeting and I am weighing in on an empty stomach.

Hey, don’t judge! We all have our quirks! 😛

So yeah, slept in, went to my meeting, found out I am the exact same weight as last week, realized I am not upset about it and continued on with my day.

In case you are wondering why I am not upset, when normally I would be, it is because…

  1. I had three days where I wasn’t feeling well, one of those days I under ate my points, all three of those days I was as lazy as humanly possibly while still going to work.
  2. Today is the beginning of shark week so kinda bloated over here (sorry for the tmi)
  3. I had a huge (for me) loss last week and after a huge loss it is normal for the following week to either not lose or lose a small amount.

So there ya have it, all reasons I knew would affect my weigh-in, and they did. At least I am assuming they did since all but that one day that I under ate I followed the plan and ate my points (ate my points using healthy food I might add, yay me! lol) so theoretically I should have lost at least a little bit, except for those reasons not to…I’m gonna stop rambling, I am making this sound more complicated than it is lol 😛

After the meeting I rushed home, normally I would have eaten something but nope, today I rushed home to put on makeup and make sure my hair was still ok then I skeedaddled off to get passport photos taken. Always a lovely way to ensure you feel bad about how you look, take a close up picture of you where you can’t smile or have any facial expression *rolls eyes* Some weirdo walked by right when my picture was going to be taken and made a “make sure you don’t smile” comment like he was making some great joke. Then he said he would tickle me just to make me laugh to mess up the picture…uh…okaaaaaay…*cringe* Some people shouldn’t be allowed outside without supervision.

The lady working at the store was a chatty-cathy and kept stopping work to talk to me about her hair and how she styles it, wth? All the while I am practically willing her hands to finish trimming the picture and stamp the back and ring the charges through because the passport office is downtown and isn’t open forever ya know and I was hoping to grab something to eat on my way there and every time this lady stops working to talk is less time I have to maybe get lunch aaaaaaand she kept talking, so I ended up going right to the passport office sans any food.

Hell, at that point I would have been happy with a bottle of water, a mint, something! Anything to trick my stomach lol

When I got to the passport office I was so happy, there was no line, all the cues were open, this was gonna be a breeze!

Ha! How silly and naive I can be at times, sigh.

passport

I stood there, at the front of a non-existent line, just little ‘ol me, 4 people behind the desk at their stations who are theoretically there to serve people standing in the line and they just keep talking amongst themselves. It was kinda awkward. I was debating between just picking one and forcing them to help me by going up to them or continuing to stand there like the last teen at a school dance left on the sidelines, trying to look like they don’t care but in reality desperately wanting someone to call them over. Finally one of them motioned me forward and life seemed good again.

Can’t say that she was all that friendly but she did her job and really, if she wants to be grumpy while working that is her deal, shrug. She did some stuff with the paperwork then gave me a number and told me to go wait over in the waiting area for my number to be called. I looked over at the waiting area and couldn’t decide if I should be distraught or tentatively optimistic…there didn’t seem to be thaaaat many people there but the ones that were there looked like they had been there a while…oh boy…

While waiting for my number to be called I got to eyewitness a lady decide her perfectly content baby was hungry and thrust him under her shirt to nurse. The child obviously had other ideas about this decision of hers and started screaming something fierce, even when being pushed against her breast, under a shirt, the screaming was still loud. Of course no one can say anything cause duh, so not socially acceptable to comment on how a woman is breastfeeding her child but to my untrained eye it seemed like she might have waited till, I dunno, the kid was making some sort of movement indicating hunger…but what do I know? Oddly enough the kids grandma apologized to everyone in the vicinity for the screaming baby, kinda confusing. Babies cry, no need to apologize for that. shrug.

Eventually, right when I thought I was going to have to risk losing my spot in line and duck outside in the hopes of spotting somewhere that sold food my number got called. Yay! I got a slightly nicer lady this time, she finished processing the paperwork, got my signature on some stuff, took $120 of my hard earned money (why oh why does a passport cost so much?) and informed me if I have the passport mailed to me there are no additional charges, if I want to pick it up I have to pay an additional $25 which makes no sense to me. Maybe they charge you to pick it up because they are trying to discourage people coming in and crowding the place?

money

I opted to have it mailed to me, got my receipt and was out of there!

Now that I was free you’d think I’d beeline somewhere for food but I’d just spent $120 on a passport, the last thing I wanted was to spend more money so I just went back to the car and started driving home. You wouldn’t believe how many times I contemplated calling in a sushi order for pick-up or debated hitting up a Subway on the way home but in the end I waited and cooked at home. Not only did I cook but I made a decently healthy meal, WW approved. I had my first meal of the day around 5pm and it tasted soooooo good! I then had a second meal around 9:30pm…eating so close together, and two meals I classified as dinner reminded me of Hobbits with their second breakfasts lol

So there ya have it, not exactly a riveting day but some random things in there to keep it kinda interesting…sorta…ok, maybe not, but oh well, shrug. Not every day can have something awesome happen in it 😛

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Try It Tuesday: Butternut Squash & Quinoa Pilaf

23 Aug

Oh Jamie Oliver,  how you tempt me!

It seems every time I go grocery shopping and am in the frozen aisle I see a Jamie Oliver product I want to try, dangerous not only to my eating plan but also to my budget lol Lucky for me I seem to spot his items when they are on sale, or maybe they are always on sale…nah, that can’t be it!

Once again I bought the item thinking it was a meal on its own and it turned out it is actually meant to be a side dish. I figured I’d try eating is as such which meant I had to cook an entire meal -the horrors!

Here is what I started with…

Sorry it isn’t in focus, I would have sworn it was when I took the picture and the box is in the recycling now so too late to try again, oops.

Like the box says, this is a butternut squash & quinoa pilaf with mixed rice, pumpkin seeds and cranberries. The box makes a point of saying how it is made with whole grains and contains no preservatives or artificial flavours, so ya know, if that matters to you, there ya go. 😉

When frozen it looks like this…

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Pretty decent huh? I chose to microwave it because (1) the box says I can do that and it’ll be fine and (2) my oven was busy cooking other things and coordinating multiple food items in the oven is not a strong skill of mine…something always ends up either burned or not fully cooked, ugh.

So yeah, this sucker got microwaved and turned out great! I paired it with some chicken from M&M Meat Shops and McCain’s Super Fries. Random? Yes. Tasty? Also yes. 🙂

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A portion is 1/3 of the package, or 125 grams. I weighed my portion out then portioned out the remainder of the package so it would be ready for when I wanted the leftovers and there is actually more in the package than three full servings. Not a big deal, just a large spoonful over but if you are really strict about portions you’ll end up having a bit left over. I may have eaten the random spoonful and pretended it didn’t count but ya know, that is me, you do you! If you follow Weight Watchers the Smart Points are 6 per serving.

It isn’t some flavour packed dish, not that I was expecting that, I mean c’mon, it is butternut squash, quinoa and rice…none of those are particularly flavourful items. Having said that, it tasted good. It isn’t covered in some sauce or trying to pretend it is anything other than what it is, which is a nice change for packaged, microwavable food lol. I did put a spoonful of salsa on the left over serving I had the next day at lunch and it took it from good to yum, but you have to keep in mind I love salsa so I’m biased. 😛

I’d put this on my buy again list, as long as it is on sale! 😉

 

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Try It Tuesday: Chipotle Black Beans

28 Jun

I missed last weeks Try It Tuesday, not because I didn’t have something to write about but because time was not on my side. Lets get back on track shall we? 🙂

Jamie Oliver’s Brazilian-style Chipotle Black Beans- it is a stew with chunks of sweet potato and sweet red peppers. Lemme tell ya, none of the “sweet” veg took away from the spicy which maybe I would have clued in to ahead of time if I had noticed the two little jalapenos on the bottom area of the front of the box. Apparently Jamie has a warning system that I didn’t notice, oops!

This is a side dish, something else I also didn’t notice and according to Jamie is best served with “crispy griddled chicken thighs, brown rice, fresh greens and a spicy tomato salsa or in a fluffy baked potato with grated strong cheddar and a dollop of soured cream”. Despite Jamie’s so thoughtful suggestions I went my own way and ate it as a stand alone stew – I’m such a rebel! 😉 lol

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It heats up the same way all frozen meals do, take the tray out of the box, puncture the plastic top, pop in the oven for a while and boom! Food that took no effort on my part! This one takes 40-45 minutes at 350F. I could have microwaved it but I am already cheating by heating up a frozen meal, putting it in the microwave is just taking this whole lazy “cooking” thing too far.

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Not the prettiest thing when frozen, and I kinda failed at the whole piercing the plastic thing but meh, it all worked out in the end, shrug.

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I don’t know about you but I think that looks goooooood! Maybe it is because I am a sucker for sweet potatos, and stew, and easy cooking…who knows? After it is pulled out of the oven you are supposed to let it sit for a couple minutes and that helps it thicken up a bit. I left it a little longer than the box suggested because I like stews to be quite thick and it worked, it also made it so I didn’t have to blow on the spoon before every bite which was nice cause ya know, burning my mouth is not a thing I enjoy.

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It however lost some of its charming, yummy look once put in to a bowl, sigh. Now it looks like green mush, or slime, or something icky. It tastes way better than it looks, honest!

I tried some of it on its own and it was too spicy for me, sadness. I like spice but there has to be flavour along with the spice, not juuuust spice. So I added some ranch dressing to it, weird yes, but it works, lol, and it helped. If I had cheese in the apartment I would have topped it with that and I bet that would have cut down just enough on the spice while adding flavour and take it up that extra notch.

The entire package fit in to one of my small bowls so if you are eating it on your own it is a good size to be a meal by itself but if you are sharing it you’ll definitely need something else to go with it -perhaps one of Jamie’s suggestions?

 

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Cooking With A Chef

6 Feb

On Wednesday a friend of mine and I got together for lunch. She did me an awesome favour a couple weeks ago and I wanted to treat her for lunch as a thank you. She suggested we get together and cook something instead and since it was her thank you I said yup.

We went back and forth for a while on what to make and eventually settled on my brother’s Black Bean Stew recipe which omg, amazing! My brother cooks as a hobby but he puts a lot of time and attention in to it, and it helps he is brilliant at everything he attempts, so when he comes up with something it is always good. 🙂

Christmas of 2007 he brought over a pot of this black bean stew for Christmas Eve dinner and I loved it so much he gave me the recipe. Well ok, I badgered him for it, but let’s not get all picky about things k?

I’ve made it a couple times and it always turns out great.

I bought enough ingredients to double the recipe so we’d each have some for lunch and then left overs for freezing…or in her case left overs to feed her family.

She is a Chef, and an awesome one at that, so while I wasn’t nervous about cooking with her, I was certain she’d be amused and or irritated with how I am in a kitchen. She is one of those amazingly efficient human beings that always make me look like a clumsy incompetent person but oh well, shrug. She actually took over the chopping of the onions because (1) I am a slow chopper and (2) they were making my eyes water so much I couldn’t see through the tears lol

We followed the recipe to the letter but then added some additional seasoning at the end because it was a bit bland, I think I didn’t put in enough tobasco sauce…maybe? I dunno. It is the first time it has come out bland but her additional seasonings made it all better. She gave me some random cooking tips while we went along but for the most part let me run the show. We worked well as a team. 🙂

While we were cooking she said nobody every cooks for her or really invites her over for a meal because she is a Chef and people get intimidated by that. I find that sad. Food is such an integral part of society and social gatherings and nobody ever invites her over for a home cooked meal or brings her something home made to eat? What’s wrong with people!

Having said that, I’ve never brought her anything home made either. Partly because I don’t really cook and also because I figure anything I can make she can make so much better why insult her palate with my paltry offerings?

I’m gonna change that right now!

We had so much fun cooking and hanging out, more fun than I think we would have had if we went out. And she doesn’t care that I’m not a professional cook, she was legit grateful for someone else working in the kitchen…even if she did have to take over the chopping of the onions lol

Next time we are going to make lasagna! Mmm!

The above shows the black bean stew before I covered it with toppings, and then my bowl with all the toppings. As you can see I like sour cream and cheese and avocado lol Usually I eat this with sour cream and maybe the cheese, depending what I have. She happened to have avocado as well and as it was near death we decided to each take half so as not to waste it. Cause a wasted avocado is a sad sad thing.

 

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My Own Recipe

17 Jun

Normally when I cook I use a recipe, I tend to follow the recipe quite diligently because I suck at cooking and I am not good at winging it, at least not when it comes to cooking.

Well for some reason I decided to create my own dish, mostly because I was sick of googling recipes lol but also because I had some random things in the fridge I wanted to use up.

When I was growing up my mom would make this thing called Mom’s Amazing Mixed Up Mess…basically it was her version of what I did, or I should say what I did was my version of what she perfected. My mom can look at a bunch of random ingredients and somehow make something that tastes good. I look at a bunch of ingredients and see nothing except the individual ingredients, sigh.

The only thing I bought was some ground turkey, which I proceeded to brown in a frying pan along with some garlic and chopped up white onion. I then added a whole lot of mixed frozen veggies, they are from a stir fry blend that I have had in my freezer for over a year, yes, I know that is ridiculous. They were starting to not taste as good as they used to, I’m thinking because of the freezer burn, so I wanted a way to cook a lot of them at one time. I then moved everything in to a large pot, added 1 cup of pasta sauce (it was how much I had left over in the jar), 1/2 cup of salsa (it was how much I had left over in the jar), 1/2 a jalapeno chopped up (because it was how much I had left…detecting a theme yet? lol). Once it was all mixed together and cooked I put it in to a casserole dish, spread it out, sprinkled some shredded cheese on top and tossed it in the oven until the cheese melted.

It was originally meant to be a sort of stew/casserole type of thing but there wasn’t that much liquid in it so I don’t know what I should label it as, not a stew though…

Whatever it is called, I liked it! It was a good ratio of meat to veggie, it was just spicy enough, the veggies cooked up well and bonus points because it is healthy! Woohoo!

When it was still in the pot

When it was still in the pot

Just out of the oven with the cheese melted on top.

Just out of the oven with the cheese melted on top.

My first bowlful.

My first bowlful.

In the land of Weight Watchers Points Plus, if you split the entire dish in to 8 portions each portion is 3 points, if you split it in to 6 portions each portion is 4 points.

Even if I wanted to I don’t think I’d be able to recreate it perfectly since it was basically a dish I created specifically to use up what I had in the fridge and freezer lol Oh! I forgot! I put in a bunch of Mrs. Dash Seasoning as well, I didn’t measure it though, just shook the shaker thing until what came out looked about right…something else I won’t be able to duplicate.

I know it is a ridiculously easy meal to make, not fancy, not all that inspired or impressive, but I am proud of it anyways. It is the first time I cooked without either following a recipe or the instructions on the packaging my food came in. This is, weirdly enough, a big step for me cooking wise. 🙂

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Nachos!

16 Jun

I looooove nachos! Haven’t had them in ages though. I generally think of nachos as a great pub food, something you order when you’re out with friends because you can share them. But when you’re actively trying to lose weight eating nachos is not exactly a great idea.

Well, a couple weeks ago I made a dish that used black olives and corn (among other things) and I had left overs of both those items. I immediately thought “oh those would be perfect to put on some nachos” but of course I didn’t have any of the other ingredients needed for nachos, except for salsa because I always have salsa lol

Not wanting to put those leftover items to waste I bought other necessary items to make nachos the following week and voila! Healthy nachos! Well, healthy-ish lol 😉

Before they went in to the oven...

Before they went in to the oven…

Fresh from the oven, Mmm! Melted cheese!

Fresh from the oven, Mmm! Melted cheese!

I had some light sour cream and some salsa in little dishes for dipping but I figured you don’t really need to see pictures of that lol

I can claim they are “healthy-ish” only due to the portion size I made lol

There are 16 chips, I used the Compliments brand bite size rounds. For toppings I used Cheddar & Part Skim Mozzarella cheese (1/3 Cup), black olives, jalapeno and corn. You can use whatever measurements of olives, jalapenos and corn you would like. I used less that 1/4 Cup of corn because that is how much I had, I used 18 black olive slices (again because that is how much I had) and the quantity of cheese used was because I was wary of using too much and making the nachos ridiculously high in Weight Watchers points.

All in all the entire thing (including the sour cream) was 8 Weight Watchers Points Plus points. Which is a lot considering the portion size wasn’t large enough to be a stand alone meal. But meh, I made and ate it on a day I had exercised so I had the extra points available to me and I’d been craving nachos for weeks so I feel the points were well worth it. 🙂

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