Chicken with Blackberry Sauce

Again, I hit the WW new cookbook for this one. I needed:

60z container of blackberries

2 tablespoons of sugar

2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

salt

pepper

chicken

thyme

In a small sauce pan, combine the blackberries (reserve a few for presentation at the end), vinegar and sugar. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer until the berries are soft, about 5 minutes:

Place a sieve over a small bowl and pour the sauce in. Using the back of a spoon, press the fruit so the juice flows through the sieve but the pulp and seeds remain in the strainer. Throw out seeds and pulp and whisk in the mustard and a dash of salt and pepper. Set aside.

Season chicken with salt and thyme:

Place in a hot frying pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil and cook about 4 minutes either side until the outside is golden brown and inside is no longer pink. Move to a plate and keep warm.

Toss the bowl of sauce in the frying pan to scrape up any brown bits and then pour over the chicken, garnish with black berries and serve. In this case, I served it with brown rice and green beens. Yummy! I like this one a lot and it will now be a go-to sauce. I may try it with different fruit as it's in season: citrus, raspberries, blueberries... you name it. It's a good base to play with for 1 point per serving (4 points total with it serving 4 people). Very delicious, filling dinner for just a few points.

Brisket

I tried a different marinade from the new WW Points Plus cookbook with my brisket. I needed:

1 cup white wine

1/4 cup brown sugar

thyme

salt

pepper

bay leaves

Mix them together:

Pour the marinade into a ziploc bag with the brisket and let it sit for 8 hours or overnight. I then sliced an onion:

Then placed the meat into the crockpot with some beef stock:

Until it was done (10-12 hours on low 4-6 on high... I prefer "low and slow" for 12 hours otherwise meat tends to be a bit tough):

The marinade itself is 13 points plus which you can divide out over the number of servings. About 3 oz of brisket is 9 points plus, so figure about 12 points for 3 oz. The marinade was OK, but I think I'll stick with my usual "clean out the fridge" method in the future. Next time I make it, I'll post it. In the meantime, brisket with some garlic mashed potatoes and green peas was a nice meal on a cold winter night.

New Year, New Food

OK, so it's been a few years since I posted what's for dinner. I never deleted the blog always hoping I'd go back to things. As John Lennon is quoted as saying, "Life is what happens when you're busy making plans."

So it's the eve of a New Year and I have a new journey. This year I plan on shedding 50 pounds on Weight Watchers. Over the past year I have shed 15 pounds on WW, of course recently five came back for a visit and, fortunately, they didn't bring any friends with them. Now that the holidays are winding up, I hope to send them packing for good.

Along with the recipes, points values and such, I will be asking my son to help me film some of what I'm doing in hopes it will help other folks out there on this journey.

So happy new year and what's for dinner?

Chicken with Leeks

This is a variant of something I saw in one of Martha Stewart's magazines recently. She used a lot of butter and proscuitto (a fatty, but yummy, Italian ham) - so I tailored it my needs and everyone really liked it. I mixed this in with some whole wheat pasta, but I imagine it can be served with anything.

2 lbs boneless chicken breast - grilled and broken into pieces
2 or 3 leeks - the white to light green parts only
box of frozen peas
juice of one lemon
extra virgin olive oil

Trim away the roots and dark green parts of the leeks, cut the remaining pieces down the middle and soak in cold water for 15 minutes to clean. Once clean, slice the leeks into 2" long pieces and slice into thin slivers. Pour a little olive oil in a pan and sautee the leeks with a little salt and pepper until soft (about 3 minutes or so). Add lemon juice, peas and chicken and toss together, heating until everything is warmed through.





WW Points Values: 4 pts. per serving

Pineapple Chicken

OK - so what do you do with the juice you drained from the can of pineapple rings? You use it to marinade your chicken.


Juice drained off of 20 oz can of pineapple rings
2lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 Tbs groud ginger
1 Tbs ground cinnamon
1 Tbs Bell's seasoning (or poultry seasoning)
1 tsp ground cloves
salt and pepper to taste


In a 1 gallon plastic bag (or bowl or whatever you use for marinading meat), mix the pineapple juice, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, seasoning, salt and pepper together until well blended. Then place your chicken in the marinade for as long as desired.

Grill you chicken and serve with the grilled pineapple slices, a nice salad and brown rice.




+ 1 point for the pineapple juice

WW Points Values: 5 pts. per serving

Grilled Pineapple

What's so special about this? Try it sometime and you'll see.

1 20oz can of pineapple slices or spears in their own juice, drained
1 lemon or lime


Place the pineapples in a bowl and squeeze the juice of the lemon or lime over them and let it marinate for a few minutes. Gently place the slices on your grill for a minute, turn them once and then remove and serve.

The juice from the lemon/lime will really make the flavor explode in your mouth and balance the sweetness of the pineapple.






WW Points Values: 1 pt. for 2 slices

Chicken with Dried Peaches

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 cup Extra virgin olive oil
8 oz dried peach(es)
6 clove garlic clove(s)
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp table salt
4 serving(s) madeira
Instructions

Mix together the vinegar, oil, thyme (or substitute herbs de provence), crushed garlic, cumin, ginger salt and madeira wine and whisk together in a bowl.

Place chicken breast and peaches in bottom of the crockpot and pour the contents of the bowl over the chicken.

Cook on low for 8-12 hours or high for 4-6 hours.



+ 1 point for the peaches

WW Points Values: 7 pts. per serving