Sausage Ragout with Polenta

I held off posting until this morning because today is Lose-a-palooza as part of Weight Watchers "Lose for good" campaign. For every mention of the campaign - where Weight Watchers will donate $225k for every 1 million pounds lost - Weight Watchers will donate another dollar, up to 75k today. Since one of the two charities is one I support, No Kid Hungry campaign that's part of Share our Strength.

I will also post whatever I throw in the crock pot tonight later. Two posts in one day! Woo Hoo!

I don't like buying jarred sauce anymore because it's so easy to make sauce in general. In this case a basic ragout. I picked up a pound of chicken sausage today and removed it from the casing and sauteed it until brown. Then I tossed in diced onion, celery, carrot and pepper until soft. Finally, I added some sliced mushrooms, a 16 oz can of crushed tomatoes and a half glass of white wine and simmered for about 20 minutes or so.

I had a roll of polenta in the fridge and sliced up half a dozen or so 1/2 slices and just fried them up. In the end, a bit of ragout on top of the polenta disks and voila! Dinner.

The ragout ends up being about 4-6 points plus a serving - a lot of it depends on the serving size (like everything, your mileage may vary). It really was quite yummy and it's something that my husband is hoping I make again. :)

Lunch Edition

I started back at school this week and need to remember to pack my lunch again. So today was the time to break in my new Bento box. Bento boxes are Japanese compartmental lunch boxes and it's a point of pride to pack a beautiful lunch for your child or spouse in Japan. Because I overslept, I kept it simple this morning:


Turkey cranberry roulade roll up (3 points+)
salad with raspberry vinaigrette (2 points+)
veggie chips (2 points+)
365 mixed fruit bar
chobani raspberry yogurt
honey crisp apple

The roulade was simple, take a small tortilla and spread half a wedge of laughing cow cheese and then spread a teaspoon of Massachusetts Rubies from Deborah's Kitchen and a 1 oz piece of turkey breast. Roll it up and slice it into little pinwheels. Do the same for a second tortilla and you have a nice little set of roll ups for a total of 3 points plus. Add 1/2 an oz of veggie chips and a salad with couple of teaspoons of raspberry vinaigrette. Now that honey crisp apples are coming into season, I'm super psyched. I picked this one up at the farmer's market the other day. It's a lovely little lunch.

For snack I had my yogurt and fruit bar after a light breakfast. It took all of 5 minutes to throw everything together and get out the door.

I'm a big advocate of things like Bentos because it turns out that the average student generates over 40 pounds of garbage with single use bags, packaging and other materials. A reusable Bento reduces significant amounts of solid waste. Soon I'll have photos of more traditional packages with rice and little shaped vegetables and such.

sneaking in fruit

It's my oldest boy's birthday. Twenty two years ago today, he came into this world, on his due date, changing my world forever. One thing he loves is strawberry cake. It started when he was little and every so often he tells me he wants a strawberry cake for his birthday. This year that worked for me too. I took a basic lemon cake mix and diced up a pint of strawberries to mix into the batter and baked it. For the frosting, I boiled down half a pint of strawberries, half a pint of raspberries and a handful or two of blueberries with the juice of a lemon and strained it through a tight mesh sieve. I then beat the fruit sauce into a can of overly sweet vanilla frosting to thin it out and take the sweetness down a few notches.

The result was nice. But it was a great way to sneak some fruit into something I knew I was going to be eating.

A slice of cake isn't a bad thing. A whole bundt cake... well, that's another story. But it was nice easing some of the guilt that could normally plague me in a situation like that. Also, it was nice to have things balance a bit better. It was a big hit too, my son loved it and I suspect someone may be raiding the fridge tonight for more after I go to bed.

So let that be a lesson, if you're thinking you need to get some fruit or veggies in your diet but don't know how, try sneaking them into other foods to sort of fool yourself. Even if you don't need to fool yourself, it's a nice way to add some extras in your life. :)

Lentil Tacos

My niece made these one night and I knew I needed to make them as well. So I asked for the recipe, then I tweaked it. :)

finely chopped 1/2 a large vidalia onion
finely chopped red, yellow and green pepper
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
1 package of Trader Joes prepared lentils
1 package chili seasoning mix
2-1/2 cups veggie broth (I used Nature's Promise 17 oz box)
1 small jar of salsa (about a cup or so)
12 hard taco shells




Sautee the veggies until soft. Add lentils and chili seasoning and stir, adding the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, stir in the salsa and you're good. Yep, it's that easy.




For those keeping score, the filling is 28 points plus and you can easily get 10-12 tacos out of that. Your final count will depend on your toppings and the tacos you use. Me, I like cheese and sour cream on my tacos so I need to account for that and, again depending on whether you go for low/no fat or substitutes, the final totals will vary. On average, each taco tends to be around 4 points plus... again, your mileage may vary.

Beer braised chicken thighs

OK... did I think to take pictures? No, I was too busy eating. :)

I wanted something different, so I did a quick search on the food network site and found Rachael Ray's "Beer Braised Chicken Thighs." One look at her list made me realize that her recipe was not in the offing; however, mine was.

Taking some chicken thighs, I browned them on both sides in a deep pan. I then took them out and sauteed chopped onions, celery and garlic before tossing in a cup of chicken broth, a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes and a 12 oz bottle of Guiness I found hiding in the back of the fridge. I also tossed in a few shots of hot sauce and a couple of tbs of Dr. Gonzo's Wild Beaver Rub to the mix. After letting it come to a boil, I threw the chicken thighs back in and turned the heat down to a simmer for 25 minutes or so.

The Dr. Gonzo's balanced the beer nicely and gave the dish a bit of a kick.

I did not work out the points... yeah, I wasn't in the mood. I do know the veggies are 0 points, a chicken thigh is 2 and the whole bottle of beer is 5 points. I'm guessing it was 3-4 points+ for a chicken thigh heaped with the veggies from the pan. Now if I can get the taco recipe from my niece, I think I know what I'm making next week.

Pizza!

Who doesn't love pizza? To be honest, it's one of those "ooo I shouldn't" foods for most of us. But the truth is nothing is further than the truth. Home made pizza is perhaps is so much in our control, it's not even funny.

I started with pre-baked crust. Mama Mary's thin and crispy crust is a great start:

Then it was just add 2-3 tablespoons of sauce. I used the Classico that was in the fridge:

For toppings I went veggie heavy. I started by heating a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a non-stick pan and wilting down a bag of spinach. Then I removed the spinach and carmelized a Vidalia onion and sliced mushrooms.

After removing the veggies, I sauteed up a couple of chicken breasts that I dressed with salt, pepper, lemon juice and Italian seasonings. I chopped it up and dropped it on top:

Finally I topped it with 1/2 a package (about 1 cup) of shredded low-fat cheese.

In the end, I had a healthy pizza for about 6 points+ a slice that was truly tasty. Had I just gone with veggies or left off some of the cheese, I could have dropped the points+ way down but somethings are worth it. :)

Berry Pie

mmmmmm.... berries!

Summer means berries and berries mean yumminess. So the other day when I saw a recipe for an ice box berry pie, you know I had to try it.

First comes the graham cracker crust. Now you can buy one (easy) or you can make one (also easy).

Graham crackers (about 8 ... a sleeve's worth) crushed into fine crumbs

1/2 stick (4 TBS) unsalted butter melted and cooled

3 TBS sugar

Mix the cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter together. Press into a pie dish along the bottom and sides and bake for about 15 min at 350* - until toasty brown. Set aside and cool.

Filling:

2 cups EACH: raspberries, blueberries and blackberries

1/2 cup sugar

3 TBS corn starch

1/8 tsp salt

1 TBS fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)

2 TBS fruit jam or jelly... I used IKEA's mixed berry jam

Gently clean the berries and place in a big bowl gently mixing them together. Remove 2 1/2 cups of berries and puree in a food processor or blender. Press through a fine sieve into a sauce pan, using the back of a spoon, to get about 1 1/2 cups of puree. Discard seeds left in the sieve. Place pan on medium heat.

Whisk together the corn starch, sugar and salt and then whisk into puree. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until it's the consistency of pudding. Take off the heat and mix in the lemon juice.

Pour into the cooled crust.

Melt jam in the microwave and gently toss the remaining berries to coat. Pour on top of puree and push into the mixture a bit. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let set in the fridge for 3 hours or so. Serve at room temp or chilled.

Now a quick word about a favorite kitchen tool. When my sister was in Amsterdam, she saw a little spoon rest in a hardware store and brought it home for me.

I prefer the standing spoon rest - it takes up less real estate next to the stove when I'm cooking. The bright yellow enamel is easy to clean and brights up that little corner of the kitchen.

It resides with the tea towels from Sweeden and Italy my niece brought home from her travels for my kitchen. When I use my IKEA 365 pot for cooking, I truly feel like a world traveler. Even if just for the short time I standing by the stove making dinner.