Light Alfredo Sauce: A recipe for a rainy day

What to serve with chicken that I cooked in my crockpot? I found this recipe for a Light Alfredo Sauce yesterday on sparkpeople.com (they include nutritional information, still checking it all out, but it looks interesting), a new website that I happened upon in my search. It got good reviews. It is a little thinner than more caloric recipes, but the flavor was still good. I followed the advice of one review and let it sit for a bit to thicken it up. I added a cup of uncooked spinach as a bed for the whole wheat pasta, chicken, mushrooms and alfredo sauce.

Light Alfredo Sauce 

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups skim milk 1 cup chicken broth 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. black pepper 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until golden brown.

In a small saucepan, stir together milk, chicken broth, flour, salt and pepper over low heat until smooth and thick. Stir into garlic. Continue to cook over medium low heat, stirring frequently, until the sauce is thick. Stir in Parmesan cheese.

Number of Servings: 8 - (1/3) cup servings or 6 (1/2) cup servings

And the finished product

This got great reviews from both Ben and Emma, which is saying a lot. Ben wanted seconds and Emma readily ate pasta and told me that she really liked it and that she liked it better than the red sauce. They skipped the spinach and the mushrooms, but either way, it's a winner.

Food, Glorious Food!

I know it's  cliche' to make New Year's resolutions regarding food and exercise, but I don't care.  I welcomed it. I knew I was on a slippery slope and by the time January 1st rolled around I felt like I was so ready for a change. I don't think eating sugary foods for every meal can be a good thing. That was the day I said, "No more!" I had pushed myself to the edge. I had abused my relationship with food. I had cheapened it and lost respect for it. I was eating without thinking of the consequences. So, the first thing that I decided to do was a sugar detox. Nothing too scientific or regimented, just eliminate the desserts and candy...just for a day...and then for another day...and another...it wasn't even that hard to do. It felt great in fact. It boosted my confidence about other changes to come. I decided to get back to my Weight Watcher's way of eating and cooking. I joined Weight Watchers 4 years ago on January 16. I lost 20 lbs. and it felt great. (Yes, past tense...I got distracted by life and some of it came back...but I am still a believer.) I pulled out my WW stuff last week and got back to eating the way that I know is right and I feel more in control. My refrigerator went through a makeover, too. I cleaned it out to give it a fresh start. Food and I are starting to work things out. I feel like we're getting back in the groove and I'm loving it all over again, with greater respect for what kind I choose to associate with and put into my body.

Let me introduce you to some of my new (old) friends...

From top to bottom, L to R: (hiding on the top row) Better Than Bouillon, Trader Joe's Natural Peanut Butter, Light Coconut Milk, brown mushrooms, lemon (love 'em!), ginger, leftover yummies, spinach, leftover Thai  chicken wrap filling**(recipe below), peanut sauce in the back**, chicken apple curry sauce that goes over rice. Some people don't eat leftovers. I am not one of them. I recycle them into something new and improved. Some of my kids see through this attempt at serving the same thing two nights in a row. Too bad. 

Other things I have on hand: the bacon bits in a bag from Costco (so versatile...and a little goes a long way), cheese (I would rather use less real cheese and real butter than fat free or light), tomatoes, cilantro, lime, cucumbers, and beans among other things.

So now when I open my refrigerator, instead of standing there and staring and wondering, "What (yawn...) am I (yaaaawwwwn) going to fix for dinner??" I smile and say,  "Oh, I can't wait to have you for dinner!" Fruits and vegetables have moved back home.  My food world has color once again and I am so dang happy about it.  I want you to feel what I'm feeling so I'm going to give you two recipes that you can get excited about and try. If you're not a big ethnic food person...change...and I mean right now. I'm not kidding. By the way, a taco from Taco Bell is NOT an ethnic food. There are so many good flavors out there just waiting for you to embrace them. 

These recipes both have a Thai theme. Use the leftover peanut sauce on the wraps the next day. We had them both this week. The first one is from the Weight Watchers All-Time Favorites cook book (I saw this book at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. Would have bought it if I didn't already have it).

Thai Chicken Satay

(serves 6, normal portions)

Chicken marinade:

• 3 T. Asain fish sauce** 
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 T. grated fresh ginger
• 2 tsp. grated lime zest
• 1 T plus 1 tsp. lime juice
• 2 1/2 lbs chicken (cut into strips that you can either broil in oven or BBQ on skewers)

**(now don't you say, "Eww!" to the fish sauce...give it a chance.  It's a seasoning, just like soy sauce)

Directions: Place marinade ingredients in a large zip lock bag, mix, then add chicken and refrigerate from 1-6 hours, turning bag occasionally. If I had skewers I'd BBQ them as my first choice. You can also broil the whole breasts and then cut them up. Cook 6-8 minutes or until they look done, turning once.

Peanut Sauce

(serving size: 2 T)

Whisk together until smooth:

• 3/4 c. light coconut milk
• 6 T. creamy peanut butter
• 2 1/2 T. honey 
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 2 T. fish sauce
• 2 T. lime juice
• 2 tsp. lime zest

(I like to heat the sauce up in the microwave before I serve it)

Serve with rice and asian salad. For salad try Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame dressing on lettuce greens with orange slices, sliced almonds, cucumbers, green onions and tomatoes. So de-lish.

***********************************************

This next one I found on the internet.

Thai Chicken Wrap

recipe courtesy Rachel Ray on FoodNetwork.com

makes 4 BIG wraps

(I used leftover lean pork chops from the night before instead of chicken)

Ingredients:

• 3 (6 ounce) chicken breasts
• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1 T. vegetable oil
• 1 T. grill seasoning (whatever you want)

(I would just throw this in the crock pot in the a.m.)

Salad:

• 1/2 seedless cucumber, halved and sliced thinly
• 2 c. fresh bean sprouts
• 1 c. shredded carrots
• 4 green onions, sliced in thin slices
• 12 fresh basil leaves (This is what go me excited!!)
• 3 T. chopped mint leaves (This just added to it!)
• 1 T. sesame seeds

mix and pour over salad:

• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 T. rice vinegar or regular white vinegar
• salt

Her spicy peanut sauce(did not try)besides, I love coconut milk instead of the oil:

• 1/4 c. room temp chunky peanut butter
• 2 T. soy sauce
• 1 T. rice wine vinegar or regular vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 2 T. vegetable oil

Add cut up or pulled apart chicken to salad and divide into 4 servings on 4 (12-inch) tortilla wraps.

Pour 2 T. of leftover peanut sauce from night before on each wrap and then roll it up. 

I used Clay Oven Baked whole wheat Lavash Bread, cut in half instead of the tortillas. I found them at Trader Joe's. They tasted lighter to me than a tortilla.

So, there you have it. These recipes are tried and true. I hope they add a little zip to your dinner menus.

Bon Appetit and Enjoy!

It's not easy being green.

Sometimes I just get a food craving, and absolutely  must satisfy it. I know what you're thinking and most of the time it's not chocolate.This time of year it's often times citrus. But, lately I've also been craving this delicious, but maybe not so beautiful soup that I can quickly whip up in my Vita-Mix™ blender (I love this machine!). I am the only one in my family who will eat this soup(their loss is my gain). The rest of them complain about the foamy-ness.(It does eventually go away) I also don't think they can get past the color. I admit, it is VERY green. But to me it says: LIFE. I like when food is vibrant. It also means that it wasn't sitting on the stove f.o.r.e.v.e.r and looking like you just pureed a can of peas! A mere 3-4 minutes in my blender and that's it. I think you can duplicate this on the stovetop if you put everything in a regular blender or food processor and then heat it on the stove, if needed. I don't know. Try it and let me know. Even though I had some just yesterday, I still want it again to day. Off to make some for lunch.

Cream of Spinach Soup 
(2 servings)

1 cup spinach( I usually pack in more)
1 med tomato

1 thin slice onion or 4 green onions

1 rib celery (o.k. to skip)

1 chicken bouillon (I love Better Than Bouillon™ paste)

1 T. cornstarch

1 cup steaming skim or lowfat milk

1/4 cup swiss or cheddar cheese
**garnish with a little dollop of sour cream

Here's the bonus: 1 cup only has 125 calories.

(note: Costco sells a big jar of Better Than Bouillon™ . 
Once you start using it, you'll need a big jar. It is the best.)


Go Green and try this soup. Hope you like it.

Ben Bakes No Bake Cookies

Ben turned 15 this past week on July 15th. He was away at Football Camp all week, so we couldn't even wish him a "Happy Birthday" or sing to him on his actual birthday. He got home today. Tomorrow we'll have a family birthday dinner for him. Grandma and Grandpa are coming over. Mormor and Morfar are in CA. Ben is such a fun part of our family. It's fun to see how he's growing up. He has a good heart and good sense of humor. He is constantly surprising us with his dry sense of humor. A little interesting tidbit about Ben is that when he was born, he scored a perfect 10 on his first APGAR test. Most babies score a 10 eventually, but it's unusual to have a baby get a perfect score right after they're born. The pediatrician commented that Ben was the first he had seen in the 400 births he had attended. So we tell him he was a perfect baby...which he was...SO cute, a real chunky monkey with the biggest, bluest eyes and dark eyelashes and round little head. He was baby #3 and Simon and Jon-Erik were both old enough to enjoy him, so he was very loved by all of us...still is. I was a vegetarian (except for fish) when I was pregnant with Ben and for a couple of years afterwards. I think this is the reason that Ben was a very picky eater as a young child AND I think it also accounts for his interest in food now. He is my guy that likes to cook and not just top ramen. One of the things that Ben learned how to make this summer is "No Bake Cookies". This recipe came from an old church cook book from our days in Newhall, CA, Cookin' from Scratch. Along with the Chocolate Chip cookie recipes on pages 93 and 119, this recipe gets the most use. Thank you Pam Castagna for submitting it. Here's the recipe:

NO BAKE COOKIES

2 c. sugar

4 T. cocoa

1 cube margarine/butter

1/2 c. milk

Bring ingredients to a rolling boil in a 1 1/2 quart saucepan. Boil for exactly 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in the following:

3 c. oatmeal

1/2 c. peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper and let stand for 10 minutes.

Here is Ben making them. As you can see we kind of use what we have by way of aluminum foil and the scooper.Once Ben realized he was being photographed he made sure he was flexing for the pictures. Please make a special note of his muscles.

Nice form, Ben.

As you can see,the recipe makes quite a few.

Important to leave a little in the pot to clean out.

They are pretty tasty and hey, they DO have oats AND peanut butter in them and go great with a glass of cold milk. AND for my friend, Megan, who is dying of heat in CA, you don't need to turn on the oven and heat up your house.

Well,we're off to CA on Monday to visit my brother, Andy and his family.

BTW, Simon has 27 stitches on his back, plus the one that we took out today from the tube that was draining his spinal fluid in the hospital. Just thought you'd want to know. He's doing really well.

Salsa recipe

     I first tasted this salsa at our block party last fall and fell in LOVE with it. In fact I kind of hovered around the food table as the party was wrapping up and noticed that the owner of the salsa had already left, so I gladly took home her leftovers (I'm not kidding when I say I have a thing for food...I will go to embarrassing lengths sometimes to get it, keep it, hide it...whatever. I admit I have a problem. Maybe if I joke about it, it won't seem like such a big deal).  I finally got the recipe from Venice, my good neighbor and now my refrigerator is hardly ever without a jar of this salsa. The recipe fits perfectly in a quart jar with some to enjoy right away.

     I call it Venice's Salsa Recipe, since I got it from her. It is not spicy, but you can spice it up with a little jalapeno pepper, if you want to.

Venice's Salsa Recipe

2 cans Mexican Stewed tomatoes

1 can chopped green chiles

1 bunch chopped green onions, I will sometimes use red onions if I have them.

1/2 bunch chopped cilantro (more or less, depending on your taste for cilantro)

1 clove garlic,  chopped

1 fresh tomato (This is my addition to Venice's recipe)

1 tsp. cumin

2 T. sugar

1 tsp. salt, pepper to taste

Juice of 1-2 limes, depending on size

Best part: Put it all in your blender with fresh ingredients on the bottom and turn on your blender until it's mixed, but not overly mixed and pure'ed, but it's pretty thin. This is not a chunky salsa. That's it. The Mexican stewed tomatoes are sometimes hard to find, but I can almost always find them at Fry's. Thank you, Venice.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made cookies last Friday. I have two recipes that I alternate using for Chocolate Chip Cookies. If I'm feeling a little guilty about the cookies, I'll use the one that calls for oats...but on Friday I went with the other one. It's from an old church cook book. I've used it so much the cover is missing and the pages are stained, especially pages 93 and 119. I feel so lucky to have a Bosch mixer AND a convection oven, so making 100 cookies takes me only about 30 minutes. The best part about these cookies was the chips. There was nothing on the bag that would prepare me for the size of the chip. They were so big, I couldn't believe it. They are the best chocolate chips I have ever tasted, and I've tasted plenty. GHIRARDELLI Premium baking chips, 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate. Brian found them at Costco. I like to use a scooper so my cookies are all the same size. That way they bake more evenly. Recipe follows. 

LIKE MRS. FIELD'S COOKIES

1 lb. butter (softened)

1 1/2 c. white sugar

2 c. brown sugar

3 eggs

2 T. vanilla

6 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt & baking soda

4 c. chocolate chips

(I don't do nuts in cookies, so they are not an option for me.)

Mix the sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla. Then add the dry stuff. Then the chocolate chips. Bake at 375. Check after 6 or 7 minutes. I try not to overbake them and then let them sit on the pan for a couple of minutes before removing.