Leftover Update

Last night I went to the gym and didn't get home until late, so decided it was a good night for a salad and leftover red lentil rice cakes. I decided to try some spaghetti sauce on them. I put a dollop of sauce on top of each, then added some mozzarella cheese and nuked them. They were really good that way. The fennel seed in them gives them a kind of pizza-y taste, so the extra cheese and sauce made it like a pizza burger!

My New Toy

After attempting to cut off my finger a couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time for a food processor.
It arrived earlier this week and I just tried it out tonight with an onion and a red pepper. I'm in love..... And not bandaged.

Katrina Eats Vegetarian!

I found this recipe in Cooking Light Magazine.

Red Lentil-Rice Cakes with Simple Tomato Salsa

Salsa:

3 cups finely chopped plum tomato (about 6 tomatoes)

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons capers

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cakes:

5 cups water, divided

1 cup dried small red lentils

1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed

2 garlic cloves, minced

3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

1. To prepare salsa, combine first 5 ingredients; set aside at room temperature.

2. To prepare cakes, bring 4 cups water and lentils to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water; drain. Place lentils in a large bowl.

3. Combine remaining 1 cup water and rice in pan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until water is absorbed. Cool 10 minutes. Add rice to lentils.

4. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, onion, fennel seeds, and garlic to pan; saute 2 minutes or until tender. Cool 10 minutes. Add to rice mixture. Add mozzarella cheese and remaining ingredients, stirring until well combined. Let stand for 10 minutes.

5. Wipe skillet clean with paper towels. Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Spoon half of rice mixture by 1/3-cupfuls into pan, spreading to form 6 (3-inch) circles; cook 5 minutes or until lighly browned. Carefully turn cakes over; cook 5 minutes on other side.

Remove cakes from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and remaining rice mixture. Serve with salsa. Yield: 6 servings (serving: 2 cakes and 1/2 cup salsa). 5 points per serving.

A note from Cooking Light: Make sure you are using red lentils. Yellow lentils will not work in this recipe.

THE VERDICT: These aren't bad, they have decent flavor, but the texture is a bit odd. I like meat, so probably won't make these again unless I have to. They are, however, very filling. Two cakes are 5 points. So the cakes and a salad made a nice meal.

I'm lazy, so I didn't make the salsa. Figured I would just use good ol' Pace, but that wasn't quite right. I'm thinking it would be good with a bit of marinara sauce, but just a bit. It wasn't good with ranch.

Now, the recipe makes 12 cakes. I don't know why, but I made the full recipe. So, I have leftovers. I will have cakes to re-heat and I have some of the mix, so will be able to see if it will keep. Check back for a leftover report later in the week.

Asian Zing Salad

With all the credit for this going to the wonderful folks at Buffalo Wild Wings....I present my version of the Asian Zing Salad.

I took what was left in the bag of lettuce, tossed in a handful of coleslaw mix and topped it with 6 oz of chicken breast that had been coated in Buffalo Wild Wings Asian Zing Sauce. Next I added a half a can of mandarin oranges and 1/4 cup of Chow Mein Noodles. Final step was to drizzle on a Tablespoon of Newman's Own Light Ginger and Sesame Salad Dressing and eat it all up. About 10 points.

Salmon with Gingery Cabbage

I found this recipe in a recent Good Housekeeping magazine and since I love salmon and I love cabbage, thought I would give it a try.

1 tbls olive oil

1 sm onion, thinly sliced

4 pieces salmon fillet (6 oz each), skin removed

1/2 tsp curry powder

2 tbls Dijon mustard with seeds

2 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 bag (16 oz) shredded cabbage for coleslaw

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat olive oil on medium 1 minute. Add onion; cover and cook 8 to 10 minutes or until onion is tender and golden brown, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, grease 13" x 9" glass baking dish. With tweezers, remove any bones from salmon pieces. Place salmon, rounded sides up, in baking dish. In cup, stir together curry powder, Dijon mustard, and 2 tsps water; use to brush evenenly over salmon.

Roast salmon, with out turning over, 15 minutes or just until opaque throughout.

While salmon roasts, add ginger and cumin to onion in skillet, and cook 1 minute, stirring. Add cabbage and 1/4 tsp salt; cover and cook 11 to 13 minutes or until cabbage is just tender and starts to brown, stirring occasionally.

To serve, spoon cabbage mixture onto 4 dinner plates; top with salmon.

7 points per serving.

The opening line in the magazine for this recipe promises "warm spices add exotic flavor". I guess I like my food really spicy, so I was a bit let down on the spicy-ness of this dish. It was good, but if I make it again, I will definitely spice it up!

I Love Fart Bars

However, fart bars do not love me. So, I needed to find a snack and frankly, I'm just not good at eating fruit, even if it is sitting right in front of me.

A while back, our local grocery store had their store brand peanut butter on sale. I have never had a problem with it, but these two jars had the consistency of crisco. Taste was fine, but eww. I didn't want to throw them out, so I went in search of a recipe. I also had a pile of overripe bananas, but that seems to be the norm around my house.

I surfed over to Allrecipes.com and found a recipe for Banana Peanut Butter Bread and a couple of reviewers mentioned that they had made the recipe into muffins. Just the thing I need. So I made some and they are good! I made a few of the recommended changes and baked it like this:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup peanut butter
3 bananas, mashed
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line muffin tins.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs; beat well. Stir in peanut butter, bananas, flour, baking soda and vanilla until blended. Scoop out a large soup spoon full of batter and put in muffin cups.
Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the muffin comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Makes 24 muffins for 3 points each.

I really liked these and will make them again. Although they are 1 point more than a fart bar, they take care of that need for a little something between breakfast and lunch that happens to me about 10:30ish every day. And they don't tear up my guts or turn me into a fart machine.

And how about that beautiful loaf of bread? It's about a point per ounce and way more delicious than diet bread. Just sayin'...

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

They say people learn from their mistakes. I think the lesson I'm supposed to be learning is to order take out.

Here is this week's new recipe from the Weight Watcher's website.

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

1 spray(s) cooking spray
8 oz Kraft Velveeta Light Reduced-Fat Pasteurized Processed Cheese Product
1/2 cup(s) fat-free sour cream

1/4 cup(s) fat-free evaporated milk

1/4 cup(s) scallion(s), green part only, minced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 cup(s) cooked chicken breast, chopped*
6 medium whole wheat tortilla(s), 7-inches each
1/4 cup(s) low-fat shredded cheddar cheese, sharp variety
6 medium olive(s), green, pitted, sliced
1/4 cup(s) salsa

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a 9-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine cheese product and sour cream; cover and microwave on high power until cheese melts, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Remove half of melted cheese to a small bowl and stir in evaporated milk; set aside. Add scallions, red pepper flakes and chicken to remaining cheese mixture; stir to coat.Spoon about 2/3 cup of chicken mixture down center of each tortilla; fold in sides of tortilla to cover filling and place tortillas in a single layer in prepared dish; spoon remaining cheese sauce over top and then sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese and olives.

Bake until cheese topping is bubbly, about 20 to 25 minutes. Serve with salsa. Yields 1 enchilada per serving.






Okay, my first sentence may have made it sound like these were a disaster, but they weren't. Just had a few issues that on top of many other cooking issues I've had, make me wonder why I still enjoy cooking.

So, here's what went wrong with these: The store I shop at does not carry light Velveeta, so I bought the full-fat stuff with the thought that I would use half velveeta and half low-fat colby jack for that part. But then when I get home, I find out that full fat Velveeta has the same fat content of the low-fat colby jack. Who knew?

So next, I have no clue how many chicken breasts I need to cook in order to obtain 3 cups of cooked chicken. So, I took out the open bag of chicken breasts, there was one humongus breast and half of another regular sized and a tiny piece of one. Eh - that looks good and I really don't want to open another bag...soooooo... That's what I cooked. I ended up with about 2 cups of cooked chicken.

And final screw up is the fact that I can't read. Instead of adding the evaporated milk to the melted cheese mixture and setting THAT aside, I set aside the part that did not have the evaporated milk and mixed the chicken, scallions and red pepper flakes into the part that did have the evaporated milk. After I had done that I realized that the evaporated milk was probably what made the cheese mixture into a sauce. Doh!

So with the lack of chicken, I only ended up with 5 enchiladas instead of six. But they were very good, even screwed up. I'll make them again, but hopefully, learn from my mistakes.