Blog on Hold

I found out that my blog is blocked from search engine crawls due to the fact that it is not formatted properly. I am in the process of reading documentation on how to properly format it but I am holding off pushing new content to the blog until I understand and have implemented the changes to each of the existing pages. There will be new recipes coming again but I need to make sure that my blog is search engine friendly or it will never be able to reach its full potential.

Thank you for your patience.

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

“But since soup mainly involves tossing everything in a pot and waiting,
it's one of my better dishes.”
― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

I don't have many soups in my repertoire...yet. This is one I have adapted to our taste over time. Plus with the amount of different illnesses that are going around how could you not want a bowl of chicken noodle soup. This uses the Shredded Chicken recipe that I posted last week.

If you re not a huge fan of lemon, you may want to cut the amount of lemon juice in half. The beauty of this recipe is your can tailor it to fit your preferred taste.

I love how the Shredded Chicken give this soup a homestyle feeling.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 6 servings, 162 calories, 18g carbs, 3g fat, 18g protein

Ingredients:

• 1/2 T Olive Oil
• 4 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 Large Yellow Onion, Chopped
  

German Pancake

"If you are not the one cooking, stay out of the way and compliment the chef."

 - Michael Strahan

I guess this means I have to stay out of the way and compliment then because Giuliana was the one who measured and mixed all the ingredients, and cracked the eggs. All I did was read the directions, pour it into the pan and operate the oven. That is how easy this recipe is, my 5 year old is the one who basically made this.

This is a recipe that I grew up with. It makes me think of a snow day from school because it is truly a comfort food. This winter recipe can bring a smile to even the grumpiest non-morning person when they walk into the kitchen and see this.

My kids love watching the sides "grow" up the edges of the pan. Giuliana ALWAYS tries to pick the piece with the tallest wall. I personally have only used Powdered Sugar as a topping but I have heard of other people using lemon juice. I guess I will have to try it at some point.

Giuliana whisking the eggs

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 6 servings, 261 calories, 17g carbs, 17g fat, 10g protein

Ingredients:

• 6 T Salted Butter
• 6 Eggs
• 1 c Flour
  

Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken

"I always think if you have to cook once, it should feed you twice. If you're going to
make a big chicken and vegetable soup for lunch on Monday,
you stick it in the refrigerator and it's also for Wednesday's dinner."

 - Curtis Stone

That is the theory behind this recipe, over the next few posts and some more in the future I plan on showing how a simple process of shredding chicken from the slow cooker can make sooo many recipes! To start this is probably the easiest recipe I have ever done, let alone posted. It is literally only two ingredients and can be transformed into hundreds of recipes.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 48 (2 oz) servings, 64 calories, 0g carbs, 1g fat, 13g protein

This is less than half of the chicken that the recipe makes!!

Ingredients:

• 6 lbs Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 8 c Unsalted, Chicken Cooking Stock (I used Swanson)

Instructions:

1. Place all Chicken Breasts in the Slow Cooker
2. Cover Chicken with Cooking Stock.
3. Cook on low for 8 hours.
4. Remove chicken to a bowl and shred with 2 forks. 

Carrot Ginger Salad Dressing

"It takes four men to dress a salad: a wise man for the salt, a madman for the pepper, 

a miser for the vinegar, and a spendthrift for the oil."

-Anonymous

Have you eve been to a Japanese Steakhouse and had their salad to start? Normally I would not rave about a simple salad but there is something about the dressing that they have that I have never been able to recreate at home. I finally found a recipe that was close and I tweaked it to fit my taste. I forgot to take pictures of it but will make sure to add them the next time I make it. Also this is a really easy recipe, all you do is dump it in the blender.



Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 20 servings, 45 calories, 3g carbs, 4g fat, 0g protein

Ingredients:

• 1/3 C Canola Oil
• 1/3 C Rice Wine Vinegar
• 2 Large or 10 Baby Carrots
  

Mini Cinnamon Roll Pie Crust Bites

“I'm not a vegetarian! I'm a dessertarian!” 

― Bill Watterson

Let's be honest this is not a healthy recipe but it is a fun snack, breakfast side, or dessert. The kids loved these so much I forgot to take a picture until after they started "chowing down" on these. I love pie crusts, so making a cinnamon roll from them seemed like an easy and logical step.

I couldn't get a picture before Giuliana ate one.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 9 servings, 284 calories, 41g carbs, 15g fat, 2g protein

Ingredients:

• 2 Pre-Made Pie Crusts
• 4 T Light Butter, Melted
• 2 T Cinnamon
  

Ranch Burger Grill Packets

I didn't have a lot of time to get dinner going and needed a new idea. I had some ground beef and had heard about burger packets before so I thought I would try. Why not? If all else fails we have multiple restaurants close. (Not that we want to eat out.) These turned out nicely and I even had an extra to send for my Father-In-Law to eat since he was not able to make it for dinner.

On a separate note, if you subscribe to follow my blog in the upper right you will get notifications when a new recipe is posted. Additionally, please share the facebook post so I can help build my followers and at some point, these will not only be the recipes that I am making for dinner but also recipes I can experiment in smaller batches before feeding them to my test subjects. :-)

Let's be honest, I am not a food stylist but it tasted really good.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 6 servings, 227 calories, 16g carbs, 6g fat, 34g protein

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs Lean Ground Beef
• 2 Buttermilk Ranch Packet
• 2 Yukon Gold Potatoes, Sliced to 1/8-1/4" Thick
  

Butternut Squash Fries

We started a garden at our house this year. Only problem being we forgot to label what each plant was when we planted the seedlings. It became a big surprise to us what came up. I thought we had yellow squash growing but it turns out we were growing Butternut Squash really well. The plant has taken up so much of the yard that it has doubled the space our garden is taking up which was already a 15'x15' space. With that happy accident, I decided to try and use the first of what appears will be a plentiful harvest of Butternut Squash. So be prepared for more Butternut Squash Recipes to be coming in the future especially since not much else produced this year.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 6 servings, 149 calories, 17g carbs, 10g fat, 2g protein

Ingredients:

• 1 Large Butternut Squash
• 1/4 c Canola Oil
• 2 t Cumin
  

Banana Chocolate Pancakes

Giuliana had her first day of Kindergarten this week! The first full day I made these for her and she loved them!!

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 4 servings, 252 calories, 35g carbs, 11g fat, 4g protein

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Banana, Mashed
• 3/4 c Water
• 1 T Maple Syrup

Guess who is back...WE ARE!!

At long last, I am back with new recipes. It has been almost 3 years since I have posted and a lot has happened since then.

1. We moved
2. Our son, Nello, was born
3. Our daughter, Giuliana, is starting kindergarten
4. We celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary
5. I have returned to school to obtain my teaching certificate

I will be going away from posting points values of recipes as I do not have access to a system that can calculate those. If someone does have access to one that can calculate I will be glad to add it. My goal is to create more of my own recipes to share rather than the just sharing other peoples recipes which have been the majority of my posts up to this point. My first recipe will be posted tomorrow. Until then, enjoy a few pictures of my family from the past three years.

Giuliana's Dance Recital 12-2015

Giuliana picked out our cat, Diamond 4-2016

2016 at the Disney Luau

About to jump out of a perfectly good airplane  09-2016

Christmas in Disney World 2016

Nello with his namesake 1-2017

On a morning walk in Vegas 4-2017

Disney 07-2017

Baked Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Parmesan is one of those dishes that is a comfort food for me. I would go to a restaurant everyday and eat it if I could. (Ok, maybe not every day but close.) When I ran across this recipe on Skinnytaste I was a little nervous about making it myself, but hey it is baked so how hard could it be? I am so happy that I tried it because it has become a staple in our meals. Plus even though it is a recipe that fits into a Weight Watchers plan you would never know it. I did change one thing that extends the cooking time by 5 minutes but I think it was worth it.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 8 servings, 6 weight watchers points plus. 251 calories, 14g carbs, 9.5g fat, 31.5g protein

Ingredients:

• 8 Chicken Breast Halves
• 3/4 c Italian Seasoned Breadcrumbs
• 1/4 c Grated Parmesan Cheese

Help a new homeowner win groceries!

I need everyone's help. I entered a contest on WGN's website for the best summer recipe. I entered my Avocado Vodka Burger and it is one of the 32 finalists. Now it comes down to getting votes you are able to vote up to 10 times per day through the 22nd. If I win I get to go on WGN Midday news to show my recipe with their chef and I get a $500 Meijer Gift Card. There is also a $25 drawing each day for the voters. 

Help me win!! 

http://wgntv.upickem.net/engine/Details.aspx?p=V&c=130430&s=66189139&i=1&m=X&sort=SORTORDER&#SD

Avocado and Black Bean Salad

"Cooking for people is an enormously significant expression of generosity and soulfulness, and entertaining is a way to be both generous and creative. You're sharing your life with people. Of course, it's also an expression of your own need for approval and applause. Nothing wrong with that." - Ted Allen

Looking for an alternative to the standard side dishes or dips? Look no further. I found this recipe on Skinny Taste and made it for the Super Bowl Party we attended. The freshness of the lime paired perfectly with the creaminess of the avocado and the crunch of the cucumber. Some people ate this as a side salad, I liked it with tortilla or pretzel chips. No matter how you eat it the flavors and textures meld together extremely well.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 10 servings, 3 weight watchers points plus. 103 calories, 14g carbs, 5g fat, 4g protein

Ingredients:

• 2 Avocados, Diced
• 3 Roma Tomatoes, Diced
• 1 Seedless Cucumber, Peeled and Diced
• 15.5 oz can Black Beans, Drained and Rinsed
• 3 T Red Onion, Diced

Slow Cooker Greek Chicken

"I don't like food that's too carefully arranged; it makes me think that the chef is spending too much time arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I'd buy a painting." - Andy Rooney 

I had my parents over for dinner on Saturday night and adapted a recipe I found on Slender Kitchen. The flavors melded together perfectly to create this amazing dish.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 6 servings, 6 weight watchers points plus. 244 calories, 6g carbs, 9g fat, 37g protein.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs Chicken Breast
• 3 T Roasted Red Peppers, Chopped
• 1/4 c Sliced Black Olives
• 1.5 c Artichoke Hearts, Cut in Half
• 1/4 c Capers
• 6 oz Fat Free Feta
• 1.5 t Dried Oregano
• 1 t Garlic Powder
• 2 C Fat Free Chicken Stock
• Salt and Pepper, to Taste

Instructions:

1. Combine Red Peppers, Black Olives, Artichokes, Capers, Oregano and Garlic Powder in a bowl.
2. Place half of the mixture on the bottom of a slow cooker.
3. Top with Half of the Fat Free Feta.
4. Season Chicken with Salt and Pepper and place on top of the mixture in the crock pot.
5. Add Remaining Fat Free Feta.
6. Top with remaining mixture.
7. Pour Chicken Broth over the chicken.
8. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours until chicken is cooked through.
9. Serve with 1 chicken breast and 1/6 of the mixture.
10. Enjoy!

After adding 1st layer, Chicken and Feta

Ready to cook

Giuliana waited patiently for it to finish cooking.

Water Chestnuts and Bacon

“...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.” 

― Julia Child, My Life in France

I made this appetizer for our friends Super Bowl Party and it may have created more conversation that the absolutely horrible football game. Their is just something supremely satisfying about the saltiness of the bacon combined with the crunch of the water chestnut and the sweetness of the brown sugar glaze that just makes me want to eat the entire batch and make a second for everyone else. I procrastinated making this dish that I found on Emily Bites because for some reason I was intimidated by the entire process. Michelle and Kevin have been my testers many times so I thought their house would be a safe place to experiment. Now that I have made them, I will never be intimidate by them again because it was soooooo easy! For having bacon they are not as many points as I thought they would be.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 12 servings, 2 weight watchers points plus. 67 calories, 12g carbs, 1g fat, 2g protein

These did not last long!

Ingredients:

• 2 (8 oz) canned Sliced Water Chestnuts, Drained
• 12 Strips Center Cut Bacon, Regular Thickness
• 1/3 c Ketchup
• 1/3 c packed Brown Sugar
• 1.5 t Fat Free Yogurt (The recipe calls for plain but my store did not have plain so I used Apple Cinnamon.)
• 1/2 t Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/4 t Hot Sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot)
• 36 Toothpicks

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Baked Sweet Potato Cornmeal Fries

I found this recipe on Laaloosh and HAD to try them, I was not disappointed. I served this along side Harissa Eggs In Purgatory for dinner one night and it was fantastic. Plus, the dinner was only 5 points plus total!

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 4 servings, 3 weight watchers points plus. 129 calories, 24g carbs, 2.5g fat, 2.5g protein

Who loves Sweet Potato Fries?!

Ingredients:

• 2 large Sweet Potatoes, sliced into 1/2" thick sticks (I used my Professional Multi Chopper from Williams Sonoma.)
• 1/4 c Cornmeal
• 2 t Olive Oil
• 1 T Garlic Powder
• 1 T Onion Powder
• Salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Once the Sweet Potatoes are sliced, Put them in a bowl of cold water stir for a minute and let sit for 10 minutes.

Harissa Eggs in Purgatory

This is a great breakfast meal or even better a breakfast for dinner meal! I found Harissa at Whole Foods and Mariano's (you can also find it online) it gives this dish a slight kick. If you want more of a kick you can purchase it in spicy but I have not done that yet. This is such an easy dish that I found on skinnytaste that it can be made for a weeknight meal or for a weekend breakfast when everyone wakes up at the same time. Eggs In Purgatory is a dish that the eggs are poached in tomato sauce instead of water so there is no waste! This can be served over a crusty bread, rice, quinoa or my favorite hummus. I made a garlic hummus that paired perfectly with this once I make it again I will post that as well I have also served this with Sweet Potato Fries which I am posting on Wednesday. Each serving contains one poached egg and one fourth of the sauce.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 4 servings, 2 weight watchers points plus. 103 calories, 5g carbs, 5g fat, 7g protein

Ready to serve!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 t Olive Oil
• 2T Minced Red Onion
• 14.5 oz Can Diced Tomatoes
• 2 T Harissa
• 4 Eggs
• Salt and Pepper to Taste
• 1 t Fresh Chopped Parsley and/or Chives (optional)

Directions:

1. Saute Onions in heated Olive Oil until they start to turn golden brown. It should be about 2 minutes.

Salsa Verde Chicken Southwestern Stuffed Baked Potato

Potatoes are so versatile, you can create just about any type of meal you want from the. This one is a meal by itself or a half can be paired with a salad or another side dish. I found a recipe on Laaloosh and combined it with a recipe on SkinnyTaste and made it a few weeks ago.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 4 servings, 10 weight watchers points plus. 415 calories, 54g carbs, 6g fat, 37g protein

It is much more filling than it looks

Ingredients:

• Salsa Verde Chicken
• 1 1/2 lbs raw boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 t garlic powder
• 1/8 t oregano
• 1/8 t ground cumin
• 16 oz salsa verde
• Potato
• 4 Medium Russet Potatoes
• 1/2 c Reduced Fat Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Shredded

60 Garlic Chicken

I have seen quite a few different 40 garlic chicken recipes but they never seem to feed more than 4 people. So I adapted a recipe from SlenderKitchen to create 60 Garlic Chicken!!!! (Their recipe states 6 servings but only includes two thirds of a chicken breast and dividing them up is not easy so this recipe serves 6 people with 6 chicken breasts. If you are planning on making this recipe I would recommend having a Garlic Peeler or purchasing Peeled Garlic. I did this by hand the first time and it was not fun. The dish was still worth it though. Many of my chicken dishes you can start with frozen chicken in the crock pot this is NOT one of them.

*Note: We make this dish the day before and reheat it in the oven and the flavors are even better!

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 6 servings,  7 weight watchers points plus. 251 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 38g protein

Ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs chicken Breasts (6 breasts, I user Perdue frozen, Boneless Skinless)
• 1.5 c Fat Free Chicken Stock
• 1 Chopped Onion, Divided
• 3 Chopped Leeks
• 3 t Paprika
• 60 cloves of Garlic
• 3 t salt
• 3 t black pepper
• 1/3 c Chopped Italian Parsley
• 1 Bay Leaf

Instructions:

1. Saute Leeks in cooking spray until they begin to soften. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Meatloaf

Meatloaf is one of those comfort foods that has been a staple in most households for ages. EmilyBites has come up with one that fits into the comfort food AND is healthier. I used the barbecue sauce that I posted a couple weeks ago and it is perfect. Plus a serving size is 2 slices!

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 6 weight watchers points plus. 239 calories, 11g carbs, 9g fat, 30g protein

Ingredients:

3/4 lb 95% Lean Ground Beef

3/4 lb Extra Lean Ground Turkey

1/2 cup Chopped Onion

7 T Barbecue Sauce, Divided

1 T Mustard

1 1/2 t Chili Powder

1 t Garlic Powder

1/2 t Salt

1/2 t Black Pepper

12 Fat Free Saltines, Crushed

1 Large Egg

8 Strips Turkey Bacon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees