AWITLOL - Day 6

Ah, Pinterest.
How crafty you make me think I am.
And how much time you help me to waste when I could be teaching myself to be crafty.

But let's talk about Pinterest as a source for recipes! Really, just type in whatever you're looking to make, however you're trying to cook (gluten-free, dairy-free, butter-laden), or in my case, "Weight Watchers." You'll likely come up with dozens to hundreds of pins from other pinners who have found these tasty posts on blogs, websites, or other pinners boards.

See here, if you're not familiar...

This could very quickly turn into a list of all the things on Pinterest that I want to try but haven't had time yet. So instead, just let me tell you that as much as I love browsing on Pinterest, its so useful to me as a meal planning tool. Whenever I come across a recipe I'd like to try (wait for tomorrow's post for a list of favorite blogs and sites), I "pin" it to my board "Food I Want To Eat." (I also have a "Weight Watchers" board, but these two are overlapping more and more.) Then, on Saturday or Sunday, I browse through the pins and pick out three or four that I'd like to try that week. I try to plan for at least one meal in each of these categories: pasta, vegetarian, seafood, poultry, beef/pork. Variety is the spice of life. Or maybe its pepper.

Today, my meals and two Pinterest recipes!

Tuesday
Breakfast

• Get Balance Fiber Cereal from Aldi (1 cup)
• Skim Milk (1/4 cup)

Lunch

• Grapes (1 cup)
• Pizza (1 slice)
• Pumpkin Muffin

Dinner

• Cottage Pie (1 serving)

Snacks

• Fall Fruit Compote (1/2 cup) with 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• Cheeze-It Crackers (1/2 serving) *this falls under the category of "so not worth the points." Two points for 14 little crackers? I think not.*
• String cheese

Cottage Pie

Borrowed from SparkPeople

My take on the recipe - it was just okay. The egg yolk wasn't enough to keep the potatoes together and there really wasn't any gravy/sauce to speak of. Maybe I'd add some Worcestershire sauce next time...

Ingredients

2 russet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 egg yolk

12 ounces lean beef (I used 90/10)

1 cup onions, diced

salt & pepper

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 cups carrots, shredded

1 cup green beans, chopped

1/2 cup frozen corn

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup low-sodium chicken stock

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.

Place the potatoes in a medium saucepan, then cover with cold water. Cover the pot with a lid, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10-12 minutes, until the potatoes are soft.

While potatoes are simmering, prepare the filling. Place a large saute pan over moderate heat, add the beef and onions, and cook until the beef is no longer pink. Add the carrots, beans, spices, and tomato paste, stir to combine, and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add the stock and corn, then stir to combine. Place the meat and vegetables into a casserole dish and set aside.

Drain the potatoes and mash well, using a potato masher or ricer. Add the egg yolk. Spread on top of the meat mixture. Bake 10 minutes, until the potatoes are browned. 

Serves 4 (7 points)

Fall Fruit Compote

Pretty close to a Weight Watchers recipe
This we loved! Its really tasty with a little brown sugar (like I had), it would make a bowl of oatmeal fabulous, and I bet it would be really good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (which I did not have). Adjust the recipe to accommodate the size of the fruit you have.

Ingredients
2 medium apples, cut into 1/2" dice
4 small pears, cut into 1/2" dice
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 dried cranberries (these added lots of points but not a lot of flavor)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 orange, peeled and cut into 1/2" dice

Directions
Combine all ingredients, except orange zest and orange, into a sauce pan. Cook over medium-high to high heat until most of the liquid is gone, about 20 minutes.  Add orange zest and orange sections. Cook until heated through, stirring occasionally, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Makes 6 - 1/2 cup servings (3 points)

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy...

"This summer, I will try more recipes for fish and healthy seafood."
So said I a month ago. But, I tried my first recipe today, which is only two days after the official start of summer, so I'm all good, right?

Steve's not a huge fan of seafood and I'm a little skiddish of making it at home, but a soup sounded like an easy way to go. And it was! It made our house smell great too.

Now, sure the recipe calls for bacon, oil, and cream, but don't let that scare you off. They're in reasonable amounts, and if you use healthy oil and fat free half and half, it helps. The bacon... well, its bacon. Not much you can do about that.

Side note on the fish - every chef or cook will tell you fresh seafood is better than frozen, which it is. But I had the tilapia in the freezer and forgot to thaw it. So I just cut it while it was frozen and it worked so well! The pieces were all a uniform size and cut really easily, and since it cooks in the broth, being frozen was not an issue.

The soup was really good! It was fresh-tasting, not too fishy, not too heavy, and with a little bread or salad on the side, makes a nice supper. The only drawback is (and this may not even bother you) that when it cooled, while I was putting the leftovers away, the soup smelled much fishy-er. I think it should re-heat fine, but next time, I'll just make enough for one meal and call it good.

Tilapia Corn Chowder
Not really adapted from Foodnetwork.com
Ingredients
2 ounces bacon (about 2 slices)
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 leek, white part only, halved lengthwise, rinsed and thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
8 ounces Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (about 4 ears)
1 1/2 pounds tilapia fillets, cut into bite-size pieces
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme (I didn't use this, don't let that stop you though!)
1 cup half-and-half
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Directions

Chop bacon and cook in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until crispy, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Add oil to the pan. Add celery, leek, salt and pepper and cook until the vegetables just begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add broth, potatoes and corn. Bring to a gentle simmer. Cook until the potatoes are just tender and the corn is cooked through, about 8 minutes. Stir in tilapia and thyme; return to a gentle simmer. Cook until the tilapia is cooked through, about 4 minutes more. Remove from the heat.

Stir in half-and-half, lemon juice and the reserved bacon. Garnish with chives, if using.

One Pot Wonder

One pot meals are a favorite for me. Seeing as we don't have a dishwasher, the fewer pots/bowls/pans I use for a meal, the better. This one comes from Smitten Kitchen (which, by the way, if you haven't discovered yet, you are missing out!) Steve loved it, I loved it, and we both loved how little there was to clean up!

Arroz Con Pollo (Cuban Chicken with Rice)

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine and SmittenKitchen.com 

Ingredients

Chicken

3 large garlic cloves

2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

2 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled

3-4 large chicken breasts, cut into thirds

Rice

3 ounces Spanish chorizo (cured sausage), skin discarded and sausage cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3 large garlic cloves, chopped

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 lb. tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 12-ounce. bottle beer (not dark)

1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 cups long-grain white rice (14 ounces) 

Directions

Mince and mash garlic to a paste with 2 teaspoons salt, then transfer to a large bowl. Stir in vinegar and oregano. Toss chicken with marinade until coated and marinate, covered and chilled, at least one hour, no more than two hours. 

Cook chorizo in olive oil in a 6- to 7-quart heavy pot (12 inches wide) over medium-high heat, stirring, until some fat is rendered, 2 to 3 minutes. Add onions, bell pepper, and garlic and cook, stirring until softened, about 5 minutes. Add cumin, oregano, paprika, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, and crushed red pepper and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add chicken with marinade to chorizo mixture and cook, uncovered, over medium heat, stirring frequently, 10 minutes.

Remove chicken from pot and set aside. Stir in tomatoes, beer, broth, and rice and bring to a boil, making sure rice is submerged. Add chicken back into pot.  Reduce heat to medium-low and cover pot with a tight fitting lid. Cook, stirring once or twice, until rice is tender, 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes.

Serves 4

More Rice For Dinner

Last Friday night, I made rice pudding for my dinner. So this Friday, I'm using rice again, although this time it may be a slightly more appropriate dish for a main meal.  Many times I've made risotto when Steve is off at work on a Friday night.  To just stand there and stir a pot, adding things slowly and watching it come together - its very theraputic after a long week of working.
A few things I've noticed:

• You can use a medium/large saucepan or a large sauté pan that's deep enough to hold it all and stir.  I think making it in a saucepan lets the starch develop a little more, but in a sauté pan, it goes a little faster because there's more surface area.
• Use an onion that has a lot of flavor to it. I like vidalia's for most things, but they're not strong enough for this. Spanish yellow onions work well.
• Go for the chicken stock. Once I used chicken broth and had to make it go a little farther with water, and the flavor was much weaker.
• You've got to use the real deal when it comes to parmesan cheese - you want it to melt, and the Kraft parm (or similar type) just doesn't melt and mix as well.

Classic Risotto
Adapted from... lots of places

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon oil (olive oil or canola will do just fine)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3/4 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
4-5 cups chicken stock
parmesan cheese for grating

Directions
In a saucepan, begin to heat your chicken stock on medium-low heat (this will not be the same pan you use to make the actual risotto).

Over medium-high heat, melt butter with oil in pan - add onions and sauté until soft and slightly translucent.  Pour in wine and stir to deglaze the pan; simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Add rice and stir well - allow to get dry, almost as if you are toasting the rice. 

Once dry, add enough chicken stock to just come to the top of the rice.  Allow to simmer, stirring frequently, until all of the moisture has been absorbed. Repeat this step until rice has become tender and the mixture is creamy (35-45 minutes). You don't have to stir constantly, but I wouldn't wander too far from the stove.  When risotto is almost finished, grate a bit of cheese into it for some flavor. When its ready to serve, grate a little more cheese on top of each serving.

Makes 6 servings