Productive Wednesday!

Today I've been efficient at lab AND I remembered to put the white chicken chili on the crockpot and turn it on. Ha ha. Jenelle, I will let you know how it is! How excited was I to get a comment on my lame-O blog? :)

Instead of the chili, we had Turkey/TVP meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn for dinner. Recipes below.

Ground Turkey Meatloaf
Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine
Serves 4-8 depending on how much meat you use
*****we love meatloaf. Especially with our sriracha glaze. Yum!

1 1/2 pounds ground beef, extra lean (raw) [I use 1/2 ground turkey, 1/2 TVP]
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup barbecue sauce, divided
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper
2 large egg whites

Combine all of the above in a bowl and shape into loaf shape. Eew. Place in either a loaf pan, foil packet, or crock pot (cook on low 8 hrs if you use this method). Cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour, then glaze the top with a 50/50 mix of sriracha and BBQ sauce and allow to absorb and broil another 10 minutes.

Tuesday - OOPS!

GAK! I forgot to put the crock pot on the base and TURN IT ON this morning.

No white chicken chili por moi. :(

REVISED PLAN: we are having meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner!!!

Monday 10/27 Chimi's and White Chicken Chili

Despite it being blah Monday (I normally hate Monday's), today wasn't so bad. Prep time on the Chimichangas was about 10 mins and then they were baked for 30 mins. No prob! I prepped while the baby ate a teething biscuit - what a mess! - and then I fed her some prunes and applesauce while they cooked! See below for crock pot prep for Tuesday.

My girl figured out how to actually JUMP in her jumperoo today. So cute!! Previously, she had just kinda dangled and kicked. Now she JUMPS. Maybe I should post a video some other time.

WW Turkey Chimichangas
Taken from WW recipe site
Serves 6-8 depending on portion size and how much filling you put in each shell
***** We loved these. The only change I would make is to add frijoles negros (black beans).

3/4 lb ground turkey
3/4 lb rehydrated TVP
1 cup frozen pepper medley
1/2 cup diced sweet onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup frozen corn
a good palmful ground cumin
dash cinnamon
a good palmful chili powder
a good palmful smoked paprika
1 can enchilada sauce
6 tortillas (OK I guess you're supposed to use flour to make them "chimichangas" but I use corn so I guess technically I'm making enchiladas? Haha)
1 cup reduced fat mexican cheese

Grill up turkey, peppers, onions, garlic, spices and corn in a skillet. Add TVP. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add 1/2 can enchilada sauce. Let simmer for another 5 minutes. Warm up tortillas in microwave for about 30 seconds (I steamed them with my steamer because it was already out). Spoon mixture into tortillas and roll up. Put in a baking dish. Pour remaining enchilada sauce over chimis, sprinkle with reduced fat cheese. Bake in the oven at 350 until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are crispy on the ends.


I also prepped this for tomorrow:
Crockpot White Chicken Chili
recipe zaar recipe #28659

**** I loved this - it was flavorful but the best part was the beans: they were great!
11/16: I made this a second time with some modifications, it was even better! Mods in [].

1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed [11/16: I used 5 boneless skinless thighs and it was GREAT]
1 large onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
2 cans great northern beans, rinsed and drained [I used dry white beans this time]
1 teaspoon mustard powder [1 tbl grey poupon this time - GREAT addition, will do this every time]
1 teaspoon ground cumin [1 tbl]
1 tbl chili powder
1 tbl smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Essentially chuck all of this stuff in the crock pot!! I cut the chicken into strips but you could cube it or even toss it in whole (I've done that before).

Stay tuned for my review tomorrow! I'm off to do some work.

Week 4: Sunday, prep day.

Meal Plan, Week 4:
CrockPot Coq au Vin
CrockPot White Chicken Chili
Ground Turkey/TVP chimichangas
Ground Turkey/TVP meatloaf with mashed potatoes and corn
BBQ pork tenderloin in the crock pot on sandwiches


This week I made three goals: 1. To make the week completely free of processed food. 2. To do all of the prep work on the weekend and 3. To make some more baby food. Since I had family visiting on Saturday, that left everything to be done on Sunday. So far since 12 noon, I have:

• Shopped for supplies at Costco (meat and diapers are cheaper in bulk), Target (baby stuff), Food Lion (groceries) and Whole Foods [I cannot afford to grocery shop at Whole Foods so I just stopped here on my way home from work for some TVP]
• Steamed 2 heads of cauliflower (BOGO!), then roasted it and made mashed cauliflower
• Steamed a butternut squash and some carrots, thn pureed them for baby food
  
• Prepped and ate CrockPot Coq au Vin (recipe below)
• Prepped a turkey/TVP meatloaf, filling for chimichangas and rehydrated some white beans for the white chicken chili
  
• Boiled and mashed 5lbs of potatoes
• Taken the pork tenderloin for the BBQ pork and chicken for the white chicken chili out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge
  

I'm exhausted. Don't forget that I also portioned and froze this stuff as well. Thankfully I have a fabulous husband that helps with everything. In the midst of all of this, I was playing with my baby - who, by the way, is the cutest person on this planet. To show for my time, I have a week of meals prepared, and 9 containers of butternut squash/carrot baby puree, 1 container of mashed cauliflower and 1 container of mashed potatoes in the freezer for the future. Even if I could find the time to exercise, I couldn't physically do it.

As a sidenote, my baby is adorable. She is trying to crawl and it is the funniest thing to watch. She cannot get the arms AND legs together so she ends up leg-crawling with her face planted on the floor, or arm-crawling with her legs dangling behind her.

Today's recipes:

Coq au vin
taken from A Year of CrockPotting
*** With potential for **** using a different red wine. I used old Shiraz that was probably way past it's peak. Don't do that. It was a bit too strong and didn't "go" with the recipe. Also, I would cut the red wine to 1 cup and add no broth. It was way too liquidy. As always, I've posted the original recipe; you decide whether to make my suggested changes.

--6 to 8 chicken thighs (I used boneless, skinless)

--6 slices cooked and crumbled turkey bacon

--8 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms

--some baby carrots, I don't measure these things

--1/2 chopped yellow onion

--3 cloves chopped or minced garlic

--1/2 t black pepper

--1/2 t kosher salt

--1/2 cup chicken broth

--1 1/2 cup cheap red wine

--2 large fresh thyme sprigs

Cook your bacon. Dump the chicken into your crockpot and start layering in the rest of the ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. The flavors meld so nicely when cooked low and slow.

I served this with mashed cauliflower (see below) and a bit of pureed butternut squash. Shut up, I made it for the baby and it tasted good.

Mashed Cauliflower
serves 3 or more depending on portion size

****this is a really good, low cal side dish. Use in place of mashed potatoes but let's be clear, they DO NOT taste like potatoes. It's cauliflower, people.

1 head of cauliflower
1 cup light sour cream

Cut the cauliflower into florets and steam until fork tender
Spread on a cookie sheet and roast at 350 degrees until the florets begin to brown
Add to food processor or stand mixer and blend with the sour cream until chunky but mashed.
Add salt and pepper to taste


Have a great week!

Week 2 - in progress

Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers
6 servings; created by me!
***** These were so good. I ate them for lunch 3 days in a row - they were that good. MAKE THESE.

6 Green or Red peppers, washed, cored
2 cups cooked rice (brown or white)
1lb ground turkey
1/2 onion
italian seasoning
1 clove garlic
parmesan cheese to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1 jar or 16 oz homemade spaghetti sauce - I used mushroom flavor
1 cup lite sour cream

Brown the turkey with the onion, garlic and seasonings. Stir in the rice.
Assemble the sauce in the crock pot: stir the sour cream and spag sauce together.
Add about 1/2 c. of the sauce to the meat/rice mixture and blend.
Spoon the filling into the peppers and put them in the sauce
Cook on low 8-10 hrs or high 6 hours

Week 1

I'm writing this post in retrospect since week 1 happened a month ago. But I wanted to share the recipes I tried and what I thought of them in terms of ease of preparation and taste. Here they are, enjoy!

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas
Adapted from recipe zaar recipe # 81115

My notes & review: I cooked this filling completely the Sunday before use. I also doubled this recipe and froze a tupperware full of filling for easy enchilada assembly in the future.
**** This recipe was easy and the results were tasty. Will make this again and again. Freeze/thaws great.

35 min | 20 min prep

SERVES 2 -4

cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts (about 1/2 lb)
1 cup reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 small can green chilles
1 cup picante sauce
3 ounces neufchatel cheese, diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 cups bottled green taco sauce or red enchilada sauce
8 corn tortillas

• Coat a large skillet with cooking spray and saute onions until soft.
  

• Meanwhile, mix chicken, 1/2 c. cheddar, picante sauce and cream cheese.

• Add to onions and cook over low heat until cheese begins to melt. Spoon about 1/3 cup filling on each tortilla and roll up. Place enchiladas (seam side down) in a 9x13 baking dish. Drizzle with taco sauce or enchilada sauce and remaining cheese.

Taco Bake
Recipe from: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/taco-bake-63779.aspx
** Not impressed. The Mac n cheese got mooshy and was unnecessary, IMO. Also not very good for you at all.

1 pkg. (14 oz.) KRAFT Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese Dinner

1 lb. ground beef

1 pkg. (1-1/4 oz.) TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Taco Seasoning Mix

3/4 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

1-1/2 cups KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided

1 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

Make It

Heat oven to 400°F. Prepare Dinner as directed on package. While Macaroni is cooking, cook meat with taco seasoning as directed on package.

STIR sour cream into prepared Dinner; spoon 1/2 into 8-inch square baking dish. Top with layers of meat mixture, 1 cup cheese and remaining Dinner mixture; cover with foil.

BAKE 15 min.; top with salsa and remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, 5 min. or until cheese is melted.

Bruschetta Chicken Bake
makes 6 servings, taken from WW site, origins unknown.
* We really didn't like this. The chicken had little flavor and the stuffing was soggy. I am willing to accept that this might have been because it sat in the fridge in a pan waiting to be baked for 4 days. Maybe this isn't a great OAWC recipe.

1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained, we buy no salt added
1 pkg. (6 oz.) Stove Top stuffing mix
1/2 c. water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts (3 breast halves)
1 t. dried basil
1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, stuffing mix, water and garlic. Set aside. Cut the raw chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks.
In a greased 9 x 13 pan, place the chicken and then sprinkle it with the cheese and basil. Top the chicken with the stuffing.
Heat your oven to 400 degrees and put the casserole in for 30 minutes.

Bubble Up Pizza Casserole

8 servings; Taken from WW site, credit unknown
**** This was really tasty. Cheesy, good comfort food. VERY similar to the "Deep Dish Pizza Casserole" recipe that circulated a few years ago but no crust.

1 lb lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
16 oz tomato sauce
1/2 tsp dried basil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
Veggie Toppings (mushrooms, peppers, olives, any of your favorites – BE CREATIVE)
17 slices Turkey Pepperoni (optional)
15 oz. refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, uncooked, quartered
1.25 c FF or soy mozzarella, shredded

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In skillet, brown meat over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in onion, tomato sauce, basil, garlic and Italian seasoning.

2. Add veggies (mushrooms, peppers, black olives, etc…whatever you like) and pepperoni. Add quartered biscuits; stir gently until biscuits are covered with sauce. Spoon mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese, and bake an additional 10 minutes or until biscuits are done. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

I made this last night and it was very tastey. The Husband liked it too. It's very lowfat.