Blue Cheese Please

I love a good burger. My latest favorite burger place is Ted's Montana Grill, I'm especially fond of their blue cheese burger. Tyler always gets a salad there, weird, but he claims it's an amazing salad. We decided to recreate these burgers at home, it was quite simple and very tasty! To make this WW core friendly, use fat free blue cheese (or reduced fat and count the points, I think fat free cheese is terrible) and serve w/o a bun (obviously I did not follow my own advice!) And obviously count the points for the beer ;) Blue Moon is my favorite!



Blue Cheese Burgers (original recipe from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1-1/2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons minced fresh chives
• 1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 4 French rolls or hamburger buns

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, blue cheese, chives, hot pepper sauce, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, salt, and mustard. Cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. Preheat grill for high heat. Gently form the burger mixture into 4 patties.
3. Oil the grill grate. Grill patties 5 minutes per side, or until well done. Serve on rolls.

Falafel Fun

Sorry for the serious lack of posting again. Tyler has been doing most of the cooking for us and we've been eating some tried and true meals, nothing new until last night. This recipe is from the "best of" Cooking Light magazine from last month. We love falafel but haven't really figured out a place where we could get the good stuff here in Kansas City. Next time I make this I'll experiment with other kinds of beans. I think black beans or garbanzo beans would be equally good. This was also a very fast meal to whip up, which is always nice on a busy day!

I don't count this as a Core recipe (but it could be if you used FF cheese, no chips, and ate it without a pita). On the Flex system it is 6 pts per serving, and the recipe makes 4 servings. If you are thinking about joining Weight Watchers I really encourage you do to it before the holiday season is in full swing, WW is a great program for learning portion control and having some accountability during the tough holiday season! I've lost about 7lbs in the last 3 weeks, so I am clearly a fan! I'm already down a pant size!



Southwestern Falafel with Avocado Spread (from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

Patties:
1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used pepperjack)
1/4 cup finely crushed baked tortilla chips (about 3/4 ounce)
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1 large egg white
1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil

Spread:
1/4 cup mashed peeled avocado
2 tablespoons finely chopped plum tomato
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons fat-free sour cream
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 (6-inch) pitas, each cut in half crosswise

Preparation

To prepare patties, place pinto beans in a medium bowl; partially mash with a fork. Add Monterey Jack cheese and next 5 ingredients (through egg white); stir until well combined. Form into 4 (1/2-inch-thick) oval patties.

Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add patties; cook 3 minutes on each side or until patties are browned and thoroughly heated.

To prepare spread, while patties cook, combine the avocado, plum tomato, red onion, sour cream, lime juice, and salt. Place 1 patty in each pita half. Spread about 2 tablespoons avocado spread over patty in each pita half.

Husband chef

My husband is too good to me. I've been stressed and worn out the last few weeks working all day and then training at my second job at night. Plus I'm trying to change the way I eat and it's just so...tiring. Tyler volunteered to make dinner tonight plus he's been cooking for himself when I'm not here in the evenings. It's a fantastic arrangement :)

Tonight's dinner was pretty easy. We tried another recipe from Heather's Core blog and were very happy with it. I love me some mushrooms! And of course mashed potatoes, I can never have enough mashed potatoes. I could make them (and eat them) in my sleep at this point :) So glad they are a Core food!

Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms

2 tsp canola oil
3 TBS balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 lb uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast (four 4-oz pieces)
2 c mushrooms, small, halved
1/3 c chicken broth
1/4 tsp dried thyme, crumbled

Heat 1 tsp oil in a nonstick skillet. In a medium bowl, mix 2 TBS vinegar, the mustard, and the garlic. Add chicken and turn to coat.

Transfer chicken and marinade to skillet. Saute chicken until cooked through, about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer chicken to a platter and keep warm (We seem to be incapable of getting chicken to cook all the way through in a skillet, so we stuck it in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees after cooking it for 3 minutes on each side on the stove top).

Heat remaining tsp of oil in skillet. Saute mushrooms for 1 minute. Add broth, thyme and remaining TBS of vinegar. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are deep brown, about 2 minutes longer.

Serve chicken topped with mushrooms.

Serves 4 (each serving contains 1/2 tsp healthy oil)

Celebrate Chili Season!

Tyler was nice enough to whip up this batch of white chicken chili while I made the beef and bean chili tonight. Honestly I'm not sure where I got the original recipe and it's driving me nuts. If you know please jog my memory! I just have a copy of it that I printed out ages ago, probably off an old email account so I can't really trace the origins! Actually it looks like a photocopy...omg I'm going to drive myself crazy. Here's the recipe!



White Bean Chicken Chili

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 T olive oil
2 tsp chopped garlic
1-2 cups chopped chicken breasts
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (do not drain)
1 cube chicken bouillon
15 oz can white beans
1 pkg taco seasoning (we were out so we used this recipe instead)

Saute onion in olive oil. Add garlic, chicken, and 1/2 tsp taco seasoning. Cook until chicken is no longer pink. Add canned tomatoes (can be run through the food processor to chop into smaller pieces if desired), chicken bouillon cube, rest of taco seasoning and if necessary some water if too thick. Simmer and then eat! Serve with tortilla chips or tortillas, cheese, sour cream, whatever you like! Tyler adds Tabasco sauce because he loves more heat.

I believe this recipe is WW core friendly.

Officially Chili Season!

Today is the first day of fall, which means I can now make chili without getting yelled at by my dad! (although I heard a rumor that he made a batch last weekend, tsk tsk!) We made a couple of chili's tonight and will freeze quite a bit of it for easy grab n go lunches. First up: traditional beef and bean chili. This is the recipe that has been perfected by Tyler's dad, and it is wonderful chili! We will likely never make another version, this one is just perfect and fits my WW Core diet.



My Father-in-Law's Chili

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef
1/2 medium sized onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
2 tsp. chili powder
1 beef bullion cubes
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1 Bay Leaf
1 TBS parsley flakes
1/2 TBS sugar
red pepper flakes or tabasco sauce to taste
salt if needed

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef then drain off grease.
2. Saute onion and garlic with the meat until onion is translucent.
3. Transfer meat/onion/garlic mix to crock pot, add the rest of the ingredients (do not drain any of the beans!) let cook on low 2-3 hours. This could also be done on the stovetop in a stockpot, simmer on low for a couple of hours with the lid on.
4. Serve with cheese, sour cream, crackers, etc.

I'm still here!

Sorry for the post-less week, I haven't really been cooking much. Mostly because I was eating out or making some of my favorite guilty pleasures before I started back on Weight Watchers this week :) Real smart, huh? We had sushi, cheese dip, potstickers, Chipotle, chick-fil-a....ahh such food debauchery. Now I am back on the wagon and back in the kitchen. We are following the Weight Watchers Core plan, which so far I am loving. So brace yourselves for healthier recipes! One of my greatest discoveries was this food blog. Thank you Heather for sharing so many great Core recipes with those of us that have no clue what to make! She is my new food blog goddess.

This meal was so quick to whip up and tasted great. LOVED the guacamole sauce. I will definitely be using that recipe for many other dishes. It'd be great on fajitas! The chicken was a little sweet, which makes sense since there was brown sugar in it, I might cut back on the sugar and increase the spices next time. I served the chicken with corn and a side of black beans simmered in lime juice, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Should have thrown some cilantro in but I spaced it. It feels good to be cooking and eating well again!

Cumin-dusted Chicken Breasts with guacamole sauce


Sauce:
1/4 c finely chopped green onions
1/4 c finely chopped cilantro
1/4 c fat-free sour cream
2 TBS fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1 ripe peeled avocado, seeded and coarsely mashed

Chicken:
2 TBS brown sugar (not Core, but 0 WPAs per serving of this recipe)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 (6 oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Cooking spray

To prepare sauce, combine first 8 ingredients; set aside. Preheat oven to 400°.

To prepare chicken, combine sugar, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp black pepper; sprinkle evenly over chicken. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken; cook 3 minutes or until browned. Turn chicken over. Place pan in oven; bake at 400° for 10-20 minutes or until done. Serve chicken with sauce.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 breast half and about 3 tablespoons sauce)