Dee's Beef Stew

(My SIL Dee sent me her stew recipe and it was so YUMMY! This is by far, my favorite stew recipe! Everyone LOVED it. The meat was so tender and the gravy was tasty. Dee cooks this on low for 11 to 12 hours, but I didn’t have that much time, so I kicked up the heat on high. Give this one a try!! You wont be disappointed!)

2 lbs beef for stew

2 cups fresh carrots, chopped

4 potatoes, chopped

2 small onions, chopped

1 can tomato sauce

¾ cup flour

2 tbsp Worchester sauce

Garlic powder

Salt and Pepper

Southern Flavor (My SIL sent this to me. I think you can only buy it in Alabama.)

Place in crock pot. Cook on high for 7 hours.

Jellin-Melon Snacks

(I found this recipe online. I decided to give it a try. It’s  low calorie and low WW points! It’s different and fun and a nice change for a snack.)

1 cantaloupe, cut lengthwise, in half

¾ cup boiling water

1 pkg. (3 oz) Sugar Free Cherry Flavor Gelatin

½ cup cold water

Remove seeds from melon halves; rinse and place on paper towel to drain. Add boiling water to gelatin mix; stir 2 mins. until completely dissolved. Stir in cold water. Refrigerate 15 mins. Or until slightly thickened. Pour into melon shells. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm. Cut into wedges.  

Farmhouse Chicken Dinner

(I got tonight’s recipe online from Kraft. It was fantastic. It had a bit of a kick to it, which really made the dish. Everyone loved it. It’s definitely a keeper! I forgot to take a picture again, so I swiped the one off Kraft.)

¼ cup flour

Black pepper

6 chicken breast

¾ cups Zesty Italian Dressing

4 cups baby carrots

2 onions cut into wedges

2 (14 oz) cans chicken broth

4 cups brown rice, cooked

8 oz Cream Cheese

Pepper chicken and dredge in flour. Heat dressing in nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add chicken; cook 5 minutes. Turn chicken, cook 5 minutes. Add carrots, onions and chicken broth; cover. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium and cook for 30 minutes or until carrots and chicken are done. Meanwhile cook rice as directed. Spoon rice onto platter. Use slotted spoon to remove chicken and vegetables from skillet; place over rice. Add cream cheese to broth; cook on medium high heat for 5 mins or until melted and sauce is well blended. Simmer on medium low 3 to 5 mins or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Spoon over chicken and vegetables. Top with parsley (I skipped this step.)  

"Crack Slaw"

(This was one of my FAVORITES so far and I understand why it's named "crack" slaw. My SIL Angela sent this to me. I loved it!! The nice thing about this is that you can customize it to your taste. You can add more vegetables or garlic or spice it up with chili paste. We used soy sauce and served this with potstickers and made it Chinese night!)

1 bag broccoli or rainbow slaw (The one I used was called Rainbow Salad)

1 lb hamburger

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

3 tbsp sesame oil

Brown hamburger with powders and set aside. Stir-fry the slaw until tender with the sesame oil. Toss the hamburger and slaw together and season to taste with soy sauce.

Banana Bread

(Much thanks goes out to Kelly for this yummy recipe! I recently found out that bananas give me HORRIBLE heartburn, so I’ve stopped eating them. I still had 3 ripe bananas and decided that I’d try a Banana Bread recipe. I’ve never made “real” Banana Bread before and this was easy and so good. I just hope that I don’t get heartburn! One of the BEST things about this recipe is that it only costs me 4 WW points!)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

Pinch of salt

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients well with a mixer. For muffins, bake 15 mins. For a mini loaf, 20-30 mins. For a full sized loaf, about an hour. The trick it to check the oven as it gets close to being time, so that the bread is not too brown.

(I made muffins, because it’s easier for me to count portions this way. I ended up with 21 muffins. I also got mine a little brown, oops.)

Spaghetti Squash

(Tonight we tried Spaghetti Squash for the first time. My parents are visiting and everyone LOVED this. Kaeleb and I aren’t sold, but we’ll try it again. I took the advice of someone who told me to buy 2 large spaghetti squash and I ended up with 8 pounds, which was WAY too much. I’ll try this again, for sure. The best thing is that it’s really good for you!)

4 tbsp butter

3 cloves of garlic

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 onion

1 tsp basil leaves

1 tsp oregano

Tomatoes (canned one 28 oz and one 14 oz)

1 4lb Spaghetti Squash

Add water to baking pan, slice squash, place flesh side down and bake for 45 – 1 hour on 350. Allow to cool. Heat butter on medium heat. Add garlic, peppers and onions. Sauté 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, bring to boil. Add basil and oregano; simmer on low for 45 minutes. Use a fork to shred squash into “noodles”. Brown beef. Add beef and sauce to squash and mix. Transfer to baking dish, top with cheese. Bake until warm.   

Santa Fe Chicken Casserole

(We had a recipe created by Kraft. My parents are up visiting and this was well liked by all here and easy to create. I forgot to take a photo so I just pulled one from the internet. P.S. This ONLY cost 7 WW points!!)

2 chicken breast, cooked and shredded

1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained

2 green onions (scallions) sliced

1 tub (10 oz) Philadelphia Santa Fe Blend Cooking Crème

3 tortillas (6 inch)

1 cup Mexican Shredded Cheese

Heat oven to 375. Combine first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Add ¾ cup cooking crème; mix lightly. Spoon 1/3 chicken mixture into baking dish; top with shredded cheese and 1 tortilla. Layer ½ the remaining mixture and shredded cheese. Cover with 2^nd tortilla, remaining chicken mixture, cheese and last tortilla. Top with remaining cooking crème and shredded cheese; cover. Bake 20 minutes or until heated. Uncover, bake 5 mins until cheese is brown.

Black Beans and Rice

(Dinner tonight was excellent. This is an older recipe that I decided to post, since it’s so delicious and easy peasy! My BFF Carla made this for me the 1^st time and we love it! Hopefully you will too.)

2 lbs ground beef (80/20)

2 cans of black beans

Dried minced onion or fresh onion

Fresh Tomatoes, diced  

Hot Sauce

Whole Grain Rice (Cooked as directed)

Brown hamburger  (I add minced onions to mine for flavor and ONLY because the kids won’t eat fresh onions.) Drain. Add beans, do not drain. Continue to cook until heated. Top rice with beans, cheese, hot sauce and diced tomatoes and fresh diced onions. (I love it with onions, they give it a crunch.)   

Chicken-Penne Florentine Bake

(I found this recipe on the Kraft site and made it tonight. Kevin LOVED it. He’s a pasta lover. He says we will be making this again…soon.  It was very easy to make and was different, so that’s a plus. P.S. I’m not going to make a habit of posting the WW points (unless someone really wants me to), but I have them for all the recipes I’ve posted thus far, so if you’re interested, just let me know.)

1 16 oz box of Whole Wheat Penne

2 8 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces

2 Tbsp flour

Half a bottle of Ken’s Lite Sun Dried Tomato Dressing

1 3 oz can mushrooms

Half a can (14.5 oz) chicken broth

4 oz Cream Cheese (1/3 Less Fat)

Half a package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained

1 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Approximately 8 Tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese (sprinkled on)

Heat oven to 375. Cook pasta as directed on package. Toss chicken pieces in a baggie with flour to coat. Heat dressing in large skillet on medium heat. Add chicken and mushrooms; cook for 5 minutes or until browned. Add broth and cream cheese; cook until cheese is melted, stirring frequently. Stir in spinach, remove from heat. Drain pasta. Add chicken mixture; mix lightly. Spoon half into a casserole; top with grated parmesan and half of the mozzarella. Repeat. Top with cheese. Bake 20 minutes.

Skirt Steak with Mushroom Gravy

(I got this recipe from an online email I receive daily from MommySavers.com. It was really good and fairly easy. What I really like is that I can use a tool on the Weight Watchers site to build my recipes and get a points number. AWESOME! Also I had a hard time finding “skirt steak”, so I just bought really thin steaks. I’m not sure what the weight was, but there were 8 thin steaks in total. We like to have leftovers for lunch.)

Skirt Steak

1 cup flour

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

2 onions, diced

2 Tsp. refrigerated minced garlic (I love this stuff and use it anytime a recipe calls for garlic cloves.)

2 packages of fresh mushrooms from the produce section (2 – 8oz containers)

4 Tbsp. all purpose flour

1 32oz beef broth

Pour about 1 cup of flour on a plate. Salt and pepper steaks and dredge in flour, on both sides. Heat oil on medium; sauté steak for 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and set aside. Add onions, garlic and mushrooms and sauté until translucent. Add 4 Tbsp of all purpose flour to the mixture, stir well. Add beef broth and bring to a boil. Place the steaks back into the pan and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes.  

This made 8 servings. Keep in mind that the steaks are thin, so I doubled the recipe in case anyone wanted seconds and so that we had leftovers. I served this with No Yolk egg noodles and Red Cabbage.

1 serving of the Skirt Steak with Gravy is 8 WW points.

Blueberry-Nectarine Crisp

(This recipe was featured on a show we watched called Worst Cooks in America. I had to make it, so we went searching until we found it. Thanks to Anne Burrell for posting it! It was AWESOME! I’ve never made anything with fresh fruit before and this rocked. The topping is MAGNIFICENT and I think would be amazing as a topping for any pie. This was super easy and will impress your guests!)

Filling:

1 pint blueberries

2 large ripe nectarines, pitted and cut into slices

½ lemon, zested and juiced

2 tbsp. cornstarch

¼ cup tightly packed brown sugar

2 tbsp. sugar

½ tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Topping:

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

½ cup old fashioned oats

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup sugar

1 ¼ stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

½ cup sliced almonds

Pinch of salt

1 to 2 tbsp cold water

Preheat oven to 350.

For the filling: Toss the blueberries and nectarines in a large bowl with the lemon zest and juice.  Add remaining ingredients and stir. Divide the filling into ramekins.

For the topping: Combine all ingredients in a food processor, except the water. Pulse until combined. Add the water, 1 tbsp at a time, until the mixture is clumpy, but crumbly.

Top each ramekin with the topping. Loosely sprinkle the topping. Do not pack it down. The idea is to look very crumbly.

Place the ramekins on a sheet tray and bake until the filling is hot and bubbly and the topping is brown and crispy, 20 to 25 minutes.

Top with vanilla ice cream. Serve the crisps warm.

Colorful Zucchini Spears

(Thanks to my friend Rachel, I found this recipe in her Taste of Home Cookbook. You can also find TOH online. Now, I will tell you that I altered this recipe to make more and really over did it. The recipe originally is for 2 servings. I decided to go bigger for my family and went too big. So I’m going to post a recipe for a family a four and the one I’ll use from now own.)

3 bacon strips, cut into 1 inch pieces

3 medium zucchini

½ tsp salt

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp pepper

2 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 medium onion, sliced

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cook bacon over medium heat until cooked, but not crisp. Allow to drain on a paper towel. Cut zucchini in half widthwise; cut halves lengthwise into quarters. Place in a sprayed baking dish. Combine the salt, oregano, garlic and pepper in a small bowl. Mix well. Sprinkle half over the zucchini. Top with tomato, onion, bacon and remaining seasonings. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese; bake 5 – 10 minutes longer or until zucchini is tender.  

Monterey Chicken

(Thanks to Jessica for this recipe. It was easy and tasted fantastic. I probably wouldn’t compare this to Chili’s, because I can NEVER make anything taste like a restaurants, but this is certainly a keeper! I served this with baked potatoes and Zucchini Spears (see recipe) Also I forgot the chives, but I plan on trying it with them next time.)

Boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 tsp. BBQ Sauce, per piece of chicken

2 slices of cooked bacon, per piece of chicken  (I used apple wood)

Mixture of Monterey Jack and Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Olive oil or Cooking Spray

Garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper

Chopped tomatoes and chives

Add a thin layer of olive oil or spray bottom of baking dish. Add garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper to both sides of chicken, place in dish. Top with BBQ sauce and bacon.  Cook on 350 for approximately 30 to 45 minutes.  Top with cheese, allow to melt in oven. Sprinkle with diced cold tomatoes and chives.