Rice, Ham and Broccoli Casserole

1 pkg (16 oz) frozen broccoli cuts, thawed and drained
3 cups cubed cooked ham
1 can (10 and 3/4 ounces) cream of mushroom soup
1 jar (8 oz) reduced fat cheez whiz
1 cup milk
1 cup uncooked instant brown rice
1 celery rib, chopped
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped

In slow cooker, combine the ham and broccoli. In a mixing bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients; stir. Pour the mixture over the ham and broccoli and stir it all together.

Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours, or until rice is tender.

About 4-5 servings.

I really liked this salad. It was quick and easy to put together and is a great use of left over Diet Coke Chicken. I didn’t have red onions or jicama so I had to do without. It wasn’t a huge issue but I did notice that they would have provided a nice crunch to the salad. We topped ours off with Ranch dressing – Full fat for Mike and Spritzer Ranch for me. Very tasty.

6 Weight Watcher Points

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients:
For Salad:
3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
3 ounces cooked boneless skinless lean chicken breast, chopped
1/2 medium cucumber, chopped
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup chopped jicama
1/4 cup chopped red onions
2 tbsp canned sweet corn kernels
2 tbsp canned black beans
Optional: 1 tbsp chopped cilantro

For dressing:
1/4 cup canned tomato sauce
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tsp brown sugar (not packed)
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Chopping it up:

1. Combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Coat chicken in sauce. Heat if desired.
2. Place all other ingredients in a bowl and toss until mixed.
3. Top salad with BBQ chicken and enjoy

To make things even easier, use the Diet Coke chicken and coat with 1/4 cup of bottled BBQ sauce.

Ingredients:
1 tray frozen Green Giant Just for One Broccoli and Cheese Sauce
3/4 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (egg Beaters)
3/4 cup frozen potatoes (O’Brien)
1 slice Canadian bacon, chopped
2 tbsp shredded, fat-free cheddar cheese

Making it into a meal:

1. Prepare Broccoli and Cheese sauce according to package directions. Set aside
2. Bring a large skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium heat. Add egg substitute and scramble for 2-3 minutes, until fully cooked. Place scrambled egg substitute into a microwave safe bowl and set aside.
3. Remove skillet from heat, re-spray with nonstick spray, and return to heat. Raise heat to medium-high and add potatoes. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thawed and lightly browned.
4. Add Canadian Bacon and cook until hot and a little crispy, about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add potato-bacon mix to the bowl with the egg scramble and then add broccoli and cheese and stir.
6. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of the bowl and microwave for 30 to 45 seconds.

5 Weight Watcher points per serving

So I am hoping to accomplish a few things with this menu planning thing. The first is I hope to cut my calories down by preplanning fun, new recipes and mixing them in with some tried and true favorites. Second, I am hoping Mike and I can cut our grocery shopping list down and save a little money here and there. Fingers crossed!

So if this works right, here is the July 2010 menu. I have added known Weight Watcher points where I could and plan to add points after I make something and can calculate the points. I have linked to recipes that I have posted in the Sunshine Rewards Forum or recipes I found there. Any other recipes are from the Hungry-Girl cookbooks and I’ll post them as I make them. Just yell at me if there is a recipe you want and I haven’t shared it in a timely manner or if you want to skip ahead.

July 2010 Menu Plan

Anywho, if you are looking for a new fish meal to spice things up around your house let me suggest the following:
Fish packet with Asparagus and Lemon
Whole wheat couscous with shrimp, fat free feta, and broccoli

All you need is foil, an aluminum baking sheet, a skillet and a sauce pan.
For the fish:
1 bag of tilapia or cod (any flaky white fish really)
1 lemon
1 teaspoon of garlic
1 teaspoon of parsley
2 tablespoons of butter
1 bunch asparagus

1. Line baking sheet with foil. Wash and trim asparagus. Line bottom of cookie sheet with asparagus.
2. Place fish on top of asparagus (frozen or thawed).
3. Mix butter, garlic, and parsley. Then rub into each fish piece.
4. Cut lemon into slices and put 1-2 slices on each fish.
5. Cover fish with foil forming a packet and cook 10-15 minutes.

For the couscous:
1.5 cups Water, 1 cup whole wheat couscous, 2 tablespoons garlic, 1 tablespoon oil. Bring water and oil to a boil. Remove from heat and add garlic and couscous. Let sit covered for 5 minutes. Add in as much broccoli as you like (defrost the frozen kind) and then add as much crumbled fat free feta as you like. Same with lemon juice.

Crawfish Casserole

1 tbsp light margarine
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb crawfish tails, rinsed
1 can 99% fat-free cream of XYZ soup
3 cups cooked rice
1.5 tbsp lemon juice
salt & pepper
dash red pepper
1 can chopped tomatoes and green peppers (aka Rotel)
1/2 cup shredded fat free cheddar cheese

In a large pan, coated with nonstick cooking spray, melt margarine. Add onions, green peppers, and garlic. Cook until tender. Stir in crawfish, soup, rice, lemon juice, seasonings, tomatoes and green chilies. Mix well. Turn mixture into a shallow 2-quart casserole dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and return to oven for an additional 5 minutes.

Makes 6 servings

As prepared: 281 calories, 136mg Cholesterol, 4.8 gms fat, 15.2% Calories from Fat

BBQ Pineapple Chicken Wraps! All I needed were 2 of my low carb wraps and some BBQ sauce to add to four ounces of chicken and a third cup of pineapple tidbits. The results were absolutely delicious and is something I’ll be eating tomorrow to finish up the pineapple and the chicken.  The best part was that everything was already sitting in my refrigerator and is pretty low in Weight Watcher points!

Monday ~ Beef Tips (from Tyson) and Brown Rice, Side Salad

Tuesday ~ Tuna Helper “Helped” ~ 2 cans tuna, 1 helper box, 1 can corn, 1 can peas.  Served with fruit

Wednesday ~ Left over buffet.

Thursday ~ Semi-homemade Pizza & Fruit

Friday & Saturday ~ Crawfish Etouffee & Veggies

Required Trips to the Grocery Store: 0! Yipee!

Recipes, Weight Watcher points, and photos to come.

So last weekend before running to HEB, I went through my Fix It and Forget It Lightly Cookbook and decided to give Barbecued Pork Chops a try. I’ve made pork chops before in the slow cooker and they have turned out fairly well so I figured why not. The ingredients were things I already had on hand so I just had to pick up the pork chops which were on sale last week.

Barbecued Pork Chops
4 loin pork chops, 3/4″ thick, trimmed of fat
1 cup ketchup
1 cup hot water
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika

1. Place pork chops in slow cooker.
2. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over chops.
3. Cover. Cook on high 5-6 hours.
4. Cut chops in half and serve.

Nutritional information: 180 calories, 7gms fat, 11gms carbohydrates, 20gms protein

4 Weight Watcher points per serving

My review: The recipe was super simple. I will say though that I was disappointed in the recipe but I think it was more “cook’s error” than anything with the recipe itself. The chops I bought at the store were bone-in and had quite a bit of fat still on them. As I was making this before running off to work, I focused on cutting out the major chunks of fat on the exterior of the chop but didn’t make it to the inside of the chop. Therefore, there was a ton of fat floating around in the pot and all of my chops cooked into a giant meaty clump. It wasn’t very appetizing looking so I decided against posting a photo. Overall, I would give this recipe a rating of 3 out of 5 stars. I would make it again but I would use different chops and possibly a little more sauce to prevent the fat and cooked together issues I experienced.

I found a great recipe to try out -> BBQ Shrimp and Pineapple Skewers.  The recipe comes from Razzle Dazzle Recipes.  The recipe did not call for a lot of ingredients and seemed easy enough to make at home so I decided to grab all of the ingredients today at the grocery store and give it a whirl.  What I found was that it really was a great and tasty recipe but the skewer part didn’t work out too well as the end of my skewers are thick and combining that with the thick chunks of pineapple raised the shrimp off the grill plate and they were not cooking.  Once I removed the skewers from the process everything went well.

We had this with my garlic and lime asparagus (recipe to follow) which went very well with the pineapple. I give this recipe two thumbs up and will make it again. I failed to point out the recipe for Weight Watchers but I would think that this would be no more than 5 WW points and the asparagus is about 2 or 3 WW points at the most. I’ll try to remember to do this next time.

Pineapple Barbecued Shrimp Skewers

1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup pineapple juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh cilantro leaves
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 – ripe pineapple, peeled, cored and sliced into 2-inch chunks
4 – metal or bamboo (soaked in water) skewers

In a mixing bowl, combine the barbecue sauce, pineapple juice, lime juice and cilantro. Pour half of the pineapple-barbecue sauce mixture into a resealable bag, add the shrimp and marinate for 15 to 30 minutes. (Reserve the remaining sauce mixture for basting and serving.)

Preheat the grill to medium-high.

Remove the shrimp from the marinade, discarding the leftover marinade. Skewer the shrimp and pineapple onto the skewers. Grill the skewers on both sides until the shrimp are just cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. While the skewers are cooking, brush them with some of the reserved sauce.

Serve the skewers with the extra pineapple-barbecue sauce for dipping.