So here is our menu.  I have 1 recipe posted and will post the others as I make the recipe.

Monday – Lunch: ham & cheese sandwich, grapes, yogurt, banana
Dinner: BBQ Shrimp and Pineapple, salad

Tuesday:Lunch: ham & cheese sandwich, grapes, yogurt, banana
Dinner: Pork tenderloin, salad, peas or corn

Wednesday: Lunch: ham & cheese sandwich, grapes, yogurt, banana
Dinner: Going out to Happy Hour. Will try to eat slow cooker Pork Chops before we go.

Thursday: Lunch: ham & cheese sandwich, grapes, yogurt, banana
Dinner: Slow cooker Pork Chops, salad

Friday: Lunch: ham & cheese sandwich, grapes, yogurt, banana or Lean Cuisine
Dinner: Pork chops & salad or Pizza & salad

Saturday: Lunch: open
Dinner: LSU vs. Florida at Big Woodrows here in Houston. Will be having some Boudin balls and Fried Alligator

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.

First goal: Go to the gym twice this week by myself.  I hate going to the gym and I hate even more going to the gym without Mike.  It is just lonely and boring.  I stepped on the scale this morning and didn’t like what I saw so I think I need to get over this attitude.

Second goal:  Eat healthy meals this week, do not give in to junk food at work and unplanned happy hours.  Do not create happy hours at home with the Magic Bullet (yup I have the As Seen on TV product) even though it creates great margaritas.  Sounds like a reasonable goal.

My menu for this week to help accomplish goal #2:

Monday – Lunch: shrimp alfredo lean cuisine, fresh fruit, yogurt,

Dinner: grilled chicken, asparagus, fresh pineapple

Tuesday – Lunch: tortilla crusted fish lean cuisine, fresh pineapple, yogurt

Dinner:  crawfish etouffee, asparagus, small salad

Wednesday – Lunch: jambalaya, fresh fruit, yogurt

Dinner: grilled chicken, small salad

Thursday: lunch: Chicken parmigiana lean pocket, fresh fruit, yogurt

Dinner: Grilled Chicken salad

Friday: lunch: Chicken parmigiana lean pocket, fresh fruit, yogurt

Dinner: Homemade pizza

Saturday: lunch: beef taquitos

Dinner: BBQ shrimp and pineapple skewers

Recipes and photos to follow. For more Menu Planning Monday visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

So this is my first week with Freezer Food Friday.  The purpose of this meme is to share a meal that you can make ahead and freeze to eat later.  So this week, my recipe is for Red Beans and Rice.  It is an old southern favorite and one that freezes very well.

Red Beans and Rice

• 3 cans of Green Giant Red Beans, drained**
• 1 small onion, diced*
• Smoked sausage, diced (use up to 1 pound)
• Celery, diced*
• garlic, minced (to taste)
• Cajun seasoning (to taste)
• Brown Rice

Saute the onion, celery, and garlic in olive oil.  Remove.  Brown the sausage in the same pan.  Drain sausage on paper towel (pat to remove excess oil & grease).  Put beans in a stock pot and then stir in the sausage, onion, celery, and garlic.  Add 2 cans of water to pot and let cook for 30 minutes.  Add cajun seasoning for flavor.  Serve over brown rice.

I tend to do 1/4 cup rice, 1/2 cup bean mixture.  You can serve with cornbread or muffins.  The Vitatop Corn muffins work well and they are only 1 WW point.

This recipe will make 6-8 servings depending on how you serve the rice/bean ratio and the points will be around 5-6 per serving depending on rice/beans.

*frozen, diced onion and celery will do.  If you have a Kroger, look for the Recipe starters bag that has celery, onions, and green bell peppers already diced and use that.  It saves time and money.

**any brand will do but they should be red beans if you absolutely cannot find them you can use Kidney beans but there is a taste difference.

Meal planning is one of those tasks that I am terrible in doing.  I always have the grand idea to sit down and think about what to cook but then I head to the grocery store and it all falls apart because I didn’t plan right.  I tend to buy items but none of them go together and when I do have a recipe in mind I’ll forget an ingredient.

After not planning appropriately, the next downfall of mine is making enough meals to get from Monday through Thursday.  Typically that is just one recipe stretched out over 4 days with 2 people.  So by the time Friday hits, I’m tired of eating the same thing or we’ve run out and I don’t want to cook.  So I’m going to try the cook and freeze half method.  I think this will help with the budget as well as help with the weekend revolt I tend to have against the kitchen.  The revolution leads to eating out which blows the budget and packs on the pounds.

I’m excited to start this meme on Friday.  I am going to try and ensure most of my recipes are Weight Watcher Friendly as this is my healthy blog.    My first recipe will be for my favorite – Red Beans and Rice so come back and grab this freezer friendly, and heart healthy recipe!

Now that we are back from the wedding festivities, honeymoon, and work is slowing down, I want to try and start meal planning again. I read about it on other blogs and in my weekly Weight Watchers meetings as a great way to help keep grocery prices down and lose weight. With everything that has gone on lately, Mike and I need help with both of those things.

So as I sit here on a Sunday night and plan our weekly trip to the grocery store, I want to ask. Do you have any tips or tricks for meal planning? Does meal planning work for you? Have you found any other benefits from planning your meals in advance? How far in advance do you plan?

With needing to shed a few pounds as well as being tired of the same old foods day in and day out, I have been trying out a few new recipes.  I’ve tested out homemade grilled fish tacos (A++), salsa fish, and now Lemony-Asparagus Fish.  The last recipe is one I received in a HungryGirl email last week and it looked quick and easy.  Asparagus was on sale so I figured that would seal the deal and I would try it out.  So come Sunday night, I pulled all of the ingredients out and fired up the oven.  Talk about tasty food!  Here is the recipe courtsey of HungryGirl.com.  An actual photo will come later tonight when I fire up the camera.

Lemony-Asparagus Fish
Ingredients
1 package frozen Tilapia filets or other white fish (normally 4 to a pack)
1 bunch of Asparagus trimmed of tougher end, depending on length possibly cut in half
1 lemon, sliced
1 tsp. whipped butter (spray/melted butter worked fine)
1/2 tsp. chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. crushed garlic (garlic powder was ok)
1/8 tsp. salt

Cooking Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, mix together butter, parsley, garlic, and salt to form a thick paste. Set aside.
3. Lay a large piece of heavy-duty foil in front of you. Line up the stalks side by side (like a raft) in the center of the foil. Lay the fish on top of the asparagus.
4. Spread butter mixture evenly over the fish, and top with lemon slices (2 slices per fish). Fold and seal the top and bottom edges of the foil, and then the side edges, to create a well-sealed packet.
5. Place packet on a baking sheet, and cook in the oven for about 15 minutes, until asparagus is tender and fish is cooked through.

Allow packet to cool for a minute then serve 1 raft with 1 fish and 2 lemon slices. The lemon slices will be nice and tender and will nicely “juice” your fish.

PER SERVING: 205 calories, 4g fat, 412mg sodium, 6g carbs, 2.75g fiber, 3g sugars, 35g protein. About 4 WW points per serving. Can’t beat that!

Easy Chicken

1. 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2. 1 packet of Italian Dressing Mix (found on salad dressing aisle)
3. 1 cup of warm water or chicken broth

Line the slow cooker/crockpot with disposable liner.  Put chicken on the bottom of the slow cooker.  I used a mallet (is that the right word?) and gently beat them until they flattened out a bit.  Next, sprinkle chicken with the Italian dressing mix.  Lastly, pour cup of water/chicken broth over chicken. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. The ideal crockpot size is 4 quart so that the crockpot is 2/3 the way full.  I have a 6 quart so I just added more water so the chicken wouldn’t dry out.  Adding the water diluted the Italian flavor but it kept the chicken moist so I can’t complain.  Next time I will just double the entire recipe.  The recipe makes 4 servings.

Overall, the meal was good.  I served it with a salad and corn.  You could probably serve it over brown rice as well.  I opted for cooking on 7 hours since I didn’t fill the crockpot 2/3 the way full and everything turned out fine.  As previously reported the Italian seasoning was diluted so next time I’ll just double everything and it should turn out fine.  I didn’t calculate Weight Watcher points but I would imagine it would be one point per ounce of chicken.