Chicken Roast!

I apologize that there are no pictures for this, but it came out so fantastic, I just had to share the recipe with you! We had a friend visiting, and I was in the middle of a long work day. I'd stopped to call my mom, and she mentioned making a stew, which gave me an idea.

Preheat the oven to 350. Ah, the magic 350 that cooks many things just perfectly.

Put a few pieces of chicken in a baking dish (according to how many people you're feeding, and you can decide if it's breasts, thighs, drumsticks). This is going to be like a pot roast, so make sure the dish will leave you plenty of room for veggies. In my case, I did 4 thighs in a 4-qt Pyrex baking dish.

Chop up as many potatoes as there are pieces of chicken (preferably red) into quarters (or rather, however you can best get big bites like a stew or pot roast). Toss them around the chicken. Do the same with some white onion, though you don't need much (about 1/2 a cup will make enough for the whole pan), and about half of a green bell pepper. Slice a large clove of garlic and decorate the chicken with the "chips".

Douse the lot in about a up of chicken broth. Tear up fresh rosemary and sprinkle all over the place. You'll use about 3 tablespoons of it for 4 pieces of chicken. If you only have dried rosemary that's okay too, but the fresh rosemary is so aromatic. Sprinkle about 1 tbsp pepper and a tiny pinch of coriander on top of everything.

Cover it with foil, put it in the oven, and I dare you to try and focus on anything else for the next 40 minutes because it smells amazing as soon as it starts warming! Pull the foil off at 40 minutes, and to the frustration of hungry people that can smell it, give the chicken about another 10-15, until it starts browning on top. You probably won't need that step if you're using thin breasts.

Pull out and serve piping hot. Don't be afraid of the garlic slices, they're incredibly tasty!

...I wanted to get a picture at least of the finished product, but our tummies would wait no longer! I'll make it again soon and add pictures to this.

371 calories
11.7g fat
44.9g carbs
21.5g protein

Weight Watchers value: 8 (either system, and assuming a chicken thigh. It'll change based on what chicken you use)

Shrimp Alfredo

I've been so scared to make my own alfredo. I was inspired by my fantastic mother in law, because I've never had an alfredo like hers. It's amazing.

Anyway, I can't put it off any longer. I'm only cooking for me, so I'm making some shrimp alfredo! You don't have to do shrimp. Chicken or steak would surely work just fine.

Now, recipe is a funny word. There's not really one for me to work off of. My mother in law doesn't have her recipe, but gave me some concepts to work with. We'll see how this goes!

First, boil the noodles and get that part out of the way. Of course, since these are fettucine noodles, they stick together. You can eliminate most, if not all, with olive oil and diligence.

While those are going, go ahead and cook your shrimp in advance. I'm sprinkling them with pepper and garlic.

Drain the noodles when they're al dente, and give them a toss to separate any still stuck.

Now for the fun part! You need about a cup of butter (which is 2 sticks-ish),

and a pint of heavy cream. I was incredibly delighted to find that my local co-op has organic heavy cream! Put them together in the pan you did the shrimp/chicken/steak in to keep those flavors, and put the pan on low until the butter's melted.

You'll also want to toss the noodles once in a while. I'm finding that they try to re-stick together.

Once it's all melted, sprinkle in a bit of spices. The basic salt, pepper, and some garlic powder. This is to taste, I did a teaspoon of salt, about a tablespoon of pepper, and about a tablespoon of garlic powder.

Then the cheese begins! I got this wonderful jar of romano-parmesan blend while I was at the store for some basics. You can get romano and parmesan however you want, but it comes out to about 6 oz. combined. Sprinkle the cheese in slowly as you stir, and turn the stove up to medium.

As soon as all of the cheese has melted in, it's time to pour it into the noodles! I also added in a bit more pepper and some Italian Seasoning here at the last minute.

After stirring it up a bit, add some additional parmesan. I got this from the co-op, but any parmesan would do, even the dried stuff if you want. It's about 2 average handfuls that you add in at this point, and then stir it in. This gives it a different texture than just slimy creamy noodles. Some people like that, but I was sold on the different texture when my mother in law made it for us.

Then it's time to serve up!

For the dreaded health facts....
If you're eating alfredo, I'd hope you understand that it's not "low" anything. It's an indulgence, and we all deserve a guiltless indulgence from time to time.
But if you must, we'll assume a cup of noodles and 1/4 cup of sauce, and assuming shrimp.
750 calories, 69g fat, 21.9 carbs, 12.2g protein.
WW Points Plus: 21

So alfredo's not a diet food. Who knew?! At least you can keep track, and that's best.
It's worth it. So yummy. Of course, I ate my one bowl (that I shared with my husband) and the rest got put away. It's going to take me days to go through all of that! I hope you have more people to share it with than I do!

Semi-Homemade Marinara

I love making any kind of pasta with marinara. I'd make it every day if my husband wouldn't gag. He only wants spaghetti once every few weeks, at best. However, if I wait and only do it once a month or so, he gets excited. He has a fold-out chair in the kitchen watching me make this. Of course, if you're watching your waistline, you should wait until a day where you've otherwise consumed fewer calories/points, 'cause it's not the lightest meal you'll ever eat.

First, get a couple of tomatoes. I like the beefsteak tomatoes you can get at the store in a 3-pack, like this. They're really sweet, and big enough to be used for large quantities of food.

Chop them up and throw them in a pan. Tear up some dill and rosemary to cook in with the tomatoes. You'll want to start it out on low and work it up to medium. This takes a while, so be prepared. To blow some time, you could do what I do and chop up the third tomato, put it in a bowl with a little sugar, and get a spoon! It's one of my favorite breakfasts.

Eventually, the tomatoes start falling apart a bit and giving you a glossy mush.

Looks less than tasty, right?! We all know that's going to be a yummy sauce though, so we'll deal with it. Go ahead and brown some ground beef and chop and add any other veggies you'd like in with the beef. We've been very veggie-heavy, so I'm giving the boys a day off from it. Just the 'maters.

Once they've simmered a bit and are this pile of mush, it's time to throw in a can of tomato sauce. The cheap stuff works just fine, just make sure it's not salted.

Throw in some spices. I'd usually be chopping garlic right now, but I forgot that I'd used my entire bulb on the garlic beef. *Sigh* So I have to use garlic powder. Here's the rest of my spice army.

You want about a tablespoon of garlic (or one minced clove), a tsp of each tarragon and cilantro, and about 1/2 a tsp of cumin and coriander seed. For pepper, use what you like. We like pepper here, and we use about a tablespoon.

Add the meat. Now, you're off the hook for a while while this turns into a wonderful spaghetti sauce. Keep it between low and medium.

Once it's smelling and looking attractive to you, turn it way low and cover it, and start a pot of water boiling.

Add noodles of your choosing. We're doing penne tonight, because I love the Barilla penne for this dish.

 Add about a tablespoon of a good extra virgin olive oil. The Star Special Reserve is my favorite, because I like the Omega 3 DHA. It's not too expensive, and the flavor is fantastic. Stir it in gently so that the noodles get a little coating and don't stick together.

Give your sauce a stir and make sure it's not scalding. You can also do like my husband does with the noodles and add some various spices to them, but I don't like over-spiced food, so I keep it more natural.

Once the noodles are boiled however you like, drain them and serve up!

...And if you have kids, get good pictures of spaghetti faces. :)

I love pasta face - even though if it weren't for feeding him, there'd be cabernet in that sauce.

Now, the health facts. 

Assuming a 1/2 cup serving of pasta and 1/4th of the sauce, so we're probably over-shooting, just to be safe...

472 calories, 23.9 grams of fat, 28.8 carbs, and 33.6 grams of protein. 

WW PP: 12

I hope you like it, and let me know how it goes!

Italian Garlic Beef

Oh goodness, how exciting to finally be starting this blog!

One of my hobbies is medieval reenactment. I love the food from the era. It's so fresh and simple. There are so many flavors, and they come without loads of spices.

The epitome of this simple, natural flavor is in the recipe I'm making tonight, and I can't wait for you to enjoy it. My husband is fighting in a big tournament tomorrow, one where the best of the best goes up against everyone hoping to take his title, and he isn't allowed to win. The thing is, the one who currently holds the title gets a huge advantage, so he basically gets to choose who wins. Rumors have been going around and he's been hinting that it'll be my husband. Though this is merely a game to most, I'm extremely excited.

So, on to the food!

I offered to cook for the group and wanted to choose something that would be easy to make a LOT of, since it needs to feed 8-10 big fighters. I'm splitting it into two batches, so you'll only see the first.

For this dish, you need a lot of beef. The original 15th century Italian recipe calls for tenderloin, which does work out pretty good, but I usually use Eye of Round steaks. You can get a lot of it pretty inexpensively at just about any grocer. They come in big packages with 2 lbs, like this:

If they don't come in that large of packages, just get 2 lbs worth of eye of round steaks or any other simple and inexpensive steak you want. We've also tried this with pork and chicken, and while they were good, it wasn't quite the same. Now, you can trim the fat off if you like. I usually remove at least the bigger chunks.

You'll also need some sherry. You can get cooking sherry at the grocery store for about $2-3. While I usually prefer to keep a proper bottle for each type of wine I use, I use so much sherry that it would be ridiculous. This stuff works out fine.

You'll also need about a tablespoon of butter, a bulb of garlic, and a pinch of salt.

First, you need to peel the cloves of garlic. Leave them whole. You do want to do this before you get your meat cut so that the garlic has time to release its flavor.

Chop the beef into bite-size pieces, about an inch wide and across. It will take a little longer to cook, which is good, and I'll get to why later... You don't have to worry about the shape. This meat can be weird to cut and there's no need to waste - unless you're showing off :)

What a pile of meat!

Now, you may want to take this opportunity to tie your hair back if you have enough to, go to the bathroom, and prepare a glass of wine or a fresh juice for your cooking, because you won't get any more downtime until it's done.

When you're ready, melt butter in the pan with the garlic.

Once the butter's melted, turn the pan down to medium, and throw in the meat!

While this is cooking, if you want something to eat it with, our favorite thing to do is to slice up bell peppers and fry them with a little olive oil while this is going. I'd also like to suggest a french bread or biscuits - something to sop up all the juices you'll have! This is a medieval dish, after all. Since I'm preparing this for a lunch tomorrow, I'm not doing that now, but they're fantastic complements.

Now to why you want the meat to take a while to cook... The garlic cloves. If you give these time to absorb all the juices and flavors of the meat, they're wonderful to eat by themselves, whole. I never would have considered it before this recipe, but they turn out so soft and all of the intensity that makes them unpalatable is cooked right out. It's one of my favorite things to eat now!

You want to cook the meat until it's actually frying and starting to get brown markings, when most of the liquid has boiled down. You may see a lot of liquid when it looks like the meat is done, but don't panic! All that liquid just has to boil out more, so it condenses into the meat and garlic.

That steam looks delicious! But do you see how much liquid is still there? That's okay.

Once you've got the liquid condensed, it'll look almost thick and syrupy, like this horribly blurry representation.

That's when it's finally done!

Pull the meat off, sprinkle it with salt right away, and deglaze the pan with some sherry. If you don't know, deglaze just means to pull up all of the drippings and bits of meat still remaining. You can use any liquid to deglaze, but this recipe calls for sherry!

See that box in the corner of the shot? That's because we're still unpacking. It's hard to do when we don't have our garage key! I'll stop yelling at my new landlord in my head now... ooh, and see that splatter on the stove? Every time I make this dish, a piece of meat inevitably escapes. It's terrible. That's why the cat hangs out and "helps me cook".

Here's your deglaze...

Once that's stirred up well, pour it over the meat in almost gluttonous joy.

Then get your fork and enjoy!

Now, for the nutritional facts for those maintaining lovely figures (and don't try to say it's not, you're beautiful!)

Assuming you eat a quarter lb of the beef with a clove of garlic to yourself, it's 258 calories total. 12.8 grams of fat, 1g carbs, 32.1 grams of protein.

If you add about half a cup of bell peppers, that changes to 351 calories, 21.7 grams of fat, 5.6 grams of carbs, and 32.8 grams of protein. 

For those on Weight Watchers, the Points Plus value is 6.

Well, I sure hope you like it, and I hope you come back for more! Feel free to leave me a 'morsel' to let me know how it went for you!