my first spanakopita

I'm always looking to try a new recipe around the holidays or when I'll have family over for a big meal. This year I decided I wanted to try making spanakopita, which is Greek spinach pie.  I likely wouldn't have ever attempted making this; however, a coworker recently made it for a potluck we had at work before Christmas.   The filo pastry was flaky and buttery, the filling was rich, and overall it was just SO DELICIOUS!!!

I started searching for recipes since my coworker was on vacation and I couldn't ask for hers. (Actually, it's her grandmother's recipe.) I wanted THE authentic Greek recipe--I often agonize over this aspect when searching out a recipe and it drives me nuts--however, I quickly realized that there are so many recipes and they all purport to be "traditional" or "authentic." But like any other recipe, there are always variations and it all depends on how YOU make it. That's what makes it traditional or authentic to YOU and your family. I noticed that the difference the various recipes was the herb mix. Some used parsley only, others were a mix of parsley and dill, and others had parsley and mint. Measurements were all over the place. I found a few that called for a "bunch" of parsley and/or dill (that is A LOT of dill!), while others called for 1/2 a cup of parsley and 2 tablespoons of dill or mint. It was really frustrating to figure out which one I should use in order to get similar results to the one my coworker made. (I later found out that she used parsley only, though her mom and grandmother use parsley and fresh mint.)

I decided on this one since it seemed pretty easy, plus I didn't have to buy a bunch of special ingredients. Overall it was pretty easy, but I have to say that working with filo dough is tedious and tricky, and you have to work quickly otherwise the dough dries out before it can even make it to the pan. I used tips I found during my recipe search:  lay the dough out on a cookie sheet, cover it with a damp paper towel, cover that with plastic wrap, and work quickly!  This worked pretty well. My only issue was pulling the first piece of dough off the pile. It didn't want to come apart and it tore easily; however, it was going on the bottom of the pan so it didn't matter what it looked like. I made it through the next nine layers easily (there are 10 on the bottom, then the filling, and then another 10 layers of dough), brushing on lots of melted butter as I went along. The other trouble spot was separating the second to last piece from the last piece, and I wasn't able to save that one. Filo dough is paper-thin, though, and doesn't puff up, so I didn't notice that the finished baked product had 19 layers of dough rather than 20. Yes, spanakopita has 20 layers of filo dough!

I made the filling before pulling the dough out of the fridge. This ensures that the dough is fresh and everything is ready to go once you open the package. As I said, it dries out FAST, so you need to have everything ready before assembly. After I finished the painstaking work of layering the dough sheets, then the filling, then the remaining dough sheets, I cut it into 15 large pieces--this makes it much easier to portion out after baking.  I then baked it for about an hour and voila!

I waited until it cooled down a bit before trying it. OMG it was awesome! Rich, buttery and cheesy. My only complaint, which really isn't a complaint, is that the filling was very chunky. The one my coworker made had a very fine filling--I couldn't even tell there was feta cheese in it since it was chopped and blended so well. If I make this again, I will make sure to crumble up the feta more and put the spinach through a food processor. Even though the spinach was pre-chopped, it was a little stringy. I wish I'd thought about the food processor when I mixed everything and saw it was chunky.

It's safe to say I blew through this whole pan in a matter of days, all by myself; I basically ate it for every meal for three to four days. I just popped it into the toaster oven at 400 F for about 12 minutes.I should add that I ended up NOT making this for the family's annual "Christmas in January." The crappy weather that weekend prevented half the family from travelling. It worked out, though--more for me!! (Sorry, guys!)

Here's the finished product. Look at all that yummy feta and cottage cheese!  And here's the recipe:  Spanakopita. One change I made is to bake it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, rather than baking it in a casserole dish or baking pan. The filling really doesn't ooze out since feta doesn't melt all that much, and I found this method worked well for me.

bbq chicken cauliflower casserole

When I recently went through my big freezer, I realized I have a lot of riced cauliflower in there. A LOT. I have six bags of plain riced cauliflower, four bags of riced cauliflower stuffing, and two bags of rice cauliflower stir fry--all from Trader Joe's. I can't even remember why I originally bought it.  So, the question became:  WTF am I going to with with all this damn cauliflower?

I got an email from The Kitchn recently, which contained a group of five-ingredient casseroles. As I looked through I noticed one, BBQ Chicken Casserole, that called for a bag of plain riced cauliflower. Also:  shredded chicken breast, onion, eggs, salt, pepper and BBQ sauce. Since I had two rotisserie chicken breasts in the freezer from a few weeks ago, I figured this would be a good recipe.

The verdict?  This was so easy and came out great. How did it taste? Like BBQ chicken. You can't taste the cauliflower at all.  Even my husband, who doesn't eat cauliflower, liked it. I made a couple modifications to it: I used store-bought BBQ sauce and used two cups rather than two and a half, used a 12 oz bag of riced cauliflower rather that 16 oz (that's what I had on-hand and didn't want to open another bag), and added about two cups of shredded Mexican cheese to it.

Assuming you're a weight loss surgery post-op and divide the casserole into 12 servings, one serving is about 240 calories, 9g fat, 26g carbs, and 15g protein. If you want to leave the cheese off, which is how the recipe was written, you'll save yourself 75 calories per serving.

bulgarian mish mash--my version

Tis the season for fresh garden tomatoes! 

I used to be a tomato-hater, but in recent years I've begun to like them. So much so that I now grow them in my garden every year. I've got bunch growing now and a whole bunch that are ready to be used. What to do with all these tomatoes?

It used to be that I wouldn't eat tomatoes except in pasta sauce, salsa, and ketchup. I gradually started to enjoy them in their sundried form. Then eventually I would be OK with chopped tomatoes in a taco, although there better not be any seeds or tomato slime! I then moved up to tomatoes cooked on a pizza. One day I was brave enough to try caprese salad. I still hated sliced raw tomatoes; however, the addition of mozzarella cheese made it OK. I then decided I could deal with grape tomatoes, as long as they were with the mozzarella cheese. To this day, though, I still can't bring myself to eat a sliced raw tomato.

I've settled on a few ways to use up the tomatoes. The easiest is to make fresh salsa. It's so much better than the stuff in the jar! I just throw all the ingredients in the food processor, pulse it until it's the consistency I want, and it's done. I use my own tomatoes and jalapenos to make it. I used my own cilantro this year; however, my cilantro isn't doing well so it was kind of a one shot deal. I don't think I'll grow it again.

Another thing I make is caprese salad using the cherry and grape tomatoes I grow. I'm finding that I much prefer grape tomatoes, so I'm thinking of eliminated cherry next year and just growing grape.

And then there's this delicious dish: Bulgarian mish mash. A coworker told me how to make this; however, I've discovered that there are many variations for this and everyone makes it a little different. The base doesn't change, though: tomatoes, peppers, eggs and cheese. I made this last year, but never posted about it, so I figured I would this time around because it's so delicious and easy. I like to eat it with some crusty bread or maybe some crackers. It can be eaten anytime.

This is the base recipe I used, very loosely I might add: Bulgarian Vegetarian Mish Mash

Here's how I actually made mine (this makes about 8 one-cup servings):

2 TB olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped (optional; remove the seeds)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4 oz. roasted red peppers (jar), chopped
8 tomatoes, chopped (you can peel them if you want to, but don't have to)

Fresh parsley
Fresh basil
Fresh oregano
Dash of crushed red pepper flakes, optional
Pepper
4 eggs
8 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
Salt, only if needed (be very careful how much salt you use since the feta cheese is very salty)

In a pot on medium heat, sauté onions in the olive oil until they start to soften. Reduce heat to low and add green peppers, red peppers, jalapenos (if using) and garlic. Continue sautéing for about 15 minutes or until soft.

Add the tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and herbs. Cover and cook until the tomatoes break down and it looks like a stew. 

Add the eggs and stir until they dissolve into the tomato mixture. You will see pieces of egg white. This is normal. If you prefer, you can beat the eggs together before adding into the tomatoes. Feel free to add more or less to make it thinner or thicker.

Remove from the heat and add the cheese, pepper, red pepper flakes (if using) and salt, if needed.

Notes: 

1. I used fresh herbs, because I have them in my garden. I used very roughly about 2 TB of each, but add whatever you like, to taste. Used dried herbs if that's what you have; however, if using dried herbs, make sure you reduce the amount you use since the flavor is much stronger than fresh herbs.
2. You can use any hard cheese you like, but I find that feta gives it a lot more flavor. Just make sure you use a cheese that doesn't melt, otherwise it all just disappears into the mix.  The standard cheese is a Bulgarian cheese called "sirene", but I don't know if that's something readily available.
3. You can cook this to whatever consistency you like. I prefer it more like a stew, whereas my coworker likes it more chunky.

 

salmon with lemon and fresh dill

I've been wanting to try my hand at cooking salmon for several years, but never quite gathered enough courage (or motivation, really) to do it. Until recently.

I planted a raised-bed garden this year, which is entirely herbs. (The other bed is tomatoes and green beans.) I decided I would plant dill this year, since it's something I like, but wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to buy fresh at the store. Last year I was able to buy it from a little farm market my neighbor runs out of his garage, which was really convenient. I figured it would be even more convenient if I grew it myself. Great idea, but I neglected to look to see how tall this plant grows--it's about 5 1/2 feet tall right now! Not only that, but it grew VERY quickly.  So, that means I have A LOT of dill. And a little dill goes a very long way, which means I need to find a way to use this stuff.  I also have a parsley plant I wanted to start using.

See my pretty tomatoes and beans!? Also a jalapeno, which I'm growing in a pot this year.

One day I got brave and bought a package of individually frozen salmon fillets. (I didn't want to shell out a bunch of money on fresh and then ruin it.) They were the perfect size:  4 ounces cooked.  I also grabbed some lemons, since I know that lemon, dill and parsley go well together.

All I needed now was a (easy) recipe.  I found many that called for making a cream sauce. I wouldn't mind that, as it looked pretty easy, but I didn't want to have to buy more ingredients, like heavy cream.  I found one that called for lemon slices, fresh dill and parsley, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Basically, you just put it all on the fillet and then bake it, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until it's done. That's it!

I made the recipe as-is, which called for putting the lemon slices on top of the salmon, then adding all the other ingredients. It seemed strange to me that the flavorings, other than the lemon, wouldn't touch the fish, but I made the recipe anyway. It was good, but I was right in thinking the order of ingredients strange. I didn't taste anything other than lemon and the olive oil. Next time I make this I will add all the flavorings and then add the lemon as the last item.

I have to say, I really loved the fact that the fillet was exactly the right portion size. Not a bit of it went to waste or got packed as leftovers. (As a matter of fact, there was only a bite or two left, which was awarded to Leia, my ginger girl.) I feel like I never finish a meal due to the weight loss surgery, which means I always bring food home from the restaurant, have a bunch of leftovers at home, or it just goes to waste because it's something my husband won't eat. And if I do finish, it's because I've cooked myself about a half of a portion, or I got soup or an appetizer only when eating out. This is something that is still hard for me as a post-op, but that's life now.

meal prep: chicken with baked sweet potatoes and green beans

It's been awhile since I've done any meal prep, and it's showing in my current inability to stick to my eating plan, which of course means the scale isn't moving down like it was a couple weeks ago.  I used to do meal prep just about every week, but I admit I've been lazy about it. I need to get back to it so I can eat better and stick to my plan. And it's especially important now since my husband also needs to eat better.

A meal prep post from a website I enjoy recently popped up in the Facebook feed, so I decided to try it out. It came from Budget Bytes and it's a full meal:  chicken breast, sweet potatoes and green beans.  Aside from the fact that most of her meals are pretty easy, one of the main reasons I chose this recipe was because I'd bought some sweet potatoes...and never used them. Of course. I do that all the time. I buy stuff and then either forget I bought it, or forget what recipe I bought it for, or just get lazy and decide I don't feel like using whatever I bought.I was determined to not do that this time.

The recipe calls for trying the chicken breast; however, I hate the cleanup so I grilled it instead. I baked the sweet potatoes according to the recipe, although I omitted the cayenne pepper. Bob doesn't like a lot of spice, and cayenne tends to be pretty hot even when you use just a tiny dash. I made sure to line the baking sheet with foil, because I hate cleaning baking sheets. It seems like no matter how much you scrub, they never come completely clean. And OMG they smelled so delicious while cooking! I could smell the cinnamon. For the beans I finally used the steamer pan I bought last year. It was so easy and the beans came out perfect! I'd definitely make this again. It was easy and everything tasted great.

Here's the finished product.  And here's the recipe:  Smoky Chicken and Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Look at all that carmelization. No sugar added! Those are the natural sugars in the potatoes.

The beans are nice and bright after steaming. I love this steamer pan. You just set it on top of a pan of boiling water and put the lid on.

The finished beans. Just butter, course salt and ground pepper.

And here's lunch. I made a couple for myself and a few for Bob. Just grab it from the fridge and go to work. Obviously his had a whole chicken breast. This was my portion, which I could just about finish.

sweet potato chicken curry

As I mentioned in another post, I bought a couple sweet potatoes with no thought as to what I'd actually do with them. The first recipe I made, sweet potato chili, came out great. Here is another recipe I tried this past weekend, which is for the Instant Pot.

I was skeptical about curry. It's not something I typically eat. I made chicken curry once for my husband before we were married, but that was many moons ago and I don't remember if I liked it or not. I don't know if he liked it either. Probably not, since I had no idea at that time that he was so plain-vanilla about food.

I was happy to find a recipe for the Instant Pot, since I don't use it for much other than large batches of seasoned rice and hard boiled eggs. I settled on sweet potato chicken curry--I had a lot of chicken in the freezer and a sweet potato to deal with.  The only thing I had to buy was curry spice (dollar store!) and a can of coconut milk.   I skipped the cashews and cilantro. Cashews have a ton of calories and I can't control myself with them, and I'm not into garnishing my food so I skipped the cilantro.

It was easy to put together, and it was especially nice to just throw in the Instant Pot and cook it on high pressure for 12 minutes.  Unfortunately, I think I cut the sweet potato too small, because it pretty much disintegrated. The taste was there, but no chunks of potato. The onions melted away, too.

I liked the taste of this, and it was filling. I didn't put it over riced cauliflower or anything like that. I just ate it as-is. It was a nice change from the standard stuff I usually eat.

There are two changes I would make if I were to make this again.  I'm someone who likes chunkiness in my stews, so I would chop bigger pieces of onion and sweet potato.  Also, I'd probably pour it over riced cauliflower as suggested in the recipe in order to make it more substantial.

Here's the nutritional info (per cup) I got using My Fitness Pal:  284 calories, 13 g fat, 18 g carbs, 7 g sugar, and a whopping (!!) 23 g of protein. I'm quite surprised at the protein. I know the chicken contributes a lot, but that seems off to me. According to My Fitness Pal, the whole can of coconut milk is 14 grams of protein, so that adds a little more. If you decide to make this recipe, you may want to plug it into whatever food logging app you use and see what you come up with.

This is the recipe I made, which made six one-cup servings:  https://therealfoodrds.com/instant-pot-sweet-potato-chicken-curry/

homemade french onion soup

This weekend I made French onion soup for the first time ever. It was time-consuming, but I'm so glad I did!

I've been wanting to make onion soup for quite a long time; I love it. Obviously the best part is the cheesy crouton on top, but I definitely love the whole package. I can make a meal of it. Not only because I love it, but because it completely fills me up (I am weight loss surgery patient, after all!). But I don't order it very often. Mainly because I'm always completely torn about whether I want an actual meal, like a burger or something, or I want the delicious onion soup. On the one hand, ONION SOUP! On the other hand, a complete meal with leftovers to take home. The meal almost always wins. I think, too, that I just can't get away from who I am: someone who craves food variety, and has a real FOMO (fear of missing out). What if I get the soup and I really miss having the burger? What if I get the burger and it isn't good? What if they stop making burgers or onion soup? And now that my stomach is so small, I can't have a meal AND the soup. And I hate wasting food. And sometimes I don't like leftovers. *sigh* The struggle is real...

I found this recipe online and decided to give it a try: How to Make French Onion Soup. It didn't seem overly complicated, most of the cooking time is hands-off, it didn't have any non-typical onion soup ingredients, and I have pretty good luck with recipes from The Kitchn. 

I had to buy a few ingredients to make this, but it wasn't anything I won't use again: crusty bread for the croutons (got some off the day-old bread clearance rack--it's gonna get toasted and dunked anyway!); gruyere cheese, which I got on sale in the deli; brandy; and wine (I got the little four-pack so I don't waste a bottle--I'm not a wine drinker). 

I set about slicing all the onions (lots of crying was done...). They went in the pot with the melted butter and olive oil and cooked for about 15 minutes. The you add the sugar, salt and pepper and cook for about an hour.

This is about three pounds of yellow onions. Close enough!

This is what it cooks down to. For whatever reason, I can never seem to get my onions to the "dark walnut" stage of color when caramelizing. I don't know if it's the recipe, me, my stove, or what. They still tasted great, though. To this you add the flour, cook for a minute, and then add the broth and wine and simmer for at least an hour.

This is after adding the broth and wine and then simmering for a little more than an hour.

I finished it off with about 1/4 cup of brandy. Then I sliced up the bread and toasted it in the toaster oven. After popping it on top of the soup, and then topping with a couple slices of Gruyere cheese, I put the bowls on a cookie sheet and broiled until the cheese browned. This is the only thing I did differently from the recipe. The recipe says to bake the bowls of soup in the oven for a half hour and then broil to brown the cheese, but my bowls don't specifically say "oven safe" on the bottom and I didn't want to chance them breaking. Still came out just fine, though.

The results? Divine!! I typically judge French onion soup by two factors: the cheesiness and crunchiness of the crouton, and the saltiness of the soup itself. Obviously, I can control the crouton very easily, so no problem there. It was kind of crunchy-chewy, with lots of melted cheese. I was worried that the soup would be very salty, as onion soup usually is, but it wasn't salty at all. As a matter of fact, I think I could have easily doubled the salt without an issue. Since I followed the recipe and used what was called for, I just added more salt and pepper at the end.

I would totally make this again, but I think I would add at least another pound of onions. It just didn't have enough onions for me, as I typically prefer onion soup to be a bit on the chunky side. Although this was pretty time-consuming to make, it was mostly hands-off cooking time.

(And yes, one bowl completely filled me up.)

honey & chili chicken breasts

A few weeks ago I had a bunch of cilantro and didn't know what to do with it. When I bought the cilantro from the farm stand up the road, I had visions of Mexican dishes in my mind, but, as usual, the motivation to actually find and make the recipes fizzled by the end of the day. So, I was left with a whole lot of cilantro to use or lose.

I found this recipe online at one of my favorite cooking sites, The Kitchn. I grilled the thighs rather than baking. The recipe calls for baking the chicken, but a lot of the comments mention how messy the pan got and how hard it was to clean, which is because of the beer and honey. That's not for me, so grilling it was!

The marinade came together easily. Picking the cilantro was a little tedious, but not overly so. Once it was mixed, I tossed the marinade in a large zipper top plastic bag along with the chicken and left them in the fridge overnight. I made the sauce, too. The next day I grilled the chicken, stirred up the sauce (it seemed to separate a little) and then poured it over the cooked chicken.

I also roasted some red potatoes with olive oil, fresh rosemary from my garden, salt and pepper; and some green beans with olive oil and Borsari seasoned salt (love this stuff!); both were also from the farm stand. It was a very easy meal, actually.

I thought this tasted really good. I will say, however, that if you don't like cilantro, you won't like the sauce. It's quite strong. It was good, though.  I'd make this recipe again, but I would probably make half the amount of sauce or find multiple uses for it.

If you want the recipe, here it is:  Honey & Chili Chicken Thighs with cilantro Cream Sauce.

Here's the finished meal!

what's been cooking?

I've been really awful about cooking over the last few months due to everything that's happened. But I'm getting back to it. Here are some of the things I've made.

At work we have the option to participate in the local CSA (community supported agriculture). This is the first year we've been offered this service. It's not free, though. People who want to participate pay about $19 a week for a half-share and receive enough produce to feed two to three people for one week. I believe it lasts for about 18 weeks. Each week you get a variety of produce and you won't know until you receive it what you're actually getting. They give you whatever is in season. I don't participate in it, mainly because $19 a week for produce is a bit much for me to spend knowing that either I or Bob won't eat certain things or won't be able to cook it all before it goes bad. Also, they give you seasonal items. Since kale, Swiss chard, celery and celery root are in season right now, those items have been provided every week. That can get boring even if you like those items. If you don't, it's a waste of money. I have, however, been taking advantage of the fact that someone at work doesn't like those four items I mentioned. They leave them in the community kitchen each week, so I grabbed them one week. If you're interested in finding a CSA in your area, try this website: https://www.localharvest.org/csa/.

Here's what my fridge looked like after I brought the CSA items home. Those are some HUGE celery leaves! I chopped off the ends of the celery and removed the leaves, which I then froze for later use in making stock. The celery stalks were so crispy, nothing like what I get at the grocery store.

I used the red Swiss chard to make grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. I just sautéed the chard in olive oil with some garlic, salt and pepper. I then added it to my sandwich and grilled it. I did the same thing with the kale, but added it to my egg muffins. Note to self: remove the stems before sautéing. It was a bit unpleasant to bite into tough stems when eating something soft like eggs.



This is my steak dinner on another night. The green beans are from the farm stand up the road. I boiled them, then added some butter, salt and pepper. I also fried up a container of leftover onions. I added a little butter, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce.

Below is some broccoli rabe sautéed in olive oil with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. I blanched it first in order to start getting it tender. From what I understand, broccoli rabe is done when it's dead. This is definitely dead. LOL  I also grilled some turkey tenderloins with some Borsari seasoned salt in Citrus flavor. I absolutely love Borsari. It makes seasoning ridiculously simple. I brought both to work for lunch last week.



And finally, I made roasted tomatoes for the first time. My boss gave us all some plum tomatoes. I put some olive oil on them, along with rosemary from my garden and some mince garlic, then roasted them according to a recipe I found online on Rachel Ray's website. I think the roasting time would have been perfect for larger plum tomatoes, but it was a bit too much for the little ones. A few got burnt. Overall, very delicious, though. And sweet!



fried cauliflower rice with bean sprouts and edamame

This recipe came about because I had several ingredients in the freezer to use up:  riced cauliflower and edamame, both from Trader Joe's coincidentally. (I seem to find myself in this predicament quite often...) I had also bought a bag of bean sprouts at the store that I needed to use up.

I just have to say that the riced cauliflower at Trader Joe's is super convenient and inexpensive. I recently read an article that talks about Trader Joe's implementing a limit on the number of bags of this stuff people can buy. Scary! It's not nationwide, but of course it applies to my state.

I also have to say that I love Trader Joe's.  They have a lot of unique items and their prices are usually really good. I buy all my goat cheese there.

This was very bean sprout-heavy, but I was OK with that. I had to use the whole bag, because I knew I would end up tossing it out if I didn't.  If you don't like tons of sprouts, just cut the amount listed below to 3/4 or 1/2 of that.

I'm not sure of the number of servings, since I didn't measure it out. I'd say a WLS post-op will get probably 8 to 10 servings if I had to guess. Since it's veggie-heavy, that could be less, as many post-ops are able to eat a larger amount when there's no meat or grains in a dish. Recipe below.



This coloring in this picture is kind of awful, but you get the gist of it I'm sure. 😄

Fried Cauliflower Rice With Bean Sprouts and Edamame

1 12 oz. bag bean sprouts
1 12 oz. bag riced cauliflower
5 scallions, sliced, whites and greens separated
1/2 an onion, diced
1 cup shelled ready-to-eat edamame
2 whole eggs
2 cloves garlic, minced (I use the stuff in the jar since I hate mincing garlic)
3 TB soy sauce
1 TB oyster sauce (not necessary; leave it out if you don't have it)
2 TB sesame or canola oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Put 1 TB of the sesame oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Scramble the eggs, season with salt and pepper, and cook in the oil until done. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the remaining oil and cook onions, scallion whites, bean sprouts, and garlic for about one minute.
3. Add the riced cauliflower and stir well a few minutes to heat through. (If using raw cauliflower you riced yourself, you might need to cook a little longer. Cook until tender.)
4. Add cooked egg along with soy sauce, oyster sauce, scallion greens and edamame, mixing well and cooking for about 3 to 4 minutes. 

Note:  If you don't want the extra calories that comes with using oil, you could use cooking spray if you want. Coconut oil cooking spray would likely add a nice flavor to it.

chicken pot pie casserole

I realized today, as I was going through my pictures on my SD card, that I never posted this recipe I tried. It's a take on a turkey pot pie. But since it's not Thanksgiving and I didn't have turkey in the house, I used some chicken I had poached for other purposes. So, we'll call it chicken pot pie casserole.

I got the recipe here:  Cauliflower Crust Pot Pie. (She's got a lot of great bariatric-friendly recipes there!) The only changes I made was to sub in chicken for turkey, and I left out the parsley. I don't keep parsley on hand and wasn't about to go buy it just for this. Oh, and I used frozen peas and carrots (2 cups total). The ones that come in the same bag together. It's much faster and easier than dicing raw carrots.

This was a good way to use up some items I had on hand. but either hadn't gotten around to using, or needed to use because there was just so much of it.  I had a small amount of quinoa in the cabinet, and a bag of frozen riced cauliflower that I bought and just hadn't found a use for. I also had that leftover poached chicken. I always buy the 5 pound family pack of boneless skinless chicken breast, so I always have a lot left over after a grilled chicken dinner.

This recipe was easy and it tasted great. My only issue was that it took much longer than 30 minutes for the crust to be done to my liking. I didn't want it to be mushy, so I cooked it for almost an hour so it was crisp up a little and get browned. But that's totally up to you as to how you want it done. 

weekly cookbook project: apple maple oatmeal; pot roast

I've kept up with my goal to make recipe per week from my cookbooks; however, I forgot to take pictures of two recipes I made recently.

Last week I made apple maple oatmeal from my Great Big Pressure Cooker Book. It was simply steel-cut oats, water, maple syrup, cinnamon and dried apples. Maple syrup took care of the sweetness, so no sugar was added. Dried apples were necessary, rather than fresh, so they stand up to being pressure cooked. It was good, but if I make it again I'd either add less water or more oatmeal; it was too soupy for us.

A couple weeks ago I made a pot roast from the same book (can you tell I like my Instant Pot??). It was a beef roast, beef stock, rosemary, bay leaf, onions, potatoes and carrots. All I had to do after pressure cooking was thicken the gravy and it was ready. I really liked this pot roast. In fact, I may not use my old standby recipe anymore:  pot roast in the slow cooker made with Lipton Onion Soup mix. What was nice about using the pressure cooking function vs. slow cooking was that the meat stayed intact. In the slow cooker it totally falls apart and becomes more like a beef stew. Pressure cooking makes the meat very tender, but it basically stays in one piece so you can slice it. It's good either way.  It depends on what your preference is.

I haven't decided what I'll make this week yet. Although, our anniversary is at the end of the week so maybe I'll find a special recipe for our anniversary dinner.

weekly cookbook project: balsamic and orange-glazed chicken thighs

In keeping with my goal to cook one recipe per week from my cookbook collection, today I made balsamic and orange-glazed chicken thighs from The Great Big Pressure Cooker Book.  I've been loving this book. The recipes, for the most part, are pretty easy and it gives me a chance to use my Instant Pot.

This was really easy. All I had to do was brown the boneless skinless chicken thighs, which I did right in the Instant Pot, whisk the balsamic and marmalade together and throw it in the pot with a rosemary sprig (cut fresh from my rosemary plant).  The only thing I needed to buy to make this recipe was the orange marmalade. I've never tried orange marmalade and since I've had weight loss surgery, I tend to stay away from jams and jellies--way too much sugar in them.

I was worried the finished dish it would be really orange-y tasting, or have a strong vinegar taste, but it was fine. It didn't have a vinegar taste, just a hint of it, really. And the orange wasn't overpowering at all. The vinegar, marmalade and rosemary all worked well together. I served it with my seasoned brown rice, which was fresh out of the Instant Pot, too. We poured the balsamic-orange mixture over the rice and it was delicious.

weekly cookbook project: chicken and pasta with a spicy peanut sauce

I posted recently that my goal this year is to cook at least one recipe per week from my collection of cookbooks.  I have 20 of them and pretty much never use them other than to look through them from time to time.

This week I made my first cookbook recipe for my New Year's weekly cookbook project:  chicken and pasta with a spicy peanut sauce.  It's from The Great Big Pressure Cooker Book. I really like this book.  It has a big variety of recipes; it gives notes with each recipe as to how to change things up, how to serve it, etc.; the introduction talks about what to do and not to do with a pressure cooker and why; and it's written with the Instant Pot/electric pressure cooker in mind.

I picked this recipe because I had all the ingredients. (Actually, I didn't have the whole wheat ziti or fresh ginger, but I had regular ziti and ground ginger; both of these worked just fine.) Also, I really wanted to use the pressure cooker function on my new Instant Pot.

Here are the ingredients for the recipe:

• ground allspice
• ground cayenne pepper
• chicken breasts
• ground cinnamon
• ginger
• peanut oil
• peanut butter
• chicken broth
• ground cloves
• yellow onions
• whole wheat ziti pasta
• canned diced tomatoes

I couldn't find the whole recipe on the internet and I didn't feel like typing it out, so I just included the ingredients. Basically, you sauté the onions, garlic and ginger in the oil and the add the other ingredients. The Instant Pot is set the pressure cook on high for 8 minutes and then you do the Quick Release to release the pressure. That's it.

We both liked this recipe. It had good peanut taste that wasn't overwhelming and, since I didn't use the full amount of cayenne pepper, it wasn't really spicy. Had I been cooking it for myself only, I would have used the full amount, but Bob doesn't like as much spice as I do. I think this would have been better over rice, though. Ziti in a Thai-inspired dish just seemed odd to me. My only complaint about this dish is how totally blah it looked. It was a big mass of brown. Even the ziti turned brown from the peanut butter.  Otherwise, I'd make this again.

last night's dinner: steak and potatoes

Last night's dinner was steak and roasted rosemary potatoes. 

I had a couple steaks in the freezer that needed cooking (I forgot they were in there) and I have some new spice blends to try, so I decided to make them last night. Last time I went to the spice store they were running a coupon where you get two spice blends for free when you spend $10.00. That was easy, because I had to buy cocoa for my homemade iced mocha lattes (I'm addicted!!). But right before I left for the store, they emailed another coupon for two more free spice blends with a $10.00 purchase. AND THEN!  I got to the store and they were giving away another spice blend with a $30.00 purchase. And I didn't have to spend a total of $50.00 to get all the free items. I only had to spend the $30.00. So that was quite the awesome deal. I got 5 free jars of spice blends to try out.

Last night I tried the Quebec Beef Spice, which is a mix of salt, black pepper, coriander, garlic, white pepper, and sugar.  I really liked this one. I usually don't like anything on steak other than Borsari seasoned salt, but this blend was good. I could actually taste it. There have been a few that I just couldn't taste, even though I used a heavy hand when applying it to the steaks.

I also made roasted rosemary potatoes. I had potatoes to use up and I have a rosemary plant I bought this year and haven't touched yet.  I found the recipe in one of the cookbooks I borrowed from the library. It was super simple. Just cut up two pounds of potatoes, toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss them in the oven at 400 degrees. After 20 minutes you check them and stir them around a bit, then put them in for another 20 minutes or so. That's when you sprinkle on the chopped fresh rosemary. Then pop them back in the over for another 20 minutes or until they're crisp and brown on the outside and tender on the inside. The timing varies based on how big you cut your potatoes. These tasted really good and were cooked perfectly. The fresh rosemary (vs. dried) really made a difference. 

Thanksgiving leftovers: homemade turkey croquettes and sandwiches

Here's what I made with the leftover turkey and stuffing from Thanksgiving:  turkey croquettes and mini turkey sandwiches.

The croquettes were so simple. All I did was put 3 1/2 cups of leftover stuffing, one egg and 1 cup of leftover turkey in the food processor and then pulsed it until it was almost a paste. Then I shaped it into patties, rolled them in Italian flavored breadcrumbs and browned them in a skillet with some oil.  (I tried making the traditional croquette shape, but it just didn't fry up very well. And I was worried the egg didn't get heated enough.)  I reheated the leftover gravy, poured it on top and served with leftover carrots and corn.

I didn't include a picture of it on a plate with gravy. It just didn't look very appetizing at all.

My post-Thanksgiving favorite are mini turkey sandwiches.  It's just a dinner roll--potato in this case--lots of Hellmann's mayo, a couple pieces of turkey breast, a slice of jellied cranberry sauce (because no one in the two families will eat homemade, of course), and some salt and pepper. I used to eat three of these at a time before my weight loss surgery. Nowadays, this one sandwich fills me. Actually, I usually can't eat the last bite.

Looks big, but I put it on a small salad plate.

Even after the croquettes, a few lunches, and several turkey sandwiches, though, I still have a lot of stuffing and turkey left. I decided to freeze it all. Maybe I'll make hot open turkey sandwiches or bake chicken breasts with the stuffing.

seasoned brown rice in the Instant Pot

Last year I found a recipe for seasoned rice, which I've been using ever since:  it's cheaper than buying Rice-a-Roni and you get a whole lot more.

I recently bought an Instant Pot, which I'm loving, and decided to try and make rice in it.  I Googled to determine the correct rice to water ratio, since I'd seen a lot of people posting that the Instant Pot ratios don't seem to be correct.  The ratio I found that works for me is 1 cup of rice to 1.25 cup of water using this method.  So, I revised my seasoned brown rice recipe to work in the Instant Pot.

It came out great and tasted just like it should. It was cooked perfectly.  I made a double batch and froze most of it.

Seasoned Brown Rice

This recipe can easily be doubled.

3 1/2 TB of Seasoning Mix (below)
2 1/2 cups water
2 TB butter
2 cups uncooked brown rice

Directions

1. Turn the Instant Pot on to Saute. Let it warm up for a couple minutes and then add 1 TB of the butter. Once melted, add the rice and toast for a few minutes.   
2. Pour the water into the pot and add the other 1 TB of butter.  
3. Add the seasoning mix and stir. Close the lid.
4. Press Keep Warm/Cancel on the Instant Pot and then press Manual and set to High Pressure for 15 minutes. Let it cook.
5. When the cooking is done, let the pressure naturally release, which will take at least 20 minutes or more. Don't use the quick release method, because the rice won't be quite done.  If you want to play around with the rice to water ratio and cooking times, check out this post I found.

Seasoning Mix
Makes enough to season two batches of rice.

2 TB dried basil
2 TB chicken bouillon granules
2 TB dried parsley
2 tsp onion powder
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried thyme

Combine all ingredients and store in an air tight container.

last night's dinner

Last night's dinner was sushi. Bob was working and I didn't feel like making anything.  The only time I have sushi is when I'm home alone since no one who lives close by likes sushi. I have three friends that like it, but one lives out of state and the other two are a 45 minute drive away. No one in my family likes it. So, I save it as a once-in-a-blue-moon treat.

My trainer recently told me that the local grocery store has great sushi. I was skeptical, as I always am when it comes to grocery store sushi. Typically, grocery store looks pretty generic and I'm suspicious of its freshness.  Plus the only thing I ever see is the California roll. Not bad, but I like a little more variety. He assured me it's fresh and tastes great, though, so I decided to grab some after training last night.

I got the spicy dragon roll and the spicy crunch roll. Each roll had 10 pieces and was packaged (they have a sushi counter where it's made to order or made fresh and packaged). What you see here are three pieces of each. It was a bit much for me, though--I was full after four pieces. And he was right--it tasted great. Very fresh and good quality. My only complaint was that they give you one little soy sauce packet, a couple bits of pickled ginger and a little dab of wasabi with each roll.  But most people would eat one whole roll in one sitting, so they most likely assume that's enough ginger and wasabi.  That's just not enough for me, though, since I can't each much in one sitting. (These two rolls are enough for about four meals, possible five.)  I bought a bottle of soy sauce, so that covered me.

I'm so happy I found good, inexpensive sushi. There's a good Japanese restaurant near me that's closer than the store, but if I happen to be in that store, I'll just buy it there.  It wasn't a whole lot cheaper than the restaurant, but I figure I saved about $3.00.

thai lettuce wraps

This is an idea I ripped off from a local restaurant, Maggie McFly's (I love this place!).

At the restaurant, they serve stir-fried beef, bean sprouts, shredded carrots, noodles (similar to Raman), tiny sliced cucumbers, and crushed peanuts along side lettuce leaves and three dipping sauces.  It was delicious and I liked making my own lettuce wraps.  I could use as little or as much as I wanted.  I was able to eat three wraps; however, I had a salad beforehand, so I probably could have eaten more.  I really enjoyed having these and figured it would be something different, for a change, and pretty easy to make at home.  So, this weekend, off I went to get the ingredients!

Bibb lettuce (or Boston or Butter, same thing) is used for making the lettuce wraps.  The leaves are pretty much the perfect size:  not too big and not too small.  Plus, they don't seem to tear easily.  I wasn't sure I'd find this lettuce at the regular grocery store, so I checked Whole Foods while I was there.  They wanted $6.99 for a head!!  I said "no way" and decided to stop at another store on the way home.  Lo and behold!  They had the same exact branch for only $2.99!  Still more than iceberg lettuce, but I feel like it works better.  Tastes like something, too.

I grabbed the smallest bag of bean sprouts, which was huge considering I don't really have another use for them (I'll have to Google, "what to do with a million bean sprouts"), and also a bag of carrots.  I didn't buy the pre-shredded carrots since I can easily do it with my food processor.  I also grabbed some beef from the meat case, which was already cut into strips, and some limes for my marinade.

I made the lettuce wraps this week and it was easy.  Just marinate the meet overnight (you don't have to, but I like it like that), prepare your toppings, tear off some lettuce leaves, and fry the beef.  Super simple; however, this is one time where you want to have everything ready to go before you cook the beef.  The strips were really thin and cooked very fast.  In fact, I overcooked them a little.

I really liked the marinade (recipe below).  It had lots of flavor.  I actually used it on my husband's pork cutlets, too.  He's not into making lettuce wraps, so he had pork with sautéed green beans and a pasta side dish. The one thing that would have made these better is dipping sauce.  I totally zoned out and forgot to make a sauce.  At the restaurant, they served a sesame ginger sauce, teriyaki sauce, and a peanut sauce.  Next time I must remember!

Asian Marinade

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
3 TB honey
Juice of 2 limes
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 TB minced fresh ginger (or 1 tsp ground ginger)
3 scallions, thinly sliced

Whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, and oil.  Add the remaining ingredients and whisk again.  Use to marinade anything you want!

chicken tortilla soup

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed last week and came across a blog post by my bariatric surgeon.  I took a peek at the recipes that were posted and found this recipe for soup.

I'm not much of a soup eater.  I don't feel as though it fills me.  I used to like it when I first had surgery, because it was easy and the warmth was easy on the new stomach.  But nowadays I really have to be in the mood for it. Plus, as a gastric bypass patient, this kind of qualifies as drinking with my meal.  And that's something I'm not supposed to be doing; it can stretch out the new stomach by forcing more food through it, and it washes my food down faster, which leads to hunger faster.  I decided to make it, though, because wanted to use up some ingredients.  No, strike that.  I wanted to use ONE ingredient:  a little 4 ounce can of chopped green chilies. (I bought it at some point and never used it.  I don't even remember what recipe I wanted to make.  I have lots of stuff like that in my cabinets.) I had all the other ingredients except enchilada sauce, which was easy enough to buy. Conveniently, it used up the open carton of chicken broth haunting my fridge, as well as the black beans I was likely holding onto for another recipe I can't remember. Oh, and I finally finished up the bag of frozen corn!  OK, so maybe I had more ingredients I needed to use up.

This was super easy.  Just chop up the onion and dump everything in the crock pot.  Viola!  Dinner is ready when you get home from work.

I liked the way it tasted. Just a little spicy, but not much.  If I make it again, I might reduce the amount of broth, but that's just because I prefer something more like a stew.

If you're interested in the recipe, you can find it here:  Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

The nutritional information is posted on his website, but here it is.  Note:  This assumes 8 regular-sized portions.  Bariatric patients will likely get at least 12 out of this, depending upon how far along they are.  This recipe fills a large crock pot.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 8
• Amount Per Serving- about 2 cups
• Calories: 168.6

• Total Fat: 2.5 g
• Cholesterol: 35.0 mg
• Sodium: 311.2 mg
• Total Carbs: 20.3 g
• Dietary Fiber: 4.2 g
• Protein: 17.4 g

Source: SparkPeople