Vacation Eats!

Holy Moly we at A LOT in Spokane, Washington this summer.  For 3 weeks we gorged ourselves.

First, we had a week of local eats and road trippin' to the Palouse Falls area in Southeastern, WA.  We drove a long way to Lyons Ferry State Park for a picnic before visiting the falls. Grilled hot dogs and chips in the wild is never bad! 

We also went out to Twiggs Bistro several times. That's my parents' favorite restaurant. We had pizza at the Boiler Room, near my parents on the site of the old Tidyman's grocery that I used to go to with my grandma. Their woodfired pizza was so good!  This is the one I had first, and it was excellent along with my salad and gorgonzola ranch for $10 for lunch... what a deal!

Fries with Tartar at Zips, and an Italian meal at the Italian Kitchen downtown. Aidan and I also ate out at Ruby Tuesdays, KFC, and did trips to Trader Joe's and the Mexican grocery for a little taste of home. I picked up chorizo from the local mexican grocery, De Leon's- great homemade tortillas! Pan Dulce? Yes please...

Then it was off to Oompahland!  AKA Leavenworth, WA , the bavarian town in the cascade foothills. We toured the nutcracker museum and then ate Schnitzel with Spaetzel and brats and beer at King Ludwigs. 

Even Aidan tried the chicken schnitzel, though he accidentally

called it shitzel, and it will forever be shitzel in our family!

Week three, Aidan and I discovered Dutch Bros. coffee and never looked back.  It is awesome! 

I can not wait for our next trip to the Pac NW or Vegas, or Arizona. YUMMO!

Untraditional Memorial Day BBQ

Nothing like having Memorial Day fall at the end of the month, when the teacher paycheck isn't due for two days and you haven't had time to go to the grocery store. 

Thus, we worked with what we had.  In the freezer I had wheat burger buns and turkey italian sausage links. I also had frozen corn. 

My son and I whipped up a light macaroni salad recipe using veggie pasta, yellow pepper, and carrots with light mayo and apple cider vinegar. 

Then I squeezed the sausage out of the casings and made patties to barbecue. It was actually quite tasty- but I seem to have forgotten the golden rule that your patties should be wider than the bun before grilling, because they shrunk up a lot. I probably should have made 3 larger patties instead of the 6 smaller ones.  But it was good. 

And now for a Memorial Day dessert...if Baskin Robins is still open today! 

Chicken Chorizo on Quinoa with Peppers

Here is a great low cal/veggie recipe:

Browning the Chicken Chorizo Sausages

Peppers look so pretty in a variety of colors.

Sauteeing the peppers in a veggie stock with cumin, paprika, oregano, garlic.

Slices cook chorizo draining before adding to peppers.

Serve peppers/chorizo over quinoa/onions.  

I also was roasting potatoes, so I added a few as a side.

Light GF Chicken Penne Alfredo

Ingredients

1 box Barilla Gluten Free Penne pasta

2 cooked skinless, boneless chicken breasts, diced

1 8 oz box of baby bella mushrooms (sliced)

3 small zuchini (sliced thin)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tomato, diced

EVOO

1 bottle Bertolli Light Alfredo Sauce

Grated parmesan
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions
*Boil water and cook penne al dente.
*Saute zucchini in EVOO for 3-5 minutes,
add mushrooms, garlic, tomato, and cooked chicken.
*Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray.
*Mix vegetables and pasta, then add bottle of alfredo and stir evenly.
*Pour into baking dish and sprinkle with parmesan.

Makes 8 servings, 7 PP Points per serving.

WW Pork Stroganoff

I used a pork tenderloin and it alone was a great recipe.  I'll add that HERE. I also used stock from chicken/tomato bouillon cubes, and added 1T. of sherry to the broth and sprinkled it with parsley at serving.  It was pretty good. I think you could do this with no yolk egg noodles or whole wheat/whole grain egg noodles, if those are out there. 

Back on the WW Wagon

It's been a while, and I'm down 7 pounds after five weeks on the new Smart Points program and C25K.  I am needing to come up with more diabetic and WW Spoints-friendly dishes, so I picked up this:

in hope that I'd get some better ideas than I was seeing on the internets.  Tonight's exercise in experimental cooking will be: 

It requires turkey italian sausage, evaporated milk, jarred pasta sauce, and italian blend cheese.

I shall report back later on how it goes.

Makes 10 servings (3/4 c each) = 9 SP per serving

Ingredients

8 oz spaghetti uncooked

1 # turkey italian sausage

2 T dried italian seasoning

1 C thinly sliced onion

3 gloves garlic (minced)

1 24-oz jar fire-roasted tomato-and-garlic pasta sauce

2 T AP flour

1 12-oz can evaporated fat-free milk

1 8-oz package shredded reduced-fat italian blend cheese

chopped parsley (optional)

Instructions

Cook the spaghetti

Meanwhile, brown sausage with italian seasoning.

Remove sausage with slotted spoon.

Sautee onion and garlic 5 minutes

Stir in sauce.

Add pasta and toss well.

Transfer to casserole dish sprayed w/nonstick spray.

Place flour in small saucepan and slowly add milk.

Whisk together, add pepper, simmer 5 minutes.

Spoon over pasta evenly, then top with cheese.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Garnish with parsley.

This turned out very tasty.  The picture is not doing it justice. My camera did something weird and took a very strange colored picture in which the basil was maroon! I would probably cut this recipe in half, though, because my goodness... I do not need 9 extra servings. I hope it freezes well.

Spicy Shrimp and Sausage Penne

SPICY SHRIMP AND SAUSAGE PENNE 

Ingredients:
12 ounces penne rigate
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces mild italian sausage meat
4 ounces hot italian sausage meat
1/4 cup shallots, minced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup fresh spinach, rinsed
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup cajun seasoning (Old Bay?)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
3 tablespoons chives, chopped fine

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al-dente. Drain, coat with half the oil to prevent sticking. Cover and keep warm
• Mix Sausage Meat in a bowl to combine. Form mixture into bite-sized meatballs or crumbles
• Heat a skillet over high heat. Add meat and cook until no longer pink in center and light crust formed on outside. Remove to plate with paper towel, cover to keep warm. Pour out grease in skillet
• In same skillet, heat over high, add remaining oil. add shallots. cook until translucent. Add garlic. Cook an additional 15 seconds. Add wine and lemon juice away from heat. Cook until almost dry, scrapping bits from bottom of pan
• Add heavy cream and sausage. Cook until cream reduces in half
• Meanwhile, heat a dry non-stick skillet over high heat under high ventilation. Toss shrimp in cajun seasoning to coat, shake off excess. Cook shrimp just until no longer translucent
• Add spinach, pasta, and half the Parmesan to the sauce. Toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook an additional 30 seconds or until spinach wilts
• Divide among 4 bowls. Top with remaining Parmesan, chives, and shrimp.

*kid tested, mother approved!*