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.