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!*

Tuscan Chicken Pasta

I kept seeing this on facebook, so we're giving it a try: Tuscan Chicken Pasta

Slainte!

The last couple of years I did corned beef and cabbage, and it just got boring. This year, I opted for a corned beef flat cut brisket, and went with broccoli colcannon for a change.  It turned out to be very tasty, and then I made homemade soda bread. Did you know there was a society for the preservation of real soda bread?  Seriously. The recipe is here.

The bread was great, but it doesn't keep well. I was proud of how pretty it looked though:

It was delicious, but corned beef is very fatty.  It's a once a year thing, for sure.  It made up for the fact that McDonalds here did not have a shamrock shake, but my coworker giving me a little gift surprise of Ginger Ale and Jameson more than made up for it! :)