Menu: Jan. 4 - Jan. 9 & Fat Smashing

Eli and I decided that this year we need to work on losing some weight and eating healthier (for a lot of good reasons). I'm not a big believer in "fad' diets because D & C says we should have a little of everything in moderation. When I was at my healthiest I was just eating a lot of fresh foods and not so much processed foods, all in good proportions.

I decided we needed to learn to control our eating habits and found a book called "The Fat Smash Diet." If you've ever seen Celebrity Fit Club, it's the "diet" that they use on the show. The first 9 days is all about cleansing your body of all the yuckies and building a good foundation, in other words, detox...lots of fruits and veggies and a minimal amount of grains and dairy, no pasta or meat. We'll start adding pastas and meats in moderation over the next few weeks.

After this first week, Eli and I have each lost 7 lbs. and we both are full of energy and feeling good. I've cooked a lot of lunches & dinners, so lots of vegetarian recipes! We can't wait for meat and pastas, but looking forward to a healthy amount. Good start to the new year!

Sunday: dinner at parent's

Monday: Green Bean Salad (FSD) & Squash Casserole (Clean Eating)

Tuesday: Veggie Soup (FSD) & Rice and Black Beans (All Recipes)

Wednesday: Salad w/ ranch and salsa & Italian Spaghetti Squash (All Recipes)

Thursday: Banana Bread smoothie & Mexican Bean and Corn Bowl (3 Fat Chicks)

Friday: stuffed peppers (All Recipes)

Saturday: Apple Bake & Chickpea burger w/ sweet potato fries & International Stew

FSD = Fat Smash Diet by Ian K. Smith

Clean Eating Magazine (one of my favorites!)

3 Fat Chicks Forum

Menu: January 7 - January 13

Paul got me TWO new, beautiful cookbooks for Christmas, and I can't wait to start using them! I've picked two recipes from each one for my menu this week. One is Pioneer Woman's cookbook (hooray!), and the other is Rachel Ray's Book of Ten (which has lists and lists of her top ten recipes in lots of different categories).

Here's this week's plan:

Thursday (today): Chicken a la King

Friday: Potato Soup

Saturday: Sweet and Spicy Pineapple Pork (Rachel Ray)

Sunday: Pot Roast (Pioneer Woman) and Mashed Potatoes

Monday: Lemon Chicken Linguine (My Kitchen Cafe)

Tuesday: Smoky Chipotle-Chicken Corn Chowder w/ Salsa Salad (Rachel Ray)

Wednesday: Enchiladas (Pioneer Woman)

Ooh! I'm excited!

Tuscan Macaroni and Cheese Bake

Happy New Year, everyone! I was so excited to see some new recipes pop up here this week! Fun stuff. I can't wait to try them out.

Since coming home from our vacation to Colorado, Paul and I haven't been very good about eating dinner at home. Finally, yesterday, Paul said, "Would it be ok if we have a home cooked meal tonight?" Oops. My bad! ;) He was right. We definitely needed to break our current trend of picking up something somewhere each night.

I was in the mood to try something new, so I headed over to My Kitchen Cafe and browsed the recipes for a while.

This is the recipe I ended up choosing. It was delicious (despite some mistakes on my part)! I'm going to try it again for sure because I was missing one of the main spices.

You should try it, too!

Tuscan Macaroni and Cheese Bake

Ingredients:

12 oz. Italian sausage*

2 c. uncooked elbow macaroni

8 oz. cream cheese, cubed and softened

1 c. sliced olives (I just used a small can even though it was less than a cup because Paul's not a huge fan of olives)

1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

1 1/2 T. butter

1 1/2 T. flour

1 t. dried sage**

1/4 t. dried thyme

1/2 t. salt

1/8 t. cayenne pepper

1 1/2 c. milk (I used James' whole milk so it would be creamier)

1 large tomato, thinly sliced

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

*The recipe actually says to use pre-cooked chicken or turkey sausage, but Paul was picking up the ingredients for me on his way home, and it was much easier for him to find Italian sausage. Plus, I thought Paul might enjoy Italian sausage more. She did mention in her original recipe that Italian sausage could be substituted.

**Yep, I thought I had sage, but I didn't. I was worried the dish would be too bland without it, so I increased the amount of thyme. I probably shouldn't have done that because the thyme flavor was a bit overwhelming in the end.

Directions:

Cook macaroni noodles according to directions on package, except reduce cooking time by 1-2 minutes because the pasta bakes in the oven later. Brown sausage and drain grease. Combine pasta, sausage, olives, cream cheese, and mozzarella cheese in a large bowl (or, if you are me and want to limit the number of dishes, just use the big pot you cooked the pasta in).

Combine flour and spices in a small bowl. In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add the flour/spice mixture and stir with a wire whisk constantly for about 30 seconds. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously. Cook and stir for 5-6 minutes, or until sauce thickens. Pour over pasta mixture.

Spoon pasta mixture into a lightly greased 11x7 baking dish. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Then, top the pasta with sliced tomatoes and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake for 10 more minutes, uncovered. Let sit about 5 minutes before serving.

It was a really flavorful dish! James even loved it! I especially loved the tomatoes on top, and I'll probably add even more tomatoes next time. The olives also added a great flavor, though I probably won't get away with adding more of those since Paul doesn't really like them.

Here's a link to the original recipe: Tuscan Macaroni and Cheese Bake.

Fudge Puddles

The first recipe of the year that I post is a dessert. Does that say something about me? Probably. Brian and I love to try new dessert recipes on Sunday. In fact, last summer we would try a new dessert every Sunday. That was one yummy summer. Last Sunday Brian went to allrecipes.com and typed in the ingredients that we had. The recipe for fudge puddles came up and we couldn't help but try them out (even if just for the name)! They were delicious and fun! I also like that I usually have all of the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk chocolate chips*

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Cream butter, peanut butter and white and brown sugars. Mix in egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into creamed mixture (I actually didn't sift the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. I just added them all here). Shape the dough into 48 balls, 1 inch each. Place each ball in one compartment of a mini muffin tin*.
For filling, put chocolate chips in a double boiler* over simmering water. Stir in milk and vanilla, mix well. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately make wells in the center of each using a melon baller (we just used a small spoon). Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Then carefully remove to wire racks. Fill each shell with the chocolate mixture.

* We don't have a mini muffin tin, so we just used a regular one and it worked out great. We just put a bigger size ball in each (I just used my cookie scoop and it made 22). They only took 14 minutes to cook. If you use a mini tin I would cook them for a shorter amount of time because you don't want them to be crunchy.

* We also didn't have milk chocolate chips so we used all semi-sweet chips and they tasted great. I bet it would be good both ways.

* I didn't use a double broiler. We just combined all ingredients in the pan and heated it on low until the chocolate was melted and it thinned out.

Original recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fudge-Puddles/Detail.aspx

Black Bean and Corn Wonton Cups

(I forgot to take a picture so this is the picture off of the website)

I got this recipe off of bettycrocker.com for the new year day party at my in-laws and I decided to post it for those of you who don't go on Betty Crocker's website. (which I am sure most do, but I decided I needed to post something). :)

I thought this recipe was really good. My advise would be to only put the black bean and corn salsa in the cups just before you are about to eat them. After awhile the salsa makes the cups a little mushy so I would suggest serving them right away or have a platter of cups and a bowl of salsa on the side.

Black Bean and Corn Wonton Cups

36	wonton skins
2/3	cup Old El Paso® Thick 'n Chunky salsa
1/4	cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2	teaspoon ground cumin
1/2	teaspoon chili powder
1	can (15.25 ounces) Green Giant® whole kernel corn, drained
1	can (15 oz) Progresso® black beans, drained, rinsed
1/4	cup sour cream
	Cilantro sprigs, if desired 1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Gently fit 1 wonton skin into each of 36 small muffin cups, 1 3/4x1 inch, pressing against bottom and side. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from pan; cool on wire rack. 2. Mix remaining ingredients except sour cream and cilantro sprigs. Just before serving, spoon bean mixture into wonton cups. Top each with 1/2 teaspoon sour cream. Garnish each with cilantro sprig. Enjoy :)

Cranberry Pudding

One of my all time favorite desserts. Sorry my pictures are not so great. I got it from my friend Betsy B.. This year we used it for my birthday cake and I hope to do the same next year. If you're thinking about making this recipe- go buy the fresh cranberries now. You can throw the bag in the freezer and it will keep.

So simple it's almost not fair that it tastes this good!

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 large (29 oz) can of sliced or irregular pear with light syrup
mix together- I sometimes cut the pears smaller with my kitchen scissors
add in 1 bag of raw cranberries (approx. 3 c)

Butter 9x13 glass pan
Bake @ 350 for 45 min
Enjoy the arromas filling your kitchen

Caramel Sauce
1/2 c butter
1/2 c whipping cream
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
combine and bring to boil
simmer 1o min. then add vanilla

I start the carmel sauce when I take the "pudding" out of the oven- as soon as the caramel sauce if ready- the cake is ready too.

Challah Bread

This is an authentic recipe from Israel. It tastes just like Challah bread I ate from the Orthodox Bakery in Jerusalem. Well worth the time- even if the risings take a while.

Use a large bowl, mix:
2 cups warm water (110-115*F)
3 packs dry yeast
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
mix and leave in a warm place to rise for 30 min.

In another bowl, mix:
5 cups flour,
1.5 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
using pastry blender cut in 2 sticks of margarine until the mixture has the consistency of course meal.

After 30 min.
add 4 beaten eggs to yeast mixture
then add four margarine mixture
Add 2 cups flour
Kneed ~ 10 min. add 2 cups raisins while kneading.
Please in oiled bowl. Cover and put in warm place to rise for 2 hours or until doubled in bulk. (I put the bowl in the the sink with hot water up half way and it took 1 hr 15 min.)
knead again for 2 min.

Make into 4 medium round loaves or make 2 rope loaves.
Put on oiled baking sheets, cover wit htowl and let rise 3 hours (I heated the oven to 100- put in loaf and 2 cups boiling water underneath and it took 1 hour)
Brush top with beaten egg and sprinkle with poppyseeds are kosher salt. (I like to beat my egg with 1 TBS of water- it makes for easier brushing)
Bake @ 350 for 45 minutes
or if you're crazy like me and make 1 giant loaf- 1 hour and then watch it if not done.
I know the picture is silly, but I didn't think to take a picture of the loaf by itself:)