Pine Nut Couscous

Here's a great side dish that's really easy. If you haven't tried couscous before, now's the time!

1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. olive oil or butter
1 cup whole wheat couscous
1 Tbs. parsley
1/4 cup pine nuts

Bring broth, salt, and oil (or butter) to boil. Stir in couscous, parsley, and pine nuts. Reduce heat, cover, and cook for 3 minutes. DO NOT OPEN, YET!!! Let sit for 4-5 minutes. Then stir to fluff up and serve. Makes about 5 1/2 cup servings.

Pumpkin Pudding

If you like pumpkin pie, you'll like this, and it's super easy and very healthy!

1 package sugar-free instant pudding
2 cups cold milk
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
whipped cream or light coolwhip
nutmeg

Mix pudding mix and milk with a whisk until all lumps are dissolved. Then add pumpkin, cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla and whisk until mixed thoroughly. Spoon mixture into 6 bowls or leave it in one bowl. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Top with whipped cream or cool whip and nutmeg. See. Super easy!

Apple-Squash Mash

There are a couple ways you can make this. Here's the way I made it..........
Cut an acorn squash in half, place in a cake pan with about 1/2 an inch of water in the bottom, put in the oven at 350. Then go fall asleep on the couch. Wake up when the squash is baked, take out of oven and set aside. Then mix the following:
4 apples (peeled an chopped)
1/2 cup chopped cashews (or nuts of your choice)
2 tbs. butter (softened)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Place in baking dish and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes (or until apples just start to soften).
In the meantime, scoop the baked squash out of the skin and mash up in a bowl. When apple mixture is done, add it to the squash and stir it up.

If I hadn't fallen asleep I would have let the squash bake for about 30 minutes, put the apple mixture in the squash centers and baked it all together. It looks prettier that way, although, it tastes better all mashed together. I used a lot of apples because squash is not a favorite at my house :( , but if you want to bring out the flavor of the squash more, make less of the apple mixture.

Thanks to Rebecca for sharing the inspiration for this dish! Sorry the picture doesn't do it justice.

Taco Casserole

Brown one pound ground beef. Drain and then mix in 1 packet taco seasoning and 3/4 cup water. Cook until it thickens. Add desired amounts of corn and sliced olives, and one one can drained kidney beans. Put into casserole dish. Mix up 1 corn bread mix (jiffy) as the package instructs. Pour evenly over beef mixture. Bake at 350 for about 1/2 an hour or until cornbread is golden brown. Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, and taco sauce.

Fruit pizza

Looks and tastes DELICIOUS!!!!

Ingredients:
1 - 1 1/2 rolls sugar cookie dough
1 1/2 packages low fat cream cheese
lemon juice
powdered sugar
fruit (strawberries, pineapple ring, bananas (sliced and dipped in lemon or pineapple juice), oranges, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, etc.)
melted chocolate to drizzle over top (optional)

Directions:
Spread cookie dough evenly on pizza pan and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown (about 15 minutes, but watch it carefully!!!). Let cool.
Mix cream cheese with lemon juice and powdered sugar to desired taste and consistency (I like it more tart to offset the sweetness of the fruit). Spread on pizza cookie.
Slice fruit and arrange it BEAUTIFULLY on the cookie.
Melt chocolate and drizzle over the top. (optional)

Fresh Caramel Apple Pie

This is HEAVENLY!!! And it's a crock pot recipe!!!! And it's EASY!!!!! It does take a long time (the crock pot part), but it's so worth it!!!!

Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 graham cracker crust
2 granny smith apples
Lemon juice and water bath for apples
1/2 container Cool Whip
1 Heath Bar, chopped

Directions:
Pour milk into a 2-cup glass measure and cover with foil. Place in crock pot and add very hot water to crock pot to reach level of milk in measure. Cover and cook on LOW 9 hours (milk should be caramel colored). Stir well with a whisk or fork.
Peel and chop apples into thin, small pieces. pour water bath over the apples, to prevent browning. Drain apples, and pat them dry. Fill pie crust, about halfway, with apples (you may have some left over). Pour caramel, evenly, over top of apples. Refrigerate until caramel is cool. Spread whipped topping over pie; sprinkle with chopped candy bar.

Barbacoa Shredded Beef & Easy Spanich Rice

This recipe was actually kind of mild, so definitely serve with salsa. Or maybe add more chili powder. I'll kick around other recipes and try to find one I REALLY like. But, for now, this one is pretty darn good. :)

Ingredients:
3 pound tri tip or chuck roast, some fat trimmed off (leave some for flavor). Cut into about 4 or 5 large pieces.
1/2 yellow onion quartered
2 large garlic cloves cut in quarters
1 jalapeno, chopped, stem and seeds removed if you don't want it too spicy
2 tbs. Chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup water

Directions:
Place all ingredients in slow cooker. Set on low and let cook for 7-8 hours until moist and shreds easily. (Or cook on high 4-5 hours) There should be enough liquid to keep it moist.

Serve on tortillas with Spanish rice (recipe below), black beans, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, cheese, etc.

Easy Spanish Rice

Ingredients:
2 Tbs. oil
2 Tbs. chopped onion
1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup chunky salsa

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat. Stir in onions, and cook until tender.
2. Mix rice in skillet, stirring often. When rice begins to brown, stir in chicken broth and salsa. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes, until liquid has been absorbed and rice is at desired consistency.

Chicken Cacciatori

This is a great recipe for hiding veggies in. :)

Ingredients:
6 chicken thighs or chicken breast
3 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato sauce
2 cans tomato paste
1 medium or 2 small zucchini ~ grated
1 chopped onion
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
2 chopped garlic cloves
1/4 cup sugar
parsley, basil, oregano (season to our preference)

Place all ingredients in crock pot, except for tomato paste. Cook for 4 hours high or 7-8 hours low. Stir in tomato paste to thicken. Serve over pasta (I use the whole wheat rotini.).

Stuffed french toast

OK, totally not on the healthy side, but it's sure a nice treat, once in a while. And it's really not much harder to make than regular french toast.

Ingredients:
1 loaf french bread (the denser the better ~ not crunchy on the outside)
raspberry jam
cream cheese (softened)
eggs (1 per person + 1 more)
milk
vanilla
cinnamon

Directions:
Slice bread as thin as possible and make sandwiches with cream cheese on one piece of bread and raspberry jam on the other. Mix eggs, some milk, cinnamon, and vanilla in a shallow dish or container. Dip the sandwiches in the egg mixture, coating both sides, and then place on a skillet and cook both sides. Top with syrup.

Thai-Style Pork Stew

Stew:
2 pounds boneless pork loin, cut into 4 pieces, trimmed
2 cups (1 X 1/4 -inch) julienne-cut red bell pepper
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
2 Tbs. rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Remaining Ingredients:
6 cups hot cooked basmati rice
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 Tbs. chopped dry-roasted peanuts
8 lime wedges

1. Place pork, belle pepper, and next 4 ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH 1 hour, reduce heat to LOW, and cook 6 hours. Remove pork from cooker, and coarsely chop. Add peanut butter to cooking liquid in cooker, stir well. Stir in pork.
2. Serve stew over rice in individual bowls, and top with onion and peanuts. Serve with lime wedges.
(Yields 8 servings)

I LOVE this recipe!!!! Make sure you squeeze your lime over your pork before eating. It's so yummy and it's not a hard recipe to make. Being almost 5 months post- weight loss surgery, I skip the rice and just have the "stew".

Quesadillas

1 carb smart tortilla
cooked chicken
black beans
tomatoes with green chilies
olives
cheese
sour cream

Place tortilla on medium heat skillet, spread ingredients on (except for sour cream), wait for the cheese to melt (sometimes I put a lid over the quesadilla once the tortilla is getting crispy), remove from heat, slice up, add a dollop of sour cream.

Chicken and Barley Soup

My daughter came home sick, today, so I made a quick pot of Chicken-Barley Soup. Normally I make this in the crock pot, but, today, I made it on the stove top.

Put the following ingredients in crock pot:

2-3 chopped carrots
2-3 chopped celery stalks
1 chopped onion
1 small bunch parsley finely chopped
2-3 cups chopped chicken
1/2 cup barley
8 cups chicken broth (or bouillon and water)
(I also like to add a sweet potato, chopped up, but one of my kids suddenly doesn't like it that way, anymore, so I've put that on hold.)

Turn pot on to low for 6 hours or high for 3 or 4. (If cooking on stove top, simmering for 45 minutes should do it!)

Burrito Filling

Since I still don't do very well with tortillas, when I make burritos for my family, I just have the fillers. Here's what I put in.

Put in crock pot:
1 lb. cooked and drained ground beef, turkey, or chicken (actually I think the chicken tastes the best!)
1 packet taco seasoning
1/4 cup water
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup corn

Cook this for 3 hours on high or 5 on low.

Top with:
cheese
a leafy green (I used spinach today)
tomatoes
olives
avocado
sour cream
taco sauce or salsa


Enjoy! I sure do!!

White Chili Crockpot recipe

Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts
4-5 cans Navy beans (drained and rinsed)
1 onion diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 can diced green chilis
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. oregano
dash cayenne
3 tbs. cornstarch

Directions:
Cook the chicken long enough to cook the outside, then cube. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Place chicken, onion, garlic, Navy beans, green chilies, cumin, oregano, and cayenne in crock pot. In another pan, heat chicken broth. Stir cornstarch into about 1/3 cup of water. When mixed, add to the broth. Let thicken. Then add broth to the crock pot. Cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 4. Top with cheese, cilantro and lime juice, or Tostitos Lime Tortilla Chips.

*I've used cooked dark meat chicken when I didn't have thawed chicken breast. It makes the flavor wonderful. :)