Scalloped Potatoes and Onions

Another great recipe from All Recipes and a lot lower in fat and extra calories than many other scalloped potato recipes!

Ingredients
5 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3/4 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Paprika

Directions
In a greased 2-1/2-qt. baking dish, layer potatoes and onion.

In a saucepan, melt the butter; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add broth, mayonnaise, salt and pepper; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thick and bubbly. Pour over potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika.

Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours or until tender.

Honey Glazed Ham

With my parents visiting for a weekend, it was the perfect time to make and eat a honey ham.  We received a 10 pound, all meat, no bone ham from the farm share, and it was biggest ham I have ever seen!

We decided to only cook half and save the rest.  We found a great recipe from All Recipes that I adapted with what I had in the house.  It was delicious, but the pictures are funny looking.  I had chunked pineapple when really rings would have looked nicer (although it tasted the same).

Honey Glazed Ham

Ingredients
1 (5 pound) fully-cooked, ham
1  cups packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 teaspoon apple pie/pumpkin pie spice

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place ham in a roasting pan.

In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, honey, orange juice, and apple pie spice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside.

Bake ham in preheated oven uncovered for 1 hour. Remove ham from oven, and brush with glaze. Bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, brushing ham with glaze.

Getting ready to enjoy the meal!

Stay tuned for the side dish of scalloped potatoes and dessert of lemon cake.

General Tso's Chicken

There is the cutest, older gentleman that comes to our Weight Watchers meetings.  He spoke this week, talking about a meal he made for his wife, General Tso's Chicken, that he found on E-Tools.  He made it one day to the letter of the recipe, and his wife thought it was too spicy.  He made it again two days later (yes, two days later) without the spice, and his wife said it was missing something....lol!

I came home from the meeting and immediately printed out the recipe to make it on my own- very tasty!  The only problem is that I didn't have red wine vinegar (what the recipe originally called for), so I substituted balsamic vinegar and then added veggies to the recipe.

General Tso's Chicken

Ingredients
3/4 cup chicken broth, reduced-sodium  
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch  
2 Tbsp sugar  
2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce  
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar  
1/2 tsp ground ginger  
2 tsp peanut oil  
2 scallions, chopped  
2 garlic cloves, minced  
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 pound uncooked boneless chicken tenderloins, cut into 2-inch pieces  
1 package, frozen broccoli
2 cups cooked brown rice, kept hot  

Instructions
In a medium bowl, whisk together broth, cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and ginger; set aside.

Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add scallions, garlic and red pepper flakes; cook, stirring frequently, 2 minutes. Add chicken; sauté until browned all over, about 5 minutes.

Add reserved sauce to pan and frozen broccoli and simmer until sauce thickens and chicken is cooked through, about 3 minutes.

Serve chicken and sauce over rice. Yields about 1 cup chicken with sauce and 1/2 cup rice per serving.  Serves 4, 8 points a serving.

Our Cooking's Gotten Better!

Yes, you heard it hear first....Austin and my cooking has gotten much better since I started the blog in January.  Here are a couple pictures that highlight some of our menu improvements:

We're made lots more fritattas, and this is the best one- lots of garlic and onion, chopped spinach, fresh tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese.

Hand-packed burgers we made for friends with Austin's "secret ingredients."  Well, not so secret anymore.

Have you tried any of the food featured on the blog with good results and adaptations?  Let us know in the comments....

Roast Chicken

The farm share gave us our first chicken this week- yay!  I never cooked a whole chicken, so youtube videos and internet recipes helped me figure out what to do.

Start by preheating the oven to 425 degrees.  Then, wash and pat the chicken dry and sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, and Italian Seasoning all over.  Cook 50-60 minutes.

We paired the chicken with Knorr Pasta sides and steamable frozen broccoli. 

Even the small chicken that we cooked left us with too much chicken, so we made many chicken meals from this one chicken we popped in the oven!

 

Polenta Casserole

DELICIOUS- one word to describe this meal.  I found versions of this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod and Bev Cooks over a month ago and have been waiting to use it.  Unfortunately, I never discovered all the ingredients in my pantry and fridge at the same time...lol.

When I made the Asian Barley Soup, I browned two pounds of ground beef....one for the soup and another for Polenta Casserole.  I browned the garlic and onions separately due to using the beef for two recipes, but I think the beef would have tasted better if it was all cooked together.  Although, this recipe was pretty tasty all on its own and very, very easy.

Polenta Casserole

Ingredients

 1 tube polenta, cut into strips    
 1 pound ground beef
 1 tsp olive oil  
 1 bottle pasta sauce    
 1 Tbsp ground oregano    
 1 Tbsp ground basil    
 1/2 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes    
 1 tsp table salt    
 1 tsp black pepper    
 6 oz shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese    

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In pan, coat with olive oil over medium-high heat.  Brown beef with onions and garlic.  Drain grease; add pasta sauce, red pepper flakes, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper.  Stir and mix.

Spray large casserole pan with cooking spray.  Place polenta strips on bottom of casserole, layering if needed.  Add meat and pasta sauce mix, spreading evenly over polenta.  Do the same with the cheese.  Sprinkle with oregano.

Cook for 30-35 minutes.  Serves 6, 10 points a serving.

Asian Beef Barley Soup

I love our farm share, but we get SOOOO much ground beef, and I don't know what to do with it all.  So I took several different recipes and put them together for my own soup creation.  Austin said it was good to great-- but not excellent :(.  I agreed; soup was so-so, but left overs of this soups was much better.  I think the soup needs to sit and settle for a day for the best flavors.  Hope you can take this recipe and adapt it to make it delicious.

Any suggestions, comment below!!

Asian Beef Barley Soup

Ingredients
 1/2 Tbsp olive oil  
 3 medium uncooked onions, chopped  
 2 garlic cloves, minced  
 1 pound 85% lean ground beef  
 4 cups vegetable broth  
 4 cups water  
 1 cup uncooked barley  
 2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce  
 1 package frozen mixed Asian vegetables, with baby corn  
 1 small can water chestnuts, cut in half  
 1 tsp table salt  
 1 tsp black pepper
 1/2 tsp ground turmeric  
 1/2 tsp ground ginger  
 1/2 tsp ground coriander  

Instructions
Coat pot with olive oil. Brown onion, garlic, and ground beef. Drain. Add broth, water, barley and bring to boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Add 2 tbs soy sauce, frozen veggie mix, water chesnuts, and spices. Garnish with fresh cilantro.

Serves 8, 6 points plus a serving.