Recipes and Food Finds

First off, since I don't think I mentioned it, I'm down to 323 at this point. The last couple of weeks have been slow, mainly because I wasn't watching what I was eating as much as I should have. I really need to find the time to start making the gym again, and may make a point of doing that starting tomorrow. Working two jobs right now plus a paying avocation on the side makes time a little tight.

Now, on to the recipes and food finds. I have two things to put out here right now. The first is a food find. Skinny Cow now has a line of single serve ice cream cups. To this point, I've tried three of the varieties: Dulce de Leche (2 pts), Strawberry Cheesecake (2 pts), and Caramel Cone (3 pts). Each of them has been very tasty, doesn't have the aftertaste that annoys me so much with the Weight Watchers brand ice creams, and was a good does of satisfaction for my sweet tooth. This also means I'm not going to be hording points anymore to make room for a pint of Ben and Jerry's Froyo Cherry Garcia on any sort of semi-regular basis. Kroger has been running these on special with four of them for $5, which was part of what prompted me to try them.

On the recipe front, I made the following for dinner last night: Cream of Mushroom baked Chicken w/ herbs and spices, Roasted Asparagus, and Red Potatoes with Green Beans. All total? 7.5 points. I will admit that I short cutted on the potatoes and green beans, using one of the Green Giant steamer packs. It had 2.5 servings in the bag, which was perfect for myself, my wife, and our son, and it weighs in at 1 pt a serving. The asparagus, roasted with black pepper, kosher salt, and olive oil weighted in at the wonderful amount of 0 pts, and the chicken came in at 6.5 pts for a whole breast.

To give you a brief rundown of preparation, here are the ingredients for the two prepared dishes:

Cream of Mushroom Baked Chicken:
Ingredients:
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (condensed)
Mixture of spices and herbs (the ones I used last night were cracked black pepper, kosher salt, and thyme)

• In a bowl, mix the two cans of soup with one can of water until smooth.
  
• Pour approximately 1/4 cup of the soup into the bottom of a baking dish and spread to cover the bottom of the dish
  
• Rinse each of the chicken breasts and coat to taste on both sides with the spice/herb mixture before placing them in the baking dish
  
• Cover the chicken breasts with the remainder of the cream of mushroom soup
  
• Pre-heat over to 375 degrees and cook for 40 minutes
  

Weight Watchers lists the serving size for a chicken breast at half a breast, so this recipe makes six servings (3.5 pts per serving).

Roasted Asparagus:

Ingredients:
1.5-2 pounds of fresh asparagus
1/4 cup of Olive Oil Mixture of cracked black pepper and kosher salt (I reused the mixture I used to rub the chicken breasts, so there was thyme mixed in as well last night)

• Pour the olive oil on a baking pan
  
• After rinsing the asparagus and breaking off the stems, place it on the baking pan
  
• Sprinkle liberally with the salt/pepper mixture
  
• Using your hands, rolling the asparagus through the olive oil and the spices until it is appropriately covered.
  
• Pre-heat the oven to 375 and cook the asparagus for 15 minutes, rolling the asparagus once during the cooking period.
  

The Asparagus is 0 points for a cup, so this covers a good bit and provides you with your free dash of good oils for the day as well.

I will also note this was just as good reheated the next day as I had the left overs for lunch today.