I'm back! The hiatus is over

In January I began student teaching, and in February I completely took over and was teaching 5 classes until the end of April, which was about 45+ hours of work each week. I was also working at a truck manufacturing company for 8-12 hours a week. In April, I was also working at the Garden on the weekends. Needless to say, I had little time to cook. Jack left for deployment a couple of weeks ago and I want to lose some weight before I go dress shopping in July, so I decided to start a diet. I am trying out the Alli diet and taking the pills (basically just eating lowfat and fat free food, sticking to 15 grams of fat each meal). I decided it was time to hit up the WW cookbook again.

Jack and I decided to try out this Mom-and-Pop Italian place down the block and were immediately hooked. Their pasta dishes are heavy, creamy and delicious. We started going once a week until Jack left. Now I won't go there by myself, plus it wouldn't really work with my diet. However, I have been craving their creamy Italian sauces and I'm going through withdrawal. I decided to turn to the WW cookbook.

I chose the Linguine Alfredo. The recipe called for fat-free cream cheese, which I have never heard of or seen in my entire life, but I humored the book and went to the store to look for it. Of course, they didn't have it. I wanted to make it anyway so I used 3 wedges of Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb. I was going to use 4, but as I was making it, it looked thick and creamy enough after 3. The recipe added broccoli, red pepper and carrots. The addition of vegetables made me eat less pasta. Vegetables are good like that. I used whole wheat pasta because I don't buy regular pasta anymore.

This sauce was really good. May need a little pepper, and it got cold really fast. But it was thick and flavorful and it satisfied my craving. 1 and 1/2 cups is 6 grams of fat, and that was a good amount for lunch. For dinner, I might need to eat a little more.  Thumbs up!

Manhattan Clam Chowder- is that the red or the white?

On Thursday I made the Slow-Cook Manhattan Clam Chowder (which is the red) because I was going to be at work all day and wanted Jack to have a home-cooked meal. If I had the choice between the New England or the Manhattan version of clam chowder, I would always go with the New England. However, since NE is made with cream, the Manhattan would be more suitable for weight watchers. You can find this recipe on page 142, along with other slow-cook recipes. I have to admit that I liked it, and I liked the low points value (2 points for 1.5 cups) even better! The chowder called for some smoked bacon, which I found odd because turkey bacon HAS to be less fattening. The smoked bacon is probably necessary for flavor. The rest of the ingredients are all vegetables, chopped clams and clam juice. No broth necessary. Yummy! This guy gets a smiley face and a thumbs up.

Oven-Roasted Corn on the cob, no butter

I have made this recipe before and love it. It's on page 324 and it comes with a nice picture. Basically, you roll the corn in a mixture of olive oil, lime juice, water and cilantro. Then you wrap it in foil and bake or grill. YUM! If you love cilantro like I do, you will love this recipe. 1 ear of corn is only two points, and trust me, you do not need butter. If you live with people who are picky about eating produce that is in season(like I apparently do), don't make this in the winter.
We ate this with fish tacos, which is not a weight watchers recipe.

I don't really have a lot to say about corn on the cob. Oh, check your teeth after eating.

Spinach-stuffed mushrooms

Page 50. Not a bad substitute for the delicious cream cheese and worcestershire stuffed mushrooms (or cream cheese and bacon, however you roll), especially if you like spinach. I like spinach, plus it's good for you. It would appear as though a WW thing is to use a very strong flavored cheese but only a little of it. This is a pretty good strategy. Unless you like mouthfuls of cheese (which I do, but no matter) you don't really need a lot if it has a lot of flavor. Monterey Jack is one such cheese, and it tasted great on top of these mushrooms. The nutmeg mixed in also added a nice flavor, although I felt kind of like I was eating a quiche. Several problems with the recipe though:

1. I mixed an egg in with the "stuffing" mixture as per the recipe and I'm not sure why. It didn't really seem to add anything.  Except the weird quicheness

2. The recipe called for 4 large white mushrooms, but the white mushrooms I had were still kinda small. I mean, white mushrooms are supposed to be smaller than portobello, yes? It specifically said NOT to use portobello because they are too big. Except, mine were too small. And the white mushrooms I bought are average size. I didn't even use half of the spinach mixture in those 4 mushrooms. So, I have no idea what went wrong here. I made 9 or 10 mushrooms and then threw the rest in a frying pan. Which was weird, because of the egg thing.

3. The recipe called for one bag of triple-washed spinach. What the heck is "triple-washed" spinach? I checked all of the bags of spinach and none said how many times they were washed. In the end, I chose the spinach that was "jet-washed". Figured it might be cleaner than the other spinach.

If I wanted to replace my cream cheese and worcestershire stuffed mushrooms with a healthier variety, I might make these, but I would lose the egg and maybe add some chopped onion. And garlic! Yes, garlic is what these mushrooms need. But besides that, not bad.

A recipe that might make you unpopular

Yesterday I tried the Caramelized Garlic Spread on Toasts (pg 42). This ended up being my lunch, which was poor planning on my part. This spread consists of garlic, honey, cayenne, water, salt and pepper. I ate them with baguette slices I got from Farm Fresh (little ones). The spread is easy to make and doesn't take very long. However, I'm not sure how good of an appetizer it is. I mean, it tasted fine. The cooking of the garlic with the honey took some of the bite out of the garlic, and then you add your own bite with the cayenne. I used the least amount of cayenne recommended by the recipe and found it still too spicy. Also, the amount yielded by the recipe is strange. It makes enough to spread on 9 pieces of toast. So, if you want to serve this at a party (which I wouldn't recommend), you would have to quadruple the recipe at least. If it is just you and one other person, the amount is fine, but it lacks as an appetizer in my opinion.  It's just ok. Nothing to write home about. If I had the choice between caramelized onions and caramelized garlic, I now know that I would choose the onions.

These are 2 points for each toast + 1 teaspoon of spread. Since it was my lunch and I was alone, I ate all of them so as to not waste any, and that was a bad decision. It really wasn't worth the 18 points (for non WW people; that is way too many points for one meal).

So if you are planning on having people over and want to serve low-calorie or somewhat healthy food, you can probably skip this one. Maybe it would be better, and less points, if served with cut up vegetables instead of toasts. And when it comes to appetizers and point values, and you are trying to lose weight, it's probably a good idea to limit yourself to 1 or 2 appetizers anyway. I wish I hadn't eaten 9.

I'm sad because Fabio got sent home from Top Chef. He's Italian, it's not his fault he doesn't know how to make a burger.

Secret's in the saffron?

Risotto is another one of those food items that I cannot resist ordering if I see it on the menu. I absolutely LOVE risotto. I have tried to make it several times before using different recipes and failed. It always tastes the same- bland. I'm not sure if the problem is me or the recipes I have tried. For those who have never made risotto, it requires some patience because you slowly add chicken broth or wine and then let it absorb, stirring constantly, then add some more, usually only 1/2 cup at a time. This takes a while, as you can imagine. You add some cheese and butter at the end, and the result is creamy risotto. A proper recipe will never have cream in it; the risotto becomes creamy from the absorption of the broth and wine. Once when I ordered risotto at an italian restaurant, a dinner-mate made fun of me for ordering "a bowl of rice". Risotto is SO much more than a bowl of rice. If properly made, it is really creamy and flavorful. I have never eaten nor made Risotto Milanese before, which is from Milan, but there it was on page 343 so I gave it a go. I already had most of the ingredients except for the saffron. I have never cooked with saffron before (either because my other recipes didn't call for it or I just left it out), but I know it is common in Spanish cooking because of a previous Top Chef winner who used it all the time. I went to buy the spice at the supermarket and was shocked to see that it was $18, much more costly than the other spices of $4 and $5. So I gritted my teeth and bought the stuff, thinking it better taste like GOLD! Apparently it is so expensive because it is hand harvested.

As I was making it I was on the phone with my sister Melanie and I did not have high hopes because it didn't smell that great when I was adding the broth. After adding the cheese, butter and lemon zest, I gave it a try. SUCCESS!!!! It was so good! It has a nice golden color from the saffron and a little zip from the lemon zest. I am so happy you have no idea. I will make this recipe again and again and again and would even make it for company.

I ate the risotto with a little cheese and parsley sprinkled on top and a glass of Wiemer Semi-Dry Riesling, courtesy of Melanie (check out her wine-making blog: http://iheartnywines.blogspot.com/ ). For the vegetarians out there, you can probably make this with vegetable broth instead. For WW peeps, its 3 points for half a cup ( I ate a lot more than that, oh well). Risotto is actually supposed to be a "first course" but if you love it as much as I do, it definitely takes center stage.

So if you think that risotto is just a "bowl of rice", come on over and try some. If there is any left :-)

Snow day cooking

We got about 3 inches of snow here in Hampton Roads on Thursday, and since the 7 cities all share one snow plow, schools were closed. This was a good day for me to catch up on my lesson plans, so I did, and also spent a little time crocheting. My belly dancing class was cancelled so I figured I had no excuse not to cook dinner. So I tried out the Polenta with Fontinella-Mushroom sauce. I love mushrooms so I was excited! Cooking this meal was interesting. Fontina cheese is expensive! I realized when I started cooking that I had bought the wrong cheese, Fontina instead of Fontinella. I googled them and I'm still not sure if they are the same cheese or not. Different websites say different things. But, I had Fontina so thats what I cooked it with. I also couldn't find my measuring cup so I had to wing the measurements a little. It came out pretty tasty, I ate the meal with some chicken and then I had leftovers for two days, which I ate happily. The cheese had a good flavor and any sauce with mushrooms is a good sauce. The polenta was just ok, but drenched in sauce it was good. I had polenta recently when Jack and I went to McCormick and Schmick's for dinner before he left for his underway, and the polenta in my dish was delicious! So the polenta that I bought was less good. Apparently in northern Italy polenta is preferred over pasta. If it's made well, I can see why.