Tag Archives: dinner

Chicken Bundles

28 Feb
Chicken bundles

You can stuff the chicken with just about anything you'd like. On this particular night I stuffed half with broccoli and half with spinach.

Back when I was a college student, I lived in a house with my friend Karen for a year. Because we were renting a full house, we had a full kitchen and we did lots of cooking. Correction: she did lots of cooking. I got several of my best recipes that I still use today, from her. When we moved out of our house at the end of that school year, she gave me a cookbook she’d made with some of my favorite recipes from her in it. Today’s recipe is one of those recipes that I got from Karen, and of course like all my favorite recipes, it’s super easy and super delicious.

The official name of it is Chicken Asparagus Bundles, but we have made them with either asparagus or broccoli or spinach and all have been great. It’s a fast recipe and when I made it last week after not having made it for a long, long time, it got five thumbs up here; a minor miracle. Even Alex, my meat-hater-since-birth, loved it. We served it with couscous that night, and a Caesar Salad on the side. On that particular night I split the bundles so that half contained broccoli and half contained spinach. Normally when we buy our frozen broccoli we buy Broccoli Florets. On one of our trips recently we accidentally bought Broccoli Cuts, which I hate because it’s almost all stems and very few florets (despite the package picture). This recipe was perfect for the cuts because I picked out all the florets to stuff half of the chicken bundles with, threw out all the stems, and then used frozen cut spinach for the rest of the chicken.

(As a total aside, this same cream cheese used here is fabulous for making stuffed mushrooms. Try it some day! Just stuff them, bake them, and eat them!)

Ingredients for Chicken Bundles

It was when I saw the cream cheese at Aldi's that I remembered this long-forgotten recipe. I hadn't made it in so long and I couldn't wait to make it!

INGREDIENTS

6 boneless chicken breast halves (I use chicken tenders.)

1 eight ounce container soft cream cheese with chives and onions

18 fresh asparagus stalks steamed until crisp tender OR thawed frozen broccoli OR thawed frozen cut leaf spinach. (I nuke the broccoli and/or the spinach to partially thaw them before stuffing the chicken.)

Butter

Paprika

Ready to go into the oven!

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Flatten breast halves to even thickness with mallet. (I don’t need to do that for the tenders.)

Trim asparagus stems to 4 inches, if using asparagus. If not, prepare the broccoli and/or the spinach.

Spread each breast half with about 2 Tablespoons of cream cheese. (Or spread about 1 Tablespoon onto a tender.)

Place your chosen veggies inside and wrap as shown here, forming a roll.

Place rolls seam-side down in a buttered baking  dish.

Place a small pat of butter on top of each bundle.
Bake 45 minutes, baste with pan drippings after 30 minutes.

To serve, spoon any melted cheese in pan over rolls, sprinkle with paprika. (I never sprinkle with paprika.)

Cooked and ready to serve. Enjoy!

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February vacation AND Ash Wednesday…a double whammy!

22 Feb

All you need for a great meatless meal during Lent!

Surviving February Vacation week? I hope so! I know a lot of schools don’t actually have a vacation in February, but in our neck of the woods we do, and I’m always grateful for the break. Have you been doing anything special? If you live near a national state park, check out their website. Oftentimes they have special things planned for school vacation weeks. If not, you can always set up an indoor campsite with tents or forts.

Alex set up “Camp Rock” in our house the other day with her guitar and all kinds of stuff in her tent in her bedroom. Kept her amused and busy for quite some time. I always find forts to be a good use of time also. They stay in them for hours.

Alex was set up in her tent for a long time the other day! Forts and tents = tons of fun!

This week Lent begins in the Catholic religion, which means for my family that today is Ash Wednesday and so begins the 40 days of Lent. During Lent there are several practices we follow, one of which is the giving up of meat on certain days, namely holy days and Fridays.

One of our favorite meatless meals is Grandma Rose’s Tuna and Spaghetti. It’s pasta with a twist. It’s a Depression era meal, one that she grew up on back in the 1930’s. It’s one of our family’s favorite meals, and whenever people hear about it, they first say “ewwww” til they taste it. I’ve never had anyone try it and not like it. If you’re looking for something different to try during your 40 days of Lent, or just in general (because we do it this all year long too) give it a whirl and let me know what you think!

Tuna and spaghetti sauce

There's nothing like a pot of bubbling sauce simmering away on the stove!

GRANDMA ROSE’S FAMOUS TUNA AND SPAGHETTI

INGREDIENTS

one 28 ounce can Kitchen Ready Tomatoes

one 6 1/2 ounce can Bumble Bee Tuna and Oil

one clove garlic

1 TBl. olive oil

salt, pepper, basil, oregano to taste

1 cup water

DIRECTIONS

Use 2 qt. sauce pan and brown the garlic and oil.

Remove garlic

Add tomatoes (you can angle the cover of the pan over the pan to avoid splatter.)

Add one cup of water, plus salt, pepper, oregano and basil.

Cook on low heat for 1/2 hour.

Add tuna, including oil in can, and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Grandma Rose gave us her pasta bowl for serving our pasta. I think of her every time we use it and she's so glad we get lots of use out of it!

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Valentine’s Day: Oh the pressure!

15 Feb

Gifts lined up and ready to go for our Valentine's morning

Valentine’s Day can be a lot of pressure, especially for someone who is crafty, loves to cook, bake and eat, and then write about what she crafted, cooked, baked and ate. Like Christmas, people wait (or at least they tell me they’re waiting) to see what I’ve produced for cards, for cookies, for meals. It’s a lot of pressure and I set the bar high for myself.

Valentine’s Day also comes right on the heels of Christmas. It’s not supposed to be a huge gift-giving event, but there’s pressure to make it that way. I do try very hard to make our gifts small token gifts, a treat they want. I try not to do any candy since we get a truckload, or rather, a school busload of it at 3:30 on Valentine’s Day afternoon. Being on a budget, I struggle with what to give, what to buy, what not to buy. What I want to buy is often not what is in the budget. I’d love to say, “Instead of giving gifts this year, we’re going overnight to an indoor water park for the weekend!!” But, giving token gifts is cheaper. The indoor water park is not in the budget. Maybe next year. Since having kids, Don and I haven’t exchanged gifts on holidays. We focus only on the kids, and we figure we’re showing our love for each other in little ways all year long instead. We know our time will come around again when we’ve got an empty nest and we’ll wonder then where this time went.

No matter what, they always love their gifts.

I try to make my budget as equal as I can per child without spending too much more on one than another, but so they each have the same amount of items to open in the morning. And no matter what, they always love their gifts, hopefully because I spent so much time thinking about them and choosing them.

I actually don’t make their Valentine’s Cards anymore. We’re huge Snoopy fans, we had a Snoopy nursery, Snoopy birth announcements and parties when they were babies, so I have tried the past few years to get them each a Snoopy card for Valentine’s Day, to provide balance between giving them handmade items and giving them the “popular” items they also love.

This year we celebrated Valentine’s Day as a family at 7:00 am since Don had a 7:30 am meeting. He also had an after school meeting and a night time meeting, so we thought we wouldn’t be seeing him at all. But, later that day, we were thrilled to find out his after school meeting was rescheduled and it meant he’d get to come home for dinner after all, and then go back for the night time meeting. So we were blessed. His 14 hour day was now only 12 hours and we’d get to spend dinner time together after all.

Each year I try to think of the perfect meals and snacks to make the day special. I love hearts so I have always had tons of heart shaped items from dishes to platters to bakeware.

For breakfast, I toyed with the idea of cinnamon buns with pink icing, pink pancakes or pink waffles. I looked on Pinterest and pinned a ton of things that looked great but just weren’t it. I just wasn’t feeling it, no matter what I saw.

In the end, I chose to get up early and make muffins, something I used to do for them all the time when they were younger and less of them were in school. It’s a nice treat on a school day to have a hot muffin right out of the oven. I even thought of making them last night but I don’t like them when they’re cold. A little pink food coloring in them and we were good to go. I even put pink food coloring in their milk and gave them red apples for their fresh fruit.

By 7:15 am Don was gone, the gifts were opened, and by 7:25 am one kid had already lost her bedtime by getting in trouble. I won’t say who or why, to protect her privacy. But that’s the way things go sometimes, Valentine’s Day or not.

After School Snack: Valentine's Monkey Munch!

By 8:40 am they were on the bus, I’d taken Motrin for my headache and I had the rest of the day to type my stories for this week’s papers, and to plan out my after school Valentine’s Day snack and our Valentine’s Day dinner, both of which are new recipes I’ve been wanting to try out. (Remember my Monkey Munch recipe? The snack was a  Valentine’s version of that!)

Despite all of the pressure, I try to remind myself that it’s the little things that matter and the little things they’ll remember. I remind myself that the more I make the holiday out to be, the more of a precedent I’m setting for myself for the future.

Hopefully when they think back on their Valentine’s Days growing up, they’ll think that they were absolutely perfect.

Pink muffins and pink milk for my little Valentines.

Everyone got a treat they'd really been wanting.

Valentine's earrings on, off to school!

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Happy Valentine’s Day! My gift to you: Apricot Chicken two ways

14 Feb

Happy Valentine's Day from me to you!

Today is Valentine’s Day, and to show my love for you, I’m giving you not one, but TWO recipes today!

Both recipes are for the same dish: Apricot Chicken. One is baked in the oven and one is a crock pot recipe sent to me during my crock pot recipe contest last month. It was the first one I tried, sent to me by Joanna Sprik at Jolyn’s Cupcakes and Candies. Stop over at her blog and check it out!

Her recipe was very simple and tasty too! My only problem….I made it on a day I was recovering from being sick, and because I wasn’t 100% yet, I forgot to take a picture of the final product, and it was so good! Next time I make it, I’ll post a photo of it!

JOLYN’S CROCK POT APRICOT CHICKEN

Just two ingredients to go in the crock pot with your chicken!

INGREDIENTS

24 oz apricot preserves (2 12oz jars),

6 seasoned chicken breasts (can use tenders too)

1 envelope onion soup mix

I put it all in my crock pot and cooked it all day long, served it over white rice.

Thanks for sharing Joanna!

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It's like dessert for dinner...

BAKED APRICOT CHICKEN

I posted this recipe on Facebook a couple of years ago, it’s one I’ve been making for years. Here it is now, as I posted it then:

Apricot Chicken A Norman LeClair Recipe (The Red Rooster Restaurant, NK RI)

I’m writing the original recipe with my own modifications added in. I’ve made this for so many years that I’ve kind of modified it to my liking. Basically so it’s like dessert instead of dinner. 🙂

2 whole chicken breasts, skinned, boned, halved and flattened
I actually use several (depending on how many people)boneless, skinless tenders or breasts instead of going through all the work of skinning and boning the whole breasts.

1/2 cup bread crumbs
Recipe calls for flavored, I use plain.

4 mushroom caps, stems removed
sometimes I skip these if I don’t have any mushrooms. Not crucial to recipe, in my opinion.

2 teaspoons butter

Glaze:
1/2 cup Apricot Jelly
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 tsp. ginger
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon soy
Recipe also calls for pinch of crushed red pepper, I don’t use it.

In flat dish, press crumbs into chicken on both sides; reserve.

Mix well in bowl: apricot jelly, ginger, garlic, red pepper, vinegar, soy sauce; reserve.

Butter or spray one oven proof casserole dish.

Lay out chicken in dish.

Top with mushroom caps.

Spoon glaze on chicken and mushrooms.

Dot with butter.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Remove to serving plates and spoon remaining glaze on chicken.

I serve on a bed of white rice.

Enjoy!

Baked Apricot Chicken

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New England Newspaper & Press Association Awards

12 Feb

Tonight was the night I'd been looking forward to for a month now, and I was so happy it didn't snow!

Last night was the 2012 NENPA Awards Banquet. Awards were given out to nominees from Maine to Connecticut in a wide variety of categories. The awards are based on your work from the 2011 calendar year. The event is held at the historic Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts each year and if I had to guess, there were over 600 nominees at the dinner ceremony. It’s quite an honor to even be nominated, an honor to know that you rank up there as a writer or photographer with the top journalists in all of New England. In 2010 I attended and placed second for Education Reporting for my 2009 work. I was thrilled!

Our company, Beacon Communications, has several different newspapers: The Cranston Herald and The Johnston Sun Rise, both of whom I write for, and The Warwick Beacon. This year there were six of us nominated for awards, four of us attended, and my husband Don. Our company allows each of us to submit our best work in three categories if we’d like to be considered for an award by NENPA. This year I had submitted one in Education Reporting, one in Religious Reporting, and one Educational Series. You submit in August and you hear back from NENPA in January, with the award ceremony in February.

When I heard from my editor that I’d won again this year, it was in the Religious Reporting category. She mentioned that there were still several categories whose judges had not reported back. Education was one of those categories. By the time February came, I hadn’t heard anything else about winning in another category so I assumed I was only nominated in that one.

We arrived at the Park Plaza hotel with plenty of time to spare so we walked into the room where they post all of the nominated work, separated by category and class. (Class is determined by your newspaper’s circulation.) As we walked up and down the aisles looking for the Religious Reporting category, we walked past the Education Reporting category and I sadly said to Don, “Awww…there’s Education.” That’s what I had won for in 2009 and I was bummed out that my piece I’d submitted hadn’t won again. Suddenly though, I did a double-take because hanging on the board in front of me, covered by another entry, was my Education submission, nominated for an award. I was so shocked and I was thrilled!! Now I knew that not only would I be recognized in one category, but two, and that my area of expertise, Education, had in fact, been nominated for an award.

There, sticking out from behind two other entries, was a Cranston Herald nominee, MY nominated work! I was so surprised!

Dessert was delicious!!

Dinner consisted of salad, chicken, veggies and some sort of green rice.  Dessert was delicious and well-worth the wait. It was a chocolate mousse served inside a hard chocolate shell, shaped like a pyramid. There was whipped cream and half a strawberry on the plate, along with some sauce drizzled on the plate as well.

After dessert and coffee, they began announcing the nominees in each class for each category, in alphabetical order. It’s grueling to sit through and wait for your category to be called, then your class in that category and then your name to see where you placed.

During the weeks leading up to the event, I had hoped and prayed for first or second place and the other day when I was at the hairdresser for an appointment, I said to one of the stylists, “I only want first or second place. I’ll be so disappointed if I only get third.”

She asked me how many people I had been up against, to even be nominated at all, and I said I wasn’t sure, maybe hundreds since the competition encompassed all of New England. She was shocked to hear that, and she said, “You should be thrilled no matter WHAT place you get! Think of your daughters and the lessons you want to be teaching them. You don’t want them to think it’s about the winning or what place you get,” and at that point I thanked her for bringing me back to reality. She said to me, “I’m going to pray that you get third place and that you’re able to be happy with that.” I hugged her as I left, and I thought about what she said from then on.

I placed third in both categories, actually tying with another journalist for third place in the Education Reporting category.

I also found out later, that there were 3000 entries into this year’s competition. Although not all 3000 were in my two categories, it does show just how tough the competition was overall.

I’m thrilled that I have been recognized yet again for my contribution to journalism here in New England, and in my city and state. I’m thrilled to have a job I love, and that I can be proud of the work that I do. I am glad my daughters can be proud of me and I need to be better at accepting less than first place! I don’t want them to ever think that third isn’t “good enough,” because it certainly is. To be in a room filled with almost 1000 New England journalists, knowing that you’re one of them and you all make up the cream of the crop, is quite a feeling, and I can’t wait to do it again!

I can now say I am a FOUR TIME award-winning journalist!!

Here are a few more photos from last night’s event.

Beacon Communications was well-represented at the NENPA Awards!

Education, I couldn't believe it!

It's great to have Don there with me when I get these awards. He often makes it possible for me to do the jobs I do, by taking care of the kids when I'm out on nights and weekends, so having him share in the limelight is nice!

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Easy “Chinese” Beef and Broccoli

9 Feb
Easy "Chinese" Beef and Broccoli

You can tell this is my dinner plate. Nothing is touching. Lots of room for possible run-off!

We love Chinese food at our house, and every once in a great while we splurge and get some takeout. In the meantime though, when we can’t do that, I try to find Chinese food-like recipes to make at home. I’m also always looking for new things to do with stew meat, which is one of the staples on our shopping list.

A couple of years ago I found this recipe online, on About.com when I searched for ways to use stew meat.

Normally I serve this over white rice, and I actually do put mine on top of the white rice, believe it or not. But, every so often we try to create our own version of Chinese Fried Rice, and this was one of those times. I used the Instant Brown Rice from Aldis with their frozen peas and I cooked the rice in the microwave first, as I normally would. Then I sauteed it with olive oil and soy sauce and the peas in a large frying pan. It came out so well! I thought we were out of eggs, or I would’ve scrambled some in as well. Turns out, we weren’t, and I could’ve done it after all.

Here’s the recipe as it was on About.com with my modifications in there too.

I mix the gravy mix right in the 2c. measuring cup.

INGREDIENTS

2 to 3 cups leftover steak thinly sliced into 1″ strips (aka stew meat in my house)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups fresh broccoli florets (or 1 16 ounce bag frozen florets)
1 package dry brown gravy mix (I use two)
1 cup water (I use 2 cups because I use two packs of gravy mix)
pepper to taste

I add in a package of fresh sliced mushrooms if I have them.

Cooked white rice or Chinese Noodles (I do rice.)

DIRECTIONS

Another one pan meal!

Heat oil in large frying pan over med. high heat. Add sliced steak strips (stew meat) and saute until hot, about three minutes (longer if frozen as mine always is.) Add broccoli (uncooked) and mushrooms if you choose to use them, and mix.

In a small bowl stir together the gravy mix, water and pepper (I never use pepper.) Add to the broccoli and beef in the pan.

Heat to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer about 10 minutes.

Serve over rice or noodles.
Makes 4-5 servings

Enjoy!

a look at the fried rice

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Arizona Chicken Casserole

8 Feb
Arizona Chicken Casserole

This is one of my other favorite chicken dinners!

This recipe is from 2002. I know that because my parents got the recipe while on vacation in Arizona when my daughter Elizabeth was just 12 weeks old. I remember that trip distinctly because Elizabeth ended up being in the hospital for four days while they were on that trip, and every time I make this meal, that’s what I remember! I’m sure having been on the actual trip, my parents probably have better memories than that, whenever they have this meal!

This meal has very easy prep, but a long baking time, so take that into account when you’re planning. You have to start much earlier then you plan to actually eat.

It can be served over rice or as you see it here, egg noodles, or whatever your prefer. My kids all like some part of this meal, whether it’s the chicken, the noodles, the artichoke hearts, the mushrooms or all of the above. That makes it a good one for our family.

The only unique ingredients in the recipe are the sherry and the artichoke hearts. The sherry I almost always have on hand (Holland House Cooking Sherry) and the artichoke hearts I usually don’t, so I have to plan ahead and be sure to pick them up if I know I’m going to be making this.

Nothing in this recipe is expensive so it keeps to our budget-friendly meal planning.

INGREDIENTS

One pan, one dish, I love it!

3 lbs Chicken Breasts (I use boneless, skinless chicken tenders, 3 per person.)
salt, pepper, paprika (we don’t use the paprkia.)
6 T. butter or margarine
1 cup whole mushrooms (we slice them in half)
1 can (15 oz) artichoke hearts
3 T. flour
2 cups chicken boullion
1/3 cup sherry

Sauce for Arizona Chicken casserole

You make the sauce in the same pan you cooked the chicken in. Makes for easy clean up.

DIRECTIONS

Sprinkle chicken with desired amount of salt, pepper and pakrika.

Place 4 tablespoons of butter or margarine in large skillet. Brown chicken.

When all chicken is browned, place in 9×13 baking dish.

Add mushrooms. Drain artichoke heats and add to chicken and mushrooms in casserole.
Add remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to skillet and melt over medium heat.
Stir in flour until all flour is absorbed.

Gradually add boullion and continue stirring until thickened. Stir in sherry.

Pour sauce over chkcken, cover and bake at 375 for 45 minutes.
Remove cover and bake additional 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Finished and ready to serve!

Finished and ready to serve!

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Seven Weeks of Meals

6 Feb

A month ago, I mentioned in a post that when we were expecting our third child, my husband was working full time while in school full time and I had a two year old and a five year old. I fondly call this time “The Worst School Year of Our Lives,” but one good thing that came out of it (besides his new degree and new job and our new baby) was our Seven Weeks of Meals list.

When I was prepping for those first few crazy weeks of new babyhood, I sat and listed all of the things our family eats pretty regularly and likes. It got me through seven weeks, not counting eating out or at someone’s house, eating leftovers, or eating breakfast for dinner, anything like that.

I recently saw another blog where she listed her family’s four weeks of meals, so I’ve decided to share my list with you as well, in case it can help anyone out with their own meal planning. It’s not a list we stick to like clockwork anymore, and a lot depends on our schedule each week, but we have it if we need it and it certainly helps me when I’m planning our meals and it gives my brain a jog when I’m trying to think of what to make for dinner. We’re also always adding to our list of foods as we try new things or are introduced to new foods.

Here goes:

Flounder with Lemon and Dill (Tilapia)

We are lucky, all our kids like fish.

WEEK ONE:

Monday: Spaghetti and Tuna Sauce
Tuesday: Pork chops with homemade applesauce and rice pilaf
Wednesday: Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Thursday: Chicken Marsala with white rice (or pasta)
Friday: Flounder with lemon and dill and baked potatoes or rice

Shepherd's Pie

WEEK TWO:

Monday: Stuffed Shells
Tuesday: BBQ Ribs, cornbread
Wednesday: Shepherd’s Pie
Thursday: Easy Chicken and Wine, baked potatoes
Friday: Baked stuffed fish, white rice

Sweet and Sour Beef and Broccoli Teriyaki

Sweet and Sour Beef Teriyaki

WEEK THREE:

Monday: Lasagna
Tuesday: Hanukkah Beef Brisket
Wednesday: Steak Sandwiches
Thursday: Sweet and Sour Beef over Rice
Friday: Nicoise

Cranberry Chicken is good all year long.

WEEK FOUR:

Monday: American Chopped Suey
Tuesday: Honey Dijon Pork Chops and baked potatoes
Wednesday: Marinated steaks, rice pilaf
Thursday: Cranberry Chicken, white rice
Friday: Crumb topped baked Tilapia, red potatoes

Beef Burgundy, a great one-pan meal

WEEK FIVE:

Monday: Manicotti
Tuesday: BBQ Chicken wings
Wednesday: Beef Burgundy
Thursday: Baked chicken breasts
Friday: Salmon with hollandaise sauce

Homemade "gravy" provides us with enough sauce and meat for eight weeks of meals. We can integrate it into any week's menu as needed.

WEEK SIX:

Monday: Pasta with meatballs and pork
Tuesday: Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Wednesday: Quesadillas
Thursday: Marinated Pork Tenderloin
Friday: Pan fried flounder

Shrimp Scampi

Great recipe from a friend

WEEK SEVEN:

Monday: Ravioli
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Arizona Chicken Casserole
Thursday: “Chinese” Beef and Broccoli
Friday: Shrimp Scampi

And so there you have it: seven weeks of meal ideas for you! I hope this can help you in planning your weeks’ of meals. As I said, we have updated our list, and continue to update it as we add or subtract things to or from the list. It’s always fun to try new things and it’s always good to give “old” things a rest for a bit if you find yourself in a rut.

What’s for dinner in your house this week?

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Bonus Post from a Guest Blogger and Weight Watcher Success Story: Debi

4 Feb
Football Helmet and Football

Don't let Superbowl Sunday be a loss for your diet!

One of the things I love about modern technology is the ability I’ve had to reconnect and stay connected with so many people, near and far. One of the people I’ve reconnected with most recently is my friend Debi from college. She is what I consider to be a Weight Watchers Success Story. She has lost 70 pounds while on the program and is now a Weight Watchers Meeting Leader, helping other people meet the same success she has had on WW.

When she approached me last week about using our chili recipe for her upcoming WW meeting, and computing the WW points for it, I immediately said yes and asked her if she would share her findings as to how healthy the recipe actually was (it seemed healthy enough to me) when she finished. I asked her to be a guest blogger for today’s post. Tomorrow is the Superbowl and I thought it was important to remind everyone that the Superbowl is just one day, but diets are a day in and day out commitment. Don’t let one day throw you completely off the wagon. Here is Debi’s post. Thanks Debi!

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Super Bowl – Beyond the Game: Let’s Talk Food!

Ah, the Super Bowl, what’s better than a day filled with football, friends and food? Of course, the day would be perfect if YOUR team won! I’m not so concerned with which team wins. I’m more interested in the game itself and how it’s played. I cheer when someone makes a good play and route for the underdog when they just can’t seem to get their act together.

With the Super Bowl just one day away, and not being concerned about the game, my focus here is on the food. I can’t help but think of all the extra calories that people across the country will be mindlessly consuming on game day.

While you’re hooting and hollering, do you ever stop and think why are you eating all those tortilla chips? Are you really hungry? Do you even know how many you’ve eaten? How many beers did you drink? Were you really thirsty? Better yet, do you even remember what the beer tasted like? Being mindful of what and how much we are eating usually takes a back seat to the excitement of the game.

But, it doesn’t have to play out this way.

A couple of years ago, I would have been one of those people mindlessly eating. However, after joining Weight Watchers and losing 70 lbs., I have a new perspective when it comes to food; even more so now that I am a Weight Watchers meeting room leader.

Earlier in the week when I started preparing for this week’s meeting, I immediately knew that the timing of this week’s topic was purposely planned to help members think about how to make better food choices during the Super Bowl. I remembered that Jen had posted a Chili recipe recently and asked her if I could borrow it to illustrate how making simple ingredient substitutions can make a dish healthier.

To help guide members’ weight loss, Weight Watchers assigns a numerical value called a PointsPlus Value (PPV) to all food and drinks. Combined with Weight Watchers’ proprietary, scientific formula, determining the PPV of a recipe requires you to know three things: the ingredients, the serving size and how many servings the recipe makes. Well, Jen posted the ingredients (refer to her Chili recipe posted on Jan. 27th), but when I asked her about the latter two, she admitted that she didn’t know.

After discussing the ingredients and comparing them to other similar recipes, we estimated that the Chili recipe makes approximately 24 – ¾ cup servings. Therefore, the Chili recipe calculates to 7 PPV per serving. By replacing the regular ground beef with either ground turkey or 95% lean ground beef, the PPV decreased to 5 PPV. However, this does not include the cheese (1/4 cup = 3PPV) or the sour cream (2 Tbsp = 1 PPV) that you put on top of it, or the tortilla chips (12 chips = 4 PPV) that you choose to have alongside it.

So, the Chili itself is relatively ‘low-cost’ item. But how many of you actually measure how much you are eating? And, is this the only thing that you will eat? If you documented what you actually ate and drank throughout the game, the quantity may surprise you. Also, how many of the recipes are made with lower-calorie or healthier ingredients versus the regular, full-fledged ingredients?

One of my members reported hearing that after Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl is the second biggest eating day of the year. How much food do you eat during the ‘festivities’ compared to a ‘normal’ day of eating? Perhaps you never thought about that before, but it is never too late to start looking at food differently.

Weight Watchers has taught me how to WIN the food game regardless of the event, holiday or circumstances in which I find myself. Only eat when you are hungry, be aware of what and how much you are eating, and take control of your game!

Some final pointers to get ready for game day include:

  • Sit or stand away from the food. Being closer to the food lends itself towards mindless picking. Stay farther away from it so you have to make a more conscious decision to go get the food if you want it.
  • Practice portion control. Be mindful of the size and quantity of the servings you consume.
  • Bring a healthier snack with you to the party. Modify your recipe with lower-calorie/fat ingredients. Or, choose to bring some fruit or vegetables that you can pick on.
  • Drink wisely. Liquid calories add up quickly whether it’s from beer, wine or even regular soda. Choose lite beer, diet sodas or even water! Drinking water (even if in between each beer) will help keep you hydrated, keep you from mindless snacking and help you feel full so you don’t over indulge when you eat.
  • Get into the game. Focus on the game and socializing with friends. The more time you spend watching the game and cheering, or groaning, the less time you’ll be eating.

We cannot control the outcome of the football game, so may the best team win! However, you can make healthier choices and control the outcome of your food game. Plan ahead and join the winning food team!

Good luck and enjoy the game!

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Bonus Superbowl Week Recipe: Homemade Corn Bread

2 Feb
Homemade Corn Bread

Served warm with butter...delicious!

You didn’t think I was *really* done when I said I was done with Superbowl recipes, did you? Here’s a bonus recipe for you for Homemade Corn Bread. It goes great with the chili, or with BBQ or, just by itself. I usually double mine, especially if we have more than just the five of us to feed. Below is the single recipe.

I got this recipe out of the “Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book” a few years back, and of course it’s super fast and easy. On the back of the cookbook it says “Updated for the 90’s.” Apparently this book was new to me about 12 years ago.

**As an added bonus to this bonus recipe, see the note about Honey Butter below.**

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup yellow, white or blue cornmeal

2 to 4 TBL sugar (I did 6 TBL for the double recipe.)

1 TBL baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/4 cup cooking oil

There's a wealth of information and recipes in here!

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a mixing bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In a separate bowl beat together milk, oil, eggs.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir til batter is smooth.

Pour into greased 9×9 dish (I used 9×13 for double batch)

Bake in 425 oven for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

Single recipe makes 8-9 servings

**HONEY BUTTER**

For a single recipe of corn bread, soften- but don’t melt- about half a stick of butter in a small bowl. Add in about a teaspoon of honey, mix well. Delicious when spread on the hot corn bread! (In a last minute hurry? “Soften” your butter in the microwave by heating for 15-30 seconds or until soft enough to mix.)

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