Another delicious pizza recipe!

Yesterday I made a Weight Watchers pizza recipe for dinner, Friday night is usually pizza night if we are going to have one!

This was a monster beast of a pizza, check this out...

Chicken Broccoli Pizza

Going in to the oven...

 Coming out of the oven...

Like seriously can you see how thick this piece is??

Take one whole wheat pizza crust, spread with 3/4 cup low-fat ricotta cheese.  Take 1/2 lb chicken and coat with mixture of 1 tsp low-fat milk and 1 Tbsp of reduced fat mayonnaise.  Add 1/2 cup crushed cornflakes and coat.  They differed a little from me here because they had uncooked chicken but mine was cooked.  So they baked it on a cookie sheet for 10 min, I however just threw my coated chicken into a saute pan to warm it/brown it up.  Back to the pizza, on top of the ricotta you sprinkle with coarsely chopped fresh broccoli. I used a lot, this is one of the reason my pizza is so ginormous, you can't have enough broccoli can you? Now this is where I embellished, they didn't use any seasoning. I didn't dare take a chance on having a bland tasteless pizza.  So I sprinkled the pizza with garlic salt, freshly ground black pepper and Mrs Dash's Italian seasoning.  Then you sprinkle with 3 Tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese. Then you add the nice warm coated/crispy chicken.  Finally you top with 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 450 for 15 min.  Cut into 6 pieces and enjoy, each piece is 6 pts.  That means you get two pieces of this pizza for almost what the cost of a big slice of pepperoni pizza at a pizzeria is.  I didn't eat two by the way it was filling enough to have one, my family supplemented with potato chips and that leaves us leftovers and me points left for my brownie! Oh yeah baby I had another deadly brownie! It's always better to splurge right after weigh-in then right before the next one anyways! 

Does your family have any pizza traditions? What are your favorite unique pizzas? Please post your pizza suggestions on the facebook group page, I like to get your ideas too!  I look forward to hearing your stories...

Something good and something bad!

Friday is weigh-in day and I didn't think I would have a good outcome because despite having a good week I had a bad day yesterday, party at work had me eating extravagantly all day.  However I still managed to lose 2 lbs! I am very happy to be past that 20 lb mark once and for all. 

The something bad is one of the naughty things I ate yesterday which was Brownie Goody Bars that I made.  I saw this recipe in my Betty Crocker newsletter that I get every week.  It sounded kind of weird a little to me but it had all these awards and accolades I assumed it must be worth it.  It had the nutrition info attached with but I didn't want to calculate until after I made them.  So I made them, I brought them to my work get together, they were awesome, extremely sweet so you can get by on a small one and when I got home and calculated 11 pts.  So not something you want to be eating everyday, well maybe you want to but you shouldn't.  Now I realize that not all of you reading this are struggling to lose weight, trust me it's a struggle, and even those of us that are it's important not to give up on the good things in life, but it is also very important to be smart about it and to count it.  I would recommend bringing these somewhere where you can share (I even made my coworkers take home most of the leftovers so I wouldn't be bringing a ton home!) I mean it's OK to have a little of these things but not a whole pan!
So here they are (with some friendly suggestions in italics):

Brownie Goody Bars

1

box (1 lb 2.4 oz) Betty Crocker® Original Supreme Premium brownie mix (Sorry Betty, I use Ghiradelli)

Water, vegetable oil and egg called for on brownie mix box

1

cup Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting (from 16 oz container) (I used cream cheese instead of vanilla)

1/2

cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

2

cups crisp rice cereal

2/3

cup creamy peanut butter

1 1/3

cups (8 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease bottom only of 9-inch square pan with cooking spray or shortening. (For easier cutting, line pan with foil, then grease foil on bottom only of pan.)
2. Make and bake brownies as directed on box. Cool completely.
3. Frost brownies with frosting. Sprinkle with peanuts; refrigerate while making cereal mixture.
4. Measure cereal into medium bowl; set aside. In 1-quart saucepan, melt peanut butter and chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly. Pour over cereal in bowl, stirring until evenly coated. Spread over frosted brownies. Refrigerate 1 hour or until set before cutting. For bars, cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Store tightly covered at room temperature or in refrigerator. (They were refrigerated overnight and all morning, so when we went to cut into them for lunch they were really hard! I then left them out on the counter and they softened back up later for people to have seconds or take home leftovers, I had made a double patch in a 9x13 for my work, so I would recommend taking them back out of the fridge for at least 30 min before serving!)

Then for breakfast I decided to make myself a little special breakfast, I like to celebrate those weight loss mornings.  I sort of made this one up so here goes...

Amanda's Apple Cinnamon Waffles a la mode

So I toasted an Eggo Whole Grain Low Fat waffle.  Then I diced up one small apple, sauteed it with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 Tbsp whipped butter until caramelized and starting to soften.  Then I took the toasted waffle, added 3 Tbsp of Vanilla Greek Yogurt and topped with the caramelized apple.  It was special and sweet and decadent tasting.  The points are a little tricky, Weight Watcher's confuses me a little in this area.  They say eat all the fruits and veges you want for free but if you put a fruit or veges in a recipe they charge you for them.  This is a bit confusing.  If you typed these ingredients in to your point tracker separately it would be 6 pts however by adding them into a recipe builder it charged 2 pts for the apple for a total of 8 pts. I tend to err on the side of the bigger number to play it safe but I find this a little confusing.  Even at 8 pts it felt like a special dessert rather than a breakfast and it was filling and satisfying so I am good with that.  Anyways I thought I would pass this a long.  I know for me, breakfast is where I get easily stuck in a rut, no no not another bowl of cereal.  Any idea outside of my usual list of 5 standbys is a nice change of pace.  Hope you all have a great weekend! Amanda

Ummm....where's Malaysia???

So it's Friday (ugh, it's really hard to even think those words without hearing that annoying Rebecca Black song in my head), that means it's weigh-in day and unfortunately after 2 awesome weeks of losing 3.5 and 4 lbs respectively this week I did not lose.  Boo.  Oh well I am still so happy to have lost 19 lbs.  There was that wonderful Memorial Day barbecue after all and I indulged in making a high point Italian meal this week which would've been fine once but then we had leftovers to contend with so there was that.  Back on the horse, making better decisions this week and planning on ramping up the exercise and using the Elliptical at work. 

Tonight's dinner was scrumptious and Malaysian, Oooooo, how fancy does that sound? Here's me to my husband, the geography teacher: "Where the heck is Malaysia?" "Why?" "Cause apparently we are eating Malaysian food right now but it had a lot of similar ingredients to Thai food so I was just wondering if it's close to Thailand." "Well it's about 850 miles from Thailand." "Ugh, why can't you just tell me, I don't want to hear about mileage, is there more then one country in between." "Well, there is a body of water in between them called the Gulf of Thailand." Sigh. "OK, well we are having Malaysian tonight." Really I was just looking for, "Yeah they are really close" I mean I am NOT a geography person so really being on the same continent is close in my definition but I should have known better than to expect that kind of answer from my hubby.  So anyways this is another recipe from Jillian Michael's Master Your Metabolism Cookbook.  Now dear Miss Jillian does many things right in my book but a couple of things, ummmm...not so right.  One thing I don't like is there are no pictures in her cookbook.  Which I am sure was an attempt to save money however the book was hardcover and $26 retail sooooo I want some pictures! Oh well, you'll have to settle for mine.  Also some of the ingredients in her book are outlandish. Maybe on a celebrity trainers budget in California where everything is ALWAYS in season but not for me.  There were multiple substitutions I made in tonight's recipe because I was like "I am not buying that" or just plain I couldn't find it at Meijers which means if I went somewhere where I could find it, it would probably be ridiculously priced. Tasted great and I don't know how far off the original it is but we are all happy here.    I really do love her food though and some of the ingredients that were "weird" to me just last year are becoming kitchen staples as I attempt to eat a more clean, non-processed lifestyle.  One of the other things I like about this book is she tells you based on the ingredients in your recipe what things they do for you metabolically, for instance tonight's dinner is Anti Cancer, Heart Healthy, Boosts Metabolism and is Anti Inflammatory.  Well that just makes you feel really good about your food doesn't it?  Plus it was delicious and my kids LOVED it! And it was super low in points. Really what more could I ask for?  

First I had a fruit salad idea from Jillian but it called for Pomegranates which are not in season here.  So I switched it all around, pulled in a little flavor ideas from the other meal and it was so yummy. Here goes...

Amanda's Coconut Pear Salad

2 medium pears diced

2 medium oranges diced

1/4 cup raspberries

4 Tbsp shredded coconut

4 Tbsp honey

1/8 cup shelled pistachios

4 Tbsp V8 Splash Diet Berry Blend (cause that's what we were drinking for dinner!)

1 Tbsp lime juice

Zest of one lime

Mix and Serve! Divide into 4 giant servings, 5 pts each (You could easily have less for less pts but wait till you see dinner...)

Laksa with Shrimp and Vegetables

Ingredients (including my substitutions)

2 Lemongrass stalks (I couldn't find this at Meijer so I skipped it!)

3 Brazil nuts (What? I used 2 Tbsp dry roasted peanuts)

1 fresh red chile (I used 1/4 of a large red pepper)

3 Tbsp minced ginger

2 garlic cloves chopped

1 medium shallot chopped (I used a 1/4 of a sweet onion)

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground coriander

1/8 tsp black pepper

1 box rice noodles (14 oz)

1 Tbsp coconut oil (ummm...no Jillian, I just used olive oil again)

1 can (2 cups) coconut milk

2 1/2 cups chicken broth (fat free, reduced sodium, organic)

1 pound baby carrots diced

4 cups broccoli florets

1 lb shrimp (precooked tails/shells removed)

2 Tbsp fish sauce (Taste of Thai brand)

2 cups bean sprouts

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 lime

Directions:
In a food processor pulse nuts, pepper, lemongrass (if you found it), ginger, garlic, onion, olive oil, turmeric, coriander and pepper. Pulse until a thick paste forms.

Cook noodles according package directions. Drain and set aside.

In a large saucepan heat coconut oil (or olive!) over low heat and add paste and cook for about 10 min.  Stir in broth and coconut milk and simmer for 5 min.  Add carrots and simmer for 15 min more.  Add shrimp and broccoli and cook for 5 min.   Stir in noodles and cook until warmed through, 1-2 minutes.  Stir in fish sauce and remove from heat. 

To serve, pour soup into bowls and garnish each bowl with bean sprouts, cilantro leaves and lime wedges. 

Now this LARGE recipe I would imagine will make about 12 bowls full.  It was a lot. So guess what, a big bowl full of this stuff.  5 pts! So good.   And it ended up being a little hot for soup today (but maybe that's just because we don't have a.c. like most people!) but my kids went crazy for it.  They ate every drop and were begging for more.  And the fruit salad was a hit with them too.  They love coconut and pistachios (My oldest for some reason doesn't like raspberries so I got hers!)  In the end, my kids are my biggest critics so if they love a meal and it is extremely healthy for them I am doing good.  See how happy they are...

So that's it people two enormous portions each 5 pts, dinner was good and healthy and I am moving toward another great weight loss next week.  (That's the power of positive thinking!) So dig in and try out a little Malaysian food (where ever THAT is), they know their food!

Memorial Day Picnic Party

Wow, today had everything that Memorial Day should have, pool party, parade, red/white/blue clothing, hot hot sun, and all the best barbecue foods.  My mom made a DELICIOUS grilled corn salad and I am going to ask her to send me the recipe and I will put it up here for you all to enjoy! We also had grilled flank steak, my favorite type of beef.  My sister made beer bread, so yummy! AND Brownie sundaes for dessert.  Seriously, you are all going to try to get invited to our family party for next year right.  Well I thought I would share what I brought since they are two of my backyard barbecue favorites.  If you read my facebook recipes before I started blogging you may have already seen this one. Here it is again...

Siam Peanut Ramen Slaw



16 oz packaged coleslaw mix

2 pkg ramen noodles (no seasoning)

1/2 cup slivered almonds

4 oz honey roasted peanuts

4 Tbsp butter (I used light and therefore point values are based on this)

1/2 cup diced scallions

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup dark sesame oil (you can use olive oil if you don't want to buy sesame, I keep it on hand for Asian food but small bottle, expensive, I understand...Also the original recipe called for a cup, when putting the recipe into my points calculator I decided it always seems to have almost too much sauce so I decreased it to 1/2 cup and it tasted just fine!)

3/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup rice vinegar (again any vinegar will do, although maybe not balsamic, but I use rice for my Asian cooking)

Peanut sauce (bottled)

Mix coleslaw, almonds and peanuts.  Break up ramen noodles and stir in.  Add scallions and cilantro. Melt butter and pour over mixture and toss to coat.  Mix oil, sugar, soy sauce and vinegar in a separate dish and set aside.  Pour over coleslaw mixture 1 1/2 hrs before serving.  At time of serving, retoss, and then drizzle with peanut sauce.  The equivalent of 1 tsp per serving.  This makes about 18 servings of 2/3 of a cup, 6 pts.

The next item on the menu is a fun way to call a dessert a fruit/jello dish.  You may have seen this before...

I modified it a little to look like this:

Strawberry Pretzel Squares

I flip flopped the cream cheese/cool whip layer and the jello layer so I could top it with fruit and make it patriotic.  I also took great pains in slimming this down as well as I could.  Some things are not worth substituting I think.  Here's how this one goes:

2 cups crushed pretzels (use fat free)

1/2 cup sugar divided

2/3 cup butter (I used light)

12 oz cream cheese (I used low fat neufchatel)

2 Tbsp milk (I use 1/2 percent)

1 cup cool whip (Lite)

3 1/2 cups water divided

2 pkg Strawberry Jello (fat free, sugar free)

4 cups fresh strawberries

1 cup fresh blueberries

Melt butter in microwave.  Pour over crushed pretzels and 1/4 cup of the sugar.  Mix well and then press into 9 x 13.  Make jello using 2 cups boiling water and 1 1/2 cups of cold water.  Set in fridge for 1 1/2 hrs, add 2 cups sliced fresh strawberries. Spoon over crust and return to fridge to set.  This may take 3 or more hours so don't wait till the last minute like I did and then stay up until 1:30 am.  Beat together cream cheese, milk and the other 1/4 cup sugar until smooth.  Gently fold in cool whip.  Spread over set jello.  Decorate with other fruit for a patriotic feel.  If you cut it into 15 pieces it is 5 pts a piece, thanks to my slimming down! I think it tasted just as yummy as the original too. 

So there you have it, two picnic favorites.  I hope you all had a good time today too.  Hopefully you weren't like my Mom's neighbor who was mowing and weed-whipping and chain-sawing down trees all afternoon long.  Ugh, no fun for him and no fun for us listening to him.  Hey buddy, we are trying to swim here...Kidding.  So I will anxiously await my Mom's corn recipe (hint hint) and until then Summer is officially here. (It's 85 in my house at 10 pm and my kids JUST fell asleep, boo to no air conditioning).  Goodnight everyone!



Indian and American

Well it's Memorial Weekend and we are having an equal amount of fun family time and hard work.  We are busy as bees trying to conquer the beast that is our yard.  My husband is getting a back rub from his own personal PT in a little while after a full day of yard work.  In addition to helping him weed and get our vegetables planted, I went to Meijers and spent a small fortune in groceries and yard accessories and well who could resist patriotic tshirts for my family for $3.99! Just trying to help the economy I guess. It is hard work cooking healthy and interesting meals and it is very expensive.  I read an article about how to make your blog make you money, maybe I need to start advertising on the margins, I even read about one food blog where companies gave them money for groceries for endorsing their products.  Hmmm....I think you guys need to make me more popular before I can qualify for that.  I have been loving when you tell me you are making a recipe, makes me feel like I am not just doing this for my own kicks (well maybe I am!)

Yesterday was book club Friday and we read the book Splendor of Silence which took place in India and although it was in the past (1940's) you really felt immersed in the scenery and culture of the country. And really I can only listen to them talk about curry and coriander and cilantro and cumin (the 4 c's) without getting a hankering for some Indian food.  So I found a really easy recipe (embellished it as always) and came up with a delightful little Indian dish that was SO easy, we are talking crock pot people....

Coconut Curry Tikka Masala

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into chunks
1 can of coconut milk (I used lite)
1 jar of Tikka Masala sauce
2 tsp curry
2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp each of roasted ground coriander, dried cilantro, ground black pepper, ginger, chili pepper and cumin
1/2 cup to 1 cup of chopped fresh cilantro (have you noticed how much I use of this stuff!)

Instructions: Throw everything (minus fresh cilantro) in crock pot on high/6hrs and let sit.  Throw fresh cilantro in just before serving.  Makes 8 servings, 4pts each, serve with.....

Coconut Basmati Rice

1 1/2 cups water

1 can coconut milk (again I used lite)

2 teaspoons (packed) brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups diced colored peppers

2 cups basmati rice (about 13 ounces), well rinsed, drained

1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted

1/2 cup to 1 cup cilantro (seriously you can't have too much can you...)

Instructions:

Combine water, coconut milk, sugar, and salt in heavy large saucepan. Add diced peppers.  Bring to simmer, then stir in rice. Cover, leaving slight opening for steam to escape. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 12 minutes. Cover tightly, remove from heat, and let stand 10 minutes. Transfer rice to bowl;stir in cilantro and sprinkle with toasted coconut. 

The rice is more point heavy then the meat, again 8 servings and one serving is 6 pts, but added to the meat/sauce its only 10 pts and we served it with Garlic Naan (Indian flatbread) which a big sheet of Naan divided in 4 pieces each piece is only 1 pt.  So my yummy Indian dinner was about 11 pts which is really pretty good.  Meijers sells Naan now in the bakery, I feel very ethnic buying it! But if you can't find it you could eat it with any kind of flat bread. It's a good way to sop up that yummy sauce on your plate.  So that was it, we had the full Indian experience and it was SO easy. Now don't you all think you can rush right out there and try it too and be able to say casually in conversation, "Oh well I think I'll just make some Indian food for dinner tonight..." and with crockpot meals, you seriously can get the meal made in 10 minutes at lunch time and then sit back and smell the aromas kicking in all day!  Nice, right?

So for dessert we decided to embrace our American side, I mean it is Memorial weekend after all.  Besides the Indian dessert they talked about in my book was some milky custard that they looked in a greenhouse full of roses so that rose scented dew covered the custard, come on now, I am not that insane.  Of course this was a party for the royalty so maybe not every family in India is having rose flavored custard.  Anyways so for our All American dessert we made...

Patriotic Ice Cream Sandwiches

Take chocolate chip cookies with red/white/blue M&M's, add 1/4 cup ice cream (ours was breyer's cookies and cream) and roll the edges in red/white/blue sprinkles.  Refreeze for 2 hrs (and it's good to do something exhausting like yard work during this time so you have something to look forward to when you get your work done).  Now these are NOT healthy, but hey I have enough pts today to splurge on one of these 8pt little monsters (I actually still have 5 pts after that too! What to do? I better have some milk to wash it down...).  I haven't had it yet, this blog entry was on my to-do list yet tonight and I don't get one until all my work is done. But let's see what these All American girls think...

They seemed pretty happy I think! So much fun yet to be had this weekend.  Working outside and in as a family is great bonding time and listening to my dorky Patriotic Playlist on iTunes.  We even lined our sidewalk with tiny American flags, it was fun. Well maybe I will show off all our hard work when we get it done, who am I kidding, with a yard like mine it will never be done.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Cilantro Lime Fiesta!

Maybe you haven't already heard, so I'll say it again, I wouldn't want you to be uninformed.....I lost 3.2 lbs for a total of 15 lbs since I began this journey! Yea! So happy.  Thanks for all your support, it sounds silly but having you read my blog has spurred me on, I am fully encouraged by you to do well.  Thanks from the bottom of my heart, I am praying for continued success and God's protection over my endeavor to be healthy.

For dinner tonight I am using my new cookbook, Jillian Michael's "Master Your Metabolism Cookbook".  When I read the book by the same name I LOVED all her recipes and so I was happy she followed it up with a full cookbook.  Now yesterday for lunch I made a quiche recipe and I gotta say I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out.  So I spared you the details of that one! Tonight however was a different story, I started with a steak recipe and made up a side dish that was to die for and carried the same flavors throughout the meal, check this out...

Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves (the italics indicate I swapped cilantro for parsley because I a.) had it on hand, b.) it became the premise for my meal and c.) the only other time I have made chimichurri it also used cilantro so I figured it would be OK!)
• 2 tablespoons packed fresh oregano leaves
• 1/4 cup extra- virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 pound skirt steak
• Olive oil spray, for the grill

Preparation

In the work bowl of a food processor, place the onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Pulse until finely chopped. Add the cilantro and oregano leaves, and pulse until the herbs are coarsely chopped. Add the olive oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper.

Place the skirt steak in a shallow pan and pour 1/3 cup of the chimichurri sauce over it. Turn to coat well. Cover and refrigerate, preferably for at least four hours and up to overnight. Cover and refrigerate the remaining sauce.

If using a gas or charcoal grill, spray the grill with olive oil and prepare a medium-hot grill. If using a grill pan, spray it with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat.

Grill the steak for four to five minutes per side for medium-rare. Let stand on a cutting board for 5 to 10 minutes. Thinly slice the steak and divide among four plates. Top each serving with one generous teaspoon of chimichurri sauce and serve.

9 pts

So then I made a big batch of:

 Grilled Veges (broccoli and peppers)

I thought what if I carry the flavor through the other dishes and I seasoned them olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic salt, Mrs Dash's Fiesta Lime Seasoning, Mrs Dash's Steak Grilling Blend and fresh cilantro

Then I had a bag of Yoder's mashed potatoes, you may be thinking how disgusting.  Really they aren't like fake potato flakes which I used to use back in the day (yikes) They actually are pretty good but when I heat them they are usually a little dry so I end up adding some milk to them.  But then I thought, hmmmm cilantro lime fiesta mashed potatoes and I started adding a little of this and a little of that and I came out with, no joke, the most DE-LISH potatoes (which was a relief because half way through I thought oh no what if these are disgusting, SO not.  The only trouble was limiting my self to a 1/2 cup serving!) If the yoders thing freaks you out, go ahead and waste a whole bunch of time peeling and boiling potatoes but your result probably won't be much different, I'm just saying...

Cilantro Lime Fiesta Mashed Potatoes (an Amanda Travis original)

A 32 oz bag of Yoder's Mashed Potatoes

1/2 cup finely shredded Mexican cheese

1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped

1/4 cup scallions diced

1/2 cup Stonyfield low fat organic plain yogurt

4 Tbsp low fat milk

1 Tbsp lime juice

Garlic salt and Mrs Dash's Fiesta Lime seasoning and Mrs. Dash's Steak Grilling Blend

Warm all ingredients together on the stove.  1/2 cup is 5 pts but SOOOO worth 5 pts.  They were really really good. 

So that is what was for dinner tonight.  I took cilantro and ran with it, I figure 15# deserves a fiesta, and it was great!  Hope you all are enjoying the nice weather and have something to celebrate yourself today, tis the season for fresh cooking! 



I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack!

Well my last post was Mother's Day weekend and then I got laryngitis and the last two weeks were rough.  My voice just came back Tue, I had lost it for NINE days.  Anyways, I am back in the saddle again.  Tonight I am just going to bring you a simple little recipe that has been a favorite of mine for years.  I started doing Dream Dinners when I was pregnant with my first born and for about 3 years I did it really regularly.  People think it is super expensive but if you consider how I tend to cook rather elaborately it was a lot less expensive truly.  However our local branch went belly up, apparently not too many others felt it was worth the cost. Every now and then when I am feeling ambitious I will do my own version in my kitchen and cook a ton of meals and freeze them.  But mysteriously no little workers come out and clean up after me.  That is a real bummer.  Well one of my favorites of Dream Dinners was their legendary Arroz Con Pollo.  Well this week a bunch of ladies from my church did a mass freezer meal exchange and I requested that we do a healthy group and I decided to make this because I generally think Mexican goes over well and my kids love the rice/bean/corn combo.  I will give you the recipe and then I will explain a little modification issues.

Arroz Con Pollo



Arroz con pollo, or rice with chicken, is a classic Spanish one-pot meal.

1 cup uncooked rice
1 can black beans, drained I used organic1 can corn with red and green peppers
6 (4oz each) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
I gotta add my Mrs Dash's Fiesta Lime! About tsp (who am I kidding I don't really measure!)

½ cup chicken broth
1 cup salsa (Jack's fresh salsa)1 cup marinara sauce (organic)
1 cup red, orange and yellow bell peppers, diced
½ cup scallions, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro (you know me, I like double this!)
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp minced garlic
1 cup shredded cheese

Spray 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Prepare the rice according to package directions (beware, see below!). Spread the rice over the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Layer the beans, corn, and chicken over the rice and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Set aside. In a large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients minus the cheese. Pour the mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle with cheese.
For dinner tonight... Preheat the oven to 350 F (175C). Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the internal temperature of the chicken breasts reaches 165F.
If you make a double and want to freeze half... Before baking, cover the dish with foil. Label, date, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before cooking as directed above

OK here is my problem, when we used to make this a dream dinners we never cooked the rice first and previously I never had but suddenly with the meal exchange the pressure was on and I wanted to do it "by the book" so I did cook it before.  Gotta tell you it wrecked it a little for me! Sorry ladies who got my meal! Usually I am a rule breaker and I guess it pays.  It just was too liquidy whereas normally the rice sucks in the fluids and makes the food more flavorful.  Bummer.  So please break the rules and don't cook the rice before hand! 

Now for an alternative, you can change this up.  Here goes, are you ready... Dump everything in a crock pot and let it cook all day on low.   The chicken shreds apart and it makes yummy burrito type filling, throw it in a tortilla, yum. Add a little fresh guacamole, lettuce, diced tomato, yogurt or fat free sour cream.   Ummm... Presto change-o it's like a totally different recipe.  I love it both ways so I switch it up back and forth. So the regular recipe straight up is 10pts.  Enjoy this one if you haven't had it before.  I'll be back again soon, I love all your encouragement, you keep listening, I'll keep writing!