A Little Love

Happy Valentine’s Day To All!!

Sunday Gravy with Meatballs and Sausage

Exhausting weekend, each second of the day promised to an activity…Saturday morning  dress fittings for my sister’s wedding, followed by singing in a church service, followed by stage managing a Doo Wop show at the clubhouse…then up really early to sing 3 services on Sunday morning…and on the way home a stop at Whole Foods.  Once there, I felt the familiar tug to create a beautiful Sunday Dinner for my family.  So drifting over to the meat counter at Whole Foods,  I get the idea to make some gravy (the Italian pet name for pasta sauce), meatballs and homemade pasta.  At the meat counter I buy some nice ground pork, ground veal, and ground beef, 2 mild Italian sausages plus a nice pork rib to flavor my sauce.  I’m motivated despite being dead tired.  I don’t want to miss one moment of what’s left of my weekend, and that means cooking.

So here goes:

First: meatballs! Grass-fed ground veal, pork & beef for the best flavor.

Add minced shallots and garlic, an egg and seasoned breadcrumbs plus a little salt and pepper.

Mix together well, roll into meatballs.  I like them to be on the small side- less fattening this way!

ready for the frying pan

Once around the pan with some olive oil, then start frying the meatballs

At this point I add some mild Italian sausages to fry as well. My plan is to cut them into 3's so I have nice bite-sized pieces of sausage along with my little meatballs.

remove the meatballs and sausage and drain on a paper towel. Hmm a couple are missing...Mark strikes again!

And now it’s time to pour myself a nice glass of white wine.  But before I take a sip…

Add minced garlic and shallots and red pepper, saute for a minute then deglaze the pan with white wine.

I refill my glass a bit and continue with the meal.

After a couple of minutes of cooking off the wine, add a can of crushed San Marzano tomatoes, and a cup or two of chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil, then add the meatballs and sausage.

Nice pork rib to flavor the sauce

OK, here's some pasta dough ready to be made into noodles.

OK, the homemade pasta is going to have to be a separate post all it’s own, another day soon, I promise.

I decide to make nice, wide spaghetti noodles. Here they are hanging out, ready to be added to boiling water.

OK, the sauce is ready. I remove the meats and dump in the pasta, add a little past water and I'm ready to serve.

Here's the finished dish, delicious! And...my husband loves me

And tomorrow….back to low point meals.  That’s what I love about Weight Watchers- you can have your nice weekend meal and enjoy it without guilt.  As long as you count your points and know that the rest of the week you have to be careful and stick to your guns.  Happy Sunday everyone!

Wednesday Musings…

I’m grateful that tonight I have Vocals rehearsal tonight at church. Sometimes my soul needs a little lift to help me get through life. How perfect is it that my rehearsal is on Wednesday, during the middle of a crazy week, to help put things in Godly  perspective…

Having a bit of trouble with the diet this week.  I’m trying to stay positive, but yesterday I ate too many goodies…my body was just CRAVING sugary, chocolaty, carbs and I felt powerless to resist.  The 2 glasses of wine I had at dinner didn’t help either.  I know there will inevitably be bad days along the course of this journey, but what I really want to do is to pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again…(to quote Dorothy Fields & Jerome Kern).

So…for lunch, the usual diet TV dinner (in this case, Smart Ones Spinach Fettuccine)  and a Weight Watchers chocolate chip cookie.  Hopefully I won’t get the same horrible cravings tonight.  The good thing is that I will be so very busy these next couple of days, that I won’t have time to indulge my carb cravings, only to come home and go to bed early from my exhaustive activities.  (Board Meetings, vocal rehearsals, shows at the Clubhouse.)

So, that’s it.  Hope your Wednesday (or what’s left of it)  is awesome.

Game Day Salsa!

This is a non-fat salsa that is ZERO Weight Watchers Points Plus. I’m going to my sisters for Super Bowl Sunday, and we are having a Mexican themed feast. So…here’s my contribution to the festivities!

First, a Weight Watchers friendly staple:

Organic Olive Oil Pam

Get out your grill pan and spray with Pam.  Let the grill pan get really hot.  Meanwhile…

Round up your ingredients: a couple of Jalapeno peppers (one or two depending on how hot you like it) a nice red pepper, 3 garlic cloves, an onion, tomatoes, a lime and a bunch of cilantro.

Do a rough chop to prepare for the grill pan.

First, take the peppers, garlic (in their skins) and onion and grill them until lightly charred.

After the pepper, onion and garlic have a nice char, add the tomatoes and briefly grill them.

Coming along nicely...

Start by slicing open the jalapeno, scrapping out the seeds and membranes with a knife, then adding both the peppers, peeled garlic and onion to the processor and pulse lightly. Next add the tomatoes and pulse once or twice. Pour into a bowl.

Chop up a fresh tomato to add to the processed mixture to bulk up the salsa.Add the chopped cilantro.

Add the juice of one large lime and 2 tsp of salt, stir. Refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight to let the flavors meld together.

Ready for eating! Get out your tortilla chips and enjoy.

When Dinner is Just Salad…

Mark and Lacey are working late tonight so it’s just me and the cat home for dinner tonight. I decided to make a nice, filling low-point salad for dinner, but not just any salad- one that’s interesting so I don’t get bored with my diet. Weight Watchers is a wonderful eating plan, and now that the “honeymoon” of starting a successful diet and losing 10 or so pounds is finished, it’s time to start stepping up my game.

Tonight’s dinner is based on a recipe in the cookbook “My French Kitchen” written  by Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat).

White Bean and Tomato Salad

This makes one filling and healthy serving, 9 Weight Watchers Points Plus

Start with 1 medium potato, 1 beautiful red tomato, a small shallot or other mild onion, 1 lemon (mine is a Myer Lemon which is in season here in Florida), a couple of chopped slices of a hot pepper (either Jalapeno or Chile), 1/2 cup of white Cannelli beans rinsed & drained, a bunch of parsley, Olive Oil, salt & Pepper.

Cut the potato in half and leave the skin on. Bring salted water to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and let potato cook for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile…

Add 3 teaspoons of Olive oil to a bowl, add chopped shallot and sliced peppers, then squeeze in the juice of 1 small lemon.

Add some sea salt and ground pepper and mix well with a small whisk.

Add the chopped parsley and a little lemon zest, stir it all up then just let it sit and marinate for a while.

meanwhile take out your boiled potato and cut into soft wedges.  At this point, you can either drop the tomato into the boiling potato water then peel, chop and seed it, or just chop it up, seeds and all.  I opted to take the easy way and just chopped up the tomato.

Toss together the tomato, beans and potato. I also added some left over quartered artichokes I needed to use up.

Pour over the "dressing" (shallot, olive oil, parsley, pepper, lemon mixture) and toss to coat. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Yup, just me and my ipad...and my delicious, filling 9 point dinner salad. The jalapeno gives it just a bit of a kick and the flavors go together in a wonderful way. Bon appetit!

Tomorrow morning’s my weigh in…wish me luck!

Up, Up & Away! The Fifth Dimension

There was lots of excitement at the clubhouse about last Sunday’s show. We welcomed none other than the fabulous duo from The Fifth Dimension- Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. Married and starring in their own  roadshow, you just know they were wonderful. I remember The Fifth Dimension as a little girl in the 60′s listening to my parents radio to their hits – who can forget Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, Up, Up & Away to name a few!  They were really lovely people as well.  Such fun to sing along with too.

Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr

It’s been kind of a crazy non-stop kind of week- no time for cooking or arts & crafts.  I’m hoping to catch up on my homemaking this weekend. Still on the diet too, and doing well.   I’m going to my sister’s for a Super Bowl party, so some cooking is in order.  Still planning it all, but Mom did manage to find a great deal on raw oysters at Joseph’s Italian Market.  We love oysters.  The best we ever had was when we were visiting my cousin Diana on Martha’s Vineyard, and she took a trip to the fishing village of Menemsha (famous for the movie Jaws) and bought a huge bag of clams and oysters.  The clams on the half shell were great, but ohhhhhh the OYSTERS…we still talk about how wonderful they were to this day.  So, we are basically attempting to catch a little of that past magic this weekend.

I’m ready for February- we’re just about half way through “season” here in Florida.  The weather is beautiful!  But the masses are everywhere.  So, it’s a toss up really.  Either it’s hot as hell with no one crowding the streets and restaurants, or it’s beautiful weather and I’m working 95 hour weeks!  Anyway, I’m grateful for the little things…weekend cooking, singing in church choir and spending free time with my family.  That’s my life.

Presenting: Amazing (pasta free) Veggie Lasagna

I love to watch Dr.Oz. Last week he had the spokesperson for Weight Watchers on, the beautiful and insanely talented Jennifer Hudson. She was talking about how she changed her eating habits, the usual weight loss jazz. Then Dr. Oz led her to a table laden with all kinds of her “better food choices”. As they went down the line of food, they stopped at a tray of lasagna. This definitely caught my attention, as I am an Italian who loves her lasagna. It looked wonderful, but the best thing about it was that a nice big square was (get this) only 5 points!  This is A bit of work, but worth it- trust me:)

Here we go...

Gather your ingredients. It helps to have a mandoline, but if not you can slice the veggies into thin rounds.

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees in preparation for roasting the veggies. Take a medium sized eggplant and slice thinly. Lay it out on a baking sheet and coat with Pam.

Do the same thing with the zucchini. Pop into the oven and roast for 8 minutes or so. Turn the veggies over, spray with Pam and roast for another 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, add a container of part skim ricotta to a bowl.

Add 1 egg and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Mix well, set aside.

OK, now we're ready for the assembly. Lower your oven to 350.

Start by coating the bottom and sides of your lasagna pan with Pam.

Add a thin layer of marinara sauce (canned is fine- I use Hunt's) to the bottom.

The next layer is the eggplant. Use it all, overlapping if necessary.

Add another thin layer of sauce.

Add 1/2 the ricotta mixture and sprinkle 1/8 of a cup of Parmesan and 1/2 cup part skim mozzarella on top covering evenly. And yes, I did take the extra liberty of adding a handful of mushrooms just to make things interesting.

Repeat the layering, this time starting with the zucchini, then the sauce, ricotta mixture, Parmesan and ending with the mozzarella.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until bottom is bubbly.  Take it out and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes before slicing.  Recipe makes 12 5-points plus servings.

Best 5 points plus EVER. Enjoy!

Here’s the link to the “official Recipe” from Dr. Oz.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/weight-watchers-no-noodle-vegetable-lasagna

Fennel Mushroom Salad…Try it you’ll like it!

Ok, so I get bored with the same old same old. Here’s a tasty little low point salad that’s delicious and flavorful.

Slice a fennel, cutting away the core. Thinly slice a couple of mushrooms. Chop up 1/8 of a cup of Italian flat leaf parsley. Combine in a bowl. Toss with the juice of a small lemon and 3 teaspoons of Olive Oil. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, a grind of the pepper mill and a good shake of paprika. Mix, taste & adjust seasonings.

This healthy salad will only cost you the price of the 3 teaspoons of Olive Oil- 3 points.  TOTALLY worth it!  Be daring…try it!

Low Point Cucumber and Yogurt Soup – Fired or Iced

I know, sounds kinda weird, making a cucumber soup in the dead of winter, but hey! I live in Florida and right now it’s about 72 degrees, so this is a good dish for my Weight Watchers tracker.  This soup is great hot or cold…but I think it’s best cold…or hot you choose!

Gather your ingredients:  2 cucumbers, peeled and diced, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 small shallot, 2  cloves of garlic, 3 cups of chicken broth, 1 oz of white wine (whatever you’re drinking) and 1 1/2 cups of plain non-fat yogurt.

Add 1 teaspoon of Olive oil to your soup pot and heat.

Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic and one small shallot

Saute gently in the olive oil until transluscent

Add the diced cucumbers

Here's my secret weapon. The most wonderful, flavorful chicken stock, recipe from my friend Susan Branch. You can find this recipe in her "Autumn" Cookbook.

Here’s the link to Susan Branch http://www.susanbranch.com/

Saute cucumbers until nice and soft, add 1 oz of white wine. Raise heat, let mixture cook for 5 minutes, then add the chicken stock.

Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes

Get your yogurt ready. Let the mixture cool a little before adding the yogurt

Add your one and 1/2 cups of plain, non-fat yogurt

Get out your immersion blender

Let 'er rip until all the cucumber, garlic & shallots are pulverized.

add salt to taste plus a big pinch of dill

Now, either have a bowl hot….or chill for future consumption in the fridge.

For me, it's all about bringing it to work so I can stay on my Weight Watchers plan.

So, to sum it all up:  Dice a small shallot & 2 Cloves of garlic.  Saute in 1 tsp of Olive Oil until translucent.  Add an ounce of white wine to deglaze the pot.  Add peeled & chopped cucumbers, 3 cups of chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes.  Let it cool a bit and add 1 and 1/2 cups of non-fat plain yogurt.  Blend with an immersion blender until smooth.  Enjoy hot or refrigerate for a cold soup.  Makes 4 servings, 2 Weight Watchers Points-plus each.

Can I Get a Drum Roll Please?

Saturday and it’s my “weigh-in” day. I’m following Weight watchers online, so my weigh in takes place in my own bathroom early on Saturday mornings. Today is a wonderful day…the birds are singing, beautiful Florida morning around 69 degrees. But it’s especially wonderful because this morning when I stepped on the scale…….this is the drum roll part…….I was down 2.7 lbs, making it a total of 9.7 lbs since I started on January 3rd. This makes me happy. Very happy. Later today I’m going to do a bit of low-fat cooking and I’ll post the recipes for anyone who is interested. For now I’m off to Whole Foods & Bedners Farmer’s Market.