Tuesday, September 13, 2011

It's Been A Long Time Coming

My oh so loyal readers. My apologies for being a giant slacker and not posting for over a month. I've been really busy with school starting and such. However, you should be happy to know that I have been keeping recipes that I have been making just to share with you.

Within the last month, I have also joined Weight Watchers. I've been feeling super unhealthy lately (even though I've never been an unhealthy eater). The stuff I've been putting in my body has created low energy and I've been prone to naps. Now that someone has to weigh me once a week, I'm being held accountable, so I'm sticking to the plan. How will that change the blog? Well, the recipes will more likely be healthier and have PointsPlus values attached to them. (If you aren't aware about Weight Watchers, it's a great plan that afixes a point value to every kind of food. You get a certain amount of PointsPlus you can eat in a day according to your sex, height, and weight. It's the one diet I've found that doesn't exclude something. It's all up to you if you want to have a cake or filling items throughout the course of the day. And no, they're not paying me to say this. I'm actually paying them to weight me. Funny how that works).

The first recipe I'm going to share is a vegetarian-friendly option. Don't run away in the other direction just because it doesn't have meat. Chill out. We'll get to the carnivorous options later. This is a recipe I found in Self in a burger feature they had. Now first of all, I invited a legit vegetarian over because it's one of the first things I've made that he can eat. He told me, "This is the best tasting 'burger' I've ever had." To me, that was a huge compliment. I've never really cooked vegetarian, so to hear this from someone who can only eat vegetarian, I was humbled.

This was called the black bean-corn burger, but I had kidney beans. And I like kidney beans anyways.


For "burger"
1 can rinsed and drained kidney beans
3/4 cup corn
1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 1/4" dices
1/4 cup whole-wheat bread crumbs (I didn't have any, so I put bread crumbs in the oven to dry them out)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 tsp. red pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
Olive oil

For "sauce"
1/2 avocado
1/3 c. reduced-fat sour cream
1 tsp. fresh lime juice
3 cloves of garlic

I used my whole-wheat bun recipe. It complimented these well.

1. Combine beans, corn, green pepper, breadcrums, cilantro, egg whites, red pepper, oregano, and cumin.
2. Heat a good layer of olive oil in pan over medium-high heat.
3. Form mixture into patties. A warning, these are kinda difficult to form into patties and to flip. Because the fatty component that is holding them together is the egg white, they tend to fall apart if you're not careful.
4. Add patty on pan. Brown 5 minutes on each side.

As you can tell, mine looked ridiculous.

5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. To make sauce, puree avocado, sour cream, lime juice, salt and pepper, garlic. (It makes a guacamole-like component).


7. Put a patty on a bun, and top with sauce.
8. Enjoy!


Now, I realize, I was very optimistic to try this. But, if I got my super skeptical roommate to eat these, you're safe.


Recipe two!


I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a large amount of pork chops in my freezer. I don't know where they come from, but they magically show up. And then I have pork chops for days that I don't know what to do with. So, I came up with this.


You need:
Two pork chops, cut into cubes
3 LARGE tomatoes, diced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. oregano

1. Warm olive oil on a pan over medium heat with chopped garlic.
2. Add pork chop cubes.
3. Once pork has browned, add tomatoes and the juice, and oregano.
4. Let stew.
5. Serve.

Super simple. We paired this with salad and my homemade vinaigrette. That, is easy as well.

Vinaigrette
3/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
Pinch of pepper
Little more than a pinch of salt
4 cloves of chopped garlic
A squeeze of mustard (No, I'm not joking).

Shake together. Leave at room temperature.

1 tbsp. is 3 PointsPlus.


Chocolate Zucchini Cake

You need:
1/2 cup butter, softened (I used olive oil)
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup canola oil (I used olive oil)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup 2% milk (I used almond milk)
1/2 cup buttermilk (I used 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice + almond milk = 1/2 cup of imitated buttermilk)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Beat the butter, sugar and oil until smooth.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Beat in vanilla.

This is the tricky part!
4. IN A SEPARATE BOWL, combine milk and buttermilk.
5. In another SEPARATE bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt

6. Take the two separate mixtures alternately, beating well after each addition.
7. Fold in zucchini.
8. Transfer to a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan.
9. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.
10. Bake at 325° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

This recipe is definitely not Weight Watchers approved, but I'm going to try to make one. Bare with me. However, if you don't care, make this. The entire pan was gone in a day. I kid you not.




Weight Watchers Crepes

You need:
5 egg whites
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. milk (Whatever milk you choose. I used almond milk).
1 c. flour
Fresh fruit

1. Whisk all together until just combined.
2. Spray pan with PAM.
3. Let pan heat until hot.
4. Put 1/4 c. of batter on bottom of skillet.
5. Tilt skillet for the batter to cover the bottom.
6. Cook 2 minutes, flip. Cook 2 minutes.
7. Top with fresh fruit and sprinkle powdered sugar.
8. Fold in half.
9. Enjoy!

This is 3 PointsPlus. And nummy. I paired it with an egg white omelette with mushrooms. 4 PointsPlus breakfast. Score.


Again readers, I apologize for the long delay, but hopefully you enjoy the plethora of new recipes.

Until next time,
eLLe