Cooking with Mary

So you may or may not know that I enjoy spending some time in the kitchen. As long as that time is productive time. Please note that dishes and clean up is NOT considered productive in my books. Ugh, I need a maid.

In any event, I like to consider myself a pretty good cook, and an excellent baker. Sure, I have some mishaps here and there, but for the most part- I can put some good food on the table. In the course of trying to drop a few (read: many) lbs, I am working my way through an old Weight Watchers cookbook I inherited somewhere along the way. Most of the recipes in the cookbook are the type that involve 99% fat free cream of ______ soup. For the most part, I attempt to pass those recipes by. However, on occasion, one speaks to me. And this one surely did.

Chicken a la King Casserole

8 oz wide egg noodles
1 can 99% fat free cream of chicken soup
2/3 c fat free evaporated milk
6 oz. cubed light Velveeta cheese, cubed
2 c cooked cubed chicken breast
1 c chopped celery
1/4 c chopped green pepper
2 oz jar pimentos, drained
1 c dried bread crumbs
1 tbsp melted butter
1/4 c slivered almonds

Cook noodles according to package directions
In large sauce saucepan combine soup and milk
Cook over medium heat stirring for 2 minutes
Reduce heat, stir in cheese until melted
Add chicken and vegetables
Add drained noodles and mix well
Place in 2 qt baking dis, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray
Toss breadcrumbs with butter and sprinkle on top
Sprinkle with almonds
Bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes until heated through and golden
Serves 6 at 7 points each (old, old points version, not points plus)

Maybe you are asking yourself what spoke to me in this recipe? Answer: Pimentos. Love them.

Maybe you are asking yourself how this recipe turned out? Umm...well, imagine if you were picking up the ingredients for this recipe and didn't realize there was a difference between evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.

Yeah, it was sweet. And WAY more calories than it should have been. You would think that I might have realized something was off when I saw how many calories were in a serving after entering the recipe into My Fitness Pal. Nope, it wasn't until I took that first bite and thought, "well, this tastes a little like dessert" that I realized something was off. And it wasn't until the next day when I discussed the recipe with my friend (who has the same cookbook) that I realized there was a difference between evaporated and sweetened condensed milk.

Woops.

That being said, I think it would be an awesome recipe if you made a few changes:

First, use evaporated milk, and not sweetened condensed (headslap)
Use the whole stinking green pepper (I always do anyways- and it didn't hurt it this time around)
Use sharp Cheddar real cheese instead of Velveeta (Velveeta=yuck! in my books anyways)
Add broccoli- lots of broccoli! Or other veggies (more peppers, onions, asparagus, brussel sprouts)
Saute veggies before adding them to the mix
Less breadcrumbs, more almonds!
You really need to bake it longer to get it good and crunchy on the top (the recipe didn't come with a temp to bake, I used 350, maybe 400 or 450 would be better)

I think one of my favorite things about making this recipe (and other casseroles in general) is that it allows me to use the 2 qt casserole dish that my grandma gave me. I'm sorry but Pyrex and Martha Stewart don't have anything on old dishes, in my books.



I heart this dish, and all the other "antique" dishes I have inherited.

I wish you better luck, and warn you to read recipes and check ingredients closely!  :-)

Product Review: Dannon Light and Fit Toasted Coconut Vanilla

Let me start with this. A few months ago I attempted to do a low carb diet. Emphasis on attempt. During this short phase, I evaluated food in a completely different way than I have normally judged the wholesomeness of foods. When doing low carb,  fruit and yogurt are absolutely off limits. And while lack of those foods are not why I failed (enter bread!), the stigma of yogurt being bad for you stuck with me.

Well, now I am focusing on a low cal diet rather than low carb. I took a gander by the yogurt isle yesterday and noticed that you can eat a whole container of yogurt for 80 calories. Epiphany in the middle of the diary section. So I proceeded to buy 12 containers of yogurt. Yes, 12. They were on sale.

One of the types that I bought was Dannon's Light and Fit Toasted Coconut Vanilla. I tried the first one this morning.









So delicious.

I'm a lover of coconut. If you are one of those weird weird weirdos that doesn't like coconut- you are out of luck. There is no hiding that flavor in the yogurt. However, if you you adore sweet coconut flavor, as most normal citizens of the world do, enjoy. Wait no longer, you have been notified of the deliciousness waiting for you at your local grocery center.

I mixed mine with a handful of rice chex, because I like a little crunch in my yogurt. However, for the purposes of this blog, I tried some plain and it was good on it's own too. :)

A Game of Thrones-- Review

I finally finished A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin this weekend. Ironically, this is the first time I've seen the cover art. And did you know there is an HBO series or movie?! News to me. Thank you google!



It was a long haul book. I've been reading it since... December. I'm generally a book a week or at max two weeks kinda girl. I'm also not generally a sci-fi medieval kind of girl.

That being said, it was obviously good enough. I bought the next book in the series immediately after finishing the first.

The book was good. It felt really long. I'm not sure if it is because I'm reading it on my kindle (first full book!), or if it was really that long of a book. The action kept you interested, there was a very well thought out story line, and it even managed to break your heart somewhere along the way.

The downfall- there are SO many characters to keep sorted out. I was confused for at least the first quarter of the book. Once you figure out the names that you need to know you can just keep moving, but the first week at least I would have to go back and see who exactly we were talking about. Once I finished the book, I found these neat little appendices in the back that sort of charted all of the characters out for you. That would have been nifty to know from the get go!

It's definitely a change of pace. I'd recommend it even. But there are very few books out there that I wouldn't!

Warning: I was sure that when I finished I would go back and read another chic-lit book. And then the book ended. I had to find out what happened next, so I bought the next book and began reading it immediately. I'm guessing I will have to finish the entire series before I move on.

(sigh) I hate it (even though I kind of love it) when that happens!

Goal Update

I'm holding myself accountable for these goals. I guess this my own personal review. It has been less than a week, I realize this.

1. Lose 60 lbs.

I was down 4. But went for drinks on Friday and Saturday evening with friends. This morning I was back up almost 2. Boo. But the My Fitness app is AWESOME! I've realized that I must exercise everyday- even if it is only a 30 minute walk. I've also realized that it is nearly impossible to stay below calories if I try to eat out. Bummer dude.

2. Save some money.

I'm thinking it will be possible for me to put some money away this month. I do need to buy some new running (walking) shoes, but there should be enough left at the end of the month to put some away. Have I mentioned how expensive it is to eat healthy? I paid $11 for a bundle of grapes this week. ELEVEN DOLLARS. Good thing they are delicious.


3. Stop procrastinating.

Ehh, I'm getting there. However, Pintrest is just SO awesome.


4. Get my ASP certification.

No progress here. Boo.


5. Be a better daughter, sister, and friend. I need to be better about including the people who are important to be in all parts of my life. It's a hard thing for me to do, but I need to bite the bullet and do it.

Check, I'm making progress. I think.



6. Recycle more.

Fail. I need a small cute recycle bin for inside the house. Going outside every time I have something to put in the recycle bin is just not reasonable. Any ideas?


7. Cook more often- and try at least one new recipe every single week.

I tried cauliflower pizza crust this week for my something new. It was good. I made my favorite chili mac recipe and have been eating leftovers for DAYS!  I may make a weight watchers corn and potato chowder tonight. I think that this is by far the most fun goal I set. I love to cook- and finding recipes that are delicious and low cal is kind of a fun challenge. I do still hate the cleanup part....


8. Begin to consider dating again.

Nope.


9. Drink more water.

Yep, the My Fitness app tracks this too. I find it's easier for me to drink water at work on when I am out and about, and more difficult at home. This is the exact opposite of the diet plan.


10. Travel less.

I've been at home all week, and elected not to attend the CottonBowl. That was a tough decision. But at least I'm not having to pinch pennies until the 15th!

I'm at 60%. D-. But, it's only week one!

Books of 2011

2011 provided me with some great reading. In fact, some of the best books I have ever read, I read in 2011. As a result, I am going to list them here, in case you need an idea or two.

Let's start at the top:



If you haven't read these books, stop what you are doing-right now- and go find them. They are beyond amazing. I took the first one on vacation with me in July. I could not put it down. Seriously, I read it in less than 24 hours. When I finished it, I seriously considered buying the hardback version of the second one- even though I had it already at home. So so good. And the movie is coming out in March. Can not wait!



I don't know what it was about trilogies this year, but this one was amazing. Almost as good as The Hunger Games, but not quite. Larsson is a little harder of a read. But the story was interesting, gruesome, and breathtaking.  Love these books!



I resisted this one for a while, but I ended up in love by the end. The movie was good, but not nearly as great as the book.



I think I picked this up in an airport, for lack of anything better to read. It was good. Really good. In fact, it totally changed my stance on Capital Punishment. Strange how a fictional book can do that to you once in a while.

 

Gotta love the Stephanie Plum novels. Two in one year! What a bonus. By the way, I'm Team Ranger.

 

Because I am a total book snob, I was a little embarrassed by how much I like these books. Once again, I was in an airport somewhere and needing something to read when I stumbled across the first one as a last resort. They are total chick-lit trash, but fun good reads. I identified with a couple of the characters, so I will probably read the rest of the series eventually.

So that is the best I read in 2011. I'm hoping 2012 will be just as good. So far it is starting off great with:

 On my new KINDLE!!

No more paying way to much for books in airports! Yay! And Game of Thrones is great too. I didn't realize it was an HBO series until I looked up images for the blog. Good to know!

2012 Goals

Happy New Year! I know I am two days late, but for me- today is the start to the new year. And with the start of the new year, I feel it is important to set goals to reach by the end of the year. Goals are important to me, and I have an overwhelming feeling that I didn't accomplish much last year. You know why? Because I only had one goal at the beginning of the year: Finishing school.

Now I did accomplish that, but guess what I also managed to do? Gain 20 lbs.

With that, I guess you know what tops my goals for 2012:

1. Lose 60 lbs. Yikes. That seems like a lot. But it needs to be done. And this shall be the year I do it. I'm committing to working out at least 45 minutes each and every day. And of course working on the diet plan. I've just downloaded an app to help me with these, and it seems like it should help. If I haven't lost at least 5 lbs by the end of the month, I'm going back to Weight Watchers. It works, and I know it. Just having a hard time wanting to fork over the money every month.

2. Save some money. I'm going to start with trying to stash away at least $150 a month. It should be a lot more, but I have to start paying back those student loans soon, and I am a little worried about that.

3. Stop procrastinating. Tomorrow (kidding). I need to be more productive both at work and at home. All day, everyday. This means less chatting, pinning, facebooking and internet surfing and more concentration on productive activities. I think this might be the most challenging of all my goals.

4. Get my ASP certification. I'm taking a 3 day class in June. Hoping to sign up for the test in July/August. This will also require several hours of study each week. See goal 3.

5. Be a better daughter, sister, and friend. I need to be better about including the people who are important to be in all parts of my life. It's a hard thing for me to do, but I need to bite the bullet and do it.

6. Recycle more. Because the environment matters, and I'm not very good about making sure everything that is recyclable ends up in that bin. I also never collect glass to take to the glass collection place. But I should, and I know it.

7. Cook more often- and try at least one new recipe every single week. I need to stop with the frozen meals, ramen  noodles, and soup from a can. It's all so easy and tasty (well, sometimes), but it is all SO bad for you with the sodium and preservatives.

8. Begin to consider dating again. NOTE: this does not mean I will be going through with the actual dating of anyone person. But it is time to begin considering it again. Yeah, I'm guessing this one isn't going to happen.

9. Drink more water. Everyday. This also means cutting back on the Diet Pepsi consumption. Which I should probably warn co-workers, family, and friends about. I'm guilty of drinking one or two every day, and I would like to limit that to only one or two a week, if at all.

10. Travel less. This seems like a strange goal, but I need to spend some time at home working on me! I love to travel, and I have done A LOT of it this past year. It was fun, educational, and exactly what I dream my life will be like one day. But, I'm sure it contributed to the 20 lb weight gain. And I'm also sure my savings account looks nothing like it used to. I have two trips planned to Denver already this year (one work, one play), but that is all so far. And it should probably stay that way. Maybe if I accomplish this goal along with goal #1, I will award myself with a beach vacation next January.

With that, I'm off to be productive. Laundry and grocery store. Two of my least favorite things!!

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving Recipes

In an effort to ensure that I don't have to continually call, text, and email people for recipes that I am far to disorganized to keep track of, I'm going to go ahead and post them here.

The apple pie turned out...ok. I wasn't able to roll the crust out thin enough so it was too thick for my liking. However, still better than store bought in my humble opinion. To be fair to myself,  my grandma has set the standard pretty dang high when it comes to making pies. She wins all the local pie contests and is really pretty much a legend when it comes to her crusts. But in my typical perfectionist style, I thought I could be perfect on my first try. While the pie was very pretty, it just wasn't quite to the level I thought it should be.

So onto the Sweet Potato Souffle. This is one thing that I did manage to nail on the first try when I made it last year. But really, it's pretty easy. I didn't take any pictures of it, but it does end up being a very pretty dish too. Here is one that looks similar to mine, I found on the internet. Note: mine has more topping.



Roast 6 large sweet potatoes in an oven for around an hour at somewhere around 400 degrees. Don't forget to prick some holes in the skin before baking. They are done when they give nicely when you apply pressure.
Remove skins and mash up the flesh of the sweet potatoes in a large bowl.
Add one stick of butter, one cup of milk, and one cup of sugar. Beat together.
Beat two or three eggs in a separate bowl, depending on how much more liquid you need to get a smooth sweet potato mash. Also make sure that the potato mixture is cooled enough not to scramble your eggs when you add them. Mix in the eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Pour this mixture into a buttered pan.  I use a 9 by 13 pan to make sure that I get a good topping/sweet potato ratio, but you could use a prettier casserole dish if you want to make it extra pretty. At this point you can refrigerate until you are ready to finish the recipe.
To make the topping, mix 1 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 package of halved pecans, 1/2 cup of butter, and 1/3 cup of flour (self rising if you have it- but not necessary for success). Mix this with a fork and then spoon over sweet potato base. Bake for 45 minutes at 350.

I dare you to not like this recipe. If you have any sort of sweet tooth, I promise you will love it. It's sort of like having dessert during dinner.