Monday, June 16, 2003

 
Well, we had quite a calorie-fest over the weekend. On the plus side, we had a lot of really great food that was still relatively healthy. AND, I found a new recipe for low-cal pastitsio that is awesome! You may remember my last pastitsio fiasco, where I substituted too many things and it generally turned out awful. This time, I got the recipe from The Good Carb Cookbook and it was so much easier and tasted so much better. Plus, you could have a big portion and it was okay.

Friday
This was the night of the wonderful pastitsio. It was really easy to make, actually. I just cooked about a cup and a half of elbow macaroni, drain and set aside. While that was cooking, I browned some lean ground beef (4% fat) and drained the fat off. Then I added some chopped onions, dried oregano, a pinch of cinnamon, a can of crushed tomatoes (w/ juice) and a 1/4 cup of tomato paste, brought it to a boil and then simmered it for 10 minutes. Then I made the cream sauce for the topping by mixing 3 tbsp flour with 1/2 cup of lowfat milk (1%) until it was a smooth paste and then I whisked in another 1.5 cups of milk and 3/4 cup of Eggbeaters and a pinch of salt. Then I heated it in the microwave on high for 2 minutes, whisked it again, then heated an additional 3 minutes on high, whisking after each minute, until it was thickened. That part was the best, since the last recipe had me stirring constantly over the stove for about 15 minutes and it didn't get nearly thick enough. While the microwave was going, I added the meat and sauce mixture to the pasta and stirred in about 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese. Then I sprayed a baking dish with Pam, spread the pasta mixture evenly in it and poured the cream sauce over the top. Then I put another 1/4 cup of grated parmesan on top, sprayed with Pam and baked it for 35 minutes at 350. We had green beans and salad to go with it and it was so yummy. We had the leftovers for lunch today and they were just as good as they were on Friday. This is my favorite new recipe!

Hellman's (or Best Foods in the West) Just 2 Good

Saturday
Leah has been craving hot wings for a while, but obviously, we can't have hot wings because they are so horribly bad for you. But, hot wings are really just a vehicle for the hot sauce, right? So she came up with the idea to make chicken tenders and put hot wing sauce on them. We found some Spicy Shake-and-Bake at the gtrocery store and coated the chicken breast tenders with that and baked them in the oven. Then Leah mixed up some hot sauce w/ a little melted margaine and we used that as a dipping sauce. It was not quite the same as wings, but still pretty good. We made a pact that we'd get buffalo wings at Red Robin when we both get down to 200, to celebrate. We had some baked sweet-potato fries and broccolini with the chicken. We also found out that the Best Food's "Just 2 Good" mayonaise, with only 2 grams of fat per serving, is pretty darn good! We mixed it with ketchup as a dipping sauce for the fries and it didn't taste any different than regular mayo.

Sunday
Leah wanted to make something really good for Pop on Father's Day, and also surprise him, so she made pork spareribs, potato salad and corn on the cob. The ribs she bought the day before, put a rub on them and let them sit in the fridge overnight. Then she slow-cooked them in the oven at 200 for 5 hours and finished them with a bbq glaze on the grill. WE didn't have ribs (well, okay, we shared one...just one! They looked so good and Pop kept going on and on about them....), instead we had pork loin chops, done the same way as the ribs, except without the slow-cooking part. We also didn't have to feel too guilty about the potato salad, which was killer btw, because Leah used the low-fat mayo to make it. And, we used Butter Buds on the corn, so all in all, the meal wasn't all that bad for us. And it sure tasted good! We wanted to keep eating the potato salad until we burst!

Oh, I also made a lovely dessert out of phyllo (sprayed with butter-flavored Pam instead of using butter or margarine) spread with lowfat cream cheese whipped with a little honey and layered with fresh nectarine slices and blueberries. It was nice and light after a heavy dinner.

Jacki 6/16/2003