WW - Taco Soup

Original Recipe:

1lb ground turkey or lean beef
1 large onion chopped
1 (1oz) pk Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
1 (1oz) pack Taco Seasoning mix
1 (16oz) can pinto beans
1 (16oz) can chili beans
1 (16oz) can whole kernel corn
1 (8oz) can Mexican style tomatoes
1 (8oz) can diced tomatoes

Brown mean and onions and drain. Mix Ranch and Taco Seasoning into meat. Add remainder ingredients (un-drained) to meat mixture. Simmer for an hour. 2 Weight Watchers Points Plus per cup. You can also serve this with fat free or low fat tortilla chips. It is super yummy.

My Version:

1 lb ground beef (already cooked and frozen by with onions already in it)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 pk Ranch Dressing Mix
1/4 cup Taco Seasoning mix (I buy this in the bulk container)
1 can red beans
1 can black beans
1 can white beans
1 can corn
1 can Italian style tomatoes (not as spicy as the Mexican style)
1 can diced tomatoes

Poured everything into the crockpot and cooked it on high for 2 hours.  I didn't measure how many cups it made, and I added an extra can of beans.  My guess was about 12 cups and that gives my version 4 WW Points Plus Value.  I didn't realize that white beans were 3 more points per can than the other kinds of beans.  Something to think about.

Opinion:

Sorry, no picture this time.  My family likes Taco Soup.  It was SO EASY!!!  And, I was able to make it a couple hours before dinner when I had a few minutes....literally, a few minutes.  We like to sprinkle a little bit of cheese on it or melt a dab of cream cheese in our soup and eat with tortilla chips.  If you're watching your WW points, make sure you add points for those little extras.  Enjoy!

Sunday Dinner Roast with Vegetables

This is my very first roast in the slow cooker! I have done roasts in the oven before, but no one ever showed me what to do with the slow cooker version. I guess I just pushed it off as I do other new things unless someone shows me how to do it first. Well, no one showed me this time and since I found this simple recipe in my cookbook, I decided to take a chance.

Original Recipe:
Slow-Cooker Cookbook by Debbie G. Harman

1 lb baby carrots
1 onion, chopped
8 potatoes, peeled and chopped
Salt & Pepper
3-4 lb boneless beef roast
2 tsp beef bouillon

Place vegetables in slow-cooker. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pout 1/2 cup water around sides. Place roast on vegetables. Rub bouillon on roast. Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 7-8 hours. Remove roast. Allow to cool 10 minutes. Slice roast. Serve with vegetables.

My Changes:

Carrots - didn't have baby carrots, so I chopped up about one pound of regular peeled carrots
Onion - only used 1/2 of one medium onion
Bouillon - I only had the cubed bouillon, so I chopped two up small and rubbed that around

Opinion:

Good. Husband and I both agreed that there needed to be some more flavor rubbed into the meat, possibly some pepper. Husband thinks I should have just browned the outside of the meat before putting it in the slow-cooker. That's what I usually do when I cook it in the oven because it helps hold in the flavor to the meat. Also, be careful not to do too many potatoes - they really do need to be UNDER the roast. If you have a few lingering on the sides around the roast, then they won't be within the juices at the bottom of the pot and they will be a little tougher and have a slight gray tint to them from sitting in the "air" too long before cooking.

I will probably try this one again with my few needed changes because it was simple.

Weight Watchers points plus value - just depends on how much you eat of each item. You will need to count the roast, carrots and potatoes separately for your portion sizes.

Hamburger Soup

YUMMY for us grown ups anyway....Smells delicious when you come home to this cooking when you haven't eaten all day! Sorry, no picture this time. I forgot.

Original Recipe:
Slow-Cooker Cookbook by Debbie G. Harman

2 lb ground beef
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 celery ribs, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tsp celery salt
2 tsp beef bouillon
8 cups water
1 16-oz can corn
Salt & Pepper

Brown ground beef with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Drain fat. Combine meat and remaining ingredients in slow-cooker. Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours.

My version:

1 lb ground beef (already had it cooked and in the freezer)
5 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced
3 celery ribs, slice
1/2 onion, chopped (already had an onion chopped and in the freezer - just added half the bag)
2 cubes beef bouillon
7 cups water (because my slow-cooker was already full)
1 16-oz can corn
salt and pepper

Didn't have Celery Salt, so I just skipped that ingredient. Also, I don't and also don't think that my family needs that much meat, so I cut it down from 2 lbs to 1 lb. 1 pound was PLENTY/Just Right. I made up for it with more vegetables :-) which I do like and believe my family can't ever have enough of.

Opinions:
Me & My husband really enjoyed it. I didn't seem to put in enough salt for this size of a soup, but we added some and ate it with saltines and we were good.

My boys didn't care for it. I'm assuming it's because when I usually make soup/stew it's with chicken or beef chunks and this was just regular hamburger. Plus, I didn't thicken the juices at all with any corn starch or flour, so it may have been runnier for their taste. I was surprised they didn't just gobble it up like they do my other soups. My one year old is also teething right now and hasn't been eating well for the past two weeks anyway.

I plan to try this one again at another time - even if I end up eating all the left overs myself. I'm okay with that because I really enjoyed it.

Weight Watchers = 2 points plus value for 1 cup (4 points for 1 1/2 cups)

Lasagna - Macey's Ad

In the Macey's grocery store food ads I cut out the Crock Pot Lasagna recipe and tried it out. This is one that I tried to play with a little bit and wish I didn't. It was still good but would have been better if I had followed all the ingredients as directed. Doesn't really matter on what brand you use, but the amounts would have made a difference.

Actual Recipe:

1 lb lean ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 - 29 oz Western Family Tomato Sauce
1 - 6 oz Western Family Tomato Paste
1 - 16 oz Western Family Cottage Cheese
1 - 5 oz BelGioioso Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 - 8 oz Western Family Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 - 16 oz American Beauty Lasagna Noodles (uncooked)

Directions:

-Brown ground beef, chopped onion and smashed garlic in frying pan
-Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp dried oregano
-Cook until meat sauce is warm
-Spoon a layer of meat sauce onto the bottom of the crock pot
-Add a double layer of uncooked lasagna noodles (break to fit) and top with a layer of the cheeses
-Repeat with sauce, noodles and cheeses until all are used up
-Add 1/2 cup water around the outside edge of the lasagna
-Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours
-Serves 6

Ready to cook.

Done.

My Changes:

-I used a package of frozen beef I had in the freezer which I had already cooked up with minced onions, so I didn't worry about the garlic
-I didn't have a 29 oz can of tomato sauce so I used 4-6oz cans which equals 24 oz - I now wish I had a 29 oz can or at least one more 6 oz can to use...It needed a little more sauce.
-I was planning on just creating 3 combo layers but ended up with a few extra noodles, so I tried to spread the sauce out at the end to create one more layer - I should have just been more generous with them in the beginning or just left them out. They weren't quite done on the top because there weren't enough toppings on them.
-I used 1/4 cup of water around the edges instead of 1/2 cup. I shouldn't have adjusted this. The noodles needed the extra moisture, especially since I didn't have enough sauce. I was just worried about adding too much water because of a previous recipe that I had done that had a pool of water at the end.
-I thought it would be good with chopped up mushrooms - and I was right about that change. It was delicious and I wish I had chopped up and added a lot more than I did.

Opinion:

Don't play with this recipe too much if you can avoid it. Doesn't matter what brand of items you use, I just copied the recipe as it was written. Keep in mind that it will serve at least 6 people. It created a lot of left overs for my family of 5 (3 of which are under 5). But, it was delicious and the next time I do this, it will be done correctly.

Beefaroni Bake

Sorry, no pictures this time. I wasn't in the mood that day to deal with the camera that was full of pictures. Just imagine and I think you'll get the picture.

Actual Recipe:
(Family Dinner Cookbook by Debbie G. Harman)

1 pound ground beef
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cans tomato sauce
2 Tbsp butter
1 16-oz package elbow macaroni

Brown meat with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Drain fat. Cook macaroni according to package directions. Combine all ingredients, reserving 1 cup cheese, in a 9x13 casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

My Changes:
I used a 16-oz package of bow tie pasta.
I used a pound of hamburger already cooked and frozen in one pound amounts from my freezer that I browned with salt, pepper and minced onions (no garlic powder).

Our Opinion:
We liked it. My kids ate it as they always eat "noodles with sauce" for dinner. It was fun to use a different kind of pasta that my kids weren't used to, variety is always nice. I only had 2 cans of tomato sauce for random cooking and I think it could have used a little bit more sauce. It could have been because I used bigger noodles than macaroni noodles, but I like sauce. In the future, I think I will just use some spaghetti sauce - just for a little bit more flavor and a little bit more sauce. It was still good this way though.

I think this way is good for when you don't have much time to make dinner and you're planning ahead. It was quick and easy. I prepped everything just after lunch time when my smaller kids were napping. Then I put it in the fridge with foil over the top. When I cooked it, I just left the foil on so that it would cook throughout a little bit more rather than just melting the cheese.

You could easily add a vegetable to this as well instead of having it on the side. Or it would be nice to serve with a salad.

Beef Stew - Seasoning Mix

I bought a seasoning mix from Winco the other day and a package of stew meat to make it a quick meal. It wasn't as quick as I thought it would be, but it was definitely delicious! The prep work was easy and quick, but the time it took to cook was what took a good amount of time.

We ate this with home made bread and we probably ate half the stew. My husband and I thought it was delicious and I will definitely be doing this again on a day that I'm prepared and not planning on going anywhere since the stove has to be on for 2 1/2 hours on low. The meat was so tender and not too chewy like I've had in other stews. My 4 yr old ate every bite of a full bowl. My 2 yr old didn't seem to be feeling well and didn't want to eat any of it. He's still getting those back teeth, so we weren't sure how he would do with the meat anyway. My baby LOVED it as you can see in the picture. The prep work was very simple and I would definitely recommend this dinner to those who like a beefy kind of stew. YUM!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED -

2 lbs of stew meat
3 cups water
Beef Stew Mix
4-5 potatoes
4 carrots
2 celery stalks
4 small onions or 1/4 yellow onion
10 oz frozen peas

RECIPE -

1. Lightly flour 2 lb of stew meat. Brown in 3 Tbsp oil. (I cut up the stew meat a bit more than it already was because of my kids).

2. Add 3 cups water and BEEF STEW MIX. (I got the Winco store brand - Hy-Top).

3. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer until tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours.

4. Add 4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered (I added 5 small ones - cut into bite sizes). Cut into 1 inch pieces, 4 carrots, 2 celery stalks and 4 small onions (I cut them smaller than that and used 1/4 of a yellow onion because I didn't have the small onions that they called for).

5. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add 1 package, 10 oz, frozen peas the last 5 minutes of cooking time. Add 2 tsp of salt if desired (I didn't add the salt because I forgot and didn't even notice it needed it).