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!

Cabbage Rolls

I was given this recipe from a friend who found it on a friend of a friend's site. We both thought it looked really healthy and delicious....So, I gave it a try.

Actual Recipe:
1 head of cabbage
1 egg
1-8oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
1-envelope onion soup mix
1 lb lean ground turkey
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 cups regular V8 juice (see note in directions)

Directions:
-Core your cabbage and save it for the guinea pigs
-Very carefully, peel off large cabbage leaves (8-12) and wash them. You need to lightly steam the cabbage leaves to wilt them enough to handle. You can put the leaves in a covered casserole dish and microwave on high for 2 minutes.
-In a mixing bowl, combine the turkey meat, raw rice, egg, onion soup mix, cheese and the can of tomato sauce. Mix well - the mixture will be like very gloppy meatloaf.
-Using a spoon, scoop about 1/3 cup mixture into each cabbage leaf and roll or fold. Put the stuffed cabbage leaves into the bottom of your crock-pot, seam side down.
-If you cabbage has a bunch of nice leaves, use them all. I (the person we got the recipe from) was stuck with only 8 good ones and got frustrated and fed the rest of the cabbage to the guinea pigs.
-It's okay to stack the rolls on top of each other in the crock-pot.
-Top with 2 cups of V8 juice. I used 2 cups of juice because I made 8 rolls. If you are using more rolls, use another cup of juice. The original recipe called for an entire 46 oz bottle of V8 which is an awful lot. I didn't want to use that much and did not fully submerge my cabbage rolls. They steamed and cooked fine in less juice. Cover crock-pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Ours cooked for exactly 6 hours and the meat was cooked the the rice was tender. That's what you're looking for.

Ready to cook.

Done.

My Version & Opinion:
-I was able to get 10 usable cabbage leaves, so I ended up using 3 cups of V8 juice. I'm thinking I should have at least used 4 cups to submerge them because the bottom ones turned out better cooked than the top ones.
-I didn't realize until I was making the recipe that I didn't have shredded cheese. So, I used just under a 1/3 cup of grated Parmesan cheese. I wonder how differently it would have been if I had been able to use the right kind.
-I think my family is done using ground turkey. I used to be into it and didn't mind substituting it for ground beef every once in a while. But, we've had some bad ground turkey in the past and I've had a few too many recipes that didn't taste good with it that I think I'm done using it. I think we did some of those recipes while I was pregnant and it really created a bad flavor. It just doesn't taste good to me anymore. So, my suggestion is that if you do want to try this recipe and are on the fence about ground turkey - go ahead and try the ground beef with it. It would more than likely taste better to you.
-The rice was not cooked as well and the recipe said it would be. I cooked my batch for 8 hours and the rice still wasn't done. I was afraid it was going to be mushy but I was not home and had to let it cook that long. Maybe more V8 juice would have helped this.

We ate it with mashed potatoes and green beans.
I mixed every bite together to get through it all.

Well, it's not a recipe I am going to be using again. Not even one I want to play with because it put such a poor taste in my mouth. Blah! You win some, you lose some. You got to experiment to find out what works for your family and with this one, I found out what doesn't work. Good luck to the rest of you if you want to try it out.

Sloppy BBQ Chicken

Ephraim helping make the first layer of jello
- cherry on the bottom and orange on the top.

Frozen chicken with BBQ sauce - ready to cook.

All Cooked and ready to shred with forks.

Shredded and ready to serve on bread. You can eat it as an
open (1 piece of bread) or closed sandwich (2 pieces of bread).

YUMMY! Just as easy and quick as the last recipe but a totally different flavor. Since my family isn't too big yet, I didn't make a large amount. So, the recipe is what I used and you can adjust bigger for a larger family. I probably wouldn't make less than this in the crock-pot.

I realized we were practically out of bread, but I didn't want to run to the store after naps and right before dinner in order to buy some bread or buns. So, I quickly mixed up some bread and it's about to go in the oven just in time to come out right before it's time to eat :-).

We are also going to eat these Sloppy BBQ Chicken sandwiches with some 2 layered Jello - always fun to make with the kids in little cups so they chill faster - and some cooked corn on the cob (on sale this week for us at the store down the street). What a fantastic dinner we're going to have tonight....Hope you all can try this out soon. It's gonna be GREAT!!!! I'll have to post later on how the family likes it. We've had this once before but a long time ago and you know how kids can easily change their minds about things.

INGREDIENTS:

2 chicken breasts
3/4 cup BBQ Sauce
(I used Bulls Eye because it's the only BBQ sauce I've come to like so far - you could use any kind you like the best)

RECIPE:

I put the chicken breasts in frozen and spread all the BBQ sauce over the chicken. I cooked it on high for over 3 hours (I would cook it for about 4 if I had more chicken in there). Then I forked the cooked chicken and mixed it around in the sauce to make a Sloppy Joe type chicken mess.