Taco Spaghetti

INGREDIENTS

• 12 ounces uncooked spaghetti
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can (10 ounces) diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained
• 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend, divided
• 2/3 cup salsa

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Break spaghetti into thirds; cook according to package directions for al dente.
   
2. Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, cook beef over medium heat 6-8 minutes or until no longer pink, breaking into crumbles; drain. Stir in taco seasoning and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in beans, tomatoes, 1 cup cheese and salsa. Drain spaghetti; add to beef mixture and toss to combine.
4. Transfer to a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Bake, covered, 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, 3-5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

MY CHANGES

• I didn't deal with the dutch oven cooking of my beef.  When I buy ground beef, I cook up several pounds at once in a pot on the stove with chopped up onions in it.  Then bag up the cooked meat for the freezer.  So, I just pulled out a pound of meat for step #2.
• I used Italian herb flavored diced tomatoes because I didn't have any green chiles.

 FAMILY OPINION

• They ALL loved it - all 6 kids (ages 5 - 15), husband and myself.
• The only thing that was odd to me was the black beans with the spaghetti noodles.  It may have been the texture differences or the fact that I've never had those two things together.
• DEFINITELY making this one again.  So simple and so easy.
  

Chicken & Black Bean Casserole

Tried this recipe for dinner tonight....SUCCESS!!

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 (16 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (8 ounce) package black beans, cooked and drained

• 2 ounces green chile peppers, diced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
  
  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

This is where the original recipe was found (shared with me by a friend):

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-and-Black-Bean-Casserole/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=chicken+rice+black+bean&e8=Quick+Search&event10=1&e7=Home+Page&soid=sr_results_p1i5


I didn't have cilantro so I just did without.  As an adult, it would have been a nice addition but no one noticed it missing.

I used left over chicken that was already cooked, so I just did the onions in the pan and then added them both to the casserole dish without reheating the chicken.

I drained a can of black beans and poured those in instead of cooking up dry beans.  Quick and easy.

I didn't think about adding corn to it until it was too late, so I cooked some up and we had it on the side.  I think it could easily be added frozen or from a can.

The recipe doesn't say this, but I recommend covering your casserole pan so it doesn't dry out too much.  It was on the verge of being a bit dry so you could add a little more water if you want to.  But, it didn't taste bad the way it was.

We sprinkled a bit of cheese on the top after putting it on our plates, it melted right away because it was still hot when we served it up.  Then we ate this either on corn tortillas or with tortilla chips.

Husband wasn't home but I know he would like it.  I put some in the freezer for him to eat on another day.
I liked it and plan to use left overs on my lunch time salad tomorrow.
4 boys (ages 1 - 7) - Success!  They all liked it and gave me a thumbs up on the new recipe.

I will definitely be making this one again!

No Bake Granola Bars

A friend of mine posted a website on her facebook page on how to make your own chewy granola bars....I've always wanted to know how to do that so I gave it a try.  Since we enjoyed them, I didn't want to lose the recipe and decided to just post it here for others to try as well.

Here is the website:


http://happymoneysaver.com/no-bake-homemade-chewy-granola-bars/

RECIPE:

1/2 cup sugar or brown sugar (I did brown sugar)
1 1/4 cups honey (original recipe called for 1 1/2 but less works better for me)
1/4 cup coconut oil (original recipe called for 1/3 but less works better for me)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups crisp rice cereal
2 2/3 cup old fashioned oats
2/3 cup ground flax seed
1/2 - 1 cup mini chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine your oats, crispy rice cereal, and ground flax seed. Stir with a large spoon until well combined. Set aside.

Measure out sugar, honey, coconut oil, and sea salt and place in a sauce pan over medium heat. Bring it to a boil.  Stirring the whole time, boil for exactly 1 minute so mixture combines and sugars dissolve.

Take pan off the heat and add in the crunchy peanut butter and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth.

Pour this Peanut buttery honey deliciousness over your bowl of oat/crispy rice cereal mixture.  Stir until well combined.

Let this mixture sit and cool for about 5-8 minutes. Meanwhile, grab a large cookie sheet or jelly roll pan (mine is sized at 12½ x 17½ by 1 inch), and some parchment paper. Place cookie sheet on a large piece of parchment paper and trace around the outside of it. Cut it out and place this on the inside of your cookie sheet. It should fit perfectly. This will help later to keep the granola bars in one piece before cutting up. Believe me on this. I tried greasing the pan and it didn’t work.

After the mixture has cooled enough that the mini chocolate chips wont melt upon contact, pour the granola mixture out onto the large cookie sheet.  Spread mixture out evenly.

Next, tear off another large piece of parchment paper and place this over your granola mixture. Take another jelly roll pan or cookie sheet the same size and place it on top of the parchment. Press down. This will help to compact the granola so that the bars will stay together and not fall apart. Little helpers love to do this part.

Remove cookie sheet and parchment, sprinkle mini chocolate chips evenly over the top and repeat the process above, taking the parchment paper and extra cookie sheet and pressing the two together so that the chocolate chips get pressed into the bars.

Remove parchment paper and cookie sheet. If you have fridge space, place cookie sheet in the fridge to finish cooling. If not, it can finish cooling on the counter just as well. Once the bars have cooled completely, slide solidified mixture out of your pan.

Cut the bars into the size of your choosing.  (I cut them into 35 pieces - 7 x 5)

NOTES:

Is parchment paper the same thing as wax paper?  Whether it is or not, that's what I used.

The only flax seed I found was in individual pouches inside a bigger box, I think it came out to about 12 pouches.  I used 11 when I made the recipe because the box I had came with 21 pouches and I wanted to save the rest for the next time I made them.

Without thinking about it, after putting the chocolate chips onto the smashed granola, I used the same pan to smash them down with.....it had warmed up from pushing down the granola the first time so it melted my chocolate chips all over the place.  I recommend using another pan to smash them down with the second time if you can or just only pushing for a few seconds.

Wrap them individually with Saran Wrap.  They stay very soft and chewy if you don't keep them in the fridge and I mean very soft and easily fall apart for children.  If you keep them in the fridge, they hold their form better and are still very chewy.  They can also be frozen if you put them in a freezer bag.....then it can go straight into a lunch box that morning.

When I was explaining this recipe to my husband and told him I used rice cereal, he thought I was talking about baby food - haha.

OPINIONS:

EVERYONE loves them. They are so yummy and I will definitely be making them over and over and over again.

Weight Watchers = 5 points plus value

WW Italian Soup

I created this recipe with a few guidelines from the Weight Watchers booklet on the Simple Start plan.  I created this soup with all Simply Filling foods and if you're doing that plan, this soup is 0 POINTS PLUS VALUE.  AWESOME!!!

MY RECIPE CREATION:

1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp garlic
1 1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning

Saute all together for a few minutes.

4-6 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped

Saute for about 5 minutes to spread those yummy flavors.

6 cups water
3 boullion cubes
1 can Italian stewed tomatoes (not drained - but I did cut them up a little bit more)
2 cups whole wheat noodles

Cook until noodles are done (vegetables should be done by this time as well).

OPINIONS:

Husband - likes it with a lot of noodles.
Kids - Not their favorite, but they ate it because that's what was for dinner.  I may have encouraged a dessert to follow if they ate it all (Yes, I bribe my kids with desserts some times).  I didn't expect it to become a favorite for them, but mostly made it for myself.
 Me - LOVED IT!  I made it again on another day and didn't serve it for dinner so that I could eat it as left overs for my lunches.  And, on the Simply Filling WW Plan, I can eat it all I want without feeling bad about it.  I do have to track the Saltine crackers I ate with it, but one point of crackers can go a long way with such a delicious soup.

Definitely making this again - even if it's just for myself.

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!

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Original Recipe:
Slow-Cooker Cookbook by Debbie Harman

2 lb boneless chicken parts
4 cups chicken broth
1 16-oz bag frozen vegetables
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp parsley flakes
2 cups small shell pasta

Combine all ingredients except pasta in slow-cooker. Cover and cook on high 4-5 hours or low 7-8 hours. Remove chicken. Cut into bite-size chunks. Cook shell pasta according to package directions. Put chicken and cooked noodles in slow-cooker. Heat through.

My Changes:

--1 1/2 lb chicken instead of 2 lb (I think this book just calls for too much meat in all the recipes)
--1/2 tsp paprika instead of 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning - didn't have poultry seasoning. So, why did I use paprika? Well, I didn't know what was in poultry seasoning, so I looked at the following recipe in the book for chicken noodle soup and saw paprika in it, so that's what I used :-).
--added about 4 chopped ribs of celery because I've never had a chicken noodle soup without carrots and celery and since there were already carrots in the frozen vegetables, I decided I would add celery.

Opinion:

Still too much chicken. I should have cut it down to one pound instead. But, when dealing with a new recipe, I don't want to change it too much the first time around. And, too many noodles. I think it would have been just fine with one cup of noodles (dry before cooking them). There just wasn't enough soup/broth to make it a soup with that many ingredients.

Husband and me ate it and enjoyed it. It didn't seem as flavorful as some of my usual chicken noodle soups, but it was still okay. The kids didn't say it was gross, so that's good. They must have had too many snacks after lunch because they weren't really in the mood for an early dinner, maybe they'll finish it within the hour since they can't have any cake until they finish their soup :-).

Weight Watchers points plus value: 1 cup = 5 ppv
If you lessen the chicken to one pound and the noodles to one cup = 3 ppv

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.