Speedy Supper Skillet

Serves 4

1 cup diced onion
16 ounces ground turkey
1 1/2 cups cooked whole wheat pasta
1 cup peas and carrots, frozen
16 ounces tomato sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
salt & pepper to taste

Cook the onions in a pan spray with butter-flavored cooking spray until soft, about 10 minutes. Add ground turkey and garlic, and cook until there’s no visible pink left in the meat. Add the remaining ingredients, stir well and let simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, or until everything is hot.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 377 Calories; 10g Fat (23.8% calories from fat); 29g Protein; 46g Carbohydrate; 7g Dietary Fiber; 90mg Cholesterol; 825mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 2 Vegetable; 0 Fat.

I started with Bruce Moffitt’s recipe, but made some minor changes. They’re listed below:

Crystallized Ginger

a 9 to 10 oz piece of fresh ginger (try to find a piece that’s pretty straight, and without a bunch of small knobs)
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp water

Peel the ginger using your favorite method (the easiest is with a spoon), and cut out any discolored spots, as well as the dried up ends. Cut the ginger up into 1/8″ dice, then combine in a bowl with the sugar. Stir it up really well.

Put the water into a heavy bottomed saucepan (something non-stick would probably work well, if you’ve got it, but the bottom has to be heavy). Add in the sugar and ginger and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar’s melted and it’s formed a syrup.

Reduce the heat to as low as it will go, Cook for about half an hour. If the mixture’s foaming, don’t worry – mine did that too. After that half hour, don’t stray too far from the stove. Keep an eye on it, still stirring occasionally, watching for signs of crystallization. You’ll see it start around the edges of the pot. Mine started to turn after about a total of 50 minutes of cooking time. When you can move the crystals into the middle of the pan and there’s hardly any syrup left at the bottom of the pot, you’re done! Remove it from the heat immediately, pour it onto a silpat or some other surface that you’ll be able to get cooled sugar off of easily and let cool.

When it’s cooled down, put it into an air tight container and store in a cool, dark (and dry) place.

I ended up with about half ginger pieces, ginger-flavored sugar crystal chunks. And oh, is it good! Matt says the sugar tastes just like ginger Altoids, but a tiny bit sweeter.

All I can say is oh my god, it’s good! I could easily have devoured the entire pot myself, it was so yummy. It got Ari’s seal of approval too – she gobbled up everything in her bowl. Definitely being added to the list of family favorites.

Sausage & Cabbage Soup

Serves 4

3 slices bacon — diced small
12 ounces polish sausage — sliced
1 cup sliced red onion
8 ounces shredded cabbage
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons spicy mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Put the bacon in a cold dutch oven and turn the heat on to medium to medium high. Stir occaisionally until the bacon is crispy.

Add the sausage and onion and cook, stirring once in a while, until the onion is starting to get tender.

Put the cabbage in the pot, stir it up well, and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let it simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cabbage is tender.

Just before serving, stir in the mustard and red wine vinegar.

Source: “http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-index/dinner-recipes/Sausage–Potato-and-Cabbage-Stew”

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 388 Calories; 28g Fat (63.3% calories from fat); 26g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 64mg Cholesterol; 1452mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 4 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

A “boring” week this week, as I’m focusing on Christmas cookies and food gifts. I’ll post more about that later.

Saturday Breakfast: self-serve
Saturday Lunch: ate out
Saturday Supper: Chicken Tortilla Bake

Sunday Breakfast: biscuit crusted sausage pie
Sunday Lunch: self-serve
Sunday Supper: cheeseburgers & fries (used my grill pan and baked the fries)

Monday Breakfast: scrambled eggs & cinnamon toast
Monday Lunch: Lisa – roasted veggie lasagna; Ari – hot lunch; Don – hot lunch
Monday Supper: spaghetti

Tuesday Breakfast: pancakes
Tuesday Lunch: Lisa – leftover spaghetti & veggies; Ari – home lunch; Don – home lunch
Tuesday Supper: Jerked Pork Pizza (home made everything)

Wednesday Breakfast: french toast
Wednesday Lunch: Lisa – sandwich & veggies; Ari – school lunch; Don – school lunch
Wednesday Supper: Sausage & Cabbage Soup

Thursday Breakfast: birds in a nest, fruit
Thursday Lunch: Lisa – ham & cheese melt; Ari – home lunch; Don – home lunch
Thursday Supper: Sausage & Pepper Burritos

Friday Breakfast: cereal
Friday Lunch: Lisa – ham & cheese melt; Ari – home lunch; Don – home lunch
Friday Supper: eat out

Update (12/17/09): Changed the menu around a bit to reflect what we actually ate, and added in the link for the Sausage & Cabbage Soup.

Biscuit Crusted Sausage Pie

non-stick cooking spray
1/2 lb bulk pork sausage with sage
1/2 recipe of your favorite biscuit recipe
1/2 red onion, sliced very thin
2 oz diced farmer’s cheese
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
1/2 c milk
salt & pepper

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. In a non-stick skillet, cook sausage, crumbling it as it cooks, until browned and cooked through. Drain and set aside to cool.

Grease a 9″ round pie place. Press the biscuit dough into the pie plate so it’s even all the way around, and comes up to the top of the pan. (If you’re using a rolled biscuit dough recipe, roll the dough out into a circle that will fit the pie plate.)

In a medium bowl, combine cooked sausage, red onion slices and diced cheese, then spread evenly over the crust. In the same bowl, beat eggs, egg yolks, milk, and salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the sausage mixture. Bake until the middle is set, about 25 to 35 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

If you’re making this ahead, reheat in a 350 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. If you’ve frozen the baked pie, thaw it in the fridge before reheating.

It’s been added to the “yes, we’d love to eat it again” list. I’ve included the nutrition information for the soup, but you need to be aware the fat count is way off. Yes, there’s half a pound of bacon, but all the fat that came out when it was cooked was drained off, so it’s not as bad as it looks.

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

 
Serves 6

1/2 pound bacon — chopped
1 medium onion — diced
2 medium carrots — sliced thin
1 pound ground round
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups chicken broth
2 medium potatoes — peeled and diced
2 cups milk, 1% lowfat
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese — cubed or shredded

Put bacon into a cold, large heavy bottomed Dutch oven. Turn heat onto medium to medium high and cook until the bacon starts to get crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and put onto a paper-towel lined plate to drain. Pour the bacon fat out of the pot and into a mug or something that can handle really hot stuff, leaving only what covers the bottom of the pot.

Add onion, carrots, ground round, garlic powder, salt and pepper to the pot and cook until the meat is browned. Drain off any liquid.

Add chicken broth and potatoes and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Add milk, and cook 5 minutes. Smash a bunch of the potatoes up to help thicken the soup.

Remove the pot from the heat. Add cheese to soup and stir until melted. Serve immediately.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 658 Calories; 46g Fat (63.6% calories from fat); 42g Protein; 17g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 127mg Cholesterol; 1805mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 5 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 6 Fat.

NOTE: The fat count is *way* off, as most of the bacon fat is rendered out and drained off.

I got the idea for making individual cheesecakes, and did some searching online to get some ideas for how to put them together. So, here’s a cupcake-sized version of my pumpkin cheesecake. It’s got less fat and less sugar than the original, as you don’t make a crust. Of course, if you eat four of them at once, it’ll be almost like eating a slice of the regular cheesecake (almost as many carbs, though a lot less fat), but the smaller portions should make it easier to limit yourself. Right?

Lisa’s Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

 
Makes 24 mini cheesecakes

24 ounces cream cheese — room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
3 whole eggs — room temperature
24 whole gingersnap cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and beat until smooth. Add in pumpkin, five-spice powder and eggs, and beat until thoroughly combined, with no white lumps. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl once in a while.

Place a paper liner in the muffin cups. Put a single gingersnap cookie in the bottom of the liner. Divide the cheesecake filling evenly between the 24 muffin cups.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn your oven off, prop the oven door open and let the cheesecakes cool in the oven until the trays are cool enough to handle bare-handed. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before removing from the muffin tins. Chill before serving.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 174 Calories; 11g Fat (57.3% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 58mg Cholesterol; 139mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 2 Fat; 1 Other Carbohydrates.

Now, I love chicken marsala, and when I saw the Marsala Chicken-and-Mushroom Casserole recipe, I had to take a look. Wow! No canned soup. I gave it a try, making a couple of modifications to suit my family and the ingredients I had on hand. It’s being added into the rotation. It’s so easy to make too.

Chicken Marsala Casserole

 
Serves 4

2 tablespoons butter
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup marsala wine
1/2 cup half and half
2 cups water
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper
1 cup long-grain rice — uncooked!
2 cups cooked chicken — coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350°.

In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium-high heat until just melted. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour on top and stir in for 1 minute. Stir in the marsala and half and half and simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in 2 cups water, the parsley, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

In a greased 9-inch-by-13-inch casserole, spread the rice in an even layer; top with the chicken. Pour the mushroom gravy on top. Cover snugly with foil and bake until bubbly, about 35 minutes. Discard the foil, sprinkle the parmesan on top and bake for 5 minutes more.

Serve with a nice salad or veggies of your choice.

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Per Serving: 437 Calories; 14g Fat (30.0% calories from fat); 28g Protein; 44g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 88mg Cholesterol; 182mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 2 1/2 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 Fat.

I did, and was told “make it again please!!”.

Lemon Chicken

 
Serves 4

1 cup sugar free lemon curd
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 each chicken breast, no skin, no bone, R-T-C — sliced into 1/4″ slices
1 whole red bell pepper — sliced into matchsticks
16 whole scallions — cut into 2″ pieces

Combine the lemon curd and rice vinegar in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok over high heat. Add chicken to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until no pink is visible on the chicken.

Add the red bell pepper and scallions to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, for two minutes.

Pour the lemon curd mixture over the chicken and veggies and cook for another two or thee minutes, until the sauce is heated through.

Serve with your favorite rice.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 461 Calories; 27g Fat (54.4% calories from fat); 41g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 291mg Cholesterol; 301mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 5 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

I found a low carb, sugar free lemon curd recipe, played around with it, and this is what I ended up with. It’s full of lemony deliciousness, though not as sweet as most people might be used to. If you prefer it sweeter, just add more sweetener.

And lemon curd’s not just for desserts anymore! Check out my Lemon Chicken recipe that uses it!

Sugar Free Lemon Curd

Makes 6 (1/4 cup) servings

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 whole eggs
1 each egg yolk
1 tablespoon lemon zest — or the zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon sweetener — equivalent to 1/2 cup sugar

Cut the butter into 8 to 10 pieces and put it in the freezer until frozen.

With a blender (either standard or immersion), combine the remaining ingredients. Transfer them to a small saucepan or a double boiler. Cook over medium low heat, stirring with a whisk, until the mixture is thickened. You can tell it’s ready when you can coat the back of a spoon with it and when you draw a line in the curd with your finger and the line stays clear – the curd doesn’t move to try and fill in the empty space.

Remove the thickened mixture from the heat and add in the frozen butter. Whisk until the butter has melted completely.

You can use the curd immediately, or put it in the fridge where it will thicken more. Put a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming.

Makes about 1.5 cups

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 192 Calories; 19g Fat (85.8% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 183mg Cholesterol; 197mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 3 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.