Thoughtless Thursday: Unconventional Chalupas

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “chalupa”, I think Taco Bell.  I’ve never actually had a chalupa from Taco Bell, but I have vague memories of commercials that involved some kind of flat bread or shell or something.  Anyway, a friend of mine suggested a recipe from The Fix It And Forget It Cookbook. But me being me, I had to adapt to what I had on hand.  I’m not a pinto bean fan, so I swapped those out for black beans.  I had diced peppers from last year’s garden in the freezer.  And rather than just plain water, I thought it would be nice to throw in a beer and some chicken stock.  The original recipe is for a 3 pound roast.  As I only had one half that size, I wanted to half the recipe.  I actually forgot to half the spices and the peppers, but the extra flavor was actually a bonus.  The end result was spicy and delicious and very reasonable calorically with 4 servings at 396.5 calories and 7.3 grams of fat per serving.  Actually, if you count the beer and chicken stock it’s 423 calories, but I drained the juice off, so it seems like it shouldn’t count.   I served this up on whole wheat tortillas with cheddar cheese, sour cream, and salsa.  It’s a really great dish to make ahead of time and reheat when you’re ready.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pound pork roast
• 1 beer (I used Michelob Ultra)
• 2 cups or 1 can of black beans, drained
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 Tablespoon oregano (Mexican if you can find it)
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• 2 Tablespoons chili powder
• 1/2 cup diced green chilis

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to the crock pot.
2. Give it a little stir.
3. Cook on low for 8 hours.
4. Remove the roast from the crock and shred the meat.
5. Add the meat back to the crock and mix well.

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This recipe on Tasty Planner.

Perfect No Knead Pizza Dough

I am very fond of my pizza dough.  Everyone who has ever eaten my pizza or calzones agrees.  But it’s a serious pain in the ass and very time consuming, so I don’t make it very often.  But since my introduction to Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day and the fabulous concept that gluten will align itself, I have been wanting to apply the same methods to my own recipe.  And hot dog!  It works!

I am sorry to say that the pizza did not survive long enough to take a picture.

Ingredients:

• 1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast
• 1 Tbsp white sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2.5 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
• 2 Tbsps olive oil
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup milled flax
• 4 cups bread flour

Directions:

1. In a large container (like a 5-6 quart tupperware container) dissolve the yeast, sugar, and honey in the water.
2. Add the salt, flax, and whole wheat flour.  Mix well.
3. Add the bread flour.   Mix well.
4. Cover loosely with the lid and allow to rise for 2-3 hours.
5. You can use some of the dough now or refrigerate it for up to two weeks.
6. When you’re ready to use the dough, dust the top with flour and cut off however much you want (the recipe as listed makes enough dough for 3 large pizzas).
7. Preheat the oven to 550 degrees (or 500 if that’s as high as your oven goes), and go ahead and pop the pizza stone in the oven.
8. Roll the dough ball around itself (you’re creating what they call a gluten cloak in the book), tucking the ends underneath itself.  Doesn’t matter if it’s perfect, as this won’t be the final shape anyway.  (Cook’s note: If you’ve refrigerated the dough, allow it to rest for 20-30 minutes to take the chill off first).
9. Flour a pizza peel and stretch and roll your dough into the preferred shape, using a dough scraper to loosen anything that sticks.
10. Cover with your preferred toppings.
11. Slide the pizza onto the stone (it may take several shakes of the peel).
12. Bake for 8-10 minutes initially, adding up to another 9 minutes in 3 minute increments (depends on how thick your crust is as to how long it takes to cook).

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Spinach and Asiago Sausage Quiche

This is another one of those posts cheerleading Sam’s Club’s gourmet chicken sausages.  Today we’re talking about the Spinach and Asiago sausages, which I liked but hubby didn’t (probably because I put extra spinach in whatever I cooked with it before).  Since it’s just for me, I decided it would make a marvelous quiche.  You can certainly add some vegetables to this (though if you do, you should cut down on the amount of sausage, as you’ll run out of room in your pie crust).  I wanted to add mushrooms, but mine were on the slimy side.  You could also add more spinach or some roasted red peppers.  Ordinarily you’d use more cheese than this in a quiche, but the sausage has cheese in it, and, well, I only had this much Swiss.  In any event, it comes out to a very reasonable 386 calories and 21 grams of fat per 1/6th.  It’s high protein, so if you pair this with a side salad, you should have a nice, healthy meal that will hold you a while.  Oh, and Mr. I Don’t Like Quiche ate 2 pieces!

Ingredients:

• 1 deep dish pie crust (store bought or your own)
• 1/2 cup mayo (I prefer fat free Miracle Whip)
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 3 beaten eggs (You can cut it down to 1 whole egg and ½ cup of Egg Beaters, but I don’t recommend all Egg Beaters)
• ½ cup milk
• 1 pound spinach and asiago chicken sausages
• 2.15 oz. finely grated Swiss cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the eggs, milk, flour, mayo, and grated cheese.
3. Remove sausage from casing and dice.
4. Brown over medium heat.
5. Add sausage to your egg mixture.
6. Pour into pie crust.
7. Create a foil tent over the pie crust and slide into the oven on a cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 45-50 minutes, removing the foil tent during the last five minutes.  You may need to bake for an additional 10 minutes, depending on your oven.
9. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Printable version.

This recipe on Tasty Planner.

Thoughtless Thursday: Adobo Beef Burritos

On my recent trip to Kansas City, my pal Christine introduced me to Penzey’s Spices.  It was love at first sniff.  An entire store devoted to spices.  Ugh.  Heaven.  One of my acquisitions on this trip was Adobo Spice.  Now this is not related to the spicy sauce in which chipotle peppers come in a can (which I also adore).  According to the website this is a mix of garlic, onion, Tellicherry black pepper, Mexican oregano, cumin, and cayenne red pepper.  It smells lovely.  For my first dish, I decided to go with something simple, using it as a rub on a piece of chuck roast, then shredding the meat for burritos.  Hubby and I both declared this a winner, though we unanimously agree that these burritos cry out for salsa (we were out).  I also took the leftovers and made a variant of my taco soup, which was also amazing.  No nutrition info for this one (I’ve been sick, so I didn’t calculate it).  Enjoy! 

Ingredients:

• 1.75-2 pound chuck roast (or other beef roast)
• 2 teaspoons Adobo spice mix
• whole wheat tortillas
• sour cream
• fiesta mix shredded cheese
• salsa

Directions:

1. Apply the Adobo spice to your meat and allow to soak in overnight.
2. Move to crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
3. Shred the beef using a pair of forks.
4. Build your burritos layering cheese, beef, sour cream, and salsa, then rolling, careful to tuck one end so that the filling doesn’t fall out.
5. Enjoy!  This would go well with Mexican rice or black beans.

Printable version.

This recipe on Tasty Planner.

Help Find A Home For Cubby!

Hey folks, I need your help!  This is Cubby.  She’s an 8 year old Akita mix who lives in Fort Worth, Texas.  She’s the dog of a friend of ours, who lives with my friend’s parents, as my friend currently lives in an apartment that does not allow dogs of this size.  Due to unfortunate circumstances, her parents can no longer care for her, and she needs a good, loving home!  She’s an outdoor dog, great with adults, NOT ideal for small children, very loving with a wonderful & sweet disposition, fairly active and playful, needs room to run.  If any of you in the area feel this is a good fit for you or know someone who wants a loyal friend for life, or if you have any suggestions about resourcese or programs, please comment or contact me at potsandplots@gmail.com, and I’ll put you in touch with my pal.  Thanks!

Thoughtless Thursday: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I’ve been on the search for a new veggie soup that’s not my usual tomato or roasted red pepper.  Butternut squash seemed to be the ticket.  I keep trying to find a way to eat it that I like (as my butternut squash oven fries didn’t turn out the way I liked), and I think I finally found it.  This soup is light, creamy, and reminds me a bit of my zucchini chowder, but sweeter.   It makes about 5 cups of soup at 232 calories and 6.25 grams of fat per cup.  It’s sure to be a hit among those of us who are dieting for the new year, so I definitely have to share for Souper Sunday.

Now it actually requires a bit more thought than my usual Thoughtless Thursday recipes.  It’s actually designed to be very simple if you have a little forethought the night before.  You can roast the squash while you’re cooking your regular supper and have the main ingredients ready to throw into the crock in the morning or over lunch.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, and diced into 1-2″ chunks
• 1 large onion, cut into chunks or rings and separated
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups chicken stock (separated into 1 cup and 2 cups)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup fat free half and half

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Toss the squash, garlic, and onion until all are well coated in olive oil.
3. Pour the veggies into a glass baking dish and add 1 cup of the stock.
4. Bake for about 90 minutes, checking periodically to make sure all the liquid doesn’t evaporate from the bottom.  Add a little more stock if it does.
5. Stir once during the roasting.
6. You’ll know it’s done when it’s started to caramelize.
7. Now, at this point you have 2 choices.  You can pop the roasted veggies into a tupperware container and let them hang out overnight, or when there’s 30 minutes left on the timer, crank your crock pot up to high and add the remaining stock, salt, and pepper.  If you’re waiting until tomorrow, then do this in the morning or at lunch.
8. Add the roasted veggies and cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2.
9. Add the half and half and, using an immersion blender, puree the veggies into soup.  You can certainly do this in a regular blender, but be very careful!  It’s hot!

Printable version.

Thoughtless Thursdays: Smoky Chicken Chili

This one’s been on my To Try list for several months now.  Someone tweeted it ages back, and I bookmarked it on Delicious.  I made a few adaptations to the recipe based on what I had on hand and changed it over to a crock pot recipe (which cut out a bit of the fat as there was no need to saute anything in olive oil).  I haven’t had the original version, but I loved it as prepared.  It came out with 5 servings at 401 calories and 4.22 grams of fat.  Serve with sour cream, and cheddar cheese.  It would also be good with tortilla chips or pita chips (I was going to use pita chips but I forgot to set the timer and burned the entire batch).  This makes my second entry for Kahakai Kitchen’s Souper Sunday this week.

Directions:

• 2 poblano peppers, diced
• 1 fire roasted red pepper, diced
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 can navy beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can or 2 cups black beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 cups shredded chicken (I use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery)
• 1 packet white chicken chili mix
• 1 beer (I used Michelob Ultra)
• 2 cups chicken stock

Directions:  This one doesn’t even have steps.  Dump all the prepped ingredients into the crock and cook on low for 6 hours.  Enjoy!

Printable version.

Recipe on Tasty Planner.

Cheeseburger Rollups

Adapted from the Jan/Feb. issue of Simple and Delicious, these cheeseburger rollups are lightened up from the inspiration recipe (which include bacon).  They’re a kid and man friendly recipe.  The method could undoubtedly be used with all sorts of fillings.  It reminded me of a Hot Pocket (but way better).  This makes 8 rollups at 290 calories and 10.5 grams of fat each.  I figure 2 is a serving and should be paired with oven fries and a veggie to round things out.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, diced (my addition)
• 8 oz. 2% Velveeta cheese, cubed (rather than full fat)
• 1 tube Reduced Fat Grands biscuits (rather than full fat)
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

1. Brown the beef over medium heat.
2. Leaving a little of the drippings in the skillet, drain and rinse the beef.
3. In the remaining beef drippings, saute the onions and mushrooms.
4. Add the paprika and garlic powder.
5. Add the rinsed beef back to the skillet.
6. Add the cheese and stir until melted.
7. Remove filling from heat.
8. Roll out each biscuit into a 5 inch round.
9. Spoon about a third a cup of the filling onto each biscuit.
10. Fold the sides and ends over the filling and roll up.
11. Place each rollup seam side down on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.
12. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Printable version.

Recipe on TastyPlanner.

Baked Pita Chips

One of my other sort of resolutions for 2010 is to stop wasting so much food.  I have a terrible habit of buying stuff with every intention of using it, then I’ll forget about it or wind up eating out or whatever, and then it goes to waste.  So this week’s effort toward using up something was focused on pita pockets.  I keep them in the fridge because they tend to stay fresh longer, but this pack got hidden behind ingredients for Christmas dinner and assorted leftovers.  They were stale.  So very stale.  No way could I make sandwiches out of those.  But when a co-worker sent home some fabulous homemade hummus, I immediately thought of making pita chips.  I love these things, and I have no idea why it didn’t occur to me before because I often have a pocket or two go stale before they get used up in lunches.  The variations you could try with seasonings and spices are endless, but this is my favorite.  A spicy, savory combination that, if memory serves, originated in Southern Living’s Healthy, Hearty Cookbook.  Or was it Hearty, Healthy Cookbook? I forget.  Anyway, these are great with dip and on their own.  As you can see, we tried them out with chili (a strangely fabulous combination).  Each 16 wedges is worth 160 calories and 2 grams of fat.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of whole wheat pita pockets
• buttery flavored cooking spray
• garlic powder
• paprika
• kosher salt
• cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Cut each pita into 8 wedges.
3. Split the wedges into their two halves.
4. Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray.
5. Layer the pieces over the cookie sheet and mist with more cooking spray.
6. Sprinkle the wedges with desired spices (equal parts on the garlic powder and paprika, less on the salt and light on the cayenne pepper).
7. Bake for 20 minutes.
8. Allow chips to cool before storing in a plastic bag or container.  They should stay good for up to a week–if they last that long.

Printable version.

Creamy Potato Leek Soup

I know, I know.  I’ve been on a major soup kick.  But it’s really flipping cold here in Mississippi (I’m not sure it’s topped 30 this week as a high and lows have been in the teens), and cold makes me want soup.  In an effort to make a meatless meal my husband would actually eat, I decided to make a variation of my original Potato Leek Soup.  The original is tasty and light, but I wanted something with more of a creamy texture.  Adding half a block of cream cheese certainly did the trick!  Hubby declared this one a winner, and at 358 calories and 10.6 grams of fat per serving, I have to concur!  I’ll have to pass this on to Deb for Souper Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen!

Ingredients:

• 3 large leeks, cut lengthwise, separate, clean. Use only the white and pale green parts, chop.
• 3 Tbsp Smart Balance buttery spread
• 2 cups chicken broth + 2 cups water
• 2 lbs red potatoes, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• Tabasco sauce
• Salt & Pepper
• 4 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese

Directions:

1. Melt the buttery spread over medium heat in a large saucepan.
2. Add the leeks, salt, and pepper and cook, covered, over low heat for about 10 minutes.
3. Be sure to check them often, as you absolutely don’t want to burn or caramelize them–it’ll make them bitter.
4. Add the broth and potatoes.
5. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and add the cream cheese, hot sauce (to taste), salt, freshly ground pepper, thyme, and parsley.
7. Stir until the cream cheese starts to get all melty.
8. Using an immersion blender pulse until the biggest chunks of potatoes are pulverized.  If you don’t have an immersion blender, take about half the soup and ladle it into a blender or food processor (careful, it’s hot!) and blend until smooth, then add back to the pot.
9. The end result is velvety smooth and lovely.

Printable version.