Yankee Pot Roast Dinner

I made this recipe with a chuck roast instead of the bottom round roast.  The bottom round roast didn't look too good in the store, so again I improvised!  It was very good, and a nice reminder of my mom's pot roast dinner she would make every Sunday night.  Enjoy!

Recipe Courtesy of: 
Weight Watchers: BEST EATS

Ingredients:

*2 pound boneless bottom round roast, trimmed
*1/2 teas black pepper
*1/4 teas salt
*2 large onions, sliced
*1 & 3/4 cups water
*1 & 1/2 Tbsp balsamic or red-wine vinegar
*1 envelope dry onion soup mix
*1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh type, or 1 teas dried thyme
*1 & 3/4 pounds red potatoes, quartered
*1 pound baby carrots

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  Spray a nonstick ovenproof Dutch oven with nonstick spary and place over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle the roast with the pepper and salt; add to the Dutch oven.  Add the onions.  Cook turning the roast and stirring the onions occasionally, until the roast and the onions are browned, about 8 minutes.  Add teh water, soup mix, vinegar, and thyme; bring to a boil.

3.  Cover and bake 1 1/2 hours.  Place potatoes and carrots around the roast; cover and bake until the roast and the vegetables are tender, about 2 hours longer.

4.  Transfer one of the poatoes to teh blender; add enough of the cooking liquid fromt he pot to make a puree.  Let the mixture cool about 5 minutes.  Puree the potato mixture and return it to the pot, stirring until blended.  Transfer the beef to a cutting board adn slice across the grain into 16 slices.  Serve the sliced beef, vegetables, and gravy, garnish with fresh thyme as a option.

Weight Watchers:  6 POINTS
Serving= 2 slices of beef, 1/2 cup potatoes, and 1/2 cup onions and carrots

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Tonights recipe on my menu was supposed to be Turkey Cordon Bleu.  I was unable to find turkey cutlets so improvised and used chicken cutlets.  Still just as good, and it was so good I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, we were all starving and ready to eat-

Ingredients:

*1 1/4 pounds chicken or turkey cutlets
*4 (1oz) slices of reduced-sodium ham
*4 (1/2oz) slices of Swiss cheese
*3 Tbsp plain dry bread crumbs
*1 Tbsp reduced-calorie mayonnaise
*1/4 cup dry white wine
*1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
*1 teas butter

Directions:

1. Top each cutlet with a slice of ham and then a slice of cheese.  Roll up and secure with toothpicks

2. Spread the bread crumbs on a plate or a sheet of wax paper.  Brush the chicken rolls with mayonnaise; dip in the crumbs, pressing down to coat

3. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium-high heat.  Add chicken rolls and saute until browned all over, about 5 minutes.  Add the wine, broth, and butter; bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes longer.

ENJOY!!

Halloween Lanterns

Jackson is having a Halloween party at school next week, and I am in charge of the goodie bags.  I was so excited to get my job, and couldn't wait to make them.  I wanted something different than your average cellophane bag with treats in it, so I decided to use little plastic lanterns.

These little lanterns I found at the Dollar Store, the bottom is just glued on, but it twists off very easily.  I twisted off the bottom, filled it with candy skeletons, little plastic spiders, skeleton rings, halloween stickers, a halloween sucker and some other random halloween treats, small of course and then tied a piece of black ribbon around it.  Such a simple and cute favor for any child's party.

Oh, I forgot to mention..the best part about this favor.....IT ONLY COST ME $1.65 EACH!!

Yup, you counted correctly..I have to make 20 of these suckers!!

You can use anything small--I found all these things at the Dollar Tree

Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Centers

Who doesn't love a chewy peanut butter cookie?  I was going through another one of my MIL's cookbooks and came across this cookie.  Jey loves some peanut butter cookies, and with him having a rough couple weeks I wanted to cheer him up.  It's a great cookie for those on Weight Watchers because it's only 2 points and the cookie is huge!  I also added two semi-sweet chocolate chips to the centers to add a little more to this delicious cookie.  This is a MUST TRY recipe!

Weight Watchers: 2 POINTS per cookie

Ingredients:

*1 cup whole-wheat flour
*1/2 teas baking soda
*1/2 teas salt
*1 cup sugar
*1/2 cup peanut butter, chunky or smooth
*4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
*2 large eggs
*1/2 teas vanilla extract
*30 semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Place the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees.  Spray or line with parchment paper two baking sheets with nonstick spray.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.  With an electric mixer on low speed, beat the sugar, peanut butter, and butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs and vanilla.  Add the flour mixture and beat until blended.

3. Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheets 2 inches apart, making a total of 30 cookies.  With a piece of parchment paper press each mound to make a 2-inch round.  Place 2 semi-sweet chocolate chips in the center of each cookie.  Bake until lightly browned around the edges, 10-11 minutes.  Let cool on the baking sheets on racks about 1 minute.  With a spatula, transfer the cookies to racks and let cool completely.

Mushroom Bolengese

The recipe calls for ground pork, although you could use ground turkey, chicken or even beef.  The ground pork was really good with the two different mushroom types.

 Ingredients:

*1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms
*1 Cup boiling water
*1 Tbsp olive oil
*2 1/2 cups chopped onion
*3/4 teas kosher salt, divided
*1/2 teas freshly ground black pepper, divided
*1/2 pound ground pork
*8 cups finely chopped cremini mushrooms (about 1 1/2 pounds)
*1 Tbsp minced garlic
*2 Tbsp tomato paste
*1/2 cup white wine
*1 (14oz) can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
*1/4 cup whole milk
*10 oz uncooked whole wheat pasta
*1 1/2 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated
*1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Combine porcini mushrooms and boiling water in a bowl; cover and let stand 20 minutes or until soft.  Drain porchini's in a colander lined with a paper towel or cloth over a bowl, reserve liquid.  Rinse and chop the porchini mushrooms.

2. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven over med-high heat.  Add onion, 1/2 teas salt, 1/4 teas pepper, and pork; cook 10 minutes or until pork is browned, stirring to crumble pork.  Add cremini mushrooms, garlic, remaining 1/4 salt and pepper; cook 15 minutes or until liquid has evaporated. 

3. Add porchini mushrooms, cook 1 minutes.  Add tomato paste; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add reserved porcini liquid and wine; cook 1 minute, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.  Add tomatoes; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and breaking up tomatoes as necessary.  Stir in milk; cook 2 minutes.

4.  Cook pasta according to package directions, adding 1 Tbsp salt to cooking water.  Drain, toss pasta with sauce; top with cheese and parsley.

Publix Totals

Spent $28.27, Saved 41.36

 Not as great as I would have liked, but still decent.  I added a few things that were over $1 because they were on sale at a decent price and I needed them.

*2 Bags of Salad (Not pictured)
*1 Green Giant Steamers
*1 Marie Callendar's Frozen Steamer Meal
*2 Coffee Mate Creamers, 32oz (Awesome deal, they only cost me $1 a piece!!)
*2 Weight Watcher Breakfast Quesadillas (On sale for 5/$10, pretty good price so I had to add these and they are sooooo delish!)
*1 Dunkin Hines Brown Mix
*2 Sauve Shampoo/Conditioner
*1 Lenders Bagels
*1 Jumbo Bag of Kit-Kats (Awesome deal, ended up paying just a $1 for a huge bag of candy, we do not have any trick-or-treaters but I am going to make goody bags for Jackson's party at school, perfect for these)
*1 Bag 8 O'Clock coffee
*2 Land o' Lake Butters
*2 Degree Deodorants
*2 Progresso Soups (Not on sale, but needed them)
*2 Wishbone Salad Dressings
*6 Yoplait Yogurts

NOTE: I spent an extra $9 on things that were not necessarily a great deal; weight watchers quesadillas and the progresso soups.  If you take those items off, you should be able to walk out spending around $19, depending on your stores individual prices.

Visit Southern Savers for the entire ad/coupon matchups!

TOTALS: Spent 28.27, Saved 41.36

Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken

Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken
Gina's Weight Watcher RecipesServings: 8 servings • Size: 1 cup • Prep Time: 5 minutes • Points: 3 ww points
Calories: 171.9 • Fat: 1.6g • Fiber: 3.8g

• 24 oz (1 1/2) lbs chicken breast
• 14.4 oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies
• 15 oz can black beans
• 8 oz frozen corn
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 14.4 oz can fat free chicken broth
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
• salt to taste

Combine chicken broth, beans, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, scallions, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt in the crock pot. Season chicken breast with salt and lay on top. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. Adjust salt and seasoning. Serve over rice (extra pts).