Foodie Friday -- Chicken Tortilla Soup

Problem: rotisserie chicken sitting in the fridge. I had deboned it the previous week, but it was time to use it up.

Solution: Chicken Tortilla Soup

I found a version, well, actually I found numerous versions of this soup, but I didn't make my own fried tortilla chips--are you kidding me? What kind of nut has the time to do that?

And it looked a little bit boring, so I spiced it up with the peppers. I didn't think about adding zucchini until later in the day after I went to the store, so it didn't get put in there.

BUT if you follow this recipe and add the zucchini, it's pretty darn close to tasting like the Chicken Tortilla Soup that is served at On The Border.

Totally unintentional, but there it is.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 Tbls. oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped

½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ Tbls. cumin

1 Tbls. chili powder

½ tsp. black pepper

2 tsp. salt

2 Tbls. flour

3 bay leaves

2--14 ½ oz. cans diced tomatoes

8 cups chicken broth

Chicken meat from one rotisserie chicken, cubed

Cooked Wild rice—make according to package directions—it usually takes 30-35 minutes so start rice about the time you start the soup.

Avocados, sliced

Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Cheddar cheese, shredded

Tortilla chips, crushed

Sour cream

Heat oil in large pan over high heat. Add onion, peppers, garlic and cilantro; sauté for about 3 minutes. Add cumin, chili powder, black pepper, salt and flour; stir and cook for a minute or two.

Add two cans of diced tomatoes and bay leaves.

Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes before adding rotisserie chicken *if you are adding raw chicken, add when soup comes to a boil*.

Adjust seasonings—more salt might be needed.

Cook for 15-20 minutes. Remove bay leaves and enjoy!

 *do not add the rice to the pot of soup--it will turn to mush*

Assembling:

½ cup of wild rice in bowl. Add 8 oz. of soup. Top with crushed tortilla chips, cheese, avocados, etc. Enjoy!

 

Tips & Tricks:

·         Yes, the cumin and chili powder are in TABLESPOONS

·         When chopping the peppers, you might want to wear gloves

·         If you don’t use gloves expect the skin under your nails to tingle. . . jus’ sayin’

·         If you want it hotter, keep the seeds and the membrane inside the peppers

·         Cut the top off the pepper, pull out the seeds, cut them in half and proceed to dice them from the inside as the outside of the skin is tough. Be careful, because it might squirt you with juice as you cut. DO NOT RUB EYES!

·         Again, I use the Better Than Bouillon chicken base. I usually add a bit along with the spices and then add the water later.

·         I used rotisserie chicken because I had it in the fridge and it needed to be used. If you don’t have pre-cooked chicken, simply cut up four boneless, skinless chicken breasts and add after the soup comes to a boil. The chunks will cook in the broth. –just don’t taste test your flavors until after the chicken is cooked.

·         If you want to add zucchini, then slice one zucchini into rounds and half them. Add when you add chicken

·         If you want a thicker soup after it cooks down—mix 1 Tbls of cornstarch with ¼ cup of broth. Add to soup. Depending on your preference, you might need to repeat.

·         To put a healthier spin to the toppers—use 0% plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, --use a reduced fat shredded cheese, --or baked tortilla chips.

·         This recipe is Weight Watcher friendly—roughly 5 points per 8 oz. serving. Rice will cost you extra points, unless you are on the Simply Filling technique.

Enjoy!

Weighty Wednesday -- Mind Games

About ten days ago I started Weight Watcher's Simply Filling technique, and I seem to be doing quite well with it.

Weigh in results=. DOWN 3.2 pounds

So the technique works!

As I mentioned in last week's Weighty Wednesday, Simply Filling involves eating what Weight Watchers has designated as "power foods"--you know all that healthy stuff. Technically, one can eat an unlimited amount of these power foods, but I prefer to weigh and measure them to keep a close eye on the process.

Even though you might have an unlimited amount of power foods, you still need to track the other items you might eat...which is pretty much anything not on the list: salad dressing, non-fat free dairy products, including cheese, fattier cuts of meat (hamburger), a glass of wine, etc. These points are deducted from the 49 weekly points, and trust me, these can disappear quickly!

Friday night (pizza night) finished my weekly points off. See, told you they disappear quickly!
Three days to go before weigh in and I was having to use the activity points that I accrued to make up for all the points I used (a few glasses of wine, a salad (off the Skinnylicious! menu) from the Cheesecake Factory, homemade pizza, Caesar salad).

*Poof!* They're gone! Trust me, it doesn't take much to use them up.

The big question was why this technique works for me, but not the simple tracking with daily points.

It all comes down to head games.

I'm sure I blogged about it before, but sometimes I need to repeat myself because I haven't  learned the lesson.

When I was counting points and tracking, I was allotted 26 points per day. So if I wanted to eat Fritos or peanut butter or a granola bar, I could. It would cost me some points, but no big deal.

BUT when one does Simply Filling, you only have your 49 weekly points to use throughout the week. When my hubby and I ate at the Cheesecake Factory and I had one of their Skinnylicious chopped salads, it cost me 6 points. I ate it over two days, but I still counted all the points.

Why?

Because it had blue cheese, corn, beans, and a salad dressing. Those goodies still count.

I made pizza last Friday--EVERYTHING counted. I only had one and a half small slices--thin crust, but we had pepperoni, prosciutto, and three types of cheese. I counted 14 points. It adds up.

Add a 5 oz glass of wine--4 points.

And by Saturday morning, I had used up my weekly points.

It was a good thing I was earning Activity Points by walking!

But the biggest part of the game challenges me with my number one problem--afternoon grazing/boredom.

If I need to eat, I can find all sorts of power foods to eat. Usually the problem isn't hunger. Being on Simply Filling keeps me from grazing inappropriate food items because I don't have enough points to eat them, or I'm too much of a point hoarder to use them!

But it makes me stop and think before I wolf something down.

This is the key for me to lose the weight. 

Once I get back to goal, I think I will keep practicing this technique.

If something works, why change it??

Later, Peeps!

Black Coffee

For years, I used to drink my coffee with cream and sweetener, but I don't want to waste the few Weight Watcher points that I had for the week. I decided I needed to change the status quo.

 

Then I started thinking...and I have to say this thought that I'm about to tell you isn't a new one, but I really don't have any scientific evidence to back it up. Oh, there are theories, but I don't think anyone has ever done the research.

I'm a firm believer that artificial sweeteners can cause weight gain, and that they can lead your body into insulin-resistant diabetes, and cravings.

The biggest problem is that artificial sweeteners taste sweeter than real sugar or honey, which makes you crave more of those products, which makes you eat more, which causes you to gain weight.

It's a vicious cycle.

Most of the time, I don't bother with artificial sweeteners. I don't trade off real sugar products (cookies, cakes, etc) with products made from sweeteners. Why? Because they count just as much, WW point-wise, as the real stuff. If I want something with sugar, I'll simply take the WW point hit. Not a problem.

The problem was my morning coffee.

First, I stopped using cream, and then I halved the amount of sweetener that I used.

And then, yesterday, I had my first cup of black coffee--Starbucks Dark French Roast...I probably should have started with a weak breakfast blend, but I didn't.

Yes, it is strong, but it also has a flavorful nuance that had been hidden under the sweetness.

I prefer dark roasts due to the flavor, now I can enjoy them even more!

Stay healthy!

Later, Peeps!

Foodie Friday--Lemon Chicken with Broccoli

This is a second lemon chicken recipe that you will find on my blog page. It’s just as good and as healthy as the other one. This lemon sauce is wonderful on broccoli . . . in fact, you could use shrimp instead of chicken if desired.

I have no idea who to give credit to as I seem to have cut the page down to fit into my notebooks and cut off the contributor. My bad. Sorry.  

Lemon Chicken with Broccoli

2 Tbls. flour

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

12 oz. chicken, thinly sliced

2 tsp. olive oil

 

1 ½ cups fat-free, reduced sodium chicken broth

 

2 tsp. minced garlic

 

2 ½ cups broccoli florets

 

2 tsp. lemon zest

 

2 Tbls. fresh parsley, chopped

 

1 Tbls. lemon juice 

Toss sliced chicken in flour, salt and pepper mixture.

Heat oil in large non-stick pan over medium-high heat (I have a wok). Add chicken and cook until lightly browned and cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. Remove to a plate.

Pour one cup broth and garlic into wok. Bring to boil, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add broccoli; cover and cook 1 minute.

Stir 1/2 Tbls flour, ¼ tsp salt into remaining ½ cup broth; add to skillet and bring to simmer over low heat.

Cover and cook until broccoli is crisp-tender and sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 ½ minutes.

Stir in chicken and lemon zest; heat through.

Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice and parsley. Toss to coat.

 

Tips & Tricks:

·         This recipe cooks quickly, in about 10-15 minutes, so have EVERYTHING ready to go. I use tiny bowls, the kind you see on cooking shows, which keeps me from having to keep measuring stuff.

·         I used two large chicken breasts, which was almost 21 ounces, double the recipe. Adjust everything accordingly.

·         Gallon-sized Ziploc bags are wonderful to use when coating anything in a flour mixture.

·         I cooked the chicken in two batches since all the chicken would overcrowd the pan if I had done it at one time.

·         When pouring the one cup of broth into the very hot pan, be careful of the steam.

·         Two cloves of minced garlic worked well for the recipe. The cloves were of an average size.

·         Two heads of broccoli was enough to make a pile of florets.

·         One lemon provided enough zest and juice for this recipe.

·         I cooked wild rice, which was a nice side dish with this recipe. Time the rice to finish a little early. Set it aside, covered, until chicken is ready. This allows the water/broth to absorb into the thick hulls of the rice grains.

 

Enjoy!

 

Weighty Wednesday -- Breathing a Deep Sigh

True confessions here.

Last week after weigh-in, I had some not so good days. Hubby was out of town and I simply had not gained control over my foodie urges. Let's just say Fritos, raw cookie dough and queso were involved.

Not at the same time, or the same day, but the consequences were the same.

When I weighed myself at home on Saturday, I had managed to undo any good that I had done the previous two weeks.

Yeah, not my proudest moment.

So I did the only thing I could do--I changed my Weight Watcher technique from tracking points plus values to Simply Filling.

Two days later, and I feel so in control it isn't even funny.

Why does this technique work for me?

I think because it is restrictive with your food choices.

Here's the deal. When you follow Simply Filling, you don't have to weigh or measure your food. You simply choose Power Foods to keep you satisfied throughout the day. If you eat Power Foods all day, you will notice that you can mark off all your healthy checks for the day, plus you stay satisfied.

In essence, it does keep you from eating non-essential carbs in the form of sugar and flour. You can have whole grain products, but regular grain products will cost you. For example, one cup of brown rice is a power food worth zero points, while one cup of white rice will cost you 5 points out of your weekly points.

Lean meats are always good, but while they are power foods, Weight Watchers also has them listed with their recommended serving size, usually 3-4 ounces. Yes, I can eat a pound of lean chicken, but then again, would I want to? Er, no.

I do take it a step further and actually weigh and measure my food. I do this simply to train my 'eye' for the appropriate quantities for someone of my size. Yes, I can eat a tub of plain Fat Free Greek yogurt, but do I really want to? No.

Just because the Simply Filling technique narrows your food choices down, it doesn't mean I can't eat that piece of pepperoni pizza that's calling my name, or put real fat salad dressing on my lettuce, or use cream in my coffee.

I can.

But there's a price.

The price is in the form of my 49 weekly points. I can easily use up seven of those points on a daily basis even following Simply Filling.

One glass of wine, 5 ounces will eat up 4 points. See? It isn't hard.

So the reason I love the simply filling technique is because it forces me to take control of my food. The choices are fairly restrictive, but I don't feel 'caged' by my food choices.

I wrote this blog on Monday, but I'm setting it to post on Wednesday, which means I hope I have something positive to report from my Tuesday weigh-in.

Addendum: I lost 0.4 pounds. YAY! In other words, I lost the weight I gained last week, plus some!

But here's the deal. Even if I don't have anything positive to report, I still feel Simply Filling the best choice for me.

If weighing and measuring and counting points is frustrating you, or you are on a plateau, then give Simply Filling a shot.

What's there to lose?

Later, Peeps!

2014 Candy Stats

Caramels

Top layer of filled chocolates

Bottom layer of filled chocolates

I tried to keep track of my product usage as I made candy, but I got bored with keeping track and stopped about 3/4 through the process. These were the stats at that point:

12 lbs. Ghirardelli white chocolate

24 lbs. Merkens milk chocolate
15 lbs. Ghirardelli double dark chocolate
6 pints cream
3 lbs. butter
5 lbs. lightly salted peanuts
5 lbs. pecans, hand-picked
5 pkgs. Oreos
3 pkgs. Cream cheese
3 lbs. peanut butter
10 lbs. sugar

This list doesn’t include the bottles of booze that I used up. Many of these I bought for the 2013 candy making season and I used up the bottles this year when I made my fillings.

Busy day making fillings

Raspberry schnapps Cherry schnapps
Crème de Cassis
Jose Cuervo dark tequila
Rumple Minze Schnapps
Limoncello
Tanqueray Gin
Kahlua
Bacardi dark rum
Aftershock liquor
Grand Marnier
ButterShot schnapps
Amaretto
Frangelico
Barenjager
Jack Daniel’s Devil’s Cut whiskey
Dow’s Boardroom port

And, of course, the various and sundry other stuff, including:

5 lbs limes, zested and juiced

5 lbs lemons, zested and juiced
5 lbs oranges, zested and juiced
5 lbs. cherries
Real maple syrup
Assorted spices
Toffee bits
Walnuts
2000 Candy cups
35 1-lb boxes
35 ¼-lb boxes
35 goodie bags
250 smaller baggies used to seal the ‘other’ candies

Out of the 27 fillings that I used to fill my chocolates, I had to make 21 of them. The fillings freeze well and I do store them throughout the year with no issue. The quantity I use per each filled chocolate varies as to the size of the chocolate mold. For example, the Earl Grey filling was used in a small triangular shaped mold which takes about ¼ of the amount that is used in the Key Lime mold, therefore I don’t go through it as quickly as I do the Key Lime . . . and the fact that the Key Lime filling is simply freaking awesome!

 

Molding chocolates

Ready to get started

First batch finished

Finished for the day--5 batches of each mold (320-340 pieces)

 27 Filled chocolates (40-45 pieces of each flavor):

Velvety Caramel (I wanted a soft and gooey caramel to use in one of my new molds)

Fillings made with white chocolate

Midnight Magic (Blackberry/Cassis)

Cherries Jubilee
Bronx Cheer (raspberry)
Gingerbread
Cranberry Chaos
Pom Pucker (pomegranate)
Pilgrim’s Progress (maple/pieces of walnut)
Rumple Minze
Feel the Burn (cinnamon/chipotle)
Strawberry Margarita
Limoncello
Key Lime
Mango Madness
Smooth Dark Stout (yes, beer)

Made with dark chocolate

Porto

Rum Raisin
Whiskey Toffee
Frangelico (hazelnut)
ButterShots (butterscotch)
Black Forest (cherry)
Amaretto (almond)
Grand Marnier (orange)
Earl Grey (yes, the tea)
Barenjager (honey)
Lavender-Honey
Cup O’Joe

Six of the hand-dipped caramels had been made the previous year. This year, I made two batches of Sea Salt caramel and one batch of Maple-Smoked Bacon caramel. I plan to make the various caramels throughout the year, so I don’t spend so much time making caramel at the last minute. When wrapped in numerous layers of plastic wrap and sealed in a Ziploc bag, they work really well. Many of these recipes will have to be reworked—considering I can’t FIND the said recipes!—so I might need to make numerous experimental batches.  

All these caramels had to be cut and hand dipped before I squiggled decorative lines on them.

Seven flavors

Caramels:

Sea Salt Caramel

Maple-Smoked Bacon Caramel
Devil’s Cut Whiskey Caramel
Lime Caramel (I need a cool name for this one!)
Devil’s Velvet (cherry) Caramel
Brownie Bits Caramel
Grand Marnier Caramel
Feel the Burn (cinnamon/chipotle) Caramel (yes, it’s the same name as the filling, but totally different method to make!)

Part of the time-consuming process of making the candy, on top of it simply being a very manual labor type of endeavor, I hand trimmed each candy to clean up the edges before I popped it into a paper candy cup.

Pongos, peanut brittle, fudge, polar bear & reindeer poop, turtles, toffee

I also made and bagged:

2 batches Pecan Toffee

2 batches Peanut Brittle
2 batches of MAG’s Decadent Fudge
100 turtles
33 Pongos
3 batches Polar Bear Poop
2 batch of Reindeer Poop

I already of have a short list of chocolate fillings that I’d like to make just to see how they taste:

Guinness

Merlot
Chinese 5 spice—with the bite of black pepper!
Chai
3 Ginger
Cranberry Orange
Molasses
Rose
And a violet-thyme infused. The problem with the last one seems to be actually finding dried violets to make the filling!

I also want to make Bear Claws, similar to Pongos with the chocolate and caramel, except with cashews.

And yes, in case you wondered, I did look into making this an online business. The problem is that I have to make my products in a commercial kitchen in order to sell them. As I don’t see this happening any time soon, I’ll just have to be happy with giving them away

…though I will take donations in the form of anything listed that I used up this year—namely, the very expensive liquor!  

And there you have it, the reason I don’t write, blog, or do much of anything else in the month of December!

Later, Peeps!

Foodie Friday -- MAG's Silky Pecan Pralines

A few years ago I made a couple of different pecan praline recipes--YUCK!

The problem that I had with these candies was that every single recipe resulted in a grainy candy that felt like you were eating sand.  Not good.

This year, my hubby was given a gift box of pecan pralines from one of his vendors . . . It was incredible. Smooth, almost dough-like, the praline melted in my mouth. THIS was exactly what my version of pecan pralines would be.

Now all I had to do was recreate it.

This recipe is the result of my first experimental foray. It's good, in fact, it's really good, but it wasn't exactly the result that I was personally aiming for. I will say that this version is very, very sweet, with the texture similar to the texture of MAG's Decadent Fudge--super smooth and creamy.

Not the best picture, but you get the idea

 

Here's my first recipe version of Pecan Pralines and in the tips and tricks part of my recipe I'll let you know what I plan to do for my second version of this candy {or notes in red}.

MAG’s Silky Pecan Pralines

2 cups dark brown sugar, packed

1 cup sugar
1 cup cream
2 tsp. honey {molasses}
½ tsp. kosher salt {1 tsp.?}
2 Tbls. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups pecans, chopped {3 cups toasted, chopped pecans}

Combine sugars, cream, salt and honey in medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugars are dissolved. Increase heat to medium-high, insert candy thermometer and cook until mixture reaches the soft ball stage at 236 degrees.

Pour mixture into buttered glass bowl. Dot with butter and splash vanilla on top. Place clean candy thermometer in mixture. Let cool to 110-118 degrees, about 45-60 minutes.

Once candy has cooled, using an electric mixer, beat the mixture until it lightens in color and creamy, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in chopped nuts.

Place a large sheet of parchment paper on counter. Using a cupcake batter/cookie scoop, quickly scoop onto paper. Press down slightly and allow to cool. Store in air tight container.

 Tips & Tricks:

 

·         The one thing that most people forget to bring to the table when making candy is PATIENCE. That is the number one ingredient.

·         And let me mention that ‘time’ laughs at you when making candy—it seems to take FOREVER to reach the appropriate temperature, but when you look away for two seconds, it has already zipped past the appropriate temp into another stage, or boiled over. No, this didn’t happen to me this time, but it doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future.

·         If you do have a candy catastrophe, remember the hardened sugar mess dissolves in water. Don’t freak out and start scrubbing away, just place hot water on the mess and let it do its job, repeat as often as needed to remove the mess or clean the pan.

·         Invest in more than one good candy thermometer—I love my new digital one. Periodically check them for accuracy. Many thermometers are simply attached to a piece of cardboard inside a glass tube. It can shift.

·         How do you check the accuracy??  Boiling water. We all know that boiling water is 100 degrees centigrade, right? Simply fill a large pan full of water, place your thermometers along the edge, and bring to a rolling boil. Check your numbers. Make sure the thermometers are NOT touching the bottom of the pan as it will skew the results.

 Enjoy!