'Gina's Skinny Recipes'

Have you ever visited "Gina's Skinny Recipes' website? I LOVE it! She has so many yummy recipes - appetizers, dinner, lunch, breakfast, snacks, desserts, and they are all healthified. She lists the nutritional information for each recipes as well as the Weight Watchers points, and all of her recipes I have tried have been delish. Drop on by, you'll be glad you did.

Chicken, Cranberry, and Goat Cheese Salad

I bought some goat cheese at the store the other day and whipped up this little salad concoction with it. It was a simple, yummy dinner. Here's the recipe if you want to try it for yourself. Enjoy!

5 oz. bag "Spring Mix" salad mix

1 cup dried cranberries

1 small Granny Smith apple, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast (or 2 small ones), cooked and cut into chunks

garlic salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup soft, crumbled goat cheese

equal parts of olive oil and red wine vinegar or your favorite vinaigrette dressing ( I like "Brianna's real French vinaigrette" dressing)

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a medium frying pan over med-high heat. Cut chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and place in frying pan with garlic salt and black pepper (to taste). Cook and stir until chicken pieces are cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and set aside to cool.

2. Place salad mix, cranberries, cut up apples, and crumbled goat cheese into a large salad bowl. Add chicken pieces and vinaigrette and toss to mix. Serve and enjoy!

Scotch-A-Roos

I REALLY needed a treat last night, and these little bites of yummy-ness came to my rescue…

Have you made “Scotch-A-Roos” before? They are delicious, easy and fast to make, and it is very hard to eat just one. Here’s the recipe…

Bottom Layer:

1 cup sugar

1 cup light Karo syrup

1 cup creamy peanut butter

6 cups rice krispies

Topping:

¾ cup chocolate chips (I like to use the Ghirardelli 60% cocoa semi-sweet chocolate chips, they give you a nice added punch of chocolate taste)

¾ cup butterscotch chips

The How-To:

1. Combine sugar and Karo syrup in a heavy pan and heat (on medium high heat), stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. This usually takes about 5 minutes.

2. Remove pan from heat. Add in peanut butter and mix until combined.

3. Add rice krispies and mix well. Pour mixture into an 8 x 8 inch pan and press down firmly with greased fingers.

4. Over very low heat, melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together. Spread over rice krispie mixture and allow chocolate to set back up before cutting.

5. Eat and enjoy!

Two Dinners in One...Part Deux

Ooops, it took me longer to get back to this post than I had planned. Anyway, for the Shepherd's Pie recipes, you basically just cut up your left-over roast meat and mix it together with your left-over gravy and some type of vegetable. Top with your left-over mashed potatoes and some shredded cheese, cover and keep refrigerated until you need a quick and easy dinner some night during the week. Here are my two favorite Shepherd's Pie combinations...

Pork Roast Shepherd's Pie:

pork roast meat, cut into bite-size pieces

gravy

petite peas

mashed potatoes (mashed sweet potatoes are really good with this as well)

handful of grated monterey jack cheese

Mix meat, gravy, and peas together and place in bottom of pie pan. Spread mashed potatoes over the top, and sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees until pie is bubbling and heated through (about 30-40 minutes).

Beef Roast Shepherd's Pie:

beef roast meat, cut into bite-size pieces

gravy

green beans

mashed potatoes

handful of grated cheddar cheese (love to use extra sharp cheddar...yum!)

Mix meat, gravy, and beans together, and place in bottom of pie pan. Spread mashed potatoes over the top, and sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees until pie is bubbling and heated through (about 30-40 minutes).

Enjoy!

Two Dinners in One

Sometimes we like to have roast for Sunday dinner. My husband is more of the specialist in this area, but I am getting better. I still can’t always tell you what cut of meat is what, but at least I can now cook a roast without turning it into shoe leather. Sorry, I digress; let’s get back to the topic at hand here. Making a roast can really be quite easy and hands-free. Plus, one of my favorite things about cooking a roast on Sunday is that if you make mashed potatoes and gravy with it, you can whip up a shepherd's pie when you are putting away all of the left-overs and you have an automatic meal for another night during the week. It’s like two dinners in one. I love it!Here are two of our favorite roast recipes:

PORK ROAST

Ingredients:

1 boneless 3-5 pound pork roast (we like the ones you can buy in the triple pack at COSTCO.They are fairly inexpensive and really good)

Lawry’s Garlic Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Dried rosemary sprigs (grind with a mortar and pestle before applying to your meat)

• Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.
• Place roast in a medium-sized roasting pan (with a lid), and sprinkle liberally with garlic salt, pepper, and rosemary.
• Bake, covered, at 250 degrees for 3-5 hours (depending upon the size of your roast).
• Remove from oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing. Serve with mashed potatoes, gravy*, and your choice of veggies.

* We just make up the IKEA gravy packet and then mix it together with the juices from the roast. Cheating? Maybe, we think it tastes pretty good.

BEEF ROAST (my friend gave me this recipe, and I really like it. The meat is very tender and the soup and meat juices make a nice, automatic gravy for you)

Ingredients:

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup (without water added)

1 package onion soup mix

1 cup water

1 pot roast

• Combine all ingredients into a crock pot and cook on low for 10 hours.

Wow, this post just got really long; will post Shepherd's Pie recipes soon...