Tuesday, Thursday and Friday night dinners

Tuesday we had spaghetti I used the meat sauce from the lasagna recipe 1/2 cup is 3 points and the noodles I used were 4points+ I use Ronco 100% whole grain.

Jeremiah has been requesting pork chops breaded with the same stuff I bread the chicken nuggets in so here is the chicken nugget recipe. (from skinnytaste.com)

4 boneless pork chops

salt and pepper to taste

2 tsp olive oil

6t tbsp whole wheat Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (I make my own because I haven't been able to find them at Walmart)

2 tbsp panko

2 tbsp Parmesan cheese

olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 425, spray pan with olive oil spray

Put olive oil in one bowl and breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and panko in another. Season pork with salt and pepper then put in bowl with oil make sure it coats evenly on the pork. Then place in bowl with breadcrumbs make sure to get evenly all over pork, place on pan. Lightly spray the top of pork with olive oil spray, cook for 25 minutes

I'm not sure how many points this mixture is but I estimated about 2 or 3 points per chop and a 3oz boneless pork chop (from center loin) is 4points+ so about 6 or 7 points someone else may want to correct me. These were absolutely FABULOUS!!

Tonight recipe again comes from skinny taste I will just share the link.

Crock pot 3 Bean chili

Have you noticed that I LOVE skinnytaste, Gina is amazing!!

Friday and Monday dinner

Friday night was suppose to be homemade chicken nuggets (from skinnytaste of course) but since I didn't feel good, Alyssa was at my mothers, and Jeremiah was working late Autumn and I ate something else, leftover lasagna for me and it was wonderful! That is the great thing about a FLEXIBLE menu.

Tonight we are having mini meat loaves, instant potato's, corn and green beans.

here are the links to the recipes

Chicken nuggets: These are SO good Alyssa will eat them cold for lunch at school, and for those of you who know Alyssa know this is HUGE! I usually double this recipe so that there are plenty of leftovers

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/healthy-baked-chicken-nuggets.html#more

Mini meatloaves: I have been doing this without a pan for a while now, they cook quicker and look super cute, Alyssa loves these too.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/03/petite-turkey-meatloaves-45-pts.html

Dinner 2 and 3

Wednesday is leftover night for us so we will have taco's (which our family LOVES) but tomorrow is lasagna, yum! We have to go to Tuscaloosa tomorrow to finish up grocery shopping so this evening before church I will cook the meat, and tomorrow morning I will put it together in the crock pot and turn it on low. Here is the recipe:

This Recipe is 10 points for 6 servings but I cut it down to 10 serving which makes it 6 points per serving. This is good with crescent rolls, we like Pillbury reduced fat they are 3 points per roll. And green beans as our veggie.

Ingredients

1 pound(s) uncooked 93% lean ground beef

1 small uncooked onion(s), chopped

1 medium garlic clove, minced

28 oz canned crushed tomatoes

15 oz canned tomato sauce

1tsp table salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste

1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

6 items uncooked lasagna noodles, no cook

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, strong-flavored like Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano

Instructions

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef, onion and garlic: cook stirring frequently, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon as it cooks, about 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt oregano, basil and red pepper flakes; simmer about 5 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together ricotta cheese and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.

spoon 1/3 of beef mixture into a 5-quart slow cooker. Break 3 Lasagna sheets in half and arrange over beef misture; top with have of ricotta mixture. Repeat with another layer and finish with remaining 1/3 of beef mixture.

Cover slow cooker and cook on low setting for 4-6 hours. Remove cover; turn off heat and season to taste, if desired.

in a small bowl combine remaining 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese; sprinkle over beef mixture. Cover and set aside until cheese melts and lasagna firms up, about 10 minutes. Yields 1/6 of dish per serving.

Notes

To boost your vegetable intake, add a can of zucchini in tomato sauce to the mixture. You can also add 2 cups of sliced shiitake mushrooms to beef mixture.

I have not used a clove of garlic, I just used the powdered stuff I have in my cabinet, if I don't have the crushed tomato's I just use another can of diced tomato's. The first time you make this it may take a bit longer but the next few times it doesn't take very long at all to put together.

This recipe is from weight watchers website.

Dinner's 1 and 2 from January menu

I'm late posting but last night instead of lasagna we had taco's, I wasn't able to make it to the grocery store so I didn't have the ingredients.

Tonight we are having Pizza casserole here is the recipe I use

1lb lean ground beef, browned and drained (I use venison)

14oz jar of pizza sauce (I use great value)

I can of refrigerated pizza crust dough (I use pillsbury great value is a pain to roll out)

1 and 1/4 shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

Turkey pepperoni - as much as you like but this is extra points, I put about 4 slices since it takes about 12 to make 1 point+

o point veggies

Spray 9 x 13 baking dish and press dough into bottom of dish and ½ way up the sides. Mix beef and sauce together and spread onto dough. Add any 0 pt veggies desired and top with cheese. Bake 20 min @ 400. Divide into 6 servings.

It use to be 6 points for one serving but it's now 9points+ a serving is very large and filling!

This recipe is from emealz (which my sister-in-law Kara shared with me)

January Menu

I know I haven't posted in a long but it was recently suggested to me to blog about my monthly menu's. My menu's are generally something everyone in my family likes, mostly healthy, weight watchers friendly, and usually simple and quick to cook. This month I will share my menu and post daily.. well on the days I cook since I only cook four days a week. I think I will even take a picture, anyone want to take a bet on how long I can keep this up? haha!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15j-uyRl9tCSGd_3vyVr4D-OFVJAU5R_9qsjPIlL0UEo/edit

I hope this is easy to read, if anyone needs a recipe before I share the daily blog update just ask and I will try to be quick to share! Next month I will challenge myself to be more interesting, anyone have a yummy recipe that my picky family will love? I would LOVE to try it!

Summer Time

Alyssa did great in school this year she got an award for all A's, a Certificate for being an honor student, a ribbon for Math Whiz and a ribbon for AR club. I'm SO proud of my sweet, smart girl!

It was a little bright outside, sorry for the squinting

We are leaving for vacation June 3rd, early that morning I hope. Can't wait but until then we will be spending as much time as possible at the pool. We are SO blessed that my parents were able put a new liner in their pool so we are able to exercise everyday.

Here is Autumn watching a movie, isn't she cute with her huge hairbow.

Autumn's Vintage tea party, She turned 3!

Well it happened... my baby is no longer a baby, she is turning into a beautiful little girl. Although the past week have been hard, she has way more tantrums and has started to say "I can't" a phrase I do not like. She is going to learn Philippians 4:13 this week "I can do ALL things through Christ Who strengthens me".

Her party was yesterday (the 14th) it was so much fun! Autumn was a little overwhelmed after it ended and exhausted, she was still tired today.

Her cake was fabulous Valerie Wrensted did an awesome job, it was exactly how I pictured it

Promptly after Madilyn arrived she sat down to have tea with the birthday girl. These girls are wonderfully sweet cousins it's absolutely a blessing that they were born just a few days shy of 8 months apart, I pray that they will grow up to be best friends.

We had all of her favorite snacks and just for a little color I added strawberries, which she loved when she was a baby.

She enjoyed eating her snacks.

She taste tested the cake, I think it passed.



keeping the kids out of the pool was impossible, even though the air was too cool apparently the water was not.

I tried to get a quick picture with the birthday girl and daddy, but they both chose to be uncooperative.
She hid from everyone when we sang to her.. she usually likes attention so I'm not sure why this particular moment leads her to hide, this year and last year.

Time to blow out the candles! A little help from mommy! ooooo Presents! This one was a barbie My beautiful Grandmother, she has been instrumental in my relationship with the Lord. And last but not least a little cuddle and play time with Pawpaw