WW Recipe 2 for 1

I bought this great Weight Watcher cookbook called "Now and Later" which gives you recipes that can be used in two different meals. You use the leftovers from the first night to make a seperate recipe the next night. I love this time-saving idea. The first recipe that I tried is an Italian-Style Pot Roast and the leftover are used for "Philly cheese Steak Sandwiches" The pot roast smelled so good all day, and I couldn't wait to try it, but when we finally did, we were disappointed. It was very, very bland. I'm not sure what it needed, but it definitely needed something, but the Cheese Steaks were delicious. I have another recipe "Mexican Rice & Chicken" which you use for "Sante Fe Wraps" which I will be trying another night this week.

Italian Style Pot Roast
Points: 7
Serving: 2 slices of beef with about 1 cup sauce & vegetables

Ingredients
* 1 (2 1/2 pound) bottom round roast, trimmed
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 4 red potatoes, quartered
* 2 onions, halved and sliced
* 1/2 cup dry red wine or low-sodium chicken broth (I used chicken broth)
* 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
* 1 (14.5oz) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes
* 1 1/2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
* 1 (8oz) package sliced fresh mushrooms
* 1 (9oz) box frozen, Italian green beans, thawed


1. Sprinkle the beef with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium-high heat. Add the beef & cook, turning occasionally, until browned, 6 minutes. Transfer the beef to a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker. Place the potatoes around the beef.
2. Add the onions to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Add the wine/broth and garlic; bring to a boil. Boil 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes and Italian seasoning. Pour the mixture over the beef and potatoes. Top with the mushrooms in an even layer. Cover and cook until the beef is fork tender, 4-5 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.
3. Transfer one-third of the beef to a container; transfer 1/2 cup of the mushrooms and 1/2 cup of the sauce to a seperate container and let cook. Cover and refrigerate up to 3 days for later use in Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches (see recipe below) Cover the remaining two-thirds of the beef loosely with foil, reserve and keep warm. Transfer the potatoes to a bowl and reserve.
4. Add the beans and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high until the beans are crisp tender, 15 minutes. Add the potatoes. Cover and cook on high until heated through, 5 minutes. Cut the beef across the grain into 12 slices. Serve with the sauce and vegetables.


Philly Cheese Steak Sandwhiches
Points: 8
Serving Size: 1 sandwhich

Ingredients
* 3/4 pound reserved cooked beef, 1/2 cup cooked mushrooms, and 1/2 cup sauce from Italian-Style Pot Roast
* 1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
* 1 onion, thinly sliced
* 4 french rolls, split
* 4 slices fat-free cheddar cheese

1. Preheat the broiler
2. Thinly slice the beef. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium-high heat. Add the bell pepper and onion; cook, stirring frequently, until crisp-tender, 6 minutes. Stir in the beef, mushrooms, and sauce. Reduce the heat and cook until heated through, 2 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, place the rolls, cut side up, on a baking sheet. Broil 5 inches from the heat until lightly toasted, about 30 seconds.
4. Spoon 3/4 cup of the filling onto the bottom half of each roll. Top the filling evenly with the cheese. Broil until the cheese melts, 1 minute. Top with the top halves of the rolls.

Weight Watchers Chinese Pork and Noodles

After the holidays it's time to get back on track. So, I made this weight watcher recipe for dinner and have several more planned for this week. We both really liked it. It's really good leftover, which is great because it made a ton. I never cook with pork, so it was nice to try something new, but the next time I make it, I think I'll use chicken, shrimp, or steak.

Chinese Pork and Noodles
Points: 7
Serving Size: 1 3/4 cups

Ingredients
* 1/2 pound rice noodles
* 1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin
* 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
* 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
* 2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I added much more than this)
* 1 (8oz) packaged sliced fresh mushrooms
* 1 red bell pepper, diced
* 4 cups coleslaw mix
* 2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
* 1 (8oz)can sliced water chestnuts, rinsed and drained
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 4 scallions



1. Cook the noodles according to the package directions.
2. Meanwhile, cut the pork in half lengthwise. Cut crosswise into 1/4 inch slices. Mix the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger, and pepper flakes in a small bowl.
3. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium-high heat. Add half of the pork and cook, stirring frequently, until no longer pink, 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining pork.
4. Spray the skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and bell pepper; cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are crisp-tender, 3 minutes. Add the coleslaw mix, celery, and water chestnuts; cook, stirring frequently, until the coleslaw mix is wilted. Stir in the soy sauce mixture and bring to a boil.
5. Add the reserved pork and garlic to the skillet; cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, 1 minute. Add the reserved noodles and scallions; cook, tossing with tongs, until the noodles are hot, 1 minute.

Christmas

I know I'm doing my Christmas post a little late, but since we were out of town, I'm a little behind. We left for Tucson the Sunday before Christmas to visit Greg's side of the family and came back Christmas night on the redeye at 11:55pm. Greg's friend, Alex, was also in town. Alex was a foreign exchange student from Mexico when Greg was in high school and lived with him for a year. He also stayed with Greg's parents while we were there and it was great to see him.

This Greg, Alex, and his older brother Eric, looking guilty.


Greg, his little brother, Brian, his older brother, Eric, and his "mexican brother" Alex.


Another person I was excited to see? My favorite nephew, Ian. He just turned 2 on December 1 and it cute as a button. I could not get enough of him. His parents (Greg's brother & sister-in-law) are expecting their 2nd child at the end of June and cannot wait to meet him or her.

Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen?


Greg blowing on his stomach, he got a kick out of it.


Greg and Ian.



While we were in, I was also able to meet up with my good friend, Brandi for a quick lunch. She brought her little brother and sister and her sister's two boys, Maximus and Bexton. They were so cute and well behaved. Brandi and I have been friends since 6th grade and it's great when we're able to meet up. My camera was dead, so I took these pictures on my phone.

The pictures didn't turn out that great because the phone took forever to take pictures. By the time the camera took the picture, my smile had faded and so it looks super fake.




Some other people we were able to see while we were in were Greg's good friend Aaron, and his wife and son Nathan. Greg has known Aaron since he was little and we always have a good time when we see them.



We were also able to see his friend Adrian and his wife and little girl, Gracie. I didn't get any pictures of Greg and Adrian but I did snap a few of his precious little girl. Greg thought she was the cutest thing ever! It was very sweet to see him with her.



We had a good time in Tucson, but we've decided that next year we are going to spend Christmas at our house. We've never spent Christmas at our house, we've always traveled for Christmas either to see his family or mine and we'd love to finally host Christmas.

I can't write a post about Christmas without mentioning the Christmas gift that Greg got me--an ipod touch! I love it. It was so perfect for the trip, I watched an episode of Glee on the plane, I was able to check my facebook at the airport, and it holds a ton of music. I am going to be getting a lot of use out of it.

Well, I hope everybody had a great Christmas. I'll be posting several Weight Watcher recipes this week. Time to get back on track after all the holidays.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year! I just realized I haven't posted since December 13th. I can't believe it's been that long. We've been very busy with the holidays and traveling. I'll post more on that later. Today I thought it'd be fun to list my To Do list for this year. Instead of resolutions, I decided I'd pick some fun things that I've been wanting to do along with some things that I need to get done and make a to do list for this year.

2010 To Do List
* Read all the books that I own, I have so many books that I've bought and still haven't read. This year, I'm making the time to sit down and read them.

* Scrapbook-specifically, I'd like to complete our wedding scrapbook.

* Try Yoga

* Take a Photography Class

* Start learning spanish

* Go to the Smithsonian museum & zoo

* Donate money to a charity

* Take more pictures, especially when I'm visiting family and of our local town. I'd like to get some good pictures of where we live to post on Kelly's Korner for her Show Us Your Life-Show us where you live post.

* Update Blog regularly, at least 4 times a week

* Get CPR certified

* Do Project 365 where you take a picture every single day for an entire year. I tried it last year and got off track a week or so into it. I think it'd be so great to have a photo diary of the entire year.

* Grown an herb garden on our deck

* Take a salsa dance class

* Bake a red velvet cake

* Get professional pictures taken

* Watch an Audrey Hepburn movie--I can't believe I haven't seen one.

* Read an autobiography

* Fill our wine rack with local wines. I only have 9 spaces left.

* Start a recipe blog. I love to cook

* Send cards to friends and family for no reason

* Paint the computer room, dining room, living room, master bedroom & master bathroom

I hope everybody has a great year. I can't wait to get started on my 2010 to do list.

Show us Your Life-Christmas Cookies

It's "Show Us Your Life- Christmas Cookies & Treats" over on Kelly's Korner this week. I went to a Wilton Christmas Cookie Blossom class at Joanne's about a month ago and learned how to make these yummy treats. They would make a great christmas gift. I included the recipe for the sugar cookie below.

This is the one that the instructor made.


Candy Cane Cookies


Christmas Tree Cookies


This was made by the girl I took the class with. I love her container.


Wilton Sugar Cookie Blossom Recipe
Ingredients
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric mixer for 2 minutes; scrape down bowl.
3. Cream the mixture for an additional minute.
4. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
5. Sift baking powder and flour.
6. Add flour mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.
7. The dough will be very stiff.
8. Blend in the last of the flour by hand.
9. Do not chill dough.
10. Roll dough to 3/8" thickness and cut out using cookie cutters.
11. Bake 8-10 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.
12. Remove cookies to cooling grid to cool completely.

Lately.

I've been very bad about posting lately and I'm really going to work on that. I finally went full time at my job at the beginning of November and have been adjusting to managing my time now that I don't have several days off per month. I think I'm finally getting into a routine. I used to clean the house, update my blog, etc on my days off while Greg was working, but now we spend our weekends running errands and trying to fit some fun into the week.

So, several weeks ago, we decided to finish the basement. We've wanted to do it since we've moved in, but went back and forth about when we'd start (and by we, I mean Greg) and Greg has finally started it. I'm really proud of him. When we moved in, he was not handy at all, but owning our home has really brought out the worker in him and he's done so many projects since moving into our house. He already framed several of the walls, I'll post some pictures soon.

For Thanksgiving, we went to visit my mom and sister in Augusta, Georgia. It was so nice to see them. It'd been 6 months since I've seen them last. We went in on Tuesday morning and left the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so we had plenty of time to catch up and relax. We did a ton of shopping, including 4:00am black friday shopping, we went to Lights of the South, ate a ton of food, watched movies, etc. It was a great time, I just wish my dad, who's in Afghanistan, was there with us. He's coming back in January and I can't wait.





We got some snow on Saturday. I was so excited. It snowed all day. I'm glad it came on Saturday so we were able to just relax in our pajamas and watch movies all day. I opened the back door to take some pictures and our cat, Izzie was just as excited as we were, I think she wanted to go outside and play in it.



On Thanksgiving Day we found out that Greg's brother and sister-in-law are expecting another baby. I'm so excited! They already have a boy, Ian, who turned 2 on December 1st. She is due this summer. I can't wait to have another niece or nephew.

This past Sunday I celebrated another birthday. Another year older. My birthday and the upcoming new year have got me thinking about some new year's resolutions and things I want to accomplish. I want to make a list of fun stuff/goals that I want to accomplish before this time next year. I want it to be a mix of fun stuff, like a bucket list and things I need to do, like workout. I've started on it and will post it on here when I finish.

Well, that's enough catching up. I will start posting more often so my blogs aren't long ramblings of random things.

It's Been Awhile

Sorry that it's been awhile since I've posted. I've been very busy with the holidays/work/etc. and have just not had time to post like I'd like to. I promise that I will be better about it. It's one of my new year's resolutions, but I won't wait that long before posting more. I plan to spend this weekend getting organized and then I'll start posting more often.

Thanks!