Cowboy Spaghetti

I recently realized I have many obsessions - gum, chewing ice, the nest, the knot, reading the news, gum, diet dr pepper, grammar, my cats (especially Greta), parking my car in the same spot at work every day, 9:27, Food Network Channel, gum...you get the idea. So who really needs another obsession? Well, me apparently!

I heard about this new obsession from another obession - the nest. It's a web site/blog called The Pioneer Woman. PW is a woman in Oklahoma that gave up her "high heels for tractor wheels" when she married a rancher. I think one reason I love her so much is because I can somewhat relate - being a city girl that married into a farming family. Another reason is that she has a food section and I love looking at new recipes (add that to the obsession list too...).

I've cooked several of her recipes already (of course adapting using quick cooking methods - who has time to make their own chicken stock???) and this is my favorite so far. She calls it chicken spaghetti but for some reason I keep calling it cowboy spaghetti (maybe its all the cowboys on the ranch she talks about). So cowboy spaghetti it will be!

Click here to see the original recipe.

Here is my version...

Cowboy Spaghetti

Ingredients:

1 lb of chicken (cut into bite sized pieces)

10 oz of spaghetti (I used whole wheat)

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

1/2 onion

1 green pepper

4 oz of pimentos

mushrooms

1-2 cups of chicken stock

2 cups of cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Season and cook chicken (I use an electric skill and season with italian seasoning). Add in onion, green pepper and mushrooms and cook through. Meanwhile, break spaghetti in thirds or half (PW says to do thirds but I get lazy sometimes...) and cook according to directions. Once chicken mixture is cooked, add pimentos and cans of mushroom soup. Stir together. Add enough chicken stock to thin out sauce to your desired consistency (I'd say I use about a cup). Add cooked spaghetti to mixture and some of the cheese. Mix together and dump into a prepared (that means spray with pam!) baking dish. Top with remainder of cheese. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes (until cheese is melted and bubbly).

Now grab your fork and chow down on this yumminess. Best part? This makes a lot so you have leftovers. In fact, I'm off to go heat up a bowl of leftover cowboy spaghetti for dinner tonight!

P.S. - sorry about the date stamp in the photos - I don't know how it got turned on and didn't realize it until I'd already stuffed my face with this fabulous meal.

Pistachio Pork Chops

Meet my new love.

I recently fell in love with (and maybe slightly obsessed with...) - goat cheese! I'd had it before, but for some reason it recently just stuck with me and I started buying it a lot more and now I'm hooked. Chavrie is the yummiest - goat's milk cheese - it's a little lighter and more of a spread than regular goat cheese. It is great in recipes or just on its own (with crackers, english muffins, anything in my pantry...). But I love all the different varieties of goat cheese they have in the grocery store these days.

Last weekend I was watching my favorite weekend morning TV - Food Network in the Kitchen - and Robin Miller was showing yet another way to dress up chicken. I took her concept and adapted it for what I had in the kitchen and came up with this:

Pistachio Pork Chops
5 WW points for a 3 oz pork chop

4 boneless pork chops (or chicken)
1 tbsp of honey mustard (I didn't have this so I mixed equal parts dijon and honey)
4 tbsp of goat cheese
1/4 cup of crushed nuts (I used pistachio but think any nut would be good - especially pecan or macadamia)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Spread mustard on each chop then goat cheese on each chop. Press nuts into cheese so it sets in - cover cheese as much as possible. Place on baking sheet and cook in oven for about 10 minutes until it is no longer pink inside (the chops cook fast because they arent very thick and are boneless - chicken will take a little longer).


NOTE: I'm not a huge fan of mustard so I think next time I won't use as much because I felt like it overpowered the cheese. But it was very yummy and I can't wait to try this again with different mixtures of goat cheese and nuts.

Hey Cupcake!

Over the years my husband has learned that I love little surprises. His usual surprises include flowers - which I adore! But this week he got me an extra special surprise - Hey Cupcake!

If you aren't from Austin or you haven't heard about this place, Hey Cupcake is a cupcake stand on S. Congress here in Austin. A cupcake stand! What an ingenious idea - why didn't I think of it??? And to make it Austin-y...it is in an Airstream trailer!

I've been dying to go to Hey Cupcake since the radio started talking about it months ago. And one time a few months ago I actually got Chris down there - and I kid you not - the people right in front of us got the last of the cupcakes! NOOOOOOO. I was heart broken. No really - even Amy's Ice Cream wasn't able to make me happy!

So I was so happy this week when I finally got to stuff a Hey Cupcake in my mouth. And boy did I! Chris decided that we needed 2 of each kind!!!! Apparently he forgot we're on diets.....

So was it worth the wait? OH HELL YEAH! Their cream cheese frosting is awesome and I loved the carrot cake the best (of the ones that I've tried). It is definitely my new guilty pleasure food.

And now since you can't taste how fabulous these babies are...you can at least indulge in the yumminess of the photos (sorry I'm not a better photographer...).

I've got to go...the Chocolate with Strawberry frosting is calling my name....

Herb Cheese Shells

My best friend Lydia introduced me to the yumminess known as cheese shells about 4 years ago. The best part is that it is a WW recipe - and probably my favorite WW recipe. I love making them during Lent because it is meatless and quick for a Friday night. I've heard from others that they also freeze well and taste even better later. I plan on making some and freezing for my brother and sister-in-law since they don't have much time to cook these days dealing with the my handsome 2 month-old nephew Gavin. :) So it is also a great dish to make and give to others as a "thank you," "get well," "congrats" or "I'm sorry."



Herb Cheese Shells
4 shells is 7 WW points

Ingredients:

16 shells uncooked jumbo shells
15 oz fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 Tbsp milk (I use fat free half and half)
1 large egg, beaten (I use 1/4 cup of edd substitute)

Spaghetti sauce (see recipe below)

Directions:

Cook the shells according to package directions. Drain and rinse briefly under cold running water to stop the cooking.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Mix together the ricotta, mozzarella, milk, egg and Italian seasoning. Stuff 2 tablespoons of the mixture into each shell and set in the baking dish. Pour warm spaghetti sauce over the shells and spread evenly. If you'd like, add some cheese to the top. Cover with foil and bake until hot and bubbling, about 30 minutes.

Spaghetti Sauce

I always make my own spaghetti sauce. Ever since my friend Lydia showed me the light back in college - I've shunned jarred sauce (yuck!). Making your own sauce is so easy and quick - and used in soooo many different recipes.

Since I use it in so many recipes, I feel like I have to put it in the blog. The problem is that I just sorta throw stuff together so its hard for me to know real measurements. These are just loose measurements - feel free to play with it yourself. But I feel like the vinegar and the brown sugar take it to a whole new level of yumminess. It doesn't need much - just a little!

Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:
15 oz can of crushed tomatoes
8 oz can of tomato sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 cup of onion, chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Italian seasonings to taste (or mix of oregano and basil)
1 tsbp of olive oil

Directions:
Cook onions and garlic with olive oil in medium sauce pan. Once softened, deglaze pan with vinegar. Then add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer. If you need more sauce, add some chicken stock. If your sauce is too thin, add some tomato paste (this adds great taste too!).

PBJ cookies

Two desserts in a row on here is bad - especially considering I'm on WW. But I can't help myself. I actually made these awhile ago and they were really yummy, I just hadn't had time to post about them. I am a lover of peanut butter and when a saw this recipe on Rachael Ray's web site I had to try. They aren't the lowest point dessert (thanks to the peanut butter), but they are lower points than normal peanut butter cookies and taste just as great!


Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
Each cookie is 2 WW points

1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup of egg beaters (or 1 large egg)
1/4 cup jam (I used strawberry rhubarb because its what was in the fridge)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet with PAM. Combine in a medium mixing bowl 1 cup smooth peanut butter, brown sugar, baking soda, and egg. Roll into 20 balls and evenly space on the cookie sheet. Slightly press cookies down and make a small indentation with index finger. Place about 1 teaspoon jam in the indentation. Bake cookies for 15 minutes. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire baking rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Ravioli

A few weeks ago Chris and I watched a special about chocolate on the Food Network channel (thanks to it being Valentine's Day week). On the show, Giada made some chocolate ravioli using nutella (a hazelnut spread). Ever since then I've been craving some nutella - a childhood favorite of mine. Tonight I made my version of the chocolate raviolis and it was a huge hit and a super easy dessert for a week night. You can make as many or as few as you'd like - I had 4 and was stuffed...next time I'll go for 3.

Chocolate Ravioli
Each ravioli is 1 WW point.

Ingredients:

* wonton wrappers (they are sometimes hard to find - I buy mine in the freezer section at Central Market)

* nutella

* powdered sugar
* water

* PAM cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray cooking spray on a cookie sheet.

3. Take a wonton wrapper and wet the edges with the water. Place a teaspoon of nutella in the middle. Fold over so the wrapper is in a ravioli shape. Crimp the edges with a fork and make sure the ravioli is nice and sealed.

4. Repeat with each ravioli.

5. Place raviolis on the cookie sheet and spray them with more cooking spray.

6. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

7. When you take them out of the oven, sprinkle with a little bit of powdered sugar and enjoy!