This Mama Cooks! On a Diet

Healthy freezer meals for busy dieters and their families

I recently attended a meal making cooking class with a group of friends. Basically, it was a Once a Month-Freezer Cooking session combined with a Prepare Your Own Meals store. Our hostess (this was in a private home with a very large kitchen) shopped for the food, chopped the veggies, browned the ground meat, and prepared the prep stations.

Our group made eight meals. There was one dish per station with two to four people working on putting together the meals. Using printed instructions, we measured out the ingredients, and put them into labeled freezer bags or aluminum casserole dishes. When then loaded our pre-made meals into coolers and placed them in the freezer when we got home.

For $95, I walked away with eight dishes. This may seem like a lot of money, but I only spent a couple of hours making them, and I didn't have to drive all over town to buy the ingredients. I didn't have to do the prep work or clean up. And I have healthy meals in the freezer for those nights when I'm too busy to cook or out of town. The time savings alone made it a bargain.

So now I'm trying to figure out how to do a similar party with friends and not do all the work as the hostess. I'm thinking that each person could shop and prepare the ingredients for one dish for X amount of people. Then we could get together, assemble the meals, and help each other with the clean up and cost.

Weight Watchers Sausage, Apple and Cornbread Stuffing

This is very close to Cornbread Stuffing with Dried Cranberries recipe from Weight Watchers that I posted back in 2005. I wrote last week that I was going to make it Thanksgiving. Now I've changed my mind seeing that this recipe for Sausage, Apple and Cornbread Stuffing has only 2 Weight Watcher POINTS per serving.

The only problem for those of you dieting and following Weight Watchers is since the stuffing recipe makes 12 servings, you'll have to guesstimate how much to put on your plate for your 2 POINTS worth. I don't like when Weight Watcher recipes do this. Instead, I like it better when a recipe says something like 1 cup = 2 points. Much easier to figure out.

Since I was planning to make Cornbread Stuffing with Dried Cranberries, I went out and bought two bags of Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Cornbread Mix so my mother-in-law can eat it, too. (No gluten for her). Instead, I will make one batch of cornbread and substitute 8 oz. of that for the stuffing dry mix.

Also, I'm thrilled that I already have all the ingredients on hand. Now I don't have to buy dried cranberries! I'm going to double it as well since I love leftover stuffing, too. (I like stuffing better than the turkey, don't you?)

Eat barbecue and lose weight

Yes you can eat BBQ and lose weight - you just can't eat a lot of it, drink a six-pack of beer, and indulge in all those fattening sides like coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad and chips. It's all about portion control and eating your veggies. Everything in moderation, dear reader.

Here was my Fourth of July Extreme Fat Smash dinner of
3 oz. of barbequed pork ribs and a cup of steamed yellow summer squash.
I also had a 12 oz. glass of Sunshine Wheat beer. It was wonderful.

I recently purchased Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses upon the recommendation of a couple of friends from Texas. (Well, she's from Texas. He's an Englishman who went to college at University of Texas. Since he hunts, drinks Shiner beer, and cooks up a mean barbecue, he's Texas enough for us.)

Besides barbecue, Legends of Texas Barbecue features recipes for sides and sauces. It's a wonderful cookbook to read - lots of vintage pictures and Texas lore. Thus inspired, we cooked up a venison roast and a slab of pork ribs in our smoker.

Art Blondin's Chipotle-Marinated Ribs

Ingredients:

• 1 rack of baby back ribs

Art's marinade:

• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup chipotle sauce
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse off ribs.
2. Combine the marinade ingredients and mix well.
3. Cover ribs with marinade in a plastic bag or flat container. (Cut the rack in half if you need to.) Marinate for 1 to 2 hours at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.
4. Set up your smoker for indirect heat. Use wood chips, chunks or logs, and keep up a good level of smoke. Maintain a temperature between 200 and 225 degrees F. (Since we were also doing a shoulder roast, we cooked it at a higher temperature. After an hour, we covered the ribs with foil to keep the moisture in.
5. Place the ribs on the smoker, bone-side down and as far away from the flame as possible. Cook for 3 to 3 1/2 hours. (Since we were doing the roast at a highter temperature, we cooke both for about 2 hours.)
6. Ribs are ready when a toothpick goes through easily when inserted between the bones.

We also made a venison roast...

Food Blog of the Week - The Passionate Cook

Let's take a jump across the pond for this edition of Food Blog of the Week. The Passionate Cook is blogged by Johanna Wagner, 35, an Austrian based in London. She loves cooking, fine dining and wining, traveling, and hates beetroot (!) and mediocre food. She's also a member of Slow Food, so obviously practices what she preaches.

The Passionate Cook stands out because it is extremely organized. I love the pull down menus on the left, which make it so easy to find what you're looking for. They encourage browsing as well.

Johanna's photos are as yummy as her recipes. I especially enjoy her photos of London food markets. One of my favorite things about visiting Europe is touring the grocery stores, butcher shops, and indoor and outdoor markets. The variety of meats, fish, cheeses, and produce is amazing. It's something we sorely lack in America, with the exception of our better farmer's markets and bigger ethnic food stores.

So stop by The Passionate Cook and tell her that This Mama Cooks! says hello. And while you're at it, take a look at this fine venison dish. Honestly, everything in life is better with bacon and port.

Got ground meat? Boy do I have some ideas for you!

Want to know how to make a cake out of ground meat? Check out today's post, More fun with ground meat at A Readable Feast.

Not only will I share links to Vashti's and Martha's recipes, but give you a few recipes from the 1969 edition of Better Homes and Gardens Ground Meat Cook Book as well.

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Going mobile

Big Bad Dad bagged an antelope last weekend. One of the cool things about his hunting trip was the availability of onsite expert butchering. He said the mobile set up was very professional and super clean. I thought it was especially cool because it was cheaper than taking it "in town" to the butcher shop.

Now I have a freezer full of antelope steaks and a dozen plus tubes of 2 lb. ground antelope to cook up. Luckily, I read a terrific article about a unique way to use ground meat in the Denver Post. I hope to elaborate on this concept soon at A Readable Feast, since I think kids would love a hamburger and mash potato birthday cake!

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Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook

Every slow cooker cookbook I owned had variations on the same recipe, but no new ideas. I was getting tired of making the same old crock pot variations on chili and roasts. Then I came across Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann.

First, I was sold on it because it has a venison recipe. (Big Bad Dad hunts, and we have a freezer full of Wisconsin whitetail.) Now most of the time I treat venison like very lean beef and haven't had problems with a gamy taste. Well, most of the time, anyway. Even so, a slow cooker venison recipe was rare.

Then my curiosity was piqued when I saw "Beef in Guinness" and "Japanese Curry Rice." I thought, How unique. How different. How not-another-boring-recipe-for-chili."

The first recipe I made was for "Sloppy Joes," a slow cooker classic but much more sophisticated take on it. The results were terrific. I liked the recipe because it was full of veggies, like diced red pepper and celery. It also gave the option of adding more vinegar or sugar depending on your personal tastes. Amazingly, my kids LOVED this. Boo Girl liked hers with spaghetti squash. And Monkey Boy liked his on the traditional hamburger bun.

The second dish I tried was the "Braised Beef in Espresso." Yes, a roast done with coffee. Don't worry, it really doesn't taste like a tall latte. Instead, the coffee super-tenderizes the meat and gives it a bit of a smokey flavor. Unfortunately, the dish was rather bland 1) because the turnips, carrots and potatoes didn't add much flavor and 2) since the cookbook recommends seasoning with salt and pepper after cooking. It needed a healthy dose of garlic salt to make it just right.

The next dish I made was the "Honey and Apple Bread Pudding with Golden Raisins." I was intrigued since it was a bread pudding without eggs. (Always an issue since Boo Girl is allergic to eggs.) This one wasn't so successful with my family, however. They thought it was weird. I liked it even though it tasted and looked like turkey stuffing. I think it was the lemon juice and zest. There was too much of it and it clashed with the raisin, cinnamon and nutmeg flavors. Orange juice and zest would have worked better.

Right now I have the "Beef in Guinness" prepared and waiting to be made on Sunday night. I made it with Murphy's Irish Stout and not Guinness however, not that it should matter. (The Murphy's was on $2 cheaper than the Guinness, and the liquor store was donating $1 of the sale towards cancer research.) Since there are more vegetables in this than in the "Braised Beef in Espresso" I have a feeling it will be a tastier dish. Can't wait.

The only drawback on the beef recipes is that you must braise or brown the meat and saute the vegetables before cooking it in the crock pot. Many cooks feel browning meat "locks in" the taste. They're probably right, but it does add an extra step and another dish to wash.

However, you could get a West Bend 84716 Versatility 6-Quart Oval Slo-Cooker which you can use both on the stove top and as a slow cooker. There are a couple of others for sale at Amazon.com, like the Rival SC7500 5-Quart Round VersaWare CrockPot Slow Cooker, Brushed Stainless Steel and the Rival SC7600 6-Quart Oval VersaWare CrockPot Slow Cooker, Brushed Stainless Steel. However, the West Bend had the best reviews. The lids of the Rivals supposedly are awkward and easily break. Also, you can't use cook on the stove top at high heat with their crocks.

However, next time I break my crock pot (which happens every several years when I drop it on the floor with a cooked roast inside, shattering the crock and sending the food over the entire kitchen floor) I will look into one of these dual purpose slow cookers.

Even so, I look forward to making more dishes from  Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook soon.

Beef and eggplant bake

Thank goodness, I finally found a recipe using ground beef (or in my case ground venison) that wasn't chili. Nothing against chili. It's just that we make it too much with all the ground venison we have in the freezer.

The recipe, from a Weight Watchers recipe board member, is for beef and eggplant bake. Luckily, I have an eggplant and peppers in the fridge. I don't have Italian bread crumbs, but will fake it with Italian seasonings and regular bread crumbs.

Beef and eggplant bake
(from the kitchen of STARFISH7)

Ingredients:

Makes 8 servings. Estimated points per serving = 4.

• 1 ¼ lbs ground very lean beef (93%) (or in my case, ground venison)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large eggplant, cubed (1 ½ lbs)
• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
• ¾ cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp basil
• ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spray 13x9 pan with cooking spray.
3. In a very large non-stick skillet sprayed with cooking spray sauté ground beef, onions, peppers and garlic until tender.
4. Add eggplant, tomatoes, breadcrumbs and basil.
5. Bring to a boil stirring as needed. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
6. Transfer to prepared pan, cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
7. Remove cover and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese.
8. Bake 15 minutes or until browned.
9. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

© 2005 Weight Watchers International, Inc. © 2005 WeightWatchers.com, Inc. All rights reserved. WEIGHT WATCHERS and POINTS are the registered trademarks of Weight Watchers International, Inc. and are used under license by WeightWatchers.com, Inc.

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Taco Soup

Here's a recipe that a woman passed out at my Weight Watchers meeting last Saturday. It's delicious and oh so healthy. Everyone in your family should enjoy this taco soup though it's so thick I'd call it a taco stew.

The recipe claims it has 3 points per cup. However, I've seen the same exact recipe on the Weight Watcher boards at 4 points per serving.

After remaking this recipe and plugging it into the Weight Watchers Point Calculator, it's definitely 4 points per cup even if I add extra veggies, like green beans.

Beef (Venison) Daube Provencal

We have a huge supply of venison thank to Big Bad Dad's hunting efforts. I cook it up like beef, except for extra seasoning and fat/oil, since the meat can be gamey and is very lean.

I saw this recipe by Lia Mack Huber in the November 2004 issue of Cooking Light. Beef Daube Provencal is a classic French braised beef, red wine and vegetable stew. When I made it a couple of weeks ago, I found it very simple to prepare and absolutely delicious.

You can either make it in your crockpot or a small Dutch oven, like my favorite, a Le Creuset 3-1/2-Quart Round French Oven. I have a very old one in yellow and another in classic flame.

I lucked out and found the pots at thift stores. Both were in terrific shape and cost me very little. All I had to do was buy new Le Creuset knobs for the lids, which I found at a local gourmet cooking shop. In fact, I think I paid more for the knobs than the pots.