What Was For Dinner?

Granted, the year is young, but I am at this point impressed with my zeal for my new years aspirations!

Thus far:
- I am about half way through with my first book of 2k10, The Giver
- I figured out how to count calories and have been doing so for a whopping 4 days in my food journal
- I have started to figure out how to coupon shop
- I actually planned my menu for the week before grocery shopping
- I have learned 1 new scripture
- A bonus, I have been inadvertently seeing some classic best of all time movies that I have never seen!
- And I cooked my first adventurous dinner!

It was a little stressful, on the moderately expensive side, and blood was shed, but it was a GREAT meal! I will totally keep all three of these recipes to use again. The recipes weren't paired together as a meal, they actually came from a couple of different websites, but they ended up having similar ingredients (garlic and lemon) so it flowed great as a complete meal! The biggest stressor was not at all that cooking any of it was hard, or a new ingredient I wasn't familiar with but timing three things that I had to cook to be ready all at the same time...whew. It was so involved I didn't take pictures until I shed blood. Last night while I was at my parents house I had just mentioned how I wanted a microplaner...could have used one tonight.



I was trying to grate lemon zest and not only did I bleed, but it also all got stuck to the front of the grater! So my lemon broccoli was a little lacking on the lemon, and I burned the bread crumbs while I was tending to my wound. sigh. One of the perks to growing up eating everything burned (love you mom) is that you have a pretty big margin of error when it comes to these things, thus the bread crumbs were deemed acceptable.

One recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens, I had some frozen snapper so I just searched around for a recipe that sparked my interest to jazz it up some. I love BHG recipes because they all have a calorie count on them which makes it so easy! The other two are weight watchers recipes. I'm not doing WW but knew that they would be healthy. There is no real way to convert backwards from points to calories because of the equation used to come up with WW points, so for these I did have to count calories for the ingredients.




Better Homes And Gardens Snapper with Cilantro Pesto
Makes: 4 servings
Prep: 15 minutes
Grill: 4 to 6 minutes per 1/2-inch thickness

ingredients
4 4- to 5-ounce fresh or frozen red snapper or halibut fillets, 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick
1 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons pine nuts or slivered almonds
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
1 roma tomato, seeded and chopped
directions
1. Thaw fish, if frozen. Rinse fish; pat dry with paper towels. Set fish aside.

2. For pesto, in a blender or food processor combine the parsley, cilantro, cheese, nuts, garlic, the 2 teaspoons lemon juice, and the 1/8 teaspoon salt. Cover and blend or process with several on-off turns until nearly smooth, stopping the machine and scraping down sides as necessary. With the machine running slowly, gradually add the 2 tablespoons oil; blend or process until the consistency of softened butter, scraping sides as necessary. Transfer to a small bowl. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl stir together the 1 tablespoon lemon juice and the 2 teaspoons oil. Brush fish with lemon mixture. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper.

4. Place fish in a greased grill basket, tucking under any thin edges. For a charcoal grill, grill fish on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium coals until fish flakes easily with a fork (allow 4 to 6 minutes per 1/2-inch thickness of fish), turning basket once halfway through grilling. (For a gas grill, preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium. Place fish on grill rack over heat. Cover and grill as above.) To serve, spoon pesto over fish and top with tomato. Makes 4 servings.

nutrition facts
Servings Per Recipe 4 servings Calories 254, Total Fat (g) 15, Saturated Fat (g) 3, Cholesterol (mg) 45, Sodium (mg) 281, Carbohydrate (g) 4, Fiber (g) 0, Protein (g) 27, Vitamin A (DV%) 10, Vitamin C (DV%) 44, Calcium (DV%) 10, Iron (DV%) 12, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Mashed Sweet Potatoes
POINTS® Value: 1
Servings: 8
Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 8 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet, nutrient-dense and mash into a wonderfully creamy concoction when blended with fat-free yogurt and a just a touch of sugar.

Ingredients
3 medium sweet potato(es), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (about 2 pounds)
2 medium garlic clove(s), peeled
1/2 cup(s) plain fat-free yogurt, Greek-variety recommended
4 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp table salt, or more to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, or to taste
Instructions
Place potatoes and garlic in a large saucepan and pour in enough water to cover potatoes. Set pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Boil until potatoes are fork-tender, about 8 minutes.

Drain potatoes and garlic; transfer potatoes and garlic to a large bowl. Add yogurt and sugar to bowl; mash until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Yields about 1/2 cup per serving.
Notes
Think beyond regular mashed potatoes and create a colorful addition to any dinner plate.

Broccoli with Lemon-Garlic Crumbs

POINTS® Value: 2
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 6 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

Steamed broccoli is okay. But broccoli tossed with buttery lemon-and-garlic bread crumbs is a definite home run.

Ingredients
1 pound(s) broccoli, florets, fresh
1 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup(s) dried bread crumbs, panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp table salt
Instructions
Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a large pot. Place broccoli in a steamer basket and set over water. Cover pot and steam until broccoli is crisp-tender, about 5 to 6 minutes; drain. Alternatively, you can cook broccoli in microwave.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add bread crumbs, increase heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until lightly toasted, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat; stir in lemon zest and salt.

Spoon broccoli into a serving bowl and toss with crumbs. Yields about 1 cup of broccoli and 2 tablespoons of crumbs per serving.
Notes
Look for panko in the ethnic aisle of your supermarket or in an Asian grocery store.

Try the same recipe with spinach, kale or collard greens.

Use the bread crumb mixture for oven-frying chicken and fish, too.

Approximately 5 minutes later...

Sullivan was disappointed she didn't get a taste.