Onion & Carrot Foil Packs

Sorry I've been M.I.A for a month...

We are having summer weather here in Budapest and so we've been doing lots of barbecuing.
Here's a nice little recipe we like to have along side whatever meats we are grillin'. My little critics usually pick out the onions, which I don't mind, since it leaves more for me ;)

It's a nice change from potatoes!


Ingredients
(5 servings)
1 kg garden carrots, peeled and chopped *
2 medium onions (~ 300 gr), chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Herbes de Provences **

Directions
1- Add all ingredients in a large bowl and toss.
2 - Dump the ingredients in the center of a large sheet of aluminum foil (or 2 smaller sheets).
3 - Close up the foil in a way that nothing will drip or fall out when the foil pack is flipped on the grill.
4 - Grill on BBQ until carrots are soft (approx 15-20 mins, but time will depend on the size of the carrot pieces.)

* Garden carrots (the carrots that still have the greens attached) are sweeter then regular carrots) and the sweetness blends really well with the Herbes de Provences.

** If you don't have Herbes de Provences (French herb mix) you can make your own.
Enjoy!

Nutritional Data
1 serving
2 WW points
cal 129.4
fat 3.3 g
carbs 24.5 g
fiber 6.8 g
sugars 9.1 g
protein 2.6 g

Asian Meatball Stir-Fry

If you made the Asian Meatballs and are wondering how to use them... here's my concoction. The whole family enjoyed this and I will be making it again. I think it would be really good with chicken or pork pieces as well... if you're not into beef or meatballs! This recipe uses hoisin sauce, which gives the recipe a niice sweet flavor.


Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1/2 large red or orange sweet pepper
1 cup green beans
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2 cups fat-free chicken broth
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch
2-3 tbsp water
20 Asian Meatballs

Directions
- Heat oil in a large skillet or wok.
- Cook onions, peppers and green beans until softened
- Add ginger-garlic paste, chicken broth, and hoisin sauce and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to low and add meatballs.
- In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with water and add to skillet.
- Simmer on low until sauce has thickened.

Nutritional Data
excluding meatballs!
(4 servings sauce)
2 WW points
87.5 cal
3.8 g fat
0.3 mg cholesterol
11.1 g carbs
1.3 g fiber
0.6 g sugar

with 5 meatballs = 8 WW points
1.6 g protein

Asian Meatballs

I had thawed some ground beef and was in the mood for some stir fry and didn't feel like throwing the ground meat in as it was, so I decided to make some meatballs. I took some ingredients that I thought would give it a good flavor and mix in well with any stir-fry or other chinese dish. All 3 of my picky critics loved the meatballs.... sadly, I wasn't a huge fan. I ate them, I was hungry... but I didn't enjoy them that much. However, I will make them again, since my picky kids gobbled them up in record time! I just couldn't taste much flavor in the meatballs. I think when I will make them next time, I will mix all the ingredients and refrigerate for a few hours for the meat to really soak up the flavors before making the meatballs. I mixed and formed the meatballs and cooked them right away... maybe that's why I thought they were a little bland.


Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef
1 egg
3 scallions, diced
3 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp sugar

Directions
- In a large bowl, mix all ingredients.
- Refrigerate for 30 mins or more.
- Form meat mixture into 30 meatballs (about the size of a ping pong ball!).
- Cook in a preheated oven at 175 C for 20 minutes. I cooked mine on a cookie sheet to ease cleanup ;)


Nutritional Data
1 Meatball
1 WW point
46 cal
3.3 g fat
18.3 mg cholesterol
0.7 g carbs
0.1 g fiber
0.5 g sugars
3 g protein

1 serving of 5 meatballs
6 WW points
230 cal
16.4 g fat
91.7 mg cholesterol
3.4 g carbs
0.4 g fiber
2.4 g sugars
14.9 g protein

Azorean Beef Stew

Last week I wanted to make something in the crockpot and had some stewing beef and was searching for a recipe. I knew the perfect place to go and I found something that I thought looked and sounded delicious. I was right, and so was the Crockpot lady Stephanie, this dish is yummy!
Stephanie adapted a recipe from fellow foodie Sean at Hedonia to come up with this recipe for Azorean Spiced Beef Stew in the crockpot. I will definitely be trying the original recipe on the stovetop!!
The whole family enjoyed this, and so we'll definitely be making it again. The cinnamon was not overpowering at all. I did omit the "heat" from the original recipes because as usual we can't handle the heat! If you like spicier foods, you might want to add the cayenne ;) We're sissies!!
I made a few changes, tweaked it to our family's tastebuds... so the nutritional values arecalculated using my version.


Ingredients
(makes 4 servings)

100 ml cornstarch
2 tsp olive oil
1 lb chuck beef, trimmed and cubed
2 cups beef broth
5 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
3 green onions, chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 red potatoes (approx 300 gr), washed, unpeeled, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp allspice
1 bay leaf
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cinnamon stick

DIrections
- In a bowl toss beef with cornstarch to coat cubes.
- Heat oil in a killet and brown beef until brown on all sides
- Add all ingredients to the crockpot mix and cover.
- Cook on low for 7 hours, then on high for 30 minutes. (* times may vary depending of crockpot)
- Discard bay leaf and cinnamon stick and serve.

Nutritional Data
1 serving
7 WW points
330.9 cal
10.2 g fat
73.7 mg cholesterol
33.3 g carbs
2.8 g fiber
1.5 g sugars
26.1 g protein

Cream of Mushroom Soup for Two

No one in this house enjoys mushrooms but me... Well, my daughter loves them raw, but doesn't want any cooked ones in her food. The worst part about this is that I LOVE mushrooms, crave them even. I must get my fix every once in a while. I had a pack of mushrooms in the fridge that had to be consumed before they died. Pressed for time and starving I concocted this cream of mushroom soup. It did it, I was pleased, I had my mushroom dose! I fed the soup to the mushroom hatin' kids, didn't tell them what it was, and they ate it ALL! Suckers!! I think its a texture thing and not a taste thing. That gives me the liberty to make some cramy mushroom sauce next time we have pasta... poor Papa Tomata, he'll be all alone hatin' on the mushrooms!


Ingredients
small container fresh mushrooms (1/2 lb)
3 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp dried onion flakes
1/4 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp fat-free cream cheese

Directions
- Add mushrooms, broth, onion flakes, and thyme in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 10 minutes until mushrooms are soft.
- Remove from heat and stir in cream cheese.
- With a hand mixer, puree the soup.

Nutritional Data
1 WW point
77.4 cal
0.4 g fat
2.5 g cholesterol
12.9 carbs
1.8 g fiber
5.6 sugars
6.5 g protein

African Couscous Salad

I love couscous, especially cold couscous salad. This couscous salad has a nice sweet North-African taste to it, and a little tang from the red wine vinegar. I think that cider vinegar would also taste fantastic! This is best if completely chilled before serving, giving the flavors time to meld ;)
My 3 critics enjoyed it, as did I.... definitely will be making it again. It is quite filling, therefore, I think it would be the perfect packed lunch. It makes a great side dish too!


Ingredients
1 cup whole-wheat couscous (makes 3 cups cooked and fluffed with fork)
1 1/4 cup hot fat-free chicken broth
290 g jar of chickpeas (210 g just chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1 medium carrot, shredded
1/2 cup diced celery
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
1/4 cup raisins, not packed!
1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped (approx. 25g)
1 cup red bell pepper, diced
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

*To make it vegetarian, substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.


Directions
- Boil the chicken broth in a small saucepan. Once broth is boiling, remove from heat.
- Add couscous, stir to fully coat couscous and cover.
- While couscous is sitting, prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the remaining ingredients (see note below on optional olive oil).
- Fluff couscous with a fork and let cool. (if you add the hot couscous, it will absord too much of the liquid in the mix... including the water in the vegetables... so it is best to wait till it has cooled).
- Once couscous has cooled to room temperature, add to the salad mix.
- Mix and refrigerate.

Nutritional Data
3 WW points
187.5 cal
1.1 g fat
41 g carbs
4.2 g fiber
3.3 g sugar
6.3 g protein

Add 1 tbsp Olive Oil to the recipe (when you add the vineagar) and the values change too
4 WW points
207.4 cal
3.3 g fat
41 g carbs
4.2 g fiber
3.3 g sugar
6.2 g protein

Chicken Cannelloni

I will warn you now, this recipe is time consuming, but delicious. It is easy to split into 2 parts over 2 days so that you don't spend too much time in the kitchen... if you have kids hanging around you, you'll for sure want to split it over 2 days (that is what I did).
I made the chicken filling on one night, refigerated it and stuffed and cooked the shells the following evening. They turned out delicious, and were eaten by all 3 of my harsh critics... another vitory for Mama Tomata!!

In case you are wondering, Cannelloni and Manicotti are the same thing. Therefore, if you have manicotti shells, you can use them ;) In Europe it is called Cannelloni and in the States they call it Manicotti.


This recipe makes 18 rolls, 3 per person. If you do not want to make 6 servings... you can easily freeze the stuffing for later use. Or if you wish to stuff a different kind of pasta, the nutritional values for stuffing only are also provided below.

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2/3 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced red pepper
1/3 cup diced celery
1/4 cup diced carrot
2 garlic cloves
1 lb chicken breast, boiled and shredded
1 cup fat free chicken broth
1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
1 tsp Greek seasoning *
salt and pepper to taste
2 egg whites
1 cup Ricotta cheese **
1 jar of Tomato & basil pasta sauce (500g)
1 jar of passata (tomoto puree) (400 g / 14 oz)
1 cup water
1 cup part-skim mozzarella, grated
1/4 cup fresh parmesan, shredded
18 small cannelloni rolls, not cooked! (I used the Barilla brand and their cooking time)

Here's to give you an idea of the size of the canneloni I used (each roll is 10 g)

Directions
- Preheat oven to 180 C
- Heat oil in a large deep pan. Add vegetables and garlic. Cook on medium heat until vegetables are soft.
- Add shredded chicken, Greek seasoning, rosemary, salt, pepper and broth. Simmer on low until most of the liquid has absorbed. Remove from heat and let cool. ****
- Once mixture is cool, stir in ricotta cheese and egg whites. (If making recipe over 2 days. Add ricotta then stop. Add the egg whites the following day and continue recipe as written)

- Stuff cannelloni shells.

- In a medium mixing bowl, mix passata, tomato sauce and water.
- In a 9x13" casserole, pour 1 cup of tomato mix. Spread over the bottom of casserole.
- Place stuffed canneloni on top of sauce and top with the rest of the sauce. (It will look like alot, but the pasta will absorb most of it during cooking).
- Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes
- Remove foil and top with parmesan and mozzarella cheese and return to oven for 10 minutes until pasta is soft and cheese has melted
- Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.



* I used shredded chicken breast, but if you want to have a quicker and easier version, I think it would be just as good with ground chicken or ground turkey. Just add the ground meat after the vegetables until cooked then add broth and follow the rest of the directions.

** I planned on using Italian seasoining but didn't have any, so I used Greek. Greek seasoning tasted delicious in the filling, but go ahead a use Italian if you don't have Greek ;)

*** This was my first time using ricotta cheese, and I must admit I am not a fan. Next time I make this I will substitute light cream cheese for the ricotta for a creamier filling.

Nutritional Data
1 serving (3 rolls)
7 WW points
306.3 cal
12.6 g fat
18.1 g carbs
0.9 g fiber
8.4 g sugars
30.6 g protein
66.3 mg cholesterol

1 roll in sauce no cheese
2 WW points
86.2 cal
3.2 g fat
0.3 g fiber

Filling only (6 portions)
4 WW points
1 portion
181 cal
6.5 g fat
0.9 g fiber
5.9 g carb
23.6 g protein