Leftovers and Pat a Cake

I love leftover mashed potatoes made into potato cakes. Usually they are fried crisp in tons of oil.

Oil is my enemy at this time and will continue to be until I shed unwanted pounds, so I took my leftover Blue Cheese Mashers and played pat a cake with my oven.

Just take your cold refrigerated potatoes and dredge in flour after forming cakes. Season well and place them on a sprayed baking sheet. Spray the tops of the cakes well with your spray. I used olive oil spray, and then baked in a 400 degree oven about 15 minutes. Turn each cake over and bake until browned ( about another 15).

Top with fresh chopped herbs before serving.

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Oregano Season!

I want my readers to see what a beautiful hill of oregano I harvested from my herb garden just this morning.

Big lovely leaves with that earthy oregano scent.

I do love oregano.

I read that the month of March was the warmest on record, and I feel it must have been true for me to harvest such quality oregano this early in our season. Our high mountains season is normally two weeks behind areas only an hour drive from us.

I decided I had to make a spaghetti sauce with my fresh oregano and some frozen slow roasted tomatoes from last year.

I must have used about a 3/4 cup of chopped oregano along with frozen basil from my freezer.

I added some garlic and parsley I had purchased that needed to be used pronto, and a bit of ground fennel seed. I rarely think ahead when grocery shopping but just try to stock up on items I know I use a lot because I don’t shop as often as most people.

I also used ground beef and when I use meat like that I always drain well then rinse the meat under warm water.

It might sound like a rinsed beef would water things a bit ,but I have found it doesn’t do any harm to sauces and gives me an even leaner ground beef.

It turned out wonderful, although thrown together without thought of a recipe. When I make my spaghetti this evening I plan to top it with parmesan cheese.

Yummy!

Barbeque Chicken Quesadillas

Leftover roasted chicken has graced our table for three meals. I love to get 3 to 4 meals from a roasted chicken.

This meal is so quick. I have drastically cut the oil in the tortillas to lighten them up a bit.

Since I always buy chunk cheeses I just throw all veggies along with the chunk cheese and cilantro in a food processor and pulse to get this.

This food processed mess, (it looks like a mess), makes it easier for me to divide the cheese and veggies between the tortillas along with the separate chicken.

Using a stovetop grill lets me get 2 tortillas to begin with, and then 4 quesadillas at a time.

The most involved part is rolling the tortillas before cooking to turn into quesadillas. I usually do have a big mess at that stage, but often I just make the tortillas separate and keep them stored in the fridge. You never know when you will need a tortilla. Especially when dieting for chips and wraps or whatever.

To complement the quesadillas I came up with a very quick and almost fat free spanish rice. Add a green salad and there you have lunch in a flash!

Barbeque Chicken Quesadillas- 7 servings 255 calories each.

— FOR TORTILLAS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
— FOR FILLING
1/4 cup red onion — chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
7 black olives — sliced
1/2 cup Velveeta Light
1/4 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
7 ounces chicken — roasted and pulled
from bone
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
–TO SERVE
1/2 cup salsa
cilantro

Mix all tortilla ingredients. ( Many people tell you to rest your dough about 10 – 15 minutes at this point, but I am usually to impatient to do that and they still turn out well) . Roll into 7 equal size balls and roll each ball into a disk on a floured surface the size of a flour tortilla. Place each one on hot preheated stovetop grill and cook flipping until lightly browned.

Spray grill lightly and heat a stovetop grill. Mix the barbeque sauce together with the chicken pieces. Divide all filling ingredients into 7 and place on top of each tortilla. Fold and place on the stovetop grill, ( or you can use a frying pan , you just won’t be able to do as many at one time ),and grill flipping until crisp and cheese melts. Cut in half and serve with more cilantro and the salsa.

7 servings 255 calories each.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Per serving: 255 Calories (kcal); 11g Total Fat; (37% calories from fat); 13g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 33mg Cholesterol; 860mg Sodium
Food Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 1 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates

Quick Spanish Rice – 4 serving at 177 calories each

2 cups water
1/4 cup salsa
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 cup long-grain white rice, uncooked
1 teaspoon lime juice

Bring your water, salsa, chili powder, cumin and garlic salt to a boil. Add the rice and stir. Cover tightly and simmer for about 15 minutes until rice is tender. Flake with a fork adding the lime juice. Serve warm.

4 serving at 176 calories each

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Per serving: 177 Calories (kcal); trace Total Fat; (2% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 339mg Sodium
Food Exchanges: 2 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 0 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates

In Praise of All Things

This may seem like an odd post, but I keep thinking on this and I must blog my thoughts.They focus our good outcome in the court case.

If this guy had not started cutting trees on that little 1.1899 acres and crossed over the property lines to damage our trees, I would never had investigated and ended up owning the 1.1899 acres.

It is like the Lord tells us in His Word.

All things work together toward good for those that love God, for those that are called for His purpose.

When I read this I know that is a promise that whatever happens in life, no matter how bad it might seem or even trivial it may be, the end outcome will be for your good.

Even someone cutting down $ 8450.00 worth of your trees.

This goes for all things, He tells us, in His Word.

Loosing someone loved or admired. Being defrauded or misused.

Even getting snubbed by another blogger, which is just a trivial matter but on my mind because of things I have read recently. Often we want to blow off at the mouth. I know I have before.

But if we stand back and reflect for a moment. We can look at such things and know it is for good!

Sometimes we don’t see the good of matters in this life, but many times we do.

I can not even begin to tell of some of the good I have seen right here and now! Some things that the Lord opened up to me and certainly not of my own knowledge.

We can know that whatever we don’t see in this life, we will see in the hereafter.

Thank you Lord!

 

Just To Spring Up My Blog

Just to Spring up my blog, here are a few things blooming in my yard and a garden update. Joy, Joy, Joy!

My oregano, thyme and sage are coming back thick, although I don’t have pictures.

Curly parsley is also returning and my rosemary. They are nondescript compared to the flower blooms though.

We have harvested a few green onions and I am picking up more sets today. We have in the ground , carrots, radish, cabbage and lettuce.

My garlic I planted last fall is growing, but it doesn’t seem to be doing so well. I will give it some time and see.

Spicy Chicken Thighs with Blue Cheese Mashers and Court Case Follie

The court case has gone well and now I can relax, except for trying to collect the judgement on our tree damage.

I now hope to explain the underlying gist.

We are now proud owners of another 1.1899 acres. When I found out who it was cutting our trees and it was because the person still owned the 1.1899 acres , I flipped.

We had purchased bank forclosed property and this guy still owned acres next to ours!

How was it possible?

Fifteen years in the making, the county officials had all changed and we had to dig into fifteen years of court documents, but guess what! The guy had falsified some documents and held onto land that the bank should have foreclosed on and should have gone with our acreage.

Anyway I can now relax on the subject. It is over and he didn’t appeal. Of course with all the documents we had against him it would have been foolish to try and appeal.

I never saw such a mess. Now I have to try and collect our money, and I am not using that expensive attorney. I will try and do it myself because I used to do some collections many years back, although I will need a refresher course.

The land was really the main feature and I am glad we now possess it. Thank you Lord for your grace in this matter and bringing it to light.

So…How can a person eat healthy with all that trash going on?
Spicy Chicken Thighs with Blue Cheese Mashers, thats how.

I really do love this and you don’t have to eat the chicken skin although it does give the chicken a better roasted flavor to leave it on during the roasting.

I often use the dressing for the Mashers for a lower calorie Blue Cheese Salad Dressing. I just add a bit of nonfat buttermilk to thin it a bit for a salad dressing and it also makes a great dip for the chicken.

Spicy Chicken Thighs – 4 servings 332 calories

1 1/2 pounds chicken thighs
1 serving olive oil spray — per thigh
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
— FOR SAUCE
1 cup marinara sauce — home made or your favorite
2 tablespoons tabasco sauce
4 cloves garlic
–FOR GARNISH
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Spray the chicken thighs with the olive oil spray and sprinkle with garlic salt, salt, and pepper.

Place skin side up in a baking pan and roast at 400 degrees 30 minutes.

Place your sauce ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.

Prepare another pan by spooning some of the sauce in the bottom. Remove the baked chicken pieces, discarding juices, and place skin side up in the pan with the sauce. Brush remaining sauce over chicken and place back in the 400 degree oven about 20-25 minutes until browned and juices run clear.

Sprinkle with parsley and serve with Blue Cheese Mashers.

Blue Cheese Mashers – serves 4 at 225 calories each

5 each medium potato — peeled and boiled
4 tablespoons heavy cream
— FOR DRESSING
1/2 cup fat-free cottage cheese
1/2 cup light sour cream
1 ounce blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, bottled
1 pinch garlic salt
1 pinch dried oregano
salt and pepper — to taste

Mix together all dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Boil your potatoes and drain well. Mash with the cream in a separate bowl and then add 1/2 of the dressing mix. Save the other half for a dipping sauce for the Spicy Chicken Thighs.

Still Working To Loose Weight

I still am working to loose another 15 pounds.

Me , helmet hair and all


Hubby and his helmet hair
I have to continue so I can fit on this little back seat.

little back seat

We took a trip to our lake getaway recently and it won’t be long before we can get our boat out! Yeah!

camper
I love to just pack sandwiches and pop them into our camper microwave.

dramatized sandwich

I like using a flavored mayo on them using basil leaves, small amount of garlic, light mayo and a few walnuts ground in a food processor. Don’t forget the pepperoncini peppers!

This might be boring but I have been on the run and don’t have much else to food blog on. I have lost 14 pounds so far but another 15 is quite a bit. I had lost 40 at one time on weight watchers but running this damn food blog put back 30 of the 40 I lost in just two years!