meatloaf saturday

After a pleasantly sunny morning, the weather turned cloudy, windy, and colder. I was searching for a way to use the ground turkey in my fridge, and started craving my favorite meatloaf recipe. I tweaked it a little, substituting turkey for beef and eliminating one of the eggs, and BAM! A hearty dinner for a chilly spring evening. The oats make the meatloaf extra moist, and is a great source of fiber and whole grain goodness.

Lisa's Turkey Meatloaf
Servings: 4
WW points per serving: 6

1 lb. ground turkey
1 egg
2/3 c. oats
1/4 c. ketchup
1 T. A-1 steak sauce
another 1/4 c. ketchup (to spread over the top)
seasonings like garlic, onions, red pepper, etc. to taste

In a bowl, mix turkey, egg, oats, 1/4 c. ketchup, and steak sauce. Season with whatever you like, according to taste. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Plop the turkey mixture onto the foil and form into a meatloaf-like shape. Spread the other 1/4 c. ketchup across the top of the meatloaf.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

buffalo chicken salad

I've been all healthy lately - counting my Weight Watcher's points, doing time on the treadmill, and generally becoming annoyingly wholesome. Chicken works for me, because I can eat a lot of it for relatively low points, and I can eat it in fun and exciting salad form.

I love Buffalo wings. I mean, who doesn't? The spicy sauce, the sharp bite of blue cheese, the crunch of celery to cool it all off. Of course, the chicken is best when it's breaded and deep fried, but that won't fit me into The Dress. So I made my own point-friendly version.

Lisa's Buffalo Chicken Salad
Serves: one
Points: 9 (but tweak to your liking)

Ingredients:
6 oz. grilled/baked/broiled chicken (I used Butterball pre-cooked chicken because I'm lazy)
1/4 - 1/2 c. celery
2 T. Hellmann's Light mayonnaise
3 T. crumbled blue cheese
2 - 3 T. chicken wing sauce

Chop the chicken into small pieces, then put it in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients.



Mix away. You can add more or less chicken wing sauce (my brand has 0 points), use fat free mayonnaise instead of light, and adjust the amount of blue cheese to your liking. Just keep stirring and tasting until you're happy.

And there you go! Quick and easy, ready to take to work. You can eat it straight from the bowl, or eat it in sandwich form on bread, or in a wrap, or in a pita. Go nuts.

pass me a spoon

On this dark rainy evening, I thought it was appropriate to eat a comfort food I'm passionate about: squash. My absolute favorite is buttercup squash; when I see them all piled up at Westborn, I get so excited that I want to fling myself into the bin and hug them all.

This is the way my family has always made squash. Some people bake it in a pan with an inch of water, some people microwave it or whatever. Poke around online and try things out, and decide what works best for you. Here's the Lymie method:

1. Find a squash.



2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

3. Get big knife and cut the squash in half. This isn't always easy, so be careful.

4. Scrape out the seeds with a spoon and discard (or compost). Or save them and roast them like pumpkin seeds.



5. Place the squash cut-side down on a baking sheet (I line mine with non-stick foil so cleanup is easier. You can spray the foil or pan with cooking spray if you want, too). Stab the rind with a knife or fork so the steam will vent out.



6. Stick it in the oven.

7. Wait.

8. It's done when the rind is very shiny, and syrupy-looking juices are pooling at the bottom. Push on the top with a fork and if it's soft, it's done. I cook mine for 30 - 50 minutes, depending on the squash.



9. Scrape it out and dump it into a bowl, and if you're feeling really industrious, you can whip it with an electric mixer. Or if you just don't want to bother, you can eat it right out of the shell, which is what I did today. Add some butter, some brown sugar, and some salt, and mash it all up. You can even sprinkle on some cinnamon or nutmeg if you'd like.

10. Eat!



A good squash cooks up slightly dry and mealy, sort of like a baked sweet or white potato. Sometimes you get a really wet or stringy one, which is disappointing. You never know what you're going to get until after you cook it. But keep trying!

Squash has lots of beta-carotene and carotonoids (antioxidants that fight diseases), as well as potassium and vitamins C and E. It is soooo good for you.

This site is great for identifying squash types, and gives cooking methods and recipes.

I love squash.

hello darkness

Apple Streusel.

Happy Autumnal Equinox. Today the sun is directly over the equator, giving us equal lengths of day and night. Starting tomorrow, the nights will be longer than the days, and Genevieve will enjoy the sunshine for the next six months. See ya, sun. Thanks for a great summer, and say hello to the southern hemisphere.

To celebrate the first day of my favorite season, I made an apple streusel recipe from the Weight Watchers site. The recipe served four, but I adapted it (and re-calculated the points) to serve just one. I am unable to resist desserts with crumbly toppings, so if I made four servings, I would eat all four - one right after the other - and then lick the bowl. So the beauty of one serving is that nothing is left over to lure you back into the kitchen. Works for me.

Single-Serving Apple Streusel
(6 Weight Watchers points)

1 large apple, any kind
1/2 Tbsp butter (softened or slightly melted)
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp Quaker Oats Old-Fashioned Oats

Preheat oven to 350F.

Thinly slice apple and put it in a small baking dish, like a pyrex bowl or a ramekin. Sprinkle cinnamon, lemon juice, and 1 T. of the brown sugar over the apple slices and mix it all up. In another bowl, crumble flour, oatmeal, remaining brown sugar and butter together (I kind of sliced/stirred it with the knife I cut the apple with), and sprinkle over apple mixture.

Bake until apples are tender, about 45 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes or so (if you can wait that long) to let the sugary goodness thicken up.

Ready for the oven.

All gone.

I ate this outside and enjoyed the last hour of sunshine before dark. YUM. I think I'll make it again tomorrow night.

eggy thing

This is one of my favorite ways to eat eggs - I've always called it "that eggy thing". It's a great way to get a huge portion of vegetables into your meal, while getting protein (and satisfying your scrambled eggs and cheese craving). It actually has more vegetables than eggs in it.

You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand that sound good to you. I almost always start with zucchini and go from there. It's also good with asparagus or onions or both. Or artichoke hearts. Ooo! I just thought of that one. Yes, artichokes!

Here's how I make it: sautee lots of zucchini and summer squash (or whatever veggies you want to use) in a teaspoon or so of olive oil, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and as much fresh minced garlic you want. Add dashes of water as it cooks to keep it from drying out. In the meantime, beat two or three eggs in a bowl. When the vegetables are cooked, turn the flame down and dump the eggs over the top. Quickly stir it all up until your eggs are done. Sprinkle an ounce or so of cheddar cheese (or whatever cheese you fancy) over the top, fold whole thing over a few times, and slide it into a gigantic pasta bowl. It's big. You really can't add too many vegetables to it.

I'm feeling much better today, just dealing with some residual bleccchh feelings. Remember that six week herx from hell? This is nothing like that. I slept another 10 hours last night and spent today in the yard and in the house cleaning. I'm telling you: sleep, lots of water, and a hot Epsom bath is like magic.

happiest place on earth

I love buying produce. One of my favorite places is Westborn Market. I walk in and I'm instantly in a good mood (note to self: when depressed, go shopping for squash). It's kinda-sorta on my way home from work and worth the few miles out of my way. Tomatoes! Little personal watermelons! Cute apricots that smell so good you want to stick your face in the bin! Piles of sweet corn! Bags of red cherries! Where to begin?



I loaded up on avocados, a gigantic tub of mixed green lettuce, plums, summer squash, zucchini, and garlic hommus. I bought a spaghetti squash, which I don't know how to cook and have never eaten. I also bought some fruit called pluots, which is a cross between a plum and an apricot. Who knew? When they start crossing plums and beer, I'll be even more excited.

In the spirit of feeding myself better, I came home and made a big salad with avocado, homemade sesame dressing (recipe follows), and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds. Then I ate two of the pluots - YUM. Very sweet and juicy.

Oh, and I also moved a pilates DVD to the top of my Netflix queue so it will arrive by the weekend. I can't put any impact on my foot or even walk for long distances, but I suppose that's no excuse for not working out. Though it was nice while it lasted. I like aerobic exercise, the huff and puff-sweat-dripping-down-your-bright-pink-face-heart-jumping-all-over-music-blasting high energy workouts. I was never one to pop in a video and do situps and squats. Yuck. However, I am reminding myself that I am branching out, trying new things, and getting my ever-widening patootie off my couch. So yes. Pilates.

It's raining here. RAINING! We've had next to no rain here in August and are 3" below normal rainfall, which is quite the contrast to the soggy June we had. I was so excited that I took this photo through my windshield at Westborn (yes, I get to park in handicapped spots for awhile).



I found this recipe somewhere online a long time ago, but I have no idea where. I make it constantly and have the recipe taped inside my cupboard door.

Sesame Dressing

1/4 c. rice cooking wine
1/4 c. sesame oil
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
tiny pinch of red pepper flakes to taste

Put everything in a container or jar, keep it in the fridge, and shake it up like mad before you use it. You don't really need that much on your salad - the taste is wonderful.

You can find rice cooking wine in the Asian food section at most stores. I once made it with rice wine vinegar instead, but thought it was too tart.