Chicken Florentine

Why is it that anything with the name Florentine in it sounds delicious? I guess one would have to love spinach for that to be a true statement, but I do love spinach, and I do love florentine dishes. This recipe, Chicken Florentine, from In a Flash, had all kinds of promise, and in the end it wasn't too bad, but it was the stupidest recipe I've tried yet.

First of all, and this was my fault, it calls for 10 oz. of spinach. It doesn't specifically say fresh, but it's implied. Of course, I had frozen spinach, and didn't realize it until it was almost time to add the spinach. So I had to defrost it quickly, and then squeeze all the liquid out of it. Then, at the last minute, I realized I didn't have enough spinach, so I had to repeat the process. Well, you cook the chicken, and move it to a plate. Then you saute the onions with a little chicken broth. But there just isn't enough liquid so you have to add water Then you add the spinach. But it's dry now, after all that squeezing. So, what do you have to do? Add more water , and then more water, and then even more water. Did I mention the spinach is squeezed? Well, that results in clumps of spinach. So while you're busily trying to keep enough water in the pan to keep the spinach and onions from burning, you have to de-clump the spinach. Finally, it was time to add the chicken to the top of the spinach (you'll still need more water) and cheese on top of the chicken. The problem with the cheese was that it calls for lowfat shredded Jarlsberg or Swiss. I defy anyone to easily find lowfat Jarlseberg cheese. In fact, we couldn't even find lowfat shredded Swiss, so we used Swiss slices. You cover the pan until the cheese melts, and what do you know? You have Chicken Floretine...with lots of liquid because the cover makes the spinach lose some of its liquid (the same way mushrooms do).

As I said before, in the end it was a tasty dinner. But I sure griped and swore through the whole preparation. I served it with instant mashed potatoes. I'm tellin' you, if you haven't tried those, you should - they're a marvel of modern fast food!

By the way, the chicken florentine was only 5 points per serving - and I earned everyone of those points!

Jerky Turkey

Here I am again, and this time with a very small amount of good news. I lost one more lb! I'm down 12 lbs. now. Of course, I'll hover at 12 lbs. and a few lbs. above for another two or three weeks before I hit the 13 lb. mark, but at least eventually I head in the right direction again. I've learned that I can do it, and I would be much more successful if I consistently stuck to counting points and eating well, but it seems I've found a balance that allows me to monitor what I'm eating during the week but lets me enjoy what I like to eat (namely pizza and burritos) on the weekends.

I started cooking again this week. Monday night I made Jerk Turkey Cutlets from In a Flash, and it was pretty good, except my turkey cutlets were tough, and I have no idea why. I don't know if I over cooked them, or cooked them too fast, or maybe there wasn't enough liquid or what the problem was. But they tasted good, so I guess that was half the battle. I served it with yellow rice, which was just white rice with a little tamarack...no, I think it's tamarind...added to it. Tamarind doesn't add much flavor, but it makes the rice pretty.

Now, on a different and totally unrelated note, have any of you (of my two readers) watched Glee? It's a series on Thursday...or maybe it's Wednesday nights. That's the probably when you record everything and watch it when you have time - you lose track of when everything is on. Anyway, it's been off for a couple of weeks but starts again next week. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest you try it out. It's about a high school teacher who starts a Glee Club in his school. The club is made up of a bunch of nerds and some cool kids, one of which is pregnant. We have the Glee Club teacher with a wife that isn't pregnant but wants to be so she is pretending to be pregnant...without her husband knowing the truth. We have the school counselor who is germaphobic and a neatfreak who is marrying, for reasons I won't go into, the school coach, who is this big doofas who reminds me of a sloppy hound dog. There is the cheerleading coach who is, to put it very midly, a jock, and cuts her "Cheerios" no slack. The story line is fun, and the music, singing, and dancing is great. I'll go out on a limb and say that the girl who plays the lead is the most talented young person on TV. Glee has become my favorite show of the season...at least until the final episode of LOST starts.

You might have wondered what a TV review is doing in a cooking blog. The truth of the matter is that I'm getting tired of writing about cooking and am branching out into whatever takes my fancy. No one (except my two loyal readers) reads this anyway, so I think no one will mind.

Two readers, have a wonderful day!

Chicken and Mushrooms

Finally the run of bad recipes has ended! Monday night I made Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms from In a Flash and it was very good. Quick, easy, low points (only 4 per serving). What more could a cooker/dieter hope for?

All it took was a quick marinade of balsamic vinegar, cook the chicken and then saute the mushrooms. What could be easier?

Here's the bad part - don't ever buy the Kashi that comes in the foil packet that only takes 60-90 seconds to cook in the microwave. Sorry - I don't have more information than that. I can tell you, however, that it was really awful. In fact, we threw it away! Wasteful, I know. I also know there are children starving in Ethiopia. But the truth of the matter is that they wouldn't eat it either!

I'll have to add that to my ever growing list of things not to eat. It ranks right up there with bananas, in my mind.

And on that note...

Pizza Night!

Let me just start by saying that I'm disappointed that my cooking has dropped to only one night a week lately. Well, disappointed is probably overexaggerating - I'm not disappointed to not be cooking - it's not really THAT much of a treat for me. But I was hoping to blog more often. Maybe I'll write about something other than cooking on my off days.

And, I was supposed to be showing weight loss progress, too, but since I'm hovering around the 10 lb. mark, there isn't much to write about. It really does seem to be a direct correlation to how often I'm cooking.

Anyway, last Thursday night I made Artichoke-Pepper Pizza With Feta Cheese from Day By Day. I've been eyeing this recipe for a long time because I love a good pizza. But I have to say that I was disappointed in this one. The flavor was really strong. The crust was Boboli, and you spread the crust with a mixture of artichoke hearts, low-fat mayonnaise (I used fat free) and some salt, pepper and garlic that was pureed in the food processor to make a nice spread. Then you top that with the red and orange peppers and sprinkle on the feta cheese. It was just too much flavor. Maybe it's because I used flavored feta cheese. Who knows? Manny liked it, but I think he was being generous.

Where they get you is on the points-counting. It was 6 points per serving and each serving was one slice. Let's do a story problem. Two people are sharing one pizza that has been divided into six equally-sized pieces. If each person eats three slices, how many points did they consume? In case any of you went to Nevada public schools, as I did, you might need some help. The answer is 18 points! Now, of course, one doesn't need to eat three slices of pizza, but one slice? It's just not enough. I guess I could have made a salad to go with it, but I have a thing about pizza - if I'm having pizza, I want pizza. Not salad with a side of pizza.

So, I'm on a roll with recipes I don't like. Tonight I'm making something with chicken. Maybe it will be more exciting...although it's relatively hard to get excited about chicken! We'll see.

I Love a Good Breakfast...

Unfortunately, this one was a bit of a let down! I made a Southwest Fritatta from In a Flash. Another not-too-thrilling recipe. Part of my disappointment is that I'm not a fan of bell peppers in eggs, and the main ingredients of this recipe were bell peppers and eggs, so I shouldn't have been surprised when it turned out to not be one of my favorites. It is the price I must pay for saying I was going to make every recipe in the cookbook.

Anyway, a few challenges along the way: the recipe called for red and green peppers - I only had red. It called for onions - I had none...which was ok by me, because I don't like onions in my eggs, either. The recipe called for 2 eggs and 2 egg whites, which seems like a waste of perfectly good egg yolks. They suggested using egg substitute for the egg whites, which is what I did, so all was ok there. And reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, but I only had reduced fat Mexican cheese, so that's what I used. I should have just rewritten the recipe!

So - you cook the peppers, add the eggs and cheese, and let it cook. At some point you have to flip it over in the pan, which is a challenge, so I slipped it onto a plate, inverted another plate on top of it, flipped the whole thing over and slid it back into the pan. Not a bad idea, I think! Then you cut it in half, and roll each half up burrito-style. That just didn't work at all, so we ate it flat, with salsa on top, which was probably the best part...although I don't particularly like salsa on my eggs, either. Let me just say this - red and green things don't belong in eggs! I think that is a throw-back from when I was little and my mother cooked tomatoes and eggs, and I had to eat them, even though I didn't want any part of it. It seems I remember sitting at the table in front of a plate of cold, congealing eggs and tomatoes, long after everyone else left the table. Mothers of the world take note - when you make your children eat things they don't like it leaves lasting scars!

Anyway, I digress. The good news is that it was only 4 points per serving - the bad news, it wasn't filling. Manny actually had a bowl of cereal after eating his half. I toughed it out until lunch.

What do you think - the round file for this one?

Talk About Easy!

This was possibly the easiest recipe I made yet. Cajun Pork Chops from In a Flash. Ingredients - 3. Olive oil, pork chops, and Cajun seasoning, and that's all. All you do is rub on the seasoning and cook the chops. What could be easier? And each serving was only 4 points. So easy, even a cave...well, you get the picture.

In fact, it was so easy, that I'm going to make this blog follow suit and end it here!

P.S. Still at 11 lbs.

Cheesy Lentils, Crusty Bread

Cheesy Lentils and Rice from Day by Day was the meal choice for last night, and it was good, but not thrilling. It tasted good, it wasn't difficult (although it wasn't fast, either), it wasn't disappointing, it just wasn't thrilling. I didn't have to have another serving (although I did have an extra spoonful). But it was filling, only 6 points, and healthy, so I can't really complain.

The one thing I learned last night is that red pepper flakes are not the same as ground red pepper. It called for 1/4 tsp. of ground red pepper and I didn't have any...I only had red pepper flakes. So I used 1/4 tsp. of flakes instead. My logic was sound, but wrong. I thought the larger flakes would be less potent that the ground stuff, but apparently that was not the case because the lentils we're a little spicy...the clear your sinuses, make your eyes water spicy. Still edible, but spicy. Let's just chalk that one up to inexperience, shall we?

Exercise-wise, I'm trying to get back to faithfully doing my Wiikouts and not finding excuses to be lazy. I've started the 30-day challenge on the hard level again and am going to try to get the whole thing done in 30 days, instead of the 45 or so it took last time.

So - cooking, check. Exercise, check. Losing weight, check. All is good. Now if I could just retire...