Bison.

I know it's a regional thing, since most restaurants in Alabama don't carry Bison/Buffalo burgers. I had seen on my cooking shows the hosts trying Bison burgers and raving about them. Well last week while we were in South Dakota, I decided to "buck up" (pardon the pun) and try something new.... The burgers were fantastic. Not greasy like most hamburgers are, and had great flavor. So before we packed up to head south. My dad nicely filled our cooler full of a bunch of bison goodies. He gave us roasts, strip meat (for fajita style), ground buffalo (hamburgers), and Michael's favorite- Jerky.

So as a thank you to my wonderful in-laws who watched our dogs while we were gone, I am making Bison Stew (thanks to allrecipes.com). Think Beef stew with Bison instead of Beef. So far it's been cooking for 1 hour and it smells delicious. The only downside to the recipe, is I don't know how to convert Buffalo to points I've gotta look that up tonight. So for tonight, you are going to get the recipe, so if you choose to use beef then you can add up the points. But just from looking at the recipe, it can't be too many points for a serving.

*post dinner: This recipe was awesome. I had enough meat to be able to make a whole other batch, which will come in handy in about a month when it's good and cool outside. Perfect soup for a cool winter day. And I actually liked it without the potatoes, which you could add if you wanted.

Bison Stew (makes 6 servings)

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 pounds bison meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 cup minced yellow onion
• 1/2 cup minced celery
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 3 tbsp ground black pepper
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
• 
  
• Heat 2 tablespoons canola oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat; brown the bison in oil, 2 to 3 minutes per side; remove bison and set aside. Pour 1 tablespoon canola oil into the Dutch oven; cook and stir the onion and celery in the oil until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic; cook and stir another 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to coat. Stir in the broth, water, wine, salt, pepper, cloves, tomato sauce, parsley, and thyme to the mixture; bring to a boil. Return the bison to the mixture and stir through. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until meat is fork tender, about 1 hour.

Asparagus Stir-fry.

I'm wondering how many people are going to see the title of tonight's recipe and actually read the recipe.

This is one that I made up tonight, not knowing how it was going to turn out. Asparagus was on sale today at the store, and I couldn't pass it up. We were supposed to have Chicken and Rice with Vegetables on the menu, so I decided to try this this combo. The Tamari sauce is a more concentrated soy sauce, with less sodium. It has a great flavor and I'm almost a complete convert!! The asparagus and green beans were almost indistinguishable in texture.

Asparagus Stir-fry (makes 2 servings)

WW pts: 7 a serving

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1 Chicken Breast, diced into 1 inch chunks

1 bundle of asparagus, cut into 2 inch chunks (cut off and discard dried ends of asparagus)

2 servings instant brown rice, cooked according to package directions

1 cup frozen green beans

2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce

2 Tbsp Tamari Sauce (can substitute soy sauce)

1 tsp sugar

2 Tbsp Rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp garlic, minced

1/2 tsp chinese chile sauce (has red pepper flakes in it-so it add a little spice)

In a small pot or steamer bag, steam the green beans, then the asparagus. Set aside. In a large skillet, cook the chicken. Add the Chile sauce and garlic once chicken in almost finished cooking. While chicken is cooking, in a small dish, mix the Oyster sauce, Tamari, Sugar and Vinegar. Pour over chicken and let cook down for 2 minutes. Then add Green beans and Asparagus, stir to coat. Turn heat up to medium high, until the sauce thickens, stirring occasionally.

To serve you can mix in the rice or serve the chicken, asparagus over the rice.

Cheap but great dinner.

Most of you know that I love anything cheap. So when I get to use coupons and can create a whole meal for $2.69 dollars to feed 3 people... who can beat that. Let's face it, you can't go to McDonald's and get that much food to satisfy your hunger no matter what those commercials say.

Not sure how many people know this, but if you don't already here it comes. Most grocery stores that have a deli, do rotisserie chickens. Well you can only keep said items for sale for a certain length of time, before they "expire". So what do they do if they have leftovers. Well Wal-mart has been known give them away to customers in the checkout line for free (my in-laws benefited from that) vs. throwing them away. Other places like Kroger put their 4-5 dollar chickens on sale for 2 dollars. So here is the breakdown of my made up dinner and how I did it.

I had planned to get a chicken, normal price was 3.99 (it was on sale for that usually 4.99). So I went to Kroger and found one for 1.99 on clearance. I also had received a coupon from Kroger for 1.25 off a whole chicken. Making the whole chicken 75 cents. Which we made into 3 dinners. Making it 25 cents a dinner! The peppers and onions I got on sale for $1. And the diced tomatoes $1.28. Then the pasta I got B1G1 Free, which meant the 8 servings of pasta was 65 cents. Meaning our 2 servings was right at 16 cents.

So our grand total for us was $2.69 cents.

Chicken Spaghetti (makes 2 servings)

WW pts: 7 pts.

4 ounces of Chicken (you can use a chicken breast cooked and shredded if need be.)

4 ounces of whole wheat pasta

1-15 ounce can diced tomatoes, no salt added, drained

1- 15 ounce can tomato sauce, no salt added

1/2 green pepper, diced

1/2 red or yellow pepper, diced

1/2 medium onion diced

1 tsp crushed Rosemary

1 tsp oregano

1 Tbsp garlic, minced

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp pepper

pinch Cayenne pepper (optional)*

PAM

In a pan spray PAM and saute peppers, onions for 5-8 minutes on medium high heat. Add diced tomatoes and let them cook for 3 minutes. Then add tomato sauce, rosemary, oregano, garlic, garlic salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Turn heat down to a simmer.

While the sauce is cooking, cook noodles according to package directions. When noodles are almost done, add chicken to spaghetti sauce and heat through. Mix and serve hot.

Michael added the mozzarella cheese on top, and added more than I planned, so mine was a little cheesier than anticipated. So you will have to determine how much cheese if any you want on there.

*Just so you guys don't think I'm totally insane. The reason I add Cayenne pepper to a lot of stuff, is I read an article a year or so ago that talked about if you add a little extra spice to the food you eat, it causes you to slow down your eating, and you eat less. Plus the spicy foods cause you burn a few more calories than if it were normal. I'm not completely insane (and if any ex-roommates try to tell you differently. I've got Crisco ready for them) there is a reason to my madness. Most of the time.

One other little side note. I'm going to be MIA for a week or so. But when I come back, you better believe I've got some yummo recipes to share with you!!

Chicken Melt.

Eat at Home Cooks brought us another good dinner. I say good b/c I think next time (and there will be a next time) there are a few things I would do different. Overall they Garlic/Basil Mayo was pretty tasty. The only downside is it called for Mozzarella cheese, and I will probably do something with a little bit of heat, maybe a jalapeno pepperjack.

We had it with a side of sweet potato fries. Which was a really good compliment to the sandwich. We also used an Arnold Sandwich Thin b/c it cut out some extra points and was good.

I also had another recipe from Eat at Home Cooks but it smelled so good, that we had eaten half of our dinner before I realized I didn't take a picture, but I have leftovers, so tomorrow when I have it for lunch, you will get to see what it is!!

Chicken Melt (makes 2 sandwiches)

WW pts: 5 pts per sandwich

1 Chicken breast cooked and shredded

1/2 cup low fat/fat free mozzarella, shredded

4 tbsp light mayo (I used Kraft)

1 tsp minced garlic

pepper to taste

1/4 tsp dried basil

Lettuce and Tomato to garnish

Toast the roll or bun you plan on using. Top with chicken and cheese. Place under broiler to toast the cheese. While that is toasting, mix the mayo, garlic, basil and pepper. When the sandwich are nice and bubbly. Place a Tbsp of mayo mixture on each sandwich. It made extra just in case someone wanted more on their sandwich. Top with lettuce and tomato.

I have posted the Sweet Potato Fry recipe before. But just in case you haven't tried them. They are a must. I can even get my picky little eater to ask for them!!!

Eat at home cooks strikes again.

We tried Eatathomecooks.com White Enchiladas tonight. They reminded me of a mexican restaurant enchiladas. Mine came out to be higher in pts, so next time I might use less cheese than what the recipe called for. Since that is where the majority of the points were coming from. I also added a can or Rotel, b/c we like Rotel in this house.

White Enchiladas (makes 10 enchiladas)

WW pts: 6 pts an enchilada

10 flour tortillas (I just look at the nutritional info and pick the one that looks the best)

2 cups jack cheese (I used 2 percent and it was still kinda high in pts)

2 chicken breast, cooked and then shredded

1 medium onion diced, and cooked with the chicken

1 can Rotel, drained

1 1/2 Tbsp butter, light

1 1/2 Tbsp flour (I used whole wheat)

1 can chicken broth

1 cup fat free sour cream

1 can Ortega diced chiles, drained (7 oz)

Preheat oven to 425. Mix together 1 cup of cheese, the chicken, onion and Rotel. Put some mixture into each tortilla, roll and place seam side down in a 9x13 casserole dish.

In a skillet, melt butter. Stir in the flour and cook until smooth and thickened. Add the chicken broth, whisking until smooth and thickened. Stir in sour cream and green chilies. Pour over top of enchiladas. Top with remaining cheese and bake for 20-25 minutes.

The only thing I could think to do different is probably add some diced green peppers into the chicken mixture.

It's Football.

Which in the south means tailgating, food, alcohol... but mostly food. In the low cholesterol, low fat cookbook they had a recipe for toasted ravioli and an Italian salsa. In the past 6 days, I've made it 2 times. That's how good it is. Although the second time I made my homemade marinara which went WAY better with the ravioli then the Italian salsa recipe that came with it.

These suckers are so good, that both times I failed to take a picture of them, because we dug into them so fast. So next time I swear I will take a picture of them. But for now you only get the recipe. It depends on what raviolis you get, so you will have to figure out the points for them if you need to. I went with Publix's brand frozen beef Ravioli.

Toasted Ravioli with Marinara (makes 10 servings)

1 lb. frozen beef ravioli (about 30 pieces)

Vegetable spray (PAM)

1/4 cup fat free light Italian dressing

1/4 cup dry Italian breadcrumbs (I used progresso 1 time and panko the other, but Progresso worked better)

1 1/2 tsp Salt free italian herb seasoning.

Marinara Sauce

1- 15 ounce can tomato sauce, no salt added

1- 15 ounce can diced tomatoes, no salt added, drained

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp garlic salt

pinch of cayenne pepper (optional, but add so much flavor to the sauce)

1/4 tsp rosemary

pinch of ground thyme

1/2 tsp oregano

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Boil ravioli according to package directions. Meanwhile in a small saucepan, mix together marinara ingredients and let simmer on low for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Spray a sheet pan with PAM. After raviolis are done, let them cool for 10 minutes, then brush Italian dressing on them with a brush or spoon. In a small bowl, mix breadcrumbs and italian seasoning. Then sprinkle the tops with breadcrumb mixture. And bake 10 minutes, then flip and bake another 10 minutes or until they are crispy.

Serve hot, with hot marinara.

For around 3 raviolis:

Calories: 133

Fat: 2

Fiber 2

This is for the raviolis I bought but might need to be recalculated to whichever you buy.

Honestly these things would be good as a meal in themselves, and not just an appetizer.

Oven Fried Chicken and California BLT's.

Does anyone else remember their mom making oven fried chicken? I know most people in the south are going to gawk at the fact that it wasn't fried in a cast iron skillet. But you know what. That's probably why most southern states are the most obese in the nation... I'm just sayin'. I've attempted to make this dish, using different recipes, which were HUGE failures. So when I saw this in a low fat, low cholesterol cookbook. I thought I would give it one more shot..... and we finally have a winner. I wish I could remember what was different about this recipe than the others, but in all honesty I can't. But this time it worked and it was delicious.

Crispy Oven Fried Chicken (makes 6 chicken thighs or drumsticks)

WW pts: 4 pts per piece

Vegetable oil Spray (PAM)

3 cups Cornflakes, lightly crushed

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

6 pieces of chicken

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil spray. In a pie pan, stir together cereal and garlic. In a small bowl mix together ginger, paprika, salt, pepper. Sprinkle seasoning on both sides of chicken.

Roll the chicken in the cereal crumbs to coat. Lightly spray the chicken on all sides and put on a baking sheet. Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until chicken is golden brown and tender and no longer pink in the center.

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I also made the California BLT's last night, but forgot to post the recipe. My stepdad introduced us to these years ago, and after 1 persuasive dinner. Michael now loves them. I mean Bacon. Guacamole.... what's not to love. They are such a great dinner when you want a cool alternative to the normal BLT.

California BLT's (makes 4 pita halves or 2 whole pita)

WW pts: 5 pts per serving

2 pita bread cut in half circle

6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

lettuce, shredded or chopped

tomato, diced

4 tbsp Guacamole

ketchup (optional)

Cook bacon and crumble. On 1 side of pita pocket, spread 1 tbsp guacamole and ketcup on the other 1/2 if you want ketchup. Then fill with bacon crumbles, tomato and lettuce. I usually squirt just a tad bit more ketchup on top.

Served with chips or side salad.