Tuesday, May 13, 2014

How I Spent My Five Days of Summer Vacation


Friday~
 My first attempts with royal icing flowers:
  And my first time dyeing with acid dyes:
Saturday~
 Chocolate cake with blackberry filling and white chocolate buttercream for my Mother-in-Law:
And 24 cupcakes using leftover batter and icing for the church bake sale:



Sunday~ church and visiting with the in-laws.


Monday~
 Housework, knitting, cooking, and having Mom over for her Mother's Day:
  
Tuesday~
 More knitting and dyeing!



Saturday, May 3, 2014

Not Your Mama's Chicken and Potatoes


One of the keys to healthy eating and weight control is having an arsenal of recipes you like to fix and love to eat. But even the best recipes can get tiring, or something can happen to make them less accessible. In my case, the fact that my oven died has kind of messed up menu preparation. And I confess that I fell back on a lot of microwave or take-out meals. Then Betsy started raving about the great recipes in the May 2014 issue of Cooking Light. "Every Recipe under 25 Minutes" means pretty much everything is done on the stove-top. Of course, my subscription had just expired, so I picked up a copy at the newsstand, and I'm pretty sure this is the first of many meals I'll be making from it. In the case of Greek-Style Chicken Breasts and Herbed Gold Potatoes, the combination of kalamata olives, oregano, lemon juice and feta is mouth watering. And most of the ingredients are staples in my kitchen.

I only made two servings of the chicken, since there are so many others I want to try, too. But I'm pretty sure it will make great leftovers. And the potatoes are just right with it. If I'd had fresh green beans I think they would have been the perfect accompaniment. Steamed spinach or a tossed salad with vinaigrette dressing would work, too. One more note about this meal - it was tasty and filling. I realized I'd forgotten to eat lunch,so I munched an apple while cooking, and that and this meal left me plenty full when I'd finished. That's pretty awesome for a meal that came in at 10 Weight Watcher's Points by only reducing the fat a bit.

Note: Later in the week I heated the last of the Herbed Potatoes with some sliced turkey sausage, and it tasted amazing. I wasn't sure if the seasoning of the potatoes would hold it's own with the sausage, but it did. I got a delicious, quick and healthy dinner in about 4 minutes. Can't get better than that!