I'm a "meat and potatoes" person.

I have always been more of a red meat fan. And I don't mean salmon...it's pink. Growing up, the only fish I would dare touch would have to come out of a deep-fryer and be covered in cornmeal. I've slowly expanded my horizons over the last few years. I will eat fish if it flakes - so that eliminates shrimp (yes, I know, I'm weird) and any 'steaky' fish, i.e. tuna. Fish should flake and not need to be cut with a knife!

I also have a very strange phobia about the way fish smells before it is cooked. I just can't deal with it. Now, I love going out to eat seafood. It is usually cooked properly and served with some tasty, yet not that good for you, sauce. Thus masking the taste/smell of any fishy-ness.

This week, I decided to grill salmon myself. I love salmon when we go out to eat. I really love it here at the hotel - it is served with a Butter Pecan Praline Sauce. Seriously, how could you not like something served with butter, sugar and pecans? It would be a crime. BUT since butter and sugar aren't quite in my diet, I opted for just using some lemons.

Jason and I decided that even though this tasted OK, we won't be cooking fish at home again unless it is fried! I just don't think either of us know enough about cooking fish to succeed at doing it. But just in case you are good at it, this might turn out much better at someone else's house.

Grilled Salmon

Brush the salmon with a little olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and Pampered Chef's Citrus & Basil Rub (so good!). Top with sliced lemons, wrap in foil and grill until done.

Next time I'm using the PC rub on chicken.

Spring is on the way!

Well, at least in Houston it is. Yesterday was a beautiful 83 degrees at my house. Perfect for yard work and cleaning house with the windows open. This is when I pity the people in the north who are still shoveling snow.

In honor of the warmer weather, I decided to bake something light and springy. A fellow What's Cooking Nestie suggested Paula Deen's Lemon Blossoms. They are delish! Plus, it gave me the perfect chance to use my mini-muffin pan that I got for Christmas. I think it should be a crime to get a kitchen item and wait more than 2 months to use it, so I just slid in the deadline.

Lemon Blossoms from Paula Deen

Cake Batter

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 3.5oz package instant lemon pudding
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• zest of 1 lemon
• 3 T vegetable oil
• 3 T water

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the ingredients above for the batter and mix well. Lightly spray the mini-muffin pan and spoon 1 teaspoon full for each muffin. (My first batch was 1 Tablespoon, and those did not bake pretty.) Bake for about 12 minutes, until they are golden brown around the edges.

Sift the powdered sugar into a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Stir gently. Remove the muffins from the oven and cool slightly before flipping them onto a tea towel. While they are still warm, completely coat the muffins in the glaze. Let them dry completely on a cooling rack and store in an airtight container.

Lucky for Jason I had a few that fell apart when I flipped them. Since I'm taking them to a friends house for dinner, he usually only gets to keep a couple for himself. He was very happy that some were broken!

Weight Watchers Points: 3 points for 1 muffin, if you make 48 servings. I actually think that I could have gotten 72 had I used 1 teaspoon for the batter in each. The point value would drop to 2 if that was the case.

Sometimes you "bake" mistakes...

My mother in law gave me a great cookbook for Christmas - a Weeknight Dinners by Southern Living. I love Southern Living and usually find too many things that I want to cook. Well, the front of the cookbook has this great looking meatless entree - Tortilla Pie.

I will probably never make it again. Don't get me wrong, it was good. But...not really worth it. Since I'm watching things on WW, this was NOT worth 6 points!! It makes 6 servings, but they were SO small! I wasn't very impressed. It may have been a little larger if I had used the flour tortillas instead of corn, but that's all I had on hand and it reduced the points value from 7 to 6. It just was not worth it! By the time you add chips (baked) or a salad, you've probably eaten more than your allotted dinner points. It did taste good, though, just not very filling.

Tortilla Pie from Southern Living

• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 t chili powder
• 1/2 t ground cumin
• 8 whole wheat tortillas (7 point value) or 8 corn tortillas (6 point value)
• 6-8 oz guacamole
• 1 cup salsa
• 8 oz shredded fat free cheddar cheese

Spray an 8" round baking dish with cooking spray. Place 1 tortilla in the dish, top with 1/2 of bean mixture. Top with another tortilla, then 1/2 of the salsa. Top again with a tortilla and 1/2 of the guacamole. Top with one more tortilla and 1/2 of the cheese. Repeat all layers except the cheese and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Add the remaining cheese and bake 5-10 minutes more until the cheese melts.

WW Points: 7 with whole wheat tortillas, 6 with corn tortillas

"Baked" Potato Soup

I will fully admit that I did not like this soup. OK, the flavor was good...but I had to give Jason my bowl about halfway through. I have a good reason, though. I hate onions. Unless they are chopped really fine or they are sauteed and a little "mushy" I will not eat them. The thought just makes me ill.

When I prepared this recipe, I just chopped the onion thinking it would probably cook through. Wrong. Lesson learned, if I ever get past the bad taste it left and try to make this again, I will either A) run the onions through the food processor, B) saute them first or C) blend it all with the immersion blender after it cooks. I could still do (C), but I don't think I could get past the taste from last night.

Good thing Jason liked it because we have quite a bit!

"Baked" Potato Soup from Southern Living

• 3 pounds potatoes, cubed
• 1/2 onion, chopped (fine or sauteed)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 14-oz cans chicken broth
• 1/4 cup butter
• salt & pepper
• 1 cup cream or half & half (I used half & half)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used fat free)
• 3 T chopped green onions
• bacon (I used turkey bacon)
• sour cream (optional)

Combine first six ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Mash the potatoes and add in the cream, cheese and green onions. Serve topped with more cheese, sour cream, bacon and green onions.

It makes about 12 cups and each cup is 4 WW points.

Healthy Eating...

This is a Weight Watchers recipe that I love! It's in an older cookbook and I made a few changes to it, but Jason and I are both fans. I did not take photos because...well, it is not a pretty dish. But the taste makes up for it. :-)

Cabbage Casserole from Weight Watchers

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 pound lean ground turkey
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
• 1 8-oz can tomato sauce
• 1 20-oz can diced tomatoes with green chilis
• 1 head green cabbage, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Saute the onion, pepper and garlic in the olive oil. Add the ground turkey and cook through. Add in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and rice. Bring to a boil. Spoon half of this mixture into a lightly greased 9*13 baking dish. Top with all of the cabbage and the rest of the mixture. Cover with foil and bake 1 to 1 1/4 hours, until the cabbage is tender.
This measures out to 6 servings at 5 points each.

Valentine's Dinner

This year we decided to cook dinner at home. Nothing really over the top, especially since we'd gone out for dinner the night before for Jason's birthday. A very nice coworker of Jason's gave us Omaha Steaks (Filet Mignon) for Christmas, so we felt it was as good a time as any to cook them. They were seasoned lightly and grilled, and we served them with our staples - garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed asparagus. The whole meal turned out really good, even though I did not spring for an appetizer, salad or dessert. Oh, well.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love cookies! So does Jason. But...since I'm trying to diet, I really don't need them around the house. However, I did buy a large bag of Splenda recently with intentions of making frosting for my godsons' first birthday cake. So to finally dive into the bag of Splenda, I went for sugar cookies.

Honestly, I was not 100% impressed with my cookies. I'm just slightly critical of what I bake and these were just...OK. I did read some reviews on Splenda's website after I baked them and most say it's too much flour (you think???) and to cut a cup out of it. That would explain was I was so unhappy with the way they turned out. They dough crumbled like crazy, then it baked funky. They do, however, taste really good. And they are low fat. So, alls well that ends well, right?

Sweet as Sugar Cookies from Splenda

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup Splenda
• 2 large eggs
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 4 cups flour (next time I will cut this down to 3)
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt

Beat butter until creamy. Gradually add in Splenda, mixing well each time. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each one. Stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add this to the butter mixture, beating until blended. Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic and chill for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 325. Roll out the dough on a slightly floured work surface, 1/4-1/8 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters and bake on a slightly greased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes.

This made about 50 cookies (my cookie cutters are small), so they are about 2 WW points each.

Low-Sugar Frosting

• 1 package 1/3 less fat Cream Cheese, softened
• 6 T unsalted butter
• 2 egg whites
• 2 1/4 cups Splenda
• 2 t vanilla extract

Cream butter and cream cheese until mixed. Add in eggs, one at a time. Gradually beat in Splenda and vanilla.

Honestly, I will probably not use this recipe again. First, if you have ever beaten Fat Free or 1/3 Less Fat cream cheese you know that it gets these crazy little clumps. Or at least mine has always done that (if you have a way to avoid this, please let me know). Second, the frosting was SO thin. I wanted to decorate the cookies, but ended up just having to give most of them a slight glaze.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Jason turns 30 on Wednesday. I think I'm more excited than he is...but for me - it's a chance to give a gift and to go out for a nice dinner. Score! We're hitting up this place called The Oceanaire Seafood Room - we haven't been, but I read some pretty good reviews.

Birthdays also mean the chance to bake a cake. So, a few weeks ago I asked Jason what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday - plain vanilla with "birthday cake icing" (his favorite), red velvet or a pound cake. I honestly thought I would be making a plain vanilla cake. Instead his response was "Can you make my mom's pound cake?" Gasp! Horror! No!

Now, don't get me wrong, her pound cake is, well, awesome. It's an Almond Pound Cake and I could probably eat the whole thing. I had two problems with this. First - she makes it all the time and I try to only eat one piece, but I had this fear of actually reading the recipe. I don't want to know how bad it is for me. Second - I know that what my mom bakes is pretty good. I also think I can make it as good or better. Right? But men...well, what their moms make is as close to perfection as it could be. I dreaded the words "well, it's good but mom's..." Nightmare. However, it's his birthday so I caved.

Then last week he upped the challenge. "Can you make it with Splenda?" I am dieting and he is training for a bike ride, so that makes sense, but I have a general rule. You don't mess with the precision of baking. Jason thinks you can sub anything - 2 eggs instead of 3, water for oil, light or dark brown sugar doesn't even make sense. Me - it's written that way for a reason. But, after asking the What's Cooking Nesties I decided to take a chance.

Almond Pound Cake

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 cups Splenda (or sugar, if you go for the full-fat version)
• 5 eggs
• 2 t almond extract
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 cup milk (I used fat-free)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Cream butter and shortening. Add Splenda (or sugar) 1/4 cup at a time, alternating with the eggs until all of the Splenda and eggs are added. Mix in almond and vanilla extracts. Sift dry ingredients and add 3/4 cup at a time alternating with the milk, a little at a time. Continue to mix until both the milk and dry ingredients are added. Pour into the pan and bake for 1 hour. Reduce the heat and bake for 15 additional minutes at 300 degrees. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.

Honestly, the only difference I noticed was that the cake was not as fluffy as it normally is. It tasted about the same (Jason said a little less sweet, but he liked that) but the consistency was a little off. However, I am completely sure he will eat every piece he can.
WW Points - 5 per piece, based on 24 small servings