Personal Favorites

Here I hope to be able to share some of the amazing, incredible and uber-yummy dishes I've come across during my WLJ (Weight Loss Journey).  I'm learning very quickly that eating healthy does not mean a life of deprivation - it simply involves careful planning and balancing of what you take into your body versus what you DO with your body.  Energy taken in without any going out eventually turns into fat, this is why exercise in conjunction with a healthy diet is so important.

Foods I will post here include items that meet certain personal criteria.  Recipes must:

• Truly taste good
• Have a reasonable Points value
• Provide decent portions
• Reheat well
• Be reasonably priced on the whole
• Not contain any weird or unusual ingredients you are unlikely to have further use for

Crash Hot Potatoes

This is a favorite on the 100+ board. It is NOT my original recipe, I just thought I'd toss up my version of it for future reference if someone wants to know how I make it.

You really can't imagine just how good these are until you try them. They seem so simple, so basic - and yet I can't imagine any dish these wouldn't go well with. AND they heat up nicely the next day in the microwave or toaster oven. If there is a perfect food in the world, I'd have to say this is it!

Ingredients: 
12 Small (New, Red, Etc.) Potatoes
Olive Oil (as needed)
Fresh Ground Black Pepper (to taste)
Kosher or Sea Salt (to taste)
Herbs you enjoy such as Rosemary, Chives, Parsley, etc. (to taste... and dried is just fine)

Instructions:
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender - usually between 20-30 minutes.

On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato. I kind of swipe the potatoes around on the pan to get them coated in oil a bit. I also line the pan with non-stick foil for easier cleanup.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. If you don't have a masher (or can't find it, like happened to me!) you can use a meat tenderizer, the bottom of a glass or mug, the bottom of a measuring cup, etc. The idea is to squish them down a bit like thick pancakes. You can use a fork to texturize the tops a bit, too.

Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.

Sprinkle potatoes with salt, pepper and fresh chopped rosemary (or chives, or parsley or thyme or whatever herb you have available - pepper, salt and herbs are ENTIRELY "to taste.")

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. I've also baked these at 400 for 45 minutes to coincide with other foods I had in the oven at the same time.

This makes 4 servings of 3 potatoes each, but you can make as small or large a batch as you want. A serving works out to be 3 Points.

Herb Crusted Eye of Round Roast

This was something I found on Gina's SkinnyTaste website. I get a lot of recipes from there. Her recipe calls for a Rib Eye Roast. That was outside my budget, so I went with an Eye of Round Roast. The Eye of Round also has considerably less fat than the Rib Eye, something that is obviously important when considering Points.

Ingredients:
2 lbs Eye of Round Roast, Boneless - you will need to trim off the layer of fat on the bottom
2 tbsp fat free sour cream
3 tsp prepared horseradish
kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste
1/2 cup italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 tbsp herbs de provence (rosemary, thyme, marjoram and savory)
1 clove garlic, crushed or 1/2 t minced garlic from a jar
2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. In a small bowl combine sour cream, salt, pepper and horseradish. In another bowl combine breadcrumbs, herbs, garlic and oil.

Season meat with salt and pepper. Sear roast in a large skillet on high heat for about 10 minutes total on all sides.

Gina's recipe originally said: "Place in roasting pan and cover with sour cream and breadcrumbs on top of roast."
I would instead advise covering the roast with the sour cream mixture and the breadcrumbs on a cutting board or something similar, and THEN placing it in your roasting pan. Why? Because breading it inside the roasting pan, you end up with a lot of bread crumbs on the bottom of the pan. These soak up yummy juices which could instead be used to make a horseradish au jus if you were so inclined. Not important if you don't want the au jus (and an extra -estimated- point per serving) but worth noting. You might also consider using a rack or some water-soaked skewers "woven" together and placed beneath the roast to raise it up off the bottom of the pan. I have not tried that, yet, and do not know if it would contribute to drying out the meat.

Place in the oven (uncovered) and cook until thermometer reads 140°. I would begin checking it at around 35-40 minutes. It ended up taking 60 minutes for our roast to get to temperature.

Remove and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing thinly.

A 4oz serving of this is a very generous portion at 5 points.