Meal Plan (and recent recipe trials)

The plan for this week is the usual hot cooked breakfast for the kids. We did buy a couple more boxes of cereal for a once per week treat for the kids.
I was buying ingredients to make baked oatmeal and just as I reached for the frozen blueberries the idea came to me to make it with the frozen peaches from our tree instead. I can't wait for that one!

Dinners will be
~Moroccan Spiced Pork Chops w/ Apricot Couscous, Roasted Asparagus (Held over from last week since we had C.O.R.N. last night.)
~Roasted Chicken, Potatoes, Gravy, a yet to be determined WW side dish, And veggies
~Greek Chicken Soup (made over leftover Greek Lemon Chicken and Potatoes from last Sunday) Bread
~Homemade Pizza, Salad with homemade blue cheese dressing
~Pork Chops with Cranberry Pan Sauce and butternut squash, fresh green beans
~Spiced Turkey Burgers w/Yogurt and Chutney, Brown Rice, Cooked Carrots
~Chicken and Coconut Curry, Rice and Sauteed Green Beans and Peppers

We're already going to have one meal held over to next week since we attended the baptism of a friend of ours today and the food was ABUNDANT at the gathering afterwards. My friend is a crazy person when it comes to cooking for a crowd. One of the reasons I love her so. ;)

As for recent recipe trials...
We tried the Greek Lemon Chicken Thighs and Potatoes from the Weight Watchers website for a family dinner with the kids and grandkids. The kids and grandkids didn't say much about it. I liked it. Roger didn't care for the lemon factor so we probably won't have it again. After all there are plenty of things we both enjoy eating. There were lots of leftovers though so I'm going to turn those into a soup this week by adding chicken broth to the diced chicken and potatoes. Hopefully the broth will tone down the lemon enough for Roger to like it. I'll stir in some spinach and whatever else occurs to me when the time comes.

I also tried the Roasted Brisket recipe from the WW website and I was disappointed. The meat was tough despite roasting for 3 hours. I've made good brisket before but I don't know why this one didn't work out.

The picture below is Orange Chinese Chicken from the WW website again. This was a big hit with the whole family. I served it over brown rice with my go-to veggie side for any chinese meal, Sauteed Green Beans and Red Peppers.
I got the idea for the green beans from a Rachael Ray show a couple of years ago. Here's the deal.
Using RR's method for measuring, you grab a handful of fresh green beans per person you're serving. Clean and trim the beans. I only remove the stem end with the stringy thing. Technically speaking.
Now throw them all in a large skillet with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water and some salt.
Cover and simmer for a few minutes till the beans turn bright green and are just beginning to soften.
Remove the lid and add one red pepper, sliced.
Now let the beans and peppers cook together till the water is completely evaporated.
Add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Cook and stir over fairly high heat till beans are crisp tender and the beans and peppers begin to brown. (I like them with lots of color!)
Garnish with some toasted sesame seeds if you've got them.
In the words of RR, YUM-O!!

I stumbled across a yummy movie watching treat. Let's see, I surfed from the WW website message board to the personal site of one of the members. She had this great recipe that she calls Cauliflower "Popcorn".
I took it and put my own spin on it. CURRY!! Delicious!
Curried Cauliflower "Popcorn"
Cut one whole head of cauliflower up into small pieces the size of popcorn.
In a large bowl combine the cauliflower with 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
Add curry powder and chipotle chili powder and salt to taste.
Toss to coat well. I put it all in a bowl with a lid and shook it till it was all well distributed.
Spread the cauliflower, in a single layer, on a large cookie sheet which has been sprayed with PAM.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring about halfway through.
Let it get nice and brown and crispy.
I did this mini batch in my toaster oven which uses some kind of space age light bulb thingy so it didn't brown as much as it would in an oven.
Let cool and then munch away. The entire recipe is only 4 points.

When it comes to popcorn I really like Kettle Corn so I had this crazy idea that cauliflower is such a blank slate that I would totally try salt and Splenda sometime. When I do I'll let you know how it goes.

Below is a picture of Gingered Pork, Pineapple and Pepper Skewers. Again from the WW website. These were pretty tasty and we will definitely make them again. My original plan was to grill these outside but a snowstorm arrived just before dinner and I took pity on Roger, who is the official griller around here, and I broiled them in the oven. I suspect they will be far tastier on the grill. Per the recipe, these were served with scallion couscous and Broccoli with Orange-Sesame Sauce. Also from the WW website. The broccoli was just so-so and probably won't show up around here again.