Crispy Wontons & Sauteed Green Beans

So much food, so little points! 

Asian-inspired menu ahead! 

Here is yet another WW recipe, with a few of my own alterations.  These little guys are fun and relatively low points, particularly when served with these sauteed green beans.  Not sure if I have used Venison in a recipe for my blog yet, but I am in this one.  Jess came out of last hunting season with about 40 pounds of ground venison, so I have been slowly working on making that dwindle.  If you've never cooked with it before I can let you know it is just really bland meat.  I don't think it tastes "gamey," but I normally mix it in with other things.  For example, I would never make a venison burger, there just isn't enough flavor, read: grease.  Venison is incredibly lean.  It rarely even needs drained.  However, if I'm making like meatballs for spaghetti sauce or something similar, sure I'll use it.  Or if I want to make something like salisbury steaks, I will mix it 50/50 with beef. 

This recipe was orginally made for Pork, so the point values are actually based on that.  So feel free to subsitute ground pork where I am using ground venison.  Deer isn't a meat you can generally buy at Kroger, hahaha.

Crispy Wontons - 1 WWP+ per wonton
Ingredients:
22 Wonton Wrappers
1/2 lb gound meat, browned and drained
2 medium Scallions
1 TSP Lemon Pepper seasoning
1 TBSP ground Ginger Root
1 clove Garlic
2 TBSP Soy Sauce
1/2 TSP Olive Oil
 (I forgot to take a photo of the ingredients...sorry!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking pan with parchment paper.

In food processor, combine scallions, ginger root, lemon pepper seasoning, and garlic.  Pulse until finely chopped.

Add meat, soy sauce, and olive oil.  Pulse to combine.

This was probably a bit much for my tiny food processor...

Fill 20 wonton wrappers with heaping teaspoon of mixture and seal using water on your fingertips. 

Line on baking sheet and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Bake 3 minutes, flip, spray, bake another 3 minutes.   If they aren't crispy enough for you, you can bake another 1-2 minutes, just be careful not to burn them.

Sauteed Green Beans - 1 WWP+ per 1 cup serving
Ingredients:
1/2 lb Green Beans, ends snapped
1 TSP Olive Oil
1 medium Shallot, chopped fine
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 TBSP Parsley, dried
1 TBSP Lemon Juice
1/4 TSP Salt & Pepper

Steam green beans for 6-7 minutes.

Run under cold water to stop them from cooking, set aside.

In medium skillet or wok, heat oil and saute the shallot for about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and toss for about 30 seconds.

Add green beans to skillet and toss for 3-4 minutes.

Combine parsley, lemon juice, and S&P, mix into skillet. When you serve them, be sure to scoop up some of the onions and stuff that is in the pan, it really makes the green beans.

Seriously, so many green beans.  They're my favorite food! 

Breaded Pork Chops & Creamed Spinach

Get ready for a classy, filling, and delicious dinner!  I love spinach and creamed is one of the ways I can get Jess to eat it.  Here we've got some pretty easy breaded pork chops and creamed spinach.  It took maybe 30 minutes start to finish, so it is an easy meal to whip together when you don't have a lot of time!

Check out that golden crunchy exterior! 

So part of our new healthy-eating plan includes me only cooking enough for one meal.  I used to have the leftovers-for-lunch philosophy, but I realized that I was just cooking too much and ending up eating too much for dinner.  So now, instead of fixing four pork chops for dinner and then lunch the next day, I only make 2, then we eat smaller meals for lunch.  Jess normally eats a roastbeef sandwich with an apple and some pretzels, I have been eating tuna and crackers or a spinach salad with fat-free balsamic dressing, the latter being zero points! What?? Crazy.

So Weight Watchers online is a great resource.  They have a ton of recipes that are from WW and also from other members like me.  They already have the point values calculated and even gives you serving sizes.  It's great.  That is where I got these recipes!  I usually try to keep dinner 10-15 points.  I get 26 per day, so even if I do have a 15 point dinner, I can still eat toast or cereal for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and some berries, pretzels, or popcorn for an afternoon snack and come in under my point maximum. 

Breaded Pork Chops - 7 WWP+ per chop
Ingredients:
2 Pork Chops (I used bone-in, you could use boneless)
1/4 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt & Pepper
1 Egg
1 1/2 TBSP Milk
1 TBSP Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup Panko Breadcrumbs

The larger chop is Jess's, that lucky duck gets to
eat more than I do! 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a pan with parchment paper or with aluminum foil.  If you use foil, spray lightly with cooking spray.

In medium bowl, combine flour, salt, & pepper.  In another bowl, lightly beat the egg and mix with milk and dijon.  Place Panko breadcrumbs in another shallow bowl or plate. 

My little battering station.

Dip chops in flour, shake off excess. 

Dip in egg mixture and let excess drip off. 

Cover with Panko by pressing gently. 

Place pork chops in pan and bake for 8 minutes. 

Flip over, bake another 5-7 minutes.

The parchment paper wasn't as burnt as it looks...

Creamed Spinach - 4 WWP+ per 3/4 cup serving
Ingredients
16 oz Spinach
1 TBSP Butter
1/2 cup Onion
1/2 TSP Salt
1 TBSP Flour
1/8 TSP Cayenne
5 oz Evaporated Milk

Spoiler alert: I didn't actually use the fresh spinach, but Jess hadn't come home from the store with
my frozen so I just used my fresh spinach I use for salads for the photo. 

Microwave spinach in covered bowl for about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt butter in sauce pan over med-low heat.  Stir in onion and salt, cook about 10 minutes.

Add flour, cayenne, and evaporated milk.  Stir until thick and bubbly, about 5-7 minutes. 

Still pretty thin...

And we're thickened! 

Pour sauce into food processor and blend until smooth.

So, I couldn't actually get it completely smooth...whatever.

Mix with spinach, add salt & pepper to taste. 

My photo is a little steamy, sorry! 

Dish up and serve! Remember, each pork chop is only 7 WWP+ and 3/4 cup spinach is 4 points!

In the future, I may make another vegetable side-dish, but I ate slow so this filled me up. 

This is me apologizing.

I'm a terrible blogger. 

Clearly, I am one of those that think "I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS...I should start a blog," only to write 10 posts and forget about it.  I promise I still have stuff to write about, I just got so overwhelmed!  We've been traveling a little bit (nothing exciting), I've been working a little more (don't feel bad for me, it's not a lot), and...drumroll, please...I started a diet.

Well, I suppose you could call it a "lifestyle change."  But we will call it what it is: Weight Watchers. I very passively did WW with my Mom a few years ago while living at home for summer and I have to admit that it works.  So the last 6 months or so I have just felt generally unhealthy, sluggish, and lazy(?).  Now let me tell you, I don't work out.  I can't run because my knees are too weak and vulnerable, and honestly I am not one of those people who feel better after excercise.  I feel sweaty and tired and it isn't pleasant.  So, on a whim, I decided I needed to eat healthier and maybe I would feel better.  I also knew that without some kind of incentive, I probably wouldn't stick with it: insert paying for Weight Watchers. 

It has been two and a half weeks and I've got to admit, I feel great.  I've lost a few pounds, but more than that I feel better.  Dresses that haven't fit in a year not zip up with ease, my face looks thinner, and I feel better.  Along with my new healthy eating kick, I started taking an iron supplement because I've had chronically low iron for years.  Did you know that low iron can make breathing difficult?  Well it does.  Now I am more energized, I sleep better, and just generally feel better.  Such big changes!  So, women, if you are tired all the time, get winded easy (I would feel out of breath just walking down to the basement...), maybe go get your iron checked!  It is common in women to have low iron. 

So, new and improved Adventures with Jameson & Ginger Ale: Healthy(er?) recipes, re-evaluation of old recipes with points values added, portion control, healthy habit tips, along with fun craft stuff as it happens.  I have not forgotten about my sewing machine, but I've been working on a dress that is taking longer than I'd like.  So until that gets done, there probably won't be many sewing posts. 

Thanks again for paying attention to my ramblings, and sorry I suck at blogging.