Running Mama Cooks

The perfect snow day soup! Very hearty and healthy. And only 7 Weight Watchers points per serving.

Chicken Meatball and Vegetable Soup
A Running Mama Cooks Original
Serves 6
7 WW points plus per serving

Ingredients:

1 tbs Olive Oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
pinch red pepper flakes
4 cups broth
28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 tsp minced garlic
1 lb ground chicken
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup egg beaters
1/4 cup Parmesan, plus more
2 tbs pesto
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp fresh thyme
dried basil
1 cup frozen green beans
6 oz bag baby spinach

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add onions, carrots and celery and cook until onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Add a few pinches of red pepper flakes

Add broth, tomatoes, bay leaf, and dried basil. In the meantime, combine ground chicken, oats, egg beaters, pesto, Parmesan, garlic and thyme and form into 1 inch meatballs

Bring soup to a boil. Add frozen green beans and drop in meatballs. Simmer on low covered for 20 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through. Stir in baby spinach and serve with Parmesan cheese.

I think Gina from Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes is my new best friend. The last thing I wanted to do is give up Sunday pancakes while on a diet! I quickly found what I was looking for on skinnytaste.com. Banana pancakes are my favorite and these looked perfect. And only 4 points plus for 2 pancakes (with the nuts, 3 points without), not bad!

They were light and fluffy. I put a teeny bit of butter and light syrup and didn't feel like I missed out at all.

Banana Nut Pancakes
Recipe from Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 large banana, very ripe, mashed
1 cup 1% milk
3 large egg whites
2 tsp oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp chopped walnuts (optional)
butter flavor cooking spray

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine milk, egg white and mashed bananas in a bowl and mix until smooth. Combine wet ingredients with the dry and mix well with a spoon until there are no more dry spots. Don't over-mix.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Spray oil to lightly coat and pour 1/4 cup of pancake batter. When the pancake starts to bubble and the edges begin to set, flip the pancakes. Repeat with the remainder of the batter.

I'm back on the wagon and staring the year off right with healthy eating. I immediately went to one of my favorite food blogs, Gina's Weight Watchers recipes, to get some ideas. This one caught my eye immediately. I love cooking Asian food at home, so much better than take out!

The only thing I changed about this recipe is that I used thighs instead of drumsticks. And with only 5 weight watchers points plus per serving (4 servings total) you cant go wrong! It was so good that I had it for lunch today with steamed broccoli and dinner with brown rice.

Asian Glazed Chicken Thighs
Very slightly adapted Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes

Ingredients:

8 medium boneless skinless chicken thighs
Pam spray oil
1 cup water
1 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce (more or less to taste)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 tsp agave nectar (or sugar)
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp ginger, grated
2 tbsp chives or scallions, chopped
1 tsp sesame seeds

Directions:

In a heavy large saucepan, brown chicken on high for 3-4 minutes with a little spray oil. Add water, balsamic, soy sauce, agave, garlic, ginger, hot sauce and cook on high until liquid comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for about 20 minutes. Remove cover and bring heat to high, allowing sauce to reduce down, about 8 minutes until it becomes a thick glaze, turning chicken occasionally. (Keep an eye on glaze, you don't want it to burn when it start becoming thick) Transfer chicken to a platter and pour glaze on top. Top with chives and sesame seeds and serve

Yummy snow day dinner!! I had a pork loin frozen so I defrosted it for dinner tonight. I've only prepared pork loin in the crockpot or on the grill, so I searched around on food network for some ideas. I watched this video, and it was the inspiration for this meal.

It came out good, and I normally do not like mustard. The crust was delicious.

Dijon Crusted Pork Loin

Ingredients:

1 Boneless Pork Loin
2 tbs olive oil, plus more, plus more
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
lemon zest
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbs butter, melted
salt and pepper
3 large butter potatoes, peeled and chopped
5 large carrots, peeled and chopped
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375

Heat a pan on the stove top to med high. Add olive oil. Season pork liberally with salt and pepper. Sear all sides in the pan until a nice crust forms. Place in roasting pan.

In a small bowl, combine mustard, thyme, lemon zest and juice, garlic and butter. Brush onto meat.

Season potatoes and carrots with salt, pepper, thyme and toss with olive oil. Place around pork. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes or until juices run clear.

ZACH'S RATING - *** 1/2

I thought I was done with baking for the season but then we had a snow day! Plus, I got a bunch of new cookie cutters from Santa, so I had to try them out.

Cecily and I made these today, it was a lot of fun!

Rolled Sugar Cookies

Recipe from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

2.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3.Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Cookie Icing

Recipe from cooks.com

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (sifted after measuring)
1 tablespoon low-fat milk (skim or 1% is fine although I have made this successfully using 2% fat milk)
1 tablespoon corn syrup (more if needed to reach desired consistency)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
food coloring (use colors of choice)

Directions:

1 VERY IMPORTANT; the confectioners sugar must be sifted before using.

2 In a bowl beat the sifted confectioners sugar with milk until smooth.

3 Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until smooth and glossy (if icing is too thick add in a small amount of corn syrup).

4 Divide into as many separate bowls as desired.

5 Add in different food coloring to each bowl beating/whisking until the intensity is achieved.

6 Paint the icing over the cookies using a brush or dip the cookie edges into icing (this will set quite quickly).

7 Place cookies on waxed paper to dry.

And as a side note, Happy 5 months to my boy!

These were a new addition to Christmas morning this year and they were really great! It makes a dense, cake-like waffle with great gingerbread flavor.

We also had Papa's breakfast casserole, fruit, monkey bread, coffee and mimosas.

Gingerbread Waffles
Recipe from Rachael Ray

Instructions:

3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, eyeball it
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter, plus some to butter the iron
Syrup, whipped cream or fresh fruits for topping, to pass at table

Directions:

Preheat waffle iron.

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and brown sugar until fluffy, then beat in pumpkin, milk, molasses and melted butter. Stir the wet into dry until just moist. Do not overstir the waffle batter. Brush the iron with a little melted butter and cook 4 waffles, 4 sections each. Serve with toppings of choice.

Breakfast is served!

place settings

Santa came!!

I love having the chance to entertain during the holidays, especially having our great friends the Maizels and Lucianos over. This tradition started 3 years ago when the "big kids" were only 2 1/2. I cannot believe how much our families have grown! Next year there will be another place at our table since Allison is having another little girl in a little over a week!

This was the perfect excuse to take out my good china and crystal and set a beautiful table. I served baked chicken, mashed potatoes, baked acorn squash, and caramelized green beans. Everything came out great, if I do say so myself :)

Here is the acorn squash, the only new recipe I used. Really festive and delicious.
Baked Acorn Squash
Recipe from Paula Deen

Ingredients:


The Big kids, so grown up compared to last year!