Barbecue Beef Cups

I found this recipe online awhile ago and it looked so yummy I just HAD to try it.  Turns out they really are as tasty as they sound.  We had them with grilled corn, they go together quite well!  I ate two of the BBQ Beef cups, it's a good thing I didn't eat lunch (I had a really late breakfast) otherwise I would have gone way over on points today!  These were great and we both think we'll have to have them again sometime.  We ate them with a fork, but as you can see with the second picture they really would be easy to eat by hand.

I didn't quite read the recipe all the way through so I ended up mixing the 3/4 cup cheese into the meat for cooking, but then I put another 1/4 cup on top between the 6 cups to get all melty on top.  This makes 6 servings at 5 points a cup; I used 93/7 ground beef, 2% shredded cheddar (1 cup instead of the called for 3/4), the lower fat biscuits and Bull's Eye original BBQ sauce when I calculated the points, they could change based on what you use. 
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Barbecue Beef Cups

From: Everyday with Rachel Ray: Take 5

Ingredients:

3/4 pound ground beef
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
One 16.3-ounce can refrigerated biscuits
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a skillet, brown the beef over medium heat; drain off excess fat. Remove from the heat and stir in the barbecue sauce and brown sugar. Grease a 6-cup jumbo muffin pan and place a piece of biscuit dough in each cup, stretching the dough up the sides. Divide the beef mixture among the biscuit cups, sprinkle each with cheese and bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

Mediterranean Sole

So I started making this when I got home from work and as I filled the baking pan I realized just how big a serving was (and I ended up using two pans).  So I invited my parents over for some fish on a nice hot summer night. We ate out on the back porch and had a lovely dinner! This was very good!

When I make this again I will probably cook the potatoes for just a little bit before adding the fish to the dish.  The potatoes were still firm after 15 minutes and the fish ended up a tiny bit dry.  It wasn't so dry that it was really a problem or anything. I think the sole that we had was thinner then what they used in the recipe because I had a little less fish then called for and 7 peices of fish.  The picture is actually of Richard's plate (his fish looked better for picture taking), I had half a fish less and more zucchini on my plate.  The mixture of flavors was wonderful!  Richard added a little lemon herb to his and really enjoyed that as well.

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Mediterranean Sole
From WW Website
POINTS® Value: 6
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 15 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

Fish was the original "fast food"—this tasty, low-fat dish takes only minutes to make (a food processor slicing attachment cuts the potatoes to the perfect width).

Ingredients:

2 large potato(es), peeled
1 tsp table salt, divided
1 1/3 pound(s) sole
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp ground oregano
1/2 cup(s) feta cheese, crumbled
5 medium olive(s), jumbo black pitted, chopped

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a 9 X 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.

Slice potatoes into 1/4-inch thin rounds then place them on the bottom of the pan. Coat the potatoes with spray, then sprinkle them with 1/2 tsp of salt.

Place sole over potatoes. Sprinkle with lemon juice, remaining salt and oregano. Top with feta cheese and black olives. Bake until sole flakes easily with a fork, about 15 minutes.

Lemon flavored Orange Roughy

So this was pretty much the same as the Baked Tilapia recipe on weight watchers.  The only real difference I did was I used lemon herb instead of garlic herb seasoning, orange roughy instead of tilapia and concentrated lemon instead of the fresh juice.  I had all this stuff at the house and I've been trying to use up the stuff that we have around the house.  We had it with quinoa and the mixed vegetables from costco.  A very tasty dinner and it was nice and warm outside for eating out on the deck!  I just love summer!
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Baked Tilapia

main meals
POINTS® Value: 3
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 8 min
Cooking Time: 5 min

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Works with Simply Filling

Use this recipe with other types of fish such as halibut, flounder, sole and even shellfish. Lime juice instead of lemon juice is another good substitution.

Ingredients

1 spray(s) cooking spray
20 oz raw tilapia, four 5 oz fillets
1/2 tsp table salt, or less to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp garlic herb seasoning

Instructions

Preheat broiler. Coat a shallow roasting pan with cooking spray.

Season both sides of fish with salt and pepper.

Transfer fish to prepared pan and drizzle with lemon juice; sprinkle garlic herb seasoning over top.

Broil until fish is fork-tender, about 5 minutes. Yields 1 fillet per serving.

Baked Orange Roughy with Salsa

Of all the fish I have made so far, this was my least favorite by far.  I don't know if that was just because I had been telling myself how good this sounded all day or what the deal was.  I do think I should have waited and put the salsa on after cooking the fish instead of cooking the fish with the salsa on it as I don't really like warm tomatoes all that much.  I didn't follow any recipe, I just took the orange rough and added some cayenne pepper and salsa and broiled it in the oven until the fish was flaking.  It was good, but not great. 

Banana-Oatmeal Bread

I was given a bunch of bananas recently that were getting to be very squishy so I decided I would finally go about making that banana bread that I have been saying I want to make.  The first thing I decided to do was get on the weight watchers website and see if there was any recipes that sounded good at fairly low points.  While I don't think 4 points for a serving of this is exactly low points, it does stay with you for awhile.  I've been eating one of the muffins for breakfast, so yummy!  I brought a loaf to work, gave a loaf to my parents and have kept the muffins for us.  Three batchs, didn't take long to mix up and it was super easy!  They are very yummy and I plan on making them again sometime!
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Banana-Oatmeal Bread
From WW website
POINTS® Value: 4
Servings: 10
Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 50 min
Level of Difficulty: Moderate

This nutritious bread is easy to mix up and will make the whole house smell wonderful.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup(s) unpacked brown sugar
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 tsp canola oil
1 large egg(s), beaten
2 medium egg white(s), beaten
3 large banana(s), ripe
1 cup(s) uncooked old fashioned oats

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add oil and eggs; mix thoroughly.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add bananas and oatmeal to batter.

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, 45 to 55 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes.

Beth's Melt in Your Mouth Barbecue Ribs

Richard loves ribs and is often wanting to go out somewhere so he can get them.  Ribs get to be a bit expensive in restaurants so we decided to give them a try at home.  Plus they were on sale at the store so that was an added bonus.  I searched online looking at lots and lots of recipes, this one seemed pretty easy and sounded like it would be good.  Who doesn't want the ribs falling off the bone?  And they really did fall right off the bone, I was actually able to lift the bones right out of the meat.  They were so tender!

I made the recipe below but used 1 cup of BBQ sauce and 3 lbs of ribs, (I bought the kind that had extra meat).  I cut it up into 7 equal parts when I went to do the broiling part at the end, each part ended up 11 points.  I think half of one of those on a sandwich thin will make a wonderful lunch tomorrow! 

As for the barbeque sauce, I tried a new one.  Since I've started looking at labels more I've tried really hard to avoid high fructose corn syrup.  It seems like most barbeque sauces have that as the first or second ingredient, especially the ones at eye level.  I'm serious when I say it was the first ingredient for more than one brand.  So I picked up this Bull's-Eye Barbeque Sauce, it was on the bottom shelf at the store.  I got the sweet and tangy variety since that sounded closest to the variety that we normally go for when we eat at the barbecue place in town.  It was very good, might not have been the cheapest one on the shelf but it was certainly worth it in my opinion (and it wasn't that much more).  It's always worth it to check the ingredients, while studies on high fructose corn syrup are conflicting regarding the effect on our health, why not eat the more natural version if possible?  

Anyways, the ribs were fabulous!  They fell right off the bone and were so very very tasty!  We are planning on making them again and again, next time we'll do the finishing part on the grill outside.  We're thinking barbeque ribs for the 4th of July this year.  It's always nice to have a change from the regular barbeque foods.  And who doesn't like ribs?  And if I go buy more ribs while they are still on sale it won't be much different then buying a bunch of hamburgers.  I just finished these ones for dinner and I'm already salivating at the thought of more ribs in a couple months.  Yep, they are that good!

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Beth's Melt in Your Mouth Barbecue Ribs (Oven) Recipe

I almost didn't want to share this recipe because this is one of the dishes that I make that keep my sons coming back home! These can be done with baby back or regular pork ribs. I have also made split chickens this way. The ribs are tender, moist and just slide off of the bone. I know that your family will love them just as much as my family does. I noticed that some are unable to find hickory smoked salt.. You can use smoked paprika or just brush the ribs with liquid smoke before applying the rub. The smoke flavor is nice because it helps give the ribs a cooked on the grill flavor. Also, the easiest way to remove the membrane is to work a spoon or I use the tips of my kitchen sheers into the bottom center of the membrane, work it back and forth to form a "pocket" then I slide my thumbs in and work the membrane off from the center outward to the ends.

By Not-2-Sweet

3¼ hours
15 min prep

SERVES about 6-7 

4 lbs pork ribs
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon hickory smoke salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (optional)
2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce (mine is Sweet Baby Ray)

1.Preheat oven to 300 degrees f.

2.Peel off tough membrane that covers the bony side of the ribs.

3.Mix together the sugar and spices to make the rub.

4.Apply rub to ribs on all sides.

5.Lay ribs on two layers of foil, shiny side out and meaty side down.

6.Lay two layers of foil on top of ribs and roll and crimp edges tightly, edges facing up to seal.

7.Place on baking sheet and bake for 2-2 1/2 hours or until meat is starting to shrink away from the ends of the bone.

8.Remove from oven.

9.Heat broiler.

10.Cut ribs into serving sized portions of 2 or 3 ribs.

11.Arrange on broiler pan, bony side up.

12.Brush on sauce.

13.Broil for 1 or 2 minutes until sauce is cooked on and bubbly.

14.Turn ribs over.

15.Repeat on other side.

16.Alternately, you can grill the ribs on your grill to cook on the sauce.

Loaded Hashbrowns

Richard was really wanting the loaded hash browns from Sherry's, they are super tasty and once he started talking about them I wanted them as well.  I decided to try them at home as I am certain these were far better for me then if I had gone to the restaurant and ordered them.  This was yummy!  Certainly something I'll make again!

How I made the "loaded" hash browns:

Take 1 cup shredded hash browns (I used the simply hash browns that come from the refrigerated section) and place them on the George Foreman grill, use a spray of olive oil on the Foreman before placing the hash browns on.  Flip the hash browns at least once while cooking to get more of that crunchy cooked hash brown texture. 

When taking the hash browns off the grill place half the hash browns on the plate.  Put 1 Tbsp light sour cream and 1/8 cup shredded reduced fat mexican style cheese on top of the hash browns. Place the other half of the hash browns on top of that and sprinkle the top with another 1/8 cup cheese (I used a little less then that on top and used the other bit in the scrambled eggs).

Enjoy!