skinny girl margarita

Did you know the average restaurant margarita has 700 calories??? We had visitors this weekend, and Aubrey brought along a new recipe for us to try.. the Skinny Girl Margarita!! This is a recipe from Bethenny Frankel. She is one of the Real Housewives of New York. I'm in love. It only has 3 ingredients! Now, its a sipper. You cant down it.. but that means you wont drink as much. There is no sugary syrup to add calories or a headache. The key is don't skimp on the quality of alcohol. The BEST part is?? IT ONLY HAS 100 CALORIES!

Ingredients:
salt and sugar to line the rim, if desired (equal parts)
limes - use 1/2 lime or more per drink
Patron Silver Tequila
Cointreau

Directions: (per drink)
Cut lime in half. Rub some of the lime on the rim of the glass and dip in a mixture of equal parts sugar and salt.
Add ice to glass. Squeeze the lime into the glass. Use 1/2 lime per drink. Add 2 oz Tequila. Add 1/2 oz Cointreau. Finish with a lime wedge and serve.

Homemade Playdough

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 cup water

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons cream of tartar

Food Coloring, if desired

Mix flour, salt, oil and cream of tartar in a saucepan. Slowly add water. Cook over medium heat, stirring until dough becomes stiff.

Turn out dough on parchment paper and let cool.

Knead dough with your hands until proper consistency.

Add food coloring, if desired. You can store this in a plastic container with a lid and it will keep "forever".

Roasted Chicken with Asparagus Pan Sauce

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 bunch asparagus, blanched and bias cut ½ long pieces
¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes, drained and jullienne
2 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup Pinot Grigio (or chicken stock)
4 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Preheat a large frypan over medium high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the canola oil, when it starts to lightly smoke add the chicken breasts and sear on one side about 3 to 5 minutes. Flip over and place the whole pan in the oven. Cook for another 13 to 15 minutes or until the chicken breasts reach an internal temperature of 165° F.
When finished remove and set aside while you make the pan sauce. Place the pan back on medium heat and add the shallots and garlic. Move quickly so as not to burn them (this should take only 30 to 45 seconds). Add the asparagus and sun dried tomatoes and saute an additional minute. Off of the heat (or you may have the fire department over for dinner too...)hmmm not a bad thought? Ok onward.. sorry... add the wine to deglaze then place back on the heat making sure to scrape up any of the brown bits that have formed on the bottom of the pan. Bring just to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low; add the butter and whisk to emulsify. Make sure not to boil the sauce, or it will break.
Serve. Makes 4 servings.

Chicken and Spinach Fettuccine

ok, so this one i just made up as i went along...
the other night i needed to think of something for dinner (cause i didn't make it to the grocery store so i could actually make what i planned in my menu!)

it has:
2 chicken breasts, evoo'ed, and S&P'd
-i browned it in a saute pan, then stuck them in some foil, sprinkled on some italian seasonings, folded the foil into a pouch, and baked for 10 min at 375 degrees
-when the chicken was done, i added the juices from the foil into the spinach
-slice chicken into bite-size pieces
some bacon i chopped and cooked in a small fry pan (i say 'some', because one of the kiddo's found the cooked bacon and ate most of it before i noticed!)
fettuccine, cooked (i had the DeCecco brand on hand, and i forgot how delicious it is!)
a bag of spinach
-i wilted the spinach in the same saute pan as i browned the chicken
1 fresh tomato, diced
some goat cheese to dress it up in the end

i combined the chicken, tomatoes, spinach and fettuccine together, then dished those ingredients onto plates. i put whatever bacon was left on top and then dolloped the goat cheese. if you like the goat cheese more melted down, try adding it to the chicken, tomato and spinach along with a ladelful of the water you cooked the fettuccine in - it makes the dish much creamier. i think i also sprinkled a bit of parmesan on top, but it was more for the kids, grace loves parmesan. :)
and as we were eating, my son asked me what the 'green stuff' was. i hesitated, but told him, spinach. he said, mmmm, it's really good! phew...
hope you like this as much as we did! let me know if you try it...

jamie

Sauteed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce

ingredients:
boneless skinless chicken breasts
*evoo
*salt and pepper

in a large skillet, heat evoo on med-hi heat. sprinkle each breast with salt and pepper and saute until chicken is cooked through. transfer to a plate & cover to keep warm.

for mustard sauce:
1/4 cup dry white wine or chicken broth (next time i would put in the wine instead of the stock, it was really salty)
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 T dijon mustard (but if you don't like dijon, this would be just as good with a spicy mustard or whole grain)
1 tsp dried thyme

pour the wine/stock into the hot skillet; cook, stirring, until reduced by half. whisk in the cream, mustard, and tarragon.

pour sauce over chicken.

i served mine with brown rice and green beans...

menu #2

monday: chicken and parmesan-chive sauce
brown rice
broccoli

tuesday: chicken chilaquiles
spanish rice
black beans

wednesday: tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad
grilled chicken

thursday: ranch chicken
baked potato
green beans

friday: carnitas soft tacos
cole slaw
black beans

saturday: chicken, potato, greens & goat cheese quesadilla
green salad

check this out!

Do you love cookbooks? I do! Mine looks like its been put down the disposal a few times. Many of my recipes are old and grease stained.. crusty and falling apart. You see, most of them are my grandmothers recipes that have been around for decades. Maybe centuries. As much as I love to log on my laptop and find a new recipe, often I just need that old, faithful pancake recipe.
I found this website, Tastebook.com. This is a website where you can both enter your own, personal recipes.. and pick from thousands of recipes from many of our favorite sites! Sites like Cooking Light, Food & Wine, Food Network, etc. Not only do you keep these in your own recipe "box", you can make your own cookbook! I got mine recently, and I LOVE it! Isn't it pretty?
The cookbooks start at $19.95!! You even design your own cover and pictures! They have so many beautiful, colorful photo's to choose from. You can also upload your own photo's. The beautiful, hardcover book is a binder and comes with 10 tabbed chapters. You can remove your recipe at any time, or add more! Speaking of adding more.. I bought my cookbook for $35.00. It came with 100 recipe credits. I didn't feel like adding 100 recipes at the time, so I added the ones I had and have 63 left. As I add recipes, I order the cards and add to my cookbook. You can also buy more recipe credits at any time. So goodbye my old, shredded, sticky, greasy cookbook.