Local Flavor

Tonight, there was little bit of dough left in the budget so, Brian and I went out to our favorite local Chinese restaurant, Hunam's on 29th Street. Its a great little place, where the owner is always out in front, and making sure the customers are always taken care of. I enjoy local eateries like this, where the owner takes pride in the resturant. It not only makes for the best food, but usually the prices aren't to bad either. My husband and I ate a Family Dinner for 2, and spent less than $25. I always consider anything in the $20-25 range a pretty good deal for sit down dinning.

Work Provided Free Pizza!

I work at a College Bookstore, its a great experience and I enjoy it most of the time. Tonight, I really did enjoy it. We as a staff decorated the store for the Holiday Season. The whole staff really pitched in a we have a very nicely decorated store. One of the perks of store decor night is free pizza! The Bookstore provides free pizza, and this year it was from Papa Johns! Yum! We all bring various desserts and snacks to go with the pizza. I brought pre-made sugar cookies, as I am a little short on time right now to bake. I will have to do plenty in the next two weeks, lets not rush into it! Tomorrow, will be left overs of the Enchilada's!

Enchiladas

Tonight I made Enchiladas with red sauce. We wanted something simple for this week, and we can have leftovers. I know that some people think that leftovers are the worst. I find that if I plan to cook extra they work out quite well on nights when I am in a hurry.

Reduced Fat Red Sauce Enchiladas

95/5 Ground Beef approx 1lb
1/4 C Bell Pepper and Onion Mix
Seasoning, Chili Powder, Cumin, Garlic Powder to your liking
Brown Beef in non-stick skillet.

5 - 6 Soft Taco Size 98% Fat Free Tortilla's
warm in microwave oven

Coat the Tortilla with Fat Free Refried Beans
Sprinkle Reduced Fat Mexican Cheese Mix (Sargento's)
Sprinkle on Cooked Meat Mixture

Roll

2 Regular Cans of Red Enchilada Sauce

Cover bottom of a med baking dish, with 1/2 can of Red Sauce
Place rolled tortillas seam side down in sauce in baking dish
Keep repeating until dish is full.

Cover with remaining sauce
Cook at 400 deg oven
for 20m
then remove and top with cheese
cook until cheese is melted
serve

1 Enchie = Serving.

Sunday Morning Breakfast: Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals, especially on the weekends or a day off. Sometimes, I enjoy going out to eat and other I enjoy making it at home. There is just something about cooking in the morning, its just about as relaxing as cooking dinner. This morning I treated my husband to Chocolate Chip Pancakes.

Basic Pancakes
Mix Dry Ingredients first:
11/2 C Flour
3 T Sugar (vanilla if you have it)
11/2 t of baking powder

Mix wet separately:
11/2 C Milk (low fat= Skim, if you don't care whole milk from the farm it is best)
2-3 T Veg Oil
2 Eggs
1/2 t of Vanilla

Mix both together and leave lumpy.
Cook 1/2 Cup of batter on griddle or skillet (spray with cooking spray, Crisco makes a butter spray that works nicely, if you can get past the fake butter smell when you spray it)
before flipping add Chocolate Chips
Flip and Cook.

Quick Low Fat Tip:
We top our French Toast, Pancakes, or Waffles with 1 Serving of Cool Whip Lite instead of butter or margarine. Its makes it seem extra fatty, but its actually better for you than butter!

Local Dairy -
Incase you noticed the glass jar in the Thanksgiving Mashed Potato Photo, or my refrence to farm milk. We get ours from a local dairy, called Iwig. To find out more, google Tim Iwig Milk, Tecumseh, KS. There is a couple of articles from the local paper, CJ Online and K-State Extension Office.

The Table Setting and Full Plate

The Feast!

My mom made the sweet potato's, with Carmel sauce, marsh mellows and pecans. My husband made the Sausage, Cornbread, and Fennel Stuffing (Cooking Light Nov 06), I made the mashed potatoes (my favorite part). It was a great Thanksgiving Feast prepared by the whole family.

Smoking the Turkey

My dad smoked the turkey. He started it at 10:00 AM and it was fully cooked around 2:30 PM. We brought it inside and tented it with foil on the counter by the oven until 5:45-6:00 PM. It had a good rest and was still plenty warm and moist when we sat down to eat.