Roasted Butternut Squash

Hey everyone. I meant to post this earlier this week, but once again, things have been hectic at our house. Camden came down with croup again and we ended up in the ER with him on Monday. He was having some trouble breathing and it worried this mama bear. They gave him a breathing treatment, some steroids, ran some x-rays (which came back clear), gave us a couple of prescriptions and sent us on his way. He is breathing much better now. He still has the barking cough, and that is still annoying him, but overall, he is doing much better. Z-packs really are awesome, I tell you!

So a couple of years ago, I tried a recipe to make butternut squash fries. Since butternut squash doesn't have any points, it seemed like such a great swap. Well, after getting a great strength workout in for my arms by cutting that sucker up, I baked it up and tried it. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the fries. They weren't crisp at all and just didn't satisfy my hunger for fries. Fast forward to this year. More and more people are talking about how great squash is. When I was at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, squash was on sale, so I decided to pick up a butternut squash and a spaghetti squash. I googled and pinterested (yes, I make up my own words now!) for recipes and found a couple to use as a guideline, but decided to put my own twist on it. The result was absolutely delicious! I had to buy another one last weekend and roasted it for this week. So, so good. It takes a bit to prep it, but it's definitely worth it! Here is how I made it:

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH
Servings: Ha! Maybe 2 - 4 depending on if you can stop eating it!
Points+: 1

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

The first step is to cut the squash in half and scrape out the seeds.

After that, you need to peel the squash. I just used my vegetable peeler for this. The skin is kind of tough, but it wasn't an issue for me.

After peeling the squash, I cut it up into about 1 inch pieces. Mine weren't all uniform, but that didn't matter.

Next, I spread out the squash on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. I take a little bit of olive oil and spread it over top of all of the squash.

Over top, I sprinkle a little bit of seasoned salt and some garlic powder. These are the spices that I prefer. I tend to use them on a lot of different things these days. But you can use whichever spices you like.

Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 50 - 60 minutes.

When you take it out of the oven, it will smell amazing and you will have some delicious darker pieces as well.

I like to serve mine up as a side dish with whatever we are eating. I also like to just eat it as a snack. I like to keep some in the fridge all the time so I can just reheat it when I get hungry for it.

I hope you all try this recipe and enjoy it as much as I do. This is definitely going to be making a regular appearance in my kitchen in the future!

So long for today...

Parmesan Roasted Green Beans

Hi friends! I hope you are all having a great week. I am soaking up every moment that I can of being at home with Camden. Somedays, we spend the entire day snuggling, but I am going to take advantage while I can. Maternity leave doesn't last forever, and I am definitely enjoying being home with the little one. I wish it never had to end!! But until it does, you know where I'll be :-)

So let's talk food, shall we? Sometimes, I get tired of having the same old sides when making dinner. I try to find new ideas, but a lot of times, most of the side dishes that I find end of being smothered or covered in some kind of cheesy or buttery sauce. When I saw a recipe for oven roasted green beans, I knew that I had to try it


The original recipe called for garlic powder. I'm sure that would make these even better, but since I am nursing, I am trying to cut down on adding a lot of pungent glaciers to my meals these days.  One thing that I love about this dish is that it calls for olive oil, so it helps me to get one of my daily servings of healthy oils in!

Parmesan Roasted Green Beans
Adapted from Skinnytaste
Servings: 4
Points+: 2


12 oz green beans, trimmed (make sure they are dry)
2 tsp olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 T. reduced fat Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum for easy clean-up.

In medium bowl, combine green beans, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss until beans are evenly coated. Spread beans out in even layer on prepared baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, stir beans and spread out on baking sheet again. Return to oven and bake for additional 5 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle Parmesan cheese evenly over the top. Enjoy!!





Exercise:
I'm only a little over three weeks post-partum so no formal workouts for me yet. We did go for a three mile walk the other day. It definitely wasn't the fastest pace, but at least it burned some calories! I am looking forward to being able to get some good workouts in, but I will listen to my dr and take it easy until 6 weeks.

So long for today...

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

Lately, I have been getting really bored with some of my side dishes. I feel like I have the same things over and over again, so I've been trying to find new ideas. I've been looking for a while now...And I'm happy that I finally found a new (well, maybe not so new) idea. Sweet potatoes! I've made mashed sweet potatoes before, but Addison didn't seem too happy about them. I've done baked sweet potatoes, but again, not much excitement from the troops. Over the weekend, I was watching Food Network - as usual. On one of Paula Deen's show, they were doing sweet potatoes fries. They used a lot of butter in theirs. But while I was watching this, it dawned on me that I could do these instead of some of the white potato fries that I do. Why didn't I think of this before?

I did a test run over the weekend just to figure out the different tweaks that I needed to make. I'm pretty happy to report that I did pretty well with my first attempt. I will admit that these aren't the prettiest fries, but what do you expect when you have an orange vegetable that you're putting brown cinnamon on? Just trust me when I tell you that these are definitely worth a shot. They're very easy to do, too! Here's the recipe:

OVEN BAKED SWEET POTATO WEDGES
Servings: 3
Points+: 3

3 large (6 oz. each) sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut lengthwise into wedges
2 T. Splenda
2 t. cinnamon
Butter Flavored Non-Stick Cooking Spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine sweet potatoes, splenda and cinnamon. Spray enough cooking spray into bowl to allow even coating of the sweet potatoes. Toss to coat all potato wedges evenly.

Spread the potatoes in an even layer on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Roast the potatoes until tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from baking sheet and serve immediately.

EXERCISE
My knee is a little sore from the ciruit training that I've been doing - at least that's what I'm blaming it on. So I needed to take it easy tonight. I was pretty excited that I got what I call a "bonus" run in today during lunch. I wanted to test my knee to see if running would bother it. I also wanted to make sure that it wasn't the running that was bothering it. I'm happy to report that I ran 3 miles in 27 minutes today. I was happy about that. I wasn't pushing myself too hard so that I could take it easy on the knee. I'm also going to do JM Yoga Meltdown after Addison goes to bed for the night. My knee might be bothering me because of the BL Weight Loss Yoga that I did last week. I figure that it didn't bother me while I was doing Yoga Meltdown, so I'm going to do it again and hope that the knee isn't any worse for the wear. Hope it starts to feel better soon!

So long for today...

Oven Baked Fries

I love a french fry as much as the next guy (or gal). But I don't like all of the fat and calories that go along with the traditional french fry. For a couple of years, I've been cutting my potatoes into chuncks and baking them. I actually made these pretty often. I think my husband got tired of them, so I had to find something new to make. For Christmas last year, I received a french fry cutter. I was so excited to try it! It comes with two different sizes. I've tried them both. I actually like the bigger setting, but during the week, I like to use the smaller setting so we don't have to wait all night for our dinner to be ready. When we have our hamburgers on the grill (which is pretty often) sometimes I like to make oven baked fries so that we can have our burger and fries, just a healthier version. Here's what I do...

OVEN BAKED FRIES
Servings: 4
Points+: 4

4 medium russet potatoes, washed and dried
olive oil non-stick cooking spray
salt and pepper, seasoned salt or garlic salt

Using french fry cutter, cut all fries to your desired thickness. Dry potatoes very well after cutting to remove any moisture and place in large bowl. Spray cooking spray onto fries and toss to coat. Add seasoning of your choice and toss until potatoes are evenly coated. Place fries on cooling rack above baking pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 - 30 minutes, or until desired crispness.

These are pretty simple to make. The french fry cutter makes them a lot easier, too. Now go grill yourself a burger with some healthy oven baked fries.

So long for today...

Loaded Dutchess Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes = Good! Loaded Mashed Potatoes = Better! Loaded Dutchess Potatoes = THE BEST!! I saw these years ago in Cosmo. They were part of an article telling how to make your Valentine a romantic dinner. Awww! I thought I had kept the magazine with the recipes, but after a brief search today, realized that I didn't. So this recipe was all my creation. I love the dutchess potatoes and I love loaded baked potatoes. So I decided to combine the two and this is what I came up with...

Loaded Dutchess Potatoes
Servings: 4
Points+: 4

4 medium potatoes
1/4 c. skim milk
1/4 c. FF sour cream
1/3 c. 2% milk shredded cheddar cheese
2 T. bacon bits
1 t. garlic salt

1/4 c. egg beaters
1 t. skim milk

Peel and dice potatoes. Cook until fork tender. Using hand mixer, mix together potatoes and milk until smooth. Add remaining ingredients. Using piping bag, pipe into small mounds onto greased baking sheet. Chill for 20 - 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine egg beaters and milk to make egg wash. Remove potatoes from fridge and brush with egg wash.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with chopped scallions, bacon bits - what ever strikes your fancy! These are great because they're really not hard to do, but they're so fancy. Make them when you want to impress your guests. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

So long for today...