What's Cookin' At Our House?

1. Saturday's lunch was roast chicken, oven fried french fries and green beans with zesty Italian dressing, onions and bacon.



Canned green beans are good for you, low in calories and cheap to buy, but just opening a can of beans isn't that appetising to me. The bean recipe I used Saturday is in an old microwave cookbook that came with my first Sears microwave. Remember when microwaves were big enough to cook a turkey in, if one wanted to do such an insane thing? Well that's the microwave I had that the cookbook came with.

You could make these in the microwave, but I made mine on the stove. It goes something like this:

2 regular size cans of green beans
1/2 bottle Italian Salad Dressing
1 small onion sliced into rings
a few slices of bacon fried in a frying pan

After opening the beans, drain one of them. Then empty the drained one and the undrained one into a medium sauce pan. Pour the 1/2 bottle of Italian dressing in. Separate the onion rings and put those in. Then bring the beans to a slow boil, reduce the heat and cook gently just long enough to cook the onions until they are tender. Pour this mixture into an attractive serving bowl. Break the cooked pieces of bacon into bite size pieces and arrange on top of the beans.

2. As for the oven baked fries, I just toss about 2 pounds of peeled or scrubbed unpeeled sliced potatoes in 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and season with what ever I am in the mood for. Just use salt or you can get creative by using things like cayenne pepper, paprika, Italian seasonings, etc. Spread them out on a cookie sheet and bake at about 400 degrees until done, which is about 30 minutes. The trick to it is to keep flipping them over with a spatula every few minutes to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the cookie sheet.

3. Sunday's lunch was even better than Saturday's:

Baked Pork chops with Cream of Celery Soup and Onions
Sweet Potato Souffle
Broccoli and Cheese
Noodles cooked in chicken broth
Left over beans from Saturday

4. I made the roast chicken from Saturday go even further by doing the following:

A. I removed any remaining large pieces of meat from the chicken bones and my son and I both had chicken sandwiches for lunch.


B. I was about to throw out the rest of the chicken bones, but remembered that you could make soup from these. I threw it in a pot with a little water and let it boil a few minutes. Then I drained the broth through a colander and returned that to the pot. Then I removed the rest of the tiny pieces of chicken meat left on the bones. I put this meat back into the broth and added egg noodles. Voila! Chicken Noodle Soup!

5. And if you are wondering... yes, I have stuck to my light eating plan even with all this food. I watched my portions and only ate very reasonably. This is a record for me to be on a diet. This is my 5th week and I am happy to report that my clothes fit so much better and I feel better. Once I am able to dependably wear the one size smaller clothes I was shooting for, I'll go back to eating a little more. I guess that would be called maintenance eating. Just in time for the holidays!