A favorite restaurant dish redo...

 Kool Nachos Salad

While we are still eating out on occasion, it has slacked off considerably since we have been on Weight Watchers.  Last Wednesday I had our dinner planned, prepped, and even had the table set, but then found a Facebook posting from a favorite local restaurant.  Ten percent of their sales that day were going to The Caring Closet, so everything was put away and we headed over come dinner time.  Besides having great food (the bleu cheese dressing is a must have), and  reasonable prices, the restaurant has been an ardent supporter of TCC, so will always get our business.

The boy always likes to get boneless wings with sweet BBQ (the wimp) with chips or curly fries (with cheese, please), Ben likes a burger or boneless wings with extra hot sauce (although we have both gone for the triple on occasion), while I have started ordering the Kool Nachos almost every time we go.  Although on the starter menu, these nachos are enough for dinner.  On this visit I asked for the chicken to be grilled instead of breaded and fried, and half the amount of chips.  The chicken did not suffer in the least for the skinny treatment, and I still didn't finish all the chips, so a win win.

All through dinner, Ben was checking out my plate, and said he was going to order it next time.  But in the meanwhile we could make it at home, so that is what we did.  Making this skinny wasn't too tough, but their bleu cheese dressing is the best, so I wasn't even going to attempt to "skinnyfy" it.  I used fat free sour cream for the creaminess and cooling and will save the bleu cheese as an occasional indulgence.  Those with more tender palates may wish to sub BBQ sauce for the hot sauce.

I had already started eating when I realized I left off the jalapeños and olives!

Kool Nachos Salad

For each serving:
2 oz. Baked Tostitos
1 oz. 2% milk Velveeta (we used the Aldi store brand)
1 oz. skim milk
4 oz. plain baked chicken breast
hot sauce of choice, to taste (we used Frank's Extra Hot)
2 handfuls shredded romaine
diced red onion and tomato, to taste
sprinkling of of sliced green (or black) olives
pickled jalapeños (we used mine, because the are the best :)
1/4 cup fat free sour cream

To prepare the chicken:
Take the desired number of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and trim them of all visible fat.  Place the chicken on a baking sheet lightly sprayed with cooking spray and season generously with salt and fresh ground black pepper.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove and let cool to the touch before cutting into bite sized chunks; set aside.  I made more chicken than we needed for dinner, so the leftovers are waiting in the fridge for another easy meal.

To prepare the salad:
 Melt the Velveeta with the milk for about a minute in the microwave at 50% power; stir until smooth.  I was making several salads so I did this in a large glass measuring cup, allowing me to easily measure out the correct amount for each.  If you prepare this larger amount, you will need to adjust your cooking time.
Place the baked Tostitos in the bottom of your bowl(s) and drizzle with the cheese sauce; toss to coat the chips with the cheese.
Top the chips with the lettuce, tomatoes, onion, olives, and jaaapeño slices.
Toss the desired amount of chicken in a small bowl with the chosen sauce before piling on top of the salad.
Top with the sour cream.  Eat.  Enjoy.

WW PointsPlus Values:
Baked Tostitos, 3pt  per ounce
Cheese sauce as prepared, 2pt per serving
Chicken with hot sauce, 1pt per ounce, add apt per T for BBQ
Romaine, tomato, onion, jalapeños, and olives (in small amount) are free
FF sour cream is 1pt for a quarter cup

Note:  This post has been edited to remove links and references to the name of the restaurant as it would appear that the ownership was displeased with this post for some reason.  I would hate to continue providing them with free advertising.

Another New Year...

Image courtesy of  
http://www.theprintblog.com/how-to-make-those-new-years-resolutions-stick/

Well, hello there.  It has been awhile and we have a lot of catching up to do.  First thing is a big thank you to to my longtime readers for sticking with me, and if you're a new reader, a big thank you for sharing your time with me.

 I have finished my master's degree, graduating December 14 and now face the questions about what I am going to do now.  The quick answer is that I'm not exactly sure.  For now I will be focusing on my home life, my blog (and the sister Facebook page), and The Caring Closet because we have grown so quickly and not yet three years old.

Those of you on Facebook have seen all the albums I have uploaded of my food photos and the updates I have posted there.  I have been mulling a name and layout change for the blog, but have decided to keep it as is for now, just changing some photos and doing away with some sidebar clutter.  I have also redone the recipe index, combining the former two into one that is hopefully easier to use.  Hopefully by tomorrow the switchover will be complete and the blog will have its own domain of casaenlacocina.com.

With a new year comes new resolutions.  Although I am already pretty organized, I will be striving for yet more order, and even after obtaining the graduate degree, still need to learn  to manage my time better.  Ben and I have also made the commitment to each other (the only ones who really matter) that we will be changing our eating habits.  Although we have a healthy diet overall, we share a love of food, and even a good thing can be overdone, leaving us both with some weight we'd like to lose.  We have joined Weight Watchers because it restricts nothing, designed for mindful eating.  I won't be boring you here with progress reports or any other such nonsense and this will not become a "diet blog, but I will start including the Points+ value for recipes as I go forward for those interested.

One last update from my absence is that we have realized a long held dream and purchased a second home on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.  In honor of our new "home," I will be focusing more on Southern regional dishes, especially those of the lowcountry.  But not to worry, I haven't lost my love of Latin American flavors to which this blog owes its name.

Until tomorrow, all my best,
Mary

The Caring Closet

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, one of the things I have been busy with is helping my friend Chris start an organization here in Hamilton to help clothe underprivileged children in our school district.  I would like to take this opportunity to share Chris's blog post that does a beautiful job explaining what it is we are trying to do.  We also have a Facebook page under construction on behalf of this endeavor.  We are looking for volunteers and donations, and even if you are not in the Hamilton area, this is a wonderful opportunity to help those who may not have the same privileges we enjoy.  Take a moment to check us out and have a beautiful day.

Happy 100!!!

This is my 100th post, and I have to say that I really admire my fellow bloggers who manage to post every day.  As much as I would like to emulate this, it seems that there are just days (sometimes days on end) that I can't get done everything that needs to be done.  But, I won't be too hard on myself, because I started this whole project to have fun, not make more work for myself.

So what have we been doing around here?  Scouts, scouts, and more scouts for starters; I'll be glad to give up some of the many hats I wear this fall, but I suppose I am just replacing that time with school, so I'll still be a busy gal.  The weather is grand, so I have been busy weeding, trimming, planting, and hauling (and spreading) what seems like endless bags of mulch.  I have my big pot of basil planted, varigated sage and thyme in the kitchen window box amongst the flowers, and containers of tomatoes and bell peppers planted.  We got the cluttered (scary) basement cleaned and sorted this past weekend, much to the consternation of our garbage man.  And finally, my dear friend Chris is starting a new organization to provide clothing to needy Hamilton school children, so we are busy getting this up and running; it's called The Caring Closet and I'll be sure to write about it more in the future.

So, if I'm not around for a few days, please don't think I've forgotten about you, I'll be back.  In the meantime, here are a few pictures- these were taken on 4/30 and things have grown even more since...

The narrow bed between the house and our service walk on the north side of the house.  You can't see it all, but the bed contains:  arborvitae, climbing hydrangea, azalea,  hosta, astilbe, day lily, peony, catmint, and since the photo was taken, impatiens.

The walk from our driveway that turns and leads to the front door.  What you can see here is arborvitae, catmint, daylily, groundcover sedum, iris, boxwood, and the sprouts of hardy purple mums.  The iris are now in full bloom, in a color very similar to the catmint, and the daylilies (Stella de Oro) have started opening their pretty yellow trumpets.

The "monster rose" (that I had cut back nearly to the ground back in March) is just about to burst into vibrant pink bloom just outside the front door.  I'll be sure to post another photo once it does.  That is a weeping pussy willow blocking the view.  we planted the willow to replace a white dogwood that we lost to a bad windstorm last year.