Sylvia's Scenario

Sometimes you just feel like a hardy casserole dish for dinner.  And this one is a low fat, vegetarian, high fiber casserole so dig in - guilt free.  This is from Weight Watchers, which has surprisingly good recipes.  (8 points)  I'm a "lifetime" member so will periodically check in with them.  (It should be more than"periodically"but that's how it ends up.) Serves 6 cooking spray 4 cups cooked brown rice 1-1/4 cups salsa 1 tsp. ground cumin 15 oz. canned refried beans 10 oz. frozen corn kennels, thawed 4 oz. canned green-chili peppers, mild, diced 1 Tbsp. chili powder 10 oz. chopped frozen spinach, or collard greens, thawed and set to drain in a strainer over a bowl 3/4 cups low-fat shredded cheddar cheese, divided 2 Tbsp. cilantro, fresh, chopped (optional, for garnish) 1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Coat a 2-quart rectangular, round or oval baking dish with cooking spray. 2.  In a large bowl, combine rice, salsa and cumin.  Sp

I picked some lettuce from the garden today and some green onions (along with an egg that one of the chickens laid in the garden...)  The lettuce is abundant. This is the salad season for sure but you can only eat so many salads so I discovered a new recipe so I can eat lettuce for breakfast, too.  It's a green smoothie.  Perfect.  Here's the recipe- Green Smoothie 1 bag of freshly picked, organic leaf lettuce 3  stalks of celery 2 medium apples, cored and chopped 1 banana juice of 1 lemon 1-1/2 cups of coconut water a few ice cubes 1.  Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.   This recipe has 395 calories, 14 grams of fiber, with a whopping 2,500mg potassium!  When you consider the recommended daily intake for potassium is 4,700 mg, this is a good way to start out the day.  (A banana has 400 mg)  The trick is using coconut water, which is a very popular item in stores right now.  According to the Nutrition Facts label on coconut

Father's Day this year included guests staying at our house for the weekend, my sister from Seattle and her husband, who is also a dad.  Saturday and Sunday were golf days for the dads on their Father's Day weekend so for Sunday I decided to prepare a favorite dish of barbequed Herbes de Provence-Crusted Lamb Chops for Father's Day.  People will usually eat 2 or 3 of these little babies so you may have to double the recipe.  They are finger-lick'in good! Serves 4 (2 lamb chops each) 1 Tbsp. dried herbes de Provence 2 Tbsp.  Dijon mustard 1/2 tsp. kosher salt 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 1 garlic clove, minced 8 (4-ounce) lamb-lion chops, trimmed 1.  Combine first 5 ingredient; rub evenly over both sides of lamb 2.  Place lamb on a grill rack coated with cooking spray;  grill 10 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.   Our lamb chops are usually very thick so require at least 10 minutes per side.

Breakfast is always a must in our house and we always have many choices. When visitors come, that's when we really lay it out. So, here is my favorite pancake/waffle recipe, or should I say, my only pancake/waffle recipe. We have always just called them "health" pancakes because they contain whole wheat flour, wheat germ, molasses...I love using molasses in recipes, for whatever reason, maybe because it's such an old fashioned ingredient. It is a natural sweetener while also being a good source of iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, and copper. I've adjusted this recipe so many times over the years. My kids were raised on these pancakes/waffles and they're still everyone's favorit e. Makes 25 pancakes 1 cup enriched white flour 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. baking soda 3 tsp. baking powder 1 cup whole wheat flour 1/4 cup wheat germ 1 cup milk 1 cup buttermilk 1/2 cup oil 1/4 cup molasses 2 eggs 1. Sift together white flour, salt, baking soda

We had our second guests of the summer this weekend arriving Friday evening from Seattle after a long 8 hour drive (that we've made many times in the past 12 years...)  My sister, Barbara, and her husband, Jim, are driving to Colorado and spending their first night on the road at our house so I'm greeting them with a relaxing dinner of pork tenderloin with plum sauce (plums from our trees), yukon gold potatoes, broccoli salad and fresh strawberries with cream cheese dip.  I chose a recipe to make for them from our vacation trip last year when the four of us went to the Master's Golf tournament to Augusta, Georgia.  I could write at great length about that trip but I can sum it up by saying the food was DELICIOUS in the south. Too bad I wasn't doing this blog last year.  So, for Barbara and Jim's visit, I decided to include a recipe from Mrs. Wilke's Boardinghouse, one of the many wonderful food experiences we had from Savannah, Georgia. Here is a per

In their new book,  What I Eat , photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio present thought-provoking portraits of individuals around the globe and the food that fuels them over the course of a single day. A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

We had our first visitors of the summer season, but since we're still having fall weather, it calls for a fall menu for dinner. Also, since we didn't know exactly when they would be rolling into town, I thought I'd make something that tastes as good fresh out of the oven as it does after it has sat awhile waiting. So, I invited my sister and brother over for dinner and we waited eagerly for my nephew and his dad (my sister's husband) to arrive on their drive from Colorado to Seattle where my nephew will start a college internship. So, the menu was very simple, stuffed peppers and tomatoes with steamed Yukon gold potatoes. My brother brought over some of his home brewed beer to start things off. Yummy!! Serves 6 Basically, this recipe is meatloaf stuffed into bell peppers and tomatoes. I try to find the most perfect shaped bell peppers you can find so lots of stuffing will fit inside! This is a beautiful dish in the fall when you use all different fall colors

I think our cold spring might be over.  It's suppose to be 80 degrees tomorrow.  Yeah!  So, pretty soon I'll be posting "summer recipes" but for now, its still only 64 degrees so wanting something warm and saucy again.  Remember the "saucy chicken" recipes?  Here's another one (although I have a similar recipe for pork chops, too)   This one uses lots of our homemade plum jam and good enough to serve when company visits.  You can serve it with rice, noodles, or I like small, yukon gold potatoes or mashed cauliflower. Serves 4 1-1/4 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs 1/2 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder 3 green onions, sliced 1 Tbsp. olive oil 1/2 c. chicken broth 1/2 c. plum jam 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar 1.  In a bowl or bag, toss thighs with five-spice powder and 1/2 tsp. salt. 2.  In a skillet, heat oil on medium-high heat until hot.  Add thighs and cook 10 minutes or until they're browned and lose their pink color throughou