Chicken with Black Bean Sauce

I've heard of black bean sauce but have never tried it. Black bean sauce - found a lot in Chinese food - is made from Chinese black beans, which are fermented and seasoned with salt and spices. It's surprisingly good. Salty though so don't add any salt to the recipe until you taste it. I could only find the black bean sauce with garlic - which you can't go wrong with garlic right?

It's a Weight Watchers Take-Out Tonight recipe.  And it is definitely better than take out.

Chicken with Black Bean Sauce
Recipe from WW Take Out Tonight

• 1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 2 T cornstarch
• 1/2 c low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 T black bean sauce
• 1 T low sodium soy sauce
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T dark sesame oil
• 1 T minced fresh ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 lb white mushrooms
• 1/4 lb fresh snow peas, trimmed and halved
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced

JW Note - I cut the snow peas and the carrot both on the bias. It's got a nicer look to it. If you care about that stuff.

Combine the chicken with 1 T cornstarch in a medium bowl; toss well to coat and set aside. Combine the remaining 1 T cornstarch, the broth, black bean sauce, soy sauce, and sugar in a small bowl; set aside.

Heat a nonstick skillet of medium-high heat until a drop of water sizzles.  Swirl in the sesame oil, then add the chicken. Stir fry until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic; stir fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms, snow peas and carrots; stir fry until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Add the broth mixture boils and thickens, and the chicken is just cooked through 1-2 minutes.

Creamy Italian Salad Dressing - Low Calorie

I'm a big fan of ranch salad dressing. Unfortunately I am not a fan of the "fat-free" version of it. It just doesn't taste right to me. And so I've been searching for a salad dressing that might substitute for the creaminess of the ranch and not have all the calories.

Enter this creamy Italian dressing. Good, but not great. It has a WAY too mayonnaise - y flavor that makes it not taste like "dressing" but mayo.

I made a few adjustments and it's better, but I'm not convinced it'll get repeated ever. 

Creamy Italian Salad Dressing
83 calories per serving. The recipe doesn't say how much is a serving, but it says this recipe makes 6 servings.

• 1/2 c light mayo
• 3 T skim milk
• 1 T grated onion (I added about 2 T to help cut the mayo flavor)
• 1 T white wine vinegar (I added about 2 T for the mayo flavor issue)
• 1/8 tsp each sugar, garlic powder, kosher salt, and pepper (I did about 1/4 tsp of each accidentally. I thought it was the 1/8 tsp but it wasn't)

Whisk it all together. Put it in the fridge and voila.

Weight Watchers Paella

I'm a big fan of paella.  I have been since our days in Spain when I tried to order in Spanish and asked the waitress if the paella has fishermen in it instead of asking if it had fish.  Fisherman, I'm sure, would have been a bit tough and gamey.

Anyhow, paella. So good and so flavorful, and soooo fattening.  My favorite paella has sausage in it, and chicken, and saffron, and shrimp, and bits of fish.  This Weight Watchers recipe is really tasty, and only 373 calories per serving.  According to the cookbook, one serving is 1/4 of the dish. that's a lot of paella.

I made a slight modification on the saffron front. I didn't want to afford saffron so I used Sazon rice seasoning. It has a combination of herbs and spices that really adds a  nice touch. I've used it in place of saffron in the past as well.

The other, unfortunate, modification I made was to the shrimp. I had purchase fresh shrimp but when I opened it to use it, it smelled too fishy and I just wasn't sure it was still good. I asked sister in law to bring shrimp. I didn't specify fresh so she brought can shrimp. It disintegrated in the paella.

Oh and I didn't add the mussels.

Paella
Recipe from WW The New Complete Cookbook
Serves 4

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped (as you can imagine, I didn't add this)
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 c long grain white rice
• 1/4 lb thin sliced chicken breasts or tenders
• 3 c reduced-sodium chicken broth (if you use the Sazon seasoning, its important to use the low sodium for this so the paella isn't too salty)
• 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails left on if desired
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• Pinch of saffron threads
• 1/2 lb medium mussels, scrubbed and debearded
• 2 T chopped parsley

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add bell pepper, onion, and garlic; cook stirring until softened, about 5 minutes.  Stir in rice and chicken; cook, stirring, until chicken is golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Stir broth, shrimp, black pepper and saffron into the skillet; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until liquid is almost absorbed and rice is tender, about 15 minutes.

Add mussels to skillet. Cook, covered until all liquid is absorbed and mussels open, about 5 minutes longer. Discard any mussels that do not open. Serve sprinkled with parsley.

BBQ Flank Steak

My college friend M came over for dinner on Saturday night. The MomUnit is also in town and all but demanded a steak of some sort.  Knowing M wasn't a picky eater the options were wide open.  I dug through one of my most recent Cuisine at Home cookbooks and found a BBQ Flank Steak recipe.  It comes with a Whisky Cola BBQ Sauce that goes over the steak. 

I'm a huge fan of whisky BBQ sauce. This one would have been good had I actually followed the recipe. But I got distracted and didn't. Shocking, I know.

As for the steak, I wasn't a huge fan of the rub. Too much paprika for me. I'd cut that back some the next time I made this. It was tasty though - but what's not to like about flank steak.

BBQ FLANK STEAK

Photo by Cuisine at Home

Recipe from Cuisine at Home
Serves 5

For the marinade, combine:

• 1 c cola (12 oz)
• 3/4 c pineapple juice
• 1/2 c cider vinegar
• 1/2 c whisky
• 3 T brown sugar
• 2 T chopped garlic
• 2 T minced fresh ginger
• 2 T Worcestershire sauce

For the spice mix, combine:

• 3 T paprika
• 1 T dried thyme
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Combine all the ingredients of the marinade. Score steak and place in the marinade, turning to coat. (or as I did it, I put it in a Ziploc bag). Chill at least 2 hours, turning half way through.

Remove steak from marinade, reserving the marinade for the Whisky Cola BBQ sauce (recipe below). Lightly pat the steak dry.

Preheat your grill.

Rub the spice mix onto the steak. Grill to your desired doneness basting with the BBQ sauce.

Serve steak with reserved BBQ Sauce.

JW note: I'm not a fan of cooking down a marinade a raw piece of meat has been in. For that reason I doubled the marinade and set half of it aside to use for the BBQ Sauce.

WHISKY COLA BBQ SAUCE
Reserved marinade from BBQ flank steak

• 1/2 c ketchup
• 1/2 c diced onion
• 1 jalapeno, chopped and seeded

Boil reserved marinade, ketchup, onion and jalapeno in a saucepan over high het until thick, about 30 minutes. Strain sauce and discard the solids.

Use this to baste the flank steak.

Garlic Hasselback Potatoes with Herbed Sour Cream

That's a mouthful. And boy was it every a tasty mouthful. 

Photo by FoodNetwork

I've had this recipe and ones similar to it for years. It's such a simple recipe and a simple concept that I'm now wondering why it took me so long to make it. 

These were good potatoes.  I, naturally, didn't follow the recipe 100% - and it has to do more about lack of ingredients than me being me.  I didn't have enough garlic so didn't stuff these bad boys with said garlic. I used garlic salt with the melted butter and oil instead. Delicious.

Garlic Hasselback Potatoes with Herbed Sour Cream
Recipe from FoodNetwork

• 16 ounces red new potatoes
• 3 to 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Herbed Sour Cream, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Using a wooden spoon as a cradle, place each potato in the spoon and make several parallel slits into each potato top making sure not to slice completely through. Place 3 garlic slices between slits at the crown of each potato. Toss in a medium bowl with butter and olive oil. Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Bake until tops are crispy and potatoes are cooked through, about 1 hour. Transfer to a platter and top with Herbed Sour Cream.

Herbed Sour Cream:

• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Season, to taste, and refrigerate until use.