Tonight's Meal - Kielbasa... and other things!

Kielbasa is the name of a recipe I got from a friend right before I got married. This recipe can contain sausage but you can really put into it whatever you want! The beauty of this recipe is that it takes almost no time to prepare, the oven does the work, it's filling and you can use whatever ingredients you happen to have on hand.

Original Kielbasa Recipe
In a 9x13 baking dish line with foil, cut up smoked sausage and chicken breasts, onion, white and/or sweet potatoes, carrots, squash and bell pepper. Sprinkle with Emeril (original essence) seasoning, salt, pepper, parsley and garlic powder. Wrap foil over the top of the pan, dab with about 6 slices of butter. Cook on 450 for 1 hour.

You can add zucchini, celery or any other vegetable like this. Use some or all of the ingredients mentioned above. The key is the Emeril seasoning. You can use whatever seasoning you want, but this seasoning goes well with both meats. To make it less fattening you can use Turkey sausage, only sweet potatoes and less butter. If you put a little bit of water in the bottom it will have the same effect as the butter - keeping the food soft and not dried out. If you don't like cooking with foil you can simply put it in a baking pan with a lid and a little bit more water.

Let me know what you think!

On the way...

 I am about 30 pounds overweight and the main reason is because I just REALLY love food. I love cooking food, I love eating food, I love trying new foods (i am not a picky eater), I love eating out at new places, I love having people over and cooking for them... short story - I love food. I graduated college about 3 years ago - its true about the freshman 15. Ramen noodles, cafferteria food and late night Taco Bell trips can do it to you. I got married almost 2 years ago. I am a firm believer in the married 20! I was convinced that a good wife cooked nice meals every night and since I didn't really know how to cook when I got married, casseroles were my salvation! So here I am 2 years later. Recently I saw a dietician to get me back on track with my weight. Much to my happiness she informed me that people who "loved" food, such as myself, were easier people to put on a diet. We are the people who will eat the "healthy" food simply because we are not picky. I am now on a calorie counting diet, on my way to losing the 30 pounds and getting healthier.  The easy part was finding the 100 calorie snacks, eating the crackers and tuna for lunch and forcing myself to eat breakfast. The difficult part for me is finding recipes for dinners that are still delicious but stay under 360 calories per serving (my allotted amount). So I have created this blog. Thankfully, SOUP is one of the lowest calorie meals you can make. This blog will not only hold soup recipes, but other low calorie recipes I have found that fit in my diet, are healthier choices and hopefully you will find them to be delicious as I have. I will only share the good ones!

Tonight - Frontier Soups. If you haven't heard of it go to http://www.frontiersoups.com/. I found Frontier Soups at a Christmas fair in Little Rock 2 years ago and have been hooked ever sense. You can order these soups online for about $7 each. They will tell you the ingredients, the nutrition facts and what else you will need to add to the soup. The soup comes in bags with the spices, herbs and major ingredients, such as corn, rice, lentils etc. You simply take it and add meat, broth and a few other ingredients. These meals will serve 10-15 people, make great leftovers and are very filling. They can be made in a pot or a slow cooker. Ones i have tried that are delicious - Illinois Prairie Corn Chowder - 250 calories per cup. DELICIOUS! Louisiana Red Bean Gumbo - 270 calories per cup. And tonight's choice is Indiana Harvest Sausage Lentil Soup - 130 calories per cup. (I will let you know how this one turns out.) The great thing some of you will be interested to know is that some of these recipes are gluten free.

Most nights I don't use pre-packaged meals. I like to make things from scratch (scratch for me still means a few cans or frozen packages...) But when you need a slow cooker meal, or happen to have a few hours on hand, Frontier Soups will save you money and be a delicous dinner for your family - especially in winter!

I look forward to sharing new recipes I find with you and I hope you enjoy some of them as much as I do. Please feel free to try them and let me know what you think. Some of these will be from recipe books, others from friends. Maybe as I get better some of these will be my own creations but we will see... Enjoy!