Weekend Update

This was my favourite kind of weekend. DH and I were both off with no pressing obligations to take care of. We spend the weekend at home and at the garden center. One of the best things about living on Vancouver Island is that spring comes early! It was a gorgeous 15 degrees today so we began prepping our new veggie gardens DH has been building. We bought this house brand new last year so of course the backyard is a very very blank canvas. My kind DH built beautiful raised beds (to ease the stress on my temperamental back). We were able to but in some of the early veggies today - spinach, lettuce, beets, cauliflower, zucchini and
squash. The deck is going in next weekend, then sod and voila I will have a backyard!

I tried a new recipe last night from the Looneyspoons Cookbook. It is called 'A Curried Affair' and has the strangest mix of ingredients - my husband loves this kind of food, mushed together and saucy, I think anything with mushroom soup reminds him of his mom's cooking. It was actually better than I thought it would be but I had to add more curry powder to get it spicy enough for my taste and I added peas to ramp up the veggies.

***From "Looneyspoons" Cookbook
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 cup each chopped onions and chopped celery
1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
2 cans reduced fat (or regular) cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
3 cups chopped cooked chicken breast (about 1 1/4 pounds)
1 1/2 cups canned pineapple tidbits in their juice
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon each crushed red pepper flakes and black pepper

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3 cups cooked white or brown rice Preheat oven to 350 Melt butter in a large non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, celery, and curry powder. Cook and stir for 2-3 minutes, until onions begin to soften. Stir in undiluted soup, chicken, pineapple (with juice), bouillon powder, cumin, black pepper, & red pepper flakes. Mix well. Pour into a medium casserole dish. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Serve over hot rice!

I didn't have any rice so we had it over whole wheat pasta and this whole dish was 8 points. Pretty good for a really filling dinner.

I have volunteered to cook Easter dinner for DH's side of the family. We are going to my sister's for another Easter dinner so I needed at least one of them to fit into my healthy eating plan. I am still working out the menu but I think it will include glazed ham, Darth Tater (as a sub for scalloped potatoes) roasted brussel sprouts and a big salad. I will definitely post some pictures next weekend.