Parfait? Parflop.

Again, it's been a few days since I last posted so I have lots of yummy eats (and a disappointment or two) to report. I mentioned in my last post that our landlords had brought us down some spaghetti. We really are lucky to have such decent landlords - every now and then they will cook something and bring us down the leftovers and usually if I do some baking, we will bring them some of the extra. So we were grateful to have supper prepared for us on Tuesday (which also meant very few dishes, yay!). I didn't have any garlic bread on hand, so I buttered a couple pieces of toast, threw some bacon bits and garlic powder on them, and covered them in swiss cheese, tossing them in the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt:

Spaghetti and Garlic Toast

The spaghetti was really tasty - they had used a combination of ground beef and bacon. The only way I would have changed it would have been to add some onions or green pepper because there weren't any vegetables in the sauce. But still, it was pretty darn great. I usually dislike spaghetti when I make it. For some reason, I only really enjoy it when someone else has made it.

Tuesday night I made a Chicken and Rice Soup recipe from my 'Emeril: 20-40-60' cookbook. It's a cookbook I picked up in Ottawa last summer by Emeril Lagasse (I think he has/had a cooking show on The Food Network). His meals (at least the ones I have made so far) tend to have some Cajun type flavours and are really, really delicious. Anyway, I made the soup Tuesday night to give it time to sit and let the ingredients soak up the flavour. Here's what it looked like cooking:

The chicken was seasoned with Emeril's Creole Seasoning - a mixture of different dried herbs and spices that really gives the soup its flavour (see below for the recipe). I loved loved LOVED this soup. We ate it for supper yesterday and also had some for lunch today. The longer it stayed in the fridge, the better it seemed to taste. I don't have the caloric or fat information for this recipe but I can't imagine it is bad for you at all. There is not much added salt and the rest of the ingredients are just vegetables and spices. I'm not even really much of a soup person but I will definitely make this again. Super hearty and filling, and it was a great choice for my first try at making homemade soup:

Emeril Chicken and Rice Soup

Today I tried my hand at a Weight Watchers Recipe: Lemon Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce. We forgot about Pancake Day and I had wanted to try this recipe previously so I figured I would give it a go today. This was also a huge hit. The pancakes were so light and fluffy and the raspberry sauce was not too sweet. Randy and I both really enjoyed this recipe. We halved it (as it is supposed to serve 4 and create 12 pancakes) and at 334 calories per 3 pancakes plus 3 tablespoons of sauce, you really can't go wrong. Some Weight Watchers recipes I've made have been completely devoid of flavour but that is certainly not true of this one. It even tells you to measure the pancake mix into 1/4 cupfuls before you put it in the frying pan to ensure you don't make your pancakes too big. Yum!

Weight Watchers Lemon Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

 I had wanted to make a dessert to go with this meal as I hadn't made any in a long time. I chose a recipe from a Jello/Baker's Chocolate recipe tin I bought at Costco a few years ago. It was supposed to be a Chocolate Mint Parfait using Jello Chocolate pudding and pie filling mix, cool whip (with green food coloring) and mint extract. This was a huge fail. I followed the recipe exactly but no dice. The cool whip and pudding were supposed to be layered in the glasses but instead just all ran into one. Also, the pudding never even set so it ended up just being an ugly, runny mess. We had a couple mouthfuls each and then dumped it. Monstrous failure.

Parfait of Gross

Maybe I will try another dessert this weekend but for obvious reasons, I won't be posting the recipe for this one. Tomorrow Randy is taking me to Don Cherry's for some beer and bar food. Hooray for Friday! I'm also planning on making an appetizer of some sort this weekend...more word on that later.

Shout-outs from the past few days go to: Reese's Pieces, Vanilla Ice Cream with Cool Whip on top, and Source Dessert Selections yogurts.

Here's Sebastian from a couple days ago, chasing the sunshine wherever it went:

Weight Watchers Lemon Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

Serves 4

1 cup raspberries

1/4 cup sugar plus 2 tbsps sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup plain fat-free yogurt

1/2 cup skim milk

1 large egg

1 tablespoon canola oil

1) To make the raspberry sauce, combine the raspberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and the lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until a chunk sauce forms (about 6 mins). Set aside.

2) To make the pancakes, combine the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the yogurt, milk, egg, and oil in a small bowl. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until just combined.

3) Spray a nonstick griddle or skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium heat. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of the batter onto the griddle. Cook, flipping occasionally, until done. Serve with the sauce.

Per serving (3 pancakes, 3 tbsps sauce): 334 calories, 5 grams fat, 6 Weight watchers points.

Chicken and Rice Soup

2 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cut up

1 tablespoon Emeril's Creole Seasoning (see below)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups diced onions (small dice)

1 1/2 cups diced carrots (small dice)

1 1/2 cups diced celery (small dice)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

7.5 cups chicken stock or low sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup uncooked long-grain white rice ( I used a cup of brown rice instead)

1 5 ounce bag spinach

1. Place the chicken in a medium bowl, season with the Creole Seasoning, and set aside.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are transluscent, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the garlic, basil, salt, and crushed red pepper and continue to cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Add the broth and the rice, cover the pot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove the cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until the rice is just tender, about 12 minutes.

4. Stir in the spinach and serve.

Creole Seasoning (for Chicken and Rice Soup)

** it says to use only a tablespoon but I used the whole thing. Depends on how much flavour you want to come from the spices.

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper ( I used chili seasoning instead)

1 tablespoon oregano

1 tablespoon thyme