Crawfish Festival

When I attended the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival earlier this month, I was able to get some great crawfish to eat. We had crawfish Friday and Saturday nights. Was it enough? Well, no. It’s never enough.

I had been hoarding a 16 ounce package of frozen crawfish tails given to me on another trip to Lafayette. Someone was cleaning out their freezer, and I was able to get that, and some other things, home to put in my freezer. I have a tendency to hoard my Cajun food, but this time, I decided to use them. I thawed them in the refrigerator, and decided to divide them into four servings. With the first 3 ounces, I made crawfish macaroni and cheese with Trader Joe’s Reduced Guilt Mac and Cheese.

I sauteed some onions and peppers in a tiny bit of butter and olive oil, and added seasonings: garlic, parsley, and Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning. While the vegetables were cooking down, I put the frozen entree into the microwave oven to cook according to directions. I added the crawfish – which, of course are already cooked – and heated them up. I didn’t want to overdo it, because it is easy to make them tough. Finally, I added the macaroni and cheese and blended everything together.

I topped it all off with some shredded Parmesan cheese (only 20 calories for 2 tablespoons, I think),  I had some zucchini, artichokes and peppers that I had cooked earlier, and they made a great side item. Lucky for me, I had the ideal wine to drink: Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio from Trader Joe’s… Now known as “Three Buck Chuck”.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Gee, wasn’t that a lot of calories. Actually, no. Three ounces of crawfish (I weighed it on my Weight Watchers scale) is only 70 calories. This crawfish dish ended up being about 430 calories, not including the side and the wine.

The second experiment was with Lean Cuisine Fettuccine Alfredo. I decided to get a little more organized – and take pictures, of course. The Trader Joe’s picture was taken as an afterthought. You may notice that I got a little fancier with my photo editing… Thank you, Fotor.com.

I love my little prep bowls! I like to get everything chopped and organized first. I also expanded my ingredients. I stayed with peppers and onions sauteed in a mix of olive oil and butter (just a tad). I added Dorot garlic and parsley cubes, mushrooms and was still debating whether my garnish would be Parmesan cheese only, or if I would chop some green onion tops to add color. There is, of course, the ubiquitous Tony Chachere’s.

I followed the same routine. Clockwise, from top left:

• saute onions and peppers in the butter and oil mixture. Add the frozen Dorot cubes to melt into the mix
• add the chopped mushrooms and stir. At this time, you can put the Lean Cuisine in the microwave to cook
• toss in the crawfish and let them simmer a while so that they are heated up
• this time, I didn’t cook the fettuccine all the way. I added it to the pan to heat up with the rest of the mix

The center photo is of the finished product. Again, the stats are reasonable. With the added Parmesan, it came to about 450 calories. And it was delicious. The mushrooms were a great addition.

I spent a lot of time (probably more than I should have…) looking for other frozen entrees that would be a good vehicle for crawfish. In the end, I decided to stick with pasta. I had one entree in particular in my mind: Weight Watchers Smart Ones Rigatoni in Vodka Cream Sauce. I knew that would be great with crawfish, so I picked up a package at WalMart before school and brought it home.

Crawfish has a stronger taste than shrimp and does not go with everything. I turned to the internet for inspiration for added ingredients, too. I knew that peppers and onions were a no-brainer, as were garlic and parsley. I used some butter because it adds a lot of flavor to crawfish. I basically thought of an ingredient and did a Google search for dishes incorporating that ingredient with crawfish. I had some canned artichokes, and if I had had some cooked eggplant, that would also have been good.

As you can see, I followed the same routine: prepare veggies, sautee veggies, add crawfish, then add frozen entree. I had forgotten that I purchased some Penzey’s Cajun Seasoning, so I used that instead of Tony’s this time. I was going to use a “butter substitute” that I had in the fridge, but in the end, the calorie count was similar, so I kept with butter and oil. I also garnished with green onions. It was delicious and filling. The calorie count was about 460 calories for the dish.

I still had one more serving of crawfish, but had run out of ideas. Finally, after a couple of days, I decided to just add them to a mix of sauteed veggies. The crawfish had been in the fridge for just over a week, I think. I smelled the remaining crawfish, and tasted one of them and decided they would be okay if I sauteed them. They didn’t taste bad at all, but two hours later, rushing to the bathroom, it occurred to me that I was mistaken… Oh, well. My discomfort was short-lived, and a lesson was learned.

I am headed this weekend to New Orleans on the Megabus. I just finished winning $100 in the Weight Loss Challenge at school, and I have lost 8 pounds so far. So, I am going to try not to totally blow my diet. It is, however, Memorial Day weekend, and I am SOOO happy that school is over. I am not making any promises. When I get back on Tuesday, I will get back on track.

Size DOES Matter…

Last night, I tried the new Lean Cuisine Salad Additions. I bought the Asian Chicken Salad and the Southwestern Chicken Salad. I bought them because they were only $2.00 each, plus the boxes are worth double the points on the Lean Cuisine Delicious Rewards website. Here is what I found when I opened the reasonably large box:

Open the box, and here’s what you’ve got.

Okay… A small steam pouch of chicken, yellow and orange carrots, broccoli, edamame, and pineapple. The pouch to the right is the Sesame Ginger Dressing, and in the foreground, you see the crunchy noodles. I decided to cook the packet and let it cool to put on my salad. I then proceeded to put one fistful each of spring mix and Italian mix into my big metal salad mixing bowl. I tore up some cilantro leaves to add to the greens, then took out my mini tomatoes, one baby cucumber, and some mini peppers to add to the salad.

It’s a good thing I did. I love you, Lean Cuisine, but this is not a decent portion. I picked out the chicken and weighed it on my Weight Watchers scale – about one ounce! Thank goodness I had cut up and sauteed some chicken for my dog’s dinner. I added another ounce to the mix. And, since I could barely see the shreds of pineapple, I cut some of the fresh, luscious pineapple I had on hand and added it.

Now, I am willing to admit that my idea of a salad portion is pretty large, because lettuce is so low calorie. I also added some sugar snap peas. I don’t think I will be doing that again. I haven’t tried the Southwest Chicken salad – maybe I will make a smaller bunch of salad and bring it to school.

This thing does work both ways. I mentioned yesterday the great deal I got on Cedar Lane entrees. I will now admit that Cedar Lane is not a diet dinner entree label. Of the four dinners I got, only the Eggplant Mediterranean was low calorie (200). The other three are decidedly more caloric. I also am only counting calories right now, so I haven’t paid a lot of attention to fat calories. That being said, since I slept in today, I decided to splurge and have the Burrito Grande with Chile Verde.

I originally took the photo with the two different sized plates, but realize now that It is difficult to see the difference. Oh, well. Notice the calorie count – 230 calories. It does not say “per serving” or hint on the front of the box that this is a two serving meal. I decided to splurge and count it as both breakfast and dinner – brunch, if you will. Before cooking the burrito, which takes about 5 minutes plus resting time, I chopped up a lovely melange of Mexican vegetables.

I chopped up half an onion, one poblano pepper, one half of a zucchini, one small summer squash, and two mini peppers. I added about a 1/2 cup of frozen corn and some chopped cilantro and a cube of Dorot garlic, and sauteed the bunch. For flavor, I added ancho chile powder, cumin, Mexican oregano, and epazote (all Penzey’s spices – so good!). I topped it off with a squeeze of lime.

Now, here is the full sized dinner plate with the whole burrito and about a cup of the mixed vegetables. I knew I could easily eat that, but, just for kicks, decided to cut the burrito in half and put it on a smaller plate with about the same amount of veggies. Here it is:

Can you tell the difference now? Maybe I should put them side by side. I went and sat down and ate the half burrito, which was delicious, with most of the vegetables. Then, I went into the kitchen and put the other half on my plate and ate that too. I won’t buy this very often, but I have to say it is extremely delicious. More later when I try the Burrito Grande with Salsa Roja (2 servings) and the Roasted Chile Relleno (1 serving).

I hope you like pasta!

One thing that I have contemplated is going on a high protein, low carb diet. I have a boyfriend that is very Atkins, and he shuns all but whole grain breads and pastas, as well as opting for brown rice. He is also a big fan of cauliflower instead of potatoes.

I really have contemplated it, but I have never followed through. The Hungry Girl turned me on to Tofu Shitataki noodles, and I wanted it to work out. So bad. But those noodles are high maintenance. I did, however, manage to recreate a high calorie Cajun Pasta dish using the fettuccine noodles that was one-fourth the calories (or WW points) of the original.

But I like pasta and bread… and potatoes… and chips. I just need to work on making healthier choices. Choosing better starches, like whole grain, is not too hard, usually. But portion is a problem for me. If I like something 0r, even worse, LOVE something, then I have to have a LOT of it. Hence the frequent trips to El Torero for the LARGE bowl of queso (no jalapenos) with chips and salsa. Stress eating, yes, but it is also SO good.

So, enter the frozen entree. Portion controlled. And there are a LOT of pasta options. Those frozen entree manufacturers LOVE pasta… When I pick and choose my entrees at the grocery store, I try to mix it up – choosing fish, rice, Chinese food, mashed potatoes… Lean Cuisine is even coming forth with some nice Latino varieties… Amy’s, if on sale, has Indian, Asian, and Mexican. BUT, when you buy Lean Cuisine from Costco, it comes in six packs – two of each entree. And a lot of them are pasta.

Since I need to eat the veggies anyway, I eat them alongside or mixed into the pasta. I love the Lean Cuisine Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. It is even better with sauteed zucchini and squash. And look that that delicious Lean Cuisine Chicken Carbonara alongside a mixture of zucchini, yellow squash, onions, and peppers… It fills you up and soaks up the sauce that often gets left in the bottom of the tray.

My basic technique is to put 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a skillet, toss in the veggies and saute. Then I measure the servings out. Yes, I count the calories in the oil. I have tried the microwave method, and will try steaming again. But sauteeing things makes them tastier. I have a plethora of Penzey’s Spices and Dorot frozen herbs at hand to add to the veggie mix. I have my brand new Pure Komachi knives, so chopping up veggies is FUN! I make a little more, so that I can combine veggies and add them to other dishes.

Yes, I take pictures of food. Expect more pictures soon…