The Great Balancing Act

Sesame Chicken

 

We are trying to engage in some healthier eating habits here.  (Isn’t everyone this month?  It’s the thing to do in January.)

Anyhow . . .  I tried out the Contessa Sesame Chicken today – chicken, rice, stir fry veggies, and sesame sauce. It is proof that just because a food is conveniently bagged for you doesn’t mean it’s not Weight Watchers friendly.  In any case, it was a quick what can I cook on Monday meal, and quite tasty.  I told the girls to eat it and like it.

But . . . Did they eat it?

Katie, “Ok, I ate it, now can I have some ice cream?”  Mom, “Did you like it?”  Katie, “I sure wouldn’t want to eat it every day.”

Holly, “Ice cream!  I get ice cream for eating this.  Look mom, my bowl is empty.”

Curtis, “Did you put extra broccoli in this!”  (Probably asked because he saw the evidence of broccoli steaming because I steamed up some broccoli to add to mine since I like broccoli and a serving had maybe 4 pieces of broccoli in it.)

Sigh, I wonder what they are going to day about the Contessa Shrimp Stir-Fry that I will be serving soon.

Shrimp Scampi

 

So, normally I wouldn’t attempt anything like shrimp scampi and try to get the whole family to eat it, but we took a shrimp tray to the New Year’s Eve party and ours was the third to arrive.  (Curtis also made a tasty cherry nut cake.)  Our shrimp tray ended up in the refrigerator and back home again with us.  (Of course now it’s defrosted) Curtis and I couldn’t manage to just sit down and eat a tray of shrimp, so I cooked half a stick of butter, about a TBL mustard, about a TBL Worcestershire, 2 TBL lime juice, salt, white pepper, garlic, dill mix, and ½ cup white wine for about 5 minutes.  Then I added the de-tailed shrimp for another 3-4 minutes and stirred it into a mass of spaghetti noodles.  I was kind of stressed about not burning the sauce or over cooking the shrimp, but it worked out.  We had parmesan cheese on top and bread on the side.  Don’t forget a side order of the very nice white wine I cooked it in.

Now, Katie has long decided she won’t eat anything fish related.  She has been opposed to shrimp on principle for a lifetime.  (We told her to eat it and like it.) Holly likes shrimp, but was pretty mad that I was wasting them by cooking them in pasta sauce. Curtis was pretty excited that I actually found a recipe and was making something, and that we weren’t just tossing $10 worth of shrimp.

So . . . Did they eat it?

Katie – “The shrimp isn’t bad; it pretty much tastes like nothing.”  eat, eat, eat “Ok, I like shrimp now, but I’m still not eating pineapple.”  (Pinapple is another one of her lifelong food enemys.)

Holly – “Shrimp is great!  I love noodles!  Can I have more?”

Curtis – “Cool, she cooked something new. This is good.  The wine is dry.  I like dry wine.”

Me – “Wow!  I didn’t ruin it!  Tastes good.  I think I’ll have some more, and a second glass of wine.  Now if Alice would just get her tail in gear and do the dishes we’d be set.”