Dinner at Our House: Roasted Red Ranch Potatoes

Tonight we didn't really plan dinner out at all. I was at work and I called mom during lunch to ask her what she wanted to do. She suggested eating out, but I knew both Tuesday & Thursday I'd be eating fast food, and most likely on Wednesday too since that *may* be our arrival time for the kiddos! I knew we had chicken in the freezer, tortillas in the fridge, and we always have tons of cheese & lettuce. I also remembered I had bought some buffalo sauce so I suggested wraps (recipe here).

When I got in the car after work I immediately called mom (my routine when I get in the car after work: Call Tim. check in. Call mom. check in. It's like clockwork). I asked what kinds of sides we had that we could make and she mentioned I still had leftover red potatoes. I also remembered while driving we had a packet of ranch mix and I've been seeing that commercial where a kid makes ranch potatoes. I thought, hey why not try that.

It really was easy.

Use about 2lb of red potatoes quartered
1 packet of ranch dry mix
it SAYS use 1/4 cup of oil, but that's way too much. I used half that. (I also used canola oil if that matters)
Mix it all together (you can use a baggie or I just did it in the Pyrex dish with a cover). Bake at 450 for about half an hour (which works out well because it took roughly that long to get dinner going).

Doing it that way made 4 servings and 1 serving was about 5 WW points. I hate to think of what it would be if I used ALL of the oil suggested. However, they are SO YUM! Easy to make and yum!

I took a picture, but it wasn't very flattering hehe.

Dinner at Our House: Buffalo Chicken Wraps

I think I've shared my crock pot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches before, but this is a different recipe I found for wraps in a magazine.  I thought I'd try something else out for a change, so let me know if you like it. These turned out super yummy and I thought they photographed very beautifully too :)

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed (on sale at Publix til Tuesday)
• 1/2 teaspoon canola oil
• 2 tablespoons Louisiana-style hot sauce (on sale @ Publix til Tuesday)
• 1 cup shredded lettuce (On sale at Publix!)
• 2 flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed (I buy the reduced fat ones; fat free when I can find them)
• 2 teaspoons reduced-fat ranch salad dressing
• 2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese

This recipe is very easy to make. (Note: it makes 2 servings, but it can EASILY be doubled or tripled for more people and/or leftovers).

Step 1: Spray cooking spray in your skillet. Add chicken and oil. Cook approximately 6 minutes on high heat. Basically, get the pink out.

Step 2: Add in your buffalo sauce, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer (roughly 3-5 minutes). I actually saved the bottle I bought on sale, and opted to finish off a bottle of Frank's Red Hot.

This is what it looked like after it simmered.

Step 3: Warm your tortillas. Add chopped lettuce.

Lettuce! And yes, paper plates tonight because I'm already missing my mom's clean up...

Step 3: Add chicken!

Yumz!

Step 4: Add blue cheese crumbles (ps- mine are reduced fat). Or Tim used reduced fat shredded cheddar.

And...I'm a girl who loves her cheese, but it's ok because I hit the gym earlier.

Step 5: A touch of low fat dressing. We used light buttermilk ranch.

All this for right at 6 WW points. Not too shabby.

This meal for the both of us was right at about $6-7. (We also roasted some red potatoes to go with this meal). Compare that to what you pay somewhere like Buffalo Wild Wings. And compare it to how much FAT is in theirs. You can have great taste for less money and less fat. Just get creative.

Dinner at Our House meets The Art of Couponing

I thought I'd use this post to unite two of my current themes in the blog- eating well and saving some cash.

Today for lunch Tim and I enjoyed salads made with some of the super cheap products we got at Publix yesterday:

My salad: Romaine lettuce, blue cheese, croutons and light buttermilk ranch dressing.

Overall, 5 WW points and much cheaper than a salad you'd buy anywhere else (certainly fresher too). Edit: It could have been 3 WW pts, but I had to have a little extra cheese + croutons :)

I still use the food scale as my secret weapon. It lets me know exactly how much cheese, etc I sprinkle on.

Start taking some of that time where you veg out in front of the TV, and use it to glance over the super market sales. A little planning helps your debt AND waistline shrink.