I love Sundays. I love lingering over the Sunday paper, drinking coffee – its probably the most laid back day for me.
Not to say I am not bizzy though! I did end up deep cleaning my pantry, computer desk and back room. Let’s just say Hannah was impressed with my cleaning skillz!
Since I ate such a late breakfast, it ended up being brunch. I had a 3.5 ounce bagel sammie with some clementines on the side – 11 points.
I never officially ate lunch, but I counted about 4 points of licks and tastes as I was cooking for the week. 😀
Some of the new readers might not know what BSI is. It stands for “Blogger Secret Ingredient.” Basically an ingredient is chosen, announced on Monday and you have a week to submit a recipe using that secret ingredient. You would email your link or recipe to the host of the week, they will display the recipes on Sunday, then pick a new host for the week on Monday.
The only problem is that sometimes hosts get busy, and weeks might go by without a winner or new host. So I think going forward, I will host every week and see how that works out. Thoughts??
To start this week off, I decided to choose: potato! Super cheap and versatile. Please send me your potato recipe links in the comments section – or you can email me your recipe at mybizzykitchen@gmail.com. You do not need a blog to participate. And you can use recipes from your archives too!
I decided to make potato gratin. I went to Skinny Taste to get an idea on how to make a lighter version. While I only used two potatoes, I decided to run her recipe through eTools. She said using 2 pound 4 ounces of potatoes, light butter, and reduced fat cheese, each serving (nearly a cup) came in at 3 points plus.
Um, I got 5 points per serving, using 50% reduced fat cheese. Even if she used the 75% reduced fat Cabot cheese, not sure that would shave off 2 points per serving. Has anyone ever questioned Gina’s points on her recipes before??
So here is my version, using real butter and regular cheese. Makes six servings at 5 WW points.
Potato Gratin
- 2 large potatoes, peeled and slices thin (my 2 potatoes weighed 1 pound 4 ounces)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 3 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
- 1.5 cups skim milk
Put the milk in a pot and warm over medium heat. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder. Slice potatoes pretty thin. Heat oven to 425. Spray bottom of pan with Pam. Layer potatoes, then dice up 1 tablespoon of butter and sprinkle over layer, then dust with 1 tablespoon of flour, then add 1.5 ounces of cheese, and repeat with second layer.
Pour hot milk over the top. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
Even though it was 35 degrees I decided to grill bone in chicken breasts to go with our potatoes. Although I ended up finishing the chicken in the oven because I didn’t have enough charcoal. It’s hard to find charcoal in February!
After Hannah had a serving she said “why do potatoes have to have points?!”
Cheesy and delicious!
Our bone in chicken breasts were huge – one covered almost my whole plate! So I cut mine in half and had it with buffalo sauce – 6 oz. of chicken with my potatoes, dinner comes in at 11 points.
So send me your potato recipes! The winner will get two jars of my baja fresh salsa!
Here are a few of my past BSI entries:
BSI – Cherries – Grilled cherry salsa:
BSI – Beets: Beet Hummus:
BSI: Lemon – Grilled pork chops with lemon thyme sauce:
Hope you have a great day!
Hope I am not too late. I just made these tonight, but couldn’t get my dad and grandpa to leave so that I could get it posted!! 🙂
http://cupcakesandkalechips.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/parmesan-balsamic-caramelized-onion-smashed-potatoes-and-sunday-dinners/
I wanted to play – so here’s my submission please remember I can’t cook – so therefore don’t laugh
http://privatelyiamjoy.blogspot.com/2012/02/haha-pretending-to-cook.html?m=1
Here’s my entry! Bengali-Style Mashed Potatoes!
http://www.spicesbites.com/aloo-bhorta-bengali-style-mashed-potatoes/
I am a new blogger, and just found your blog. The BSI sounds fun! Can’t wait to see the next ingredient so I can participate.
Here is a potato recipe! http://fink-girl.livejournal.com/4158.html
I’m so glad you’re bringing back BSI! I hardly ever send in recipes, but I love reading them! I might have to submit one this week though – I’d do almost anything for your famous Salsa
I’m not reading your blog that long to know what BSI is but I like the idea. It’s always difficult to make US recipes for me because you use different measurements than we and some ingredients can’t be bought here. Besides that it’s a lot of work for me to translate my recipes to English and recalculate the measurements. So I will be just a reader of the recipes 🙂
I love Sundays too. I do, however, never clean on Sunday. It’s my day on which I can do what I want. Since I’m not a fan of housekeeping, I never do that on Sunday.
I LOVE Sunday mornings as well!
I’m making this baked potato soup tomorrow night!! http://www.ourkrazzykitchen.com/2012/02/baked-potato-soup.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WelcomeToOurKrazyKitchen+%28Welcome+to+OuR+KrAzy+kItChEn…%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
As a matter of habit, I usually calculate nutrition info for myself. I rarely make a recipe exactly as written, so I know my nutrition info will be different. I would bring it up to her. Here’s my potato recipe:
http://confessionsofarecoveringchocoholic.com/2011/06/07/cheesy-broccoli-and-potato-soup-recipe/
Biz, I would do almost anything for a jar of your salsa. I’m so glad you’re offering it again! I so want to try it–the one time I made it I totally jacked it up (for one thing I added onions, which I know you’ll think is the sole problem-lol) so I hope I can win and see how it’s supposed to taste. 🙂 I’m glad you can’t vote for yourself b/c I think those potatoes look winning-worthy! Soooo yum.
I always used to question points on websites. Way back in the day when I did WW – I went to a site called Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone (or something like that). A lot of her point values were off, so I learned the hard way to just recalculate them myself.
Do sweet potatoes count as a potato? If so, I will submit this one:
http://findingradiance.com/recipes/breakfast/sweet-potato-muffinbiscuit/
Yep – sweet potatoes count! 😀
Yay for resurrecting BSI! I’ll be sure to send you a potato recipe this week.
Meanwhile, you’ve been tagged!
http://www.spicesbites.com/11-things-you-didnt-know-about-me/
So if you do BSI – then you have to give a prize every week?
I have a bunch of potato recipes. I’ll send you one!
Not sure about that – I wanted to kick it off again with my salsa – we’ll see!
I like the idea of you hosting every week, now I’m definitely more likely to participate.
I never love Gina’s recipes, but usually never go by her points or nutritional info, mainly because brands are all different and stuff.
Ooops, that’s not supposed to say never love. I never question her points, but I love her recipes.
here is my potato recipe! http://balancenyc.com/2012/02/spinach-potato-frittata-recipe/
yours looks quite good 🙂
I would love to participate 🙂 I usually tweak Gina’s recipes because I can’t always get the same brands etc here! Sometimes they come in lower and some times more.
Woo Hoo!!! Yay for the return of BSI!!! Have a great Monday Vat!
I’ll have to look through my potato recipes, because your salsa is AMAZING!
Yay, glad BSI is back! Here’s my recipe: http://cupcakemuffin.blogspot.com/2008/08/quesadillas-with-potato-and-mustard.html
Yum! Potatoes is a great pick. I think you hosting BSI permanently is a great idea. You’re the BSI queen for sure.
I thought BSI was fun. The only problem with you hosting every week is that I’m pretty sure that onions will NEVER be the ingredient of the week! 🙂
Debbi, you’ll be surprised this week – Tony and I are actually having sandwiches this week that have . . . onion rings on them!
I remember back in the day when you had such trouble making au gratin potatoes – looks like you’ve mastered them now!!!
Yep – I have conquered the gratin potato! 😀
I always plan to participate in the BSI but then things get really busy by the end of the week, and it doesn’t happen. I have an idea for a new potato dish, but I doubt it’ll happen this week, so I’m submitting an old recipe for Leek Potato Soup.
http://www.andreaswellnessnotes.com/2010/10/another-csa-box-birthday-celebrations.html
Happy Monday!
No…I have never questioned Ginas stats…but you bring up a good point. You should contact her…I know she takes pride in making sure the stats are correct…like a lot of bloggers. It can be difficult to gauge sometimes because products can vary on nutrition info for the same product but different brand…but a mistake is possible..which is why I always am glad when someone sends me an email questioning something. More often than not I work up the nutrition information and then input that into the calculator, rather than relying on recipe builder. IDK.
ok…so on that note…excited BSI is returning and LOVE the idea of getting some of your awesome salsa…so here is my entry!
http://mykitchenadventures1.blogspot.com/2012/02/lightened-up-twice-baked-potatoes.html
Hey Sarah! You can absolutely participate week to week – I know you have a busy school schedule! But you can also link to old posts – like your truffle-parmesan mashed potatoes – you could submit that recipe if you wanted!
http://spinachandspice.com/2012/01/08/classed-up-comfort/
Great, thanks!
I just bought the new cooking light mag for this month and it has some deeelish potato recipes in it! It’s their comfort food issue, and uhm, I think I about died as I flipped through the pages. Have you seen it?
I’d love to be a part of BSI but unfortunately I never know what weekends I’ll be home with kitchen access! Can we participate on a week by week basis, or should it be kept to the regular, weekly posters only?
Have a good day, Biz!