Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Today is one of those must go grocery shopping days. I need milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables, and meat. But I'm not into going out and I do still have lots of food in the house. How often do we buy more food when we don't really need it? What would I do if I didn't have this abundance at my fingertips in my refrigerator? I have gotten to a point in my life where I've become very conscience of what gets wasted in the house and of buying too much. So today, rather than just running out of the house to pick up milk for pancakes, I improvised with what I had in my kitchen and substituted plain yogurt for milk and it worked! My kids loved their pancakes.

Invention Pancakes

1 cup of flour, 1 cup of plain yogurt, 1 egg, 2 tsp. of baking powder, 1 tsp. of rum extract, 2 tbsp. of sugar. Mix up and pour 1/2 cup of batter into a greased hot griddle or pan. Turn the pan down to medium. When the pancake batter bubbles a little on the top, flip over and cook until the batter turns nice and fluffy/cooked. Serve and top with a little butter and syrup.

Growing up, when we were out of syrup for pancakes, my mom gave us strawberry jam.

Left over Kraft Dinner makes nice deep fried macaroni balls.

Left over vegetables make a nice soup you can make in advance for the week.

Lots of Potatoes? Make a huge batch of French Fries for dinner.

What do you have in the fridge you can make use of?

Low Calorie Shrimp Vegetable Stuffed French Crepes

I always love it when I can find uber delicious already prepared foods that make low calorie eating a sensuous experience. I found Frieda's French Style Crepes at the grocery store and was to be honest, sceptic that any already prepared crepe could taste divine. I was pleasantly...well more than pleasantly surprised. Now that I am on Weight Watchers, I was looking for still delicious pleasurable meals that would not only fill up my hunger, but my soul as well.

Roast 3-4 mushrooms and one small sliced red pepper in 1/4 cup of vegetable broth in a 350 degree oven until your desired doneness. I had mine in the oven for about 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and drain the broth to dry out the veggies BUT SAVE 2 TBSP. of broth for the sauce.

Then lay out 2 crepes and get ready for stuffing. I first layered, 1/2 slice of low calorie Swiss cheese down each centre - break it up a bit if you like to cover the whole length of the crepe. Then begin adding the roasted veggies, and 1/2 cup of shrimp to each crepe - then roll up. Bake in the oven again at the same temperature until the crepes are just a little bit brown.

Then for the sauce, add 1 tbsp. of 1/2 fat Hellman's mayo to a small bowl and mix in the two tbsp. of reserved vegetable broth and stir until a creamy like consistency. I then added perhaps 1/2 tsp. of low calorie Parmesan cheese to the sauce. When you take the crepes from the oven, put onto a pretty plate, pour the sauce evenly over each crepe and garnish with parsley. This whole two crepe breakfast is 6 points in total and absolutely delicious!

Great Finds this Week.....

I went to the new Thrifty's Store in town and will never, in my area, shop anywhere else. The customer service and the visual appeal of the store are A1. So is the produce, the flowers, the meat, and the heirloom tomatoes I found! I also found some already made French Crepes there as well