My first blogged meal - Filet Mignon, risotto, and grilled asparagus (11 WW points for the meal)

I have come to the realization that I love reading people's blogs when they include recipes of yummy food, and pictures. Some people read novels, others read news on the web, some just surf the web mindlessly. A couple weeks ago I spent about 2 hours reading a blog and copying recipes I wanted to try. Because I'm a slight bit neurotic (my husband would say I'm down right nuts), I also spent a good chunk of this time inputing the recipes into the Weight Watchers calculator to determine how many points per serving (and making slight recipe adjustments to lower the points value).

While discussing my neurosis with said husband, we came to the conclusion that others might appreciate my efforts, and enjoy my recipes with points values already calculated. (disclaimer notice: these points values are NOT endorsed by Weight Watchers, they are simply my amateur calculations as determined by plugging ingredients into my online recipe builder) From this discussion, Family, Food, and Friends was born.

I think the hardest thing for me will be remembering to photograph my kitchen adventures. Tonight was my first attempt. The menu: filet mignon on the grill, risotto, and grilled asparagus. Wonderfully delicious, but nothing too extravagant in the recipe creating department. Anywho, here is my first attempt at photo journal-ing dinner.

The meal: two filets from Costco, arborio rice, and asparagus from Trader Joe's


The ingredients for risotto:
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup or so of chopped spinach
3 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
olive oil spray



The directions:
Heat a nonstick saucepan over medium/high heat, and spray with olive oil spray. Add onion; sautee a few minutes (like my attention to detail?). Add the spinach and arborio rice. Sautee a few more minutes. In a seperate saucepan, heat broth to a slow boil. Add 1 cup at a time to rice mixture, allowing liquid to absorb before adding more, stirring regularly (directions for risotto always say stir constantly, but really who does that?). When all the broth is added and absorbed, add cheese and stir well. Serve immediately.
Yields 4 servings at 4 WW points per serving.

Mmmm, starting to cook...



Ready to eat...



For the asparagus, I use my olive oil sprayer and coat it lightly, then season with garlic salt and fresh ground pepper. I toss it in my grill basket, and let the grillmaster do his thing. Here is it ready to go. Mmm, I L.O.V.E. asparagus... (one cup of cooked asparagus is, are you ready for this? zero points!).



At 7 points for 3 ounces (uncooked weight), those filets look absolutely fabulous!



And finally, you really can't eat a superb steak without a really nice bottle of wine. We enjoyed this Barbera from Bantam Cellars in northern California, that I picked up while wine tasting the weekend of my uncle's wedding (we won't even go into how much fun that was, or how much wine I drank in one afternoon...).



Kaelyn was very helpful. Her dinner preparation included working up a hearty appetite jumping rope in the backyard while Mark grilled.





Finally, we're ready to eat! (Those were some dang thick steaks, they took a while to cook - even for us medium-rare/medium loving folk!)



Kaelyn thought the filet tasted like "really good chicken"... Whatever, at least she enjoyed it all (well, she won't eat asparagus so she had some steamed broccoli instead)



And, finally, the sign of a successful meal (even the dog got to enjoy some scraps!)



Happy eating!