Hello and Happy Holidays loyal blog readers, it's good to see you again! I apologize for not writing any new posts in the past couple of weeks but with the holidays upon us, things have been kind of hectic. With four Christmas parties already under my belt this season and three more to go, my time has mostly been spent preparing appetizers and goodies for the parties and not focusing on dinner. Needless to say, we've been eating a lot of Subway in this house the past two weeks. But with most of my Christmas shopping done and the presents already wrapped and only one party to go to this week, I had the time to try out a new recipe tonight. I found this in one of my mother-in-law's "tasteofhome: Healthy Cooking" magazines when we were visiting them for Thanksgiving. I thought it sounded tasty and fairly easy to make. I was right about the tasty part, not so right about the easy part. I followed the instructions but then once I got the seams of the bread sealed, realized I had forgotten to put the cheese in it. So I had to open it back up, cheese it, then re-seal it. Then I was supposed to put it seam side down on the baking sheet, but couldn't for the life of me get it to flip over without the whole thing falling apart. As it was, as I was trying to get it from the counter to the baking sheet, the bread was tearing and meat was falling out. So I figured just getting it on the baking sheet was a success although it wasn't pretty at all with the seam side up. I contemplated not putting up a photo but Matt said that was cheating. In the end, even though it was by far not one of my prettiest creations, it tasted great and Matt gave it 8 out of 10 stars. If you try to make it, I hope you have better luck with flipping it than I did! Enjoy!Ingredients:
3/4 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
1 small green pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. ketchup
2 Tbsp. mustard
1 tube (11 oz) refrigerated crusty French loaf
4 slices reduced-fat American cheese
1 egg white, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp. shredded Parmesan cheese
1. In a large skillet, cook the beef, onion, pepper and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Stir in the flour, mustard and ketchup; set aside.
2. Unroll dough starting at the seam. Pat into a 14-in x 12-in rectangle. Spoon meat mixture lengthwise down the center of the dough; top with cheese-slices. Bring long sides of dough to the center over filling; pinch seams to seal.
3. Place seam side down on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Brush with egg white. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. With a sharp knife, cut diagonal slits in top of loaf. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.
Makes 6 servings, 6 WW points per serving, 277 calories, 7g fat, 1g fiber.
