Burgundy Mushrooms

Happy New Year!! How are your resolutions going?

I hope you all had a great holiday season. I absolutely love the holidays but one of the things I struggle with is the temptation of all the wonderful goodies that accompany it! This year, I vowed to look at the special occasions as just that: individual days/meals vs. an entire season of eating badly. With careful planning, I was still able to enjoy treats and great meals, but without the guilt and worry of starting the New Year off feeling badly.

And boy did I enjoy some great meals for the holiday! Have you seen this show, The Pioneer Woman on the Food Network? I’m a teensy bit obsessed…okay, a lot obsessed. Here’s this seemingly fit, beautiful, Boho woman who lives on a working ranch in Oklahoma with a real-life cowboy, kids, and animals to take care of. I’ve watched a few episodes so far and all she seems to cook is beef…with butter. I swear in one episode her cowboy hubby made two huge beef tenderloins smothered and boiled in butter…honestly, they looked amazing…it got me wondering if maybe TPW is churning her own butter on her ranch and perhaps supplying the butter Queen herself, Paula Deen??!…. I digress.

But, ohhhh, the recipes she creates! Obviously, I’m trying to stay away from such self-indulgence but as I said, during the holidays, I decided that it would be okay. So I looked up TPW’s recipe for burgundy mushrooms and just out of curiosity wanted to know how many calories were in a serving…I mean, they’re mushrooms, a vegetable, how many calories could they really be?? Ummm, well…a lot. In one serving, which is about 1/3 cup there are 369 calories! I almost threw the idea out the window when I started thinking about how I could minimize some of the ingredients to get the recipe to a more reasonable number.

I was able to cut out about 150 calories/serving by cutting the butter into thirds and reducing the amount of wine to 1 cup vs. 1 litre. Even with this change, they were AMAZING! I honestly don’t know how much better the “bad” version could be. Now be warned, you’re going to have to plan some time to make these or, like me, throw them in the crockpot because they take nine…yes, NINE…hours to cook. But they are SO worth it, I promise you!

I cut the recipe in half (below), but the original version serves 8.

2 pounds White Button Mushrooms
½ stick of butter
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup Burgundy Wine (I used Cab Sauv)
½ tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 cup Boiling Water
2 whole Chicken Bouillon Cubes
2 whole Beef Bouillon Cubes
½ tsp Dill Seed
3 cloves Garlic, Peeled
1 tsp Salt

Serves 4; 215 calories/serving

Aren’t they so pretty?? And they smell so good when they are simmering! If you are anything like me, you won’t be able to resist the urge to try a sample at about hour 4; go ahead, do it!

Annnddd, you’re probably wondering what I served them with, right? Well…I served them alongside Stracato…a pot roast and porcini mushroom pile of deliciousness. I didn’t even bother trying to reduce that one…I told you that I allowed myself a few treats for the holiday!!

Back to the resolution question: I didn’t actually declare my resolution, but my plan is to continue on the same path I’m on right now. They say most people gain weight during the holidays but I am proud to say that I’m starting off 2012 14.5lbs lighter! I wish you all a happy and healthy 2012!!