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Balsamic Chicken

31 Jul

Ingredients:

– 4 chicken breasts (4 oz each)
– 1/4 a medium onion, diced
– 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
– 1/2 cup low fat chicken broth
– 2 tablespoons white sugar
– 1/2 tsp dried basil
– 1/2 tsp dried oregano
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– A tiny sprinkle of corn starch

Directions:

1. In a shallow dish, mix vinegar, broth, garlic, sugar, oregano and basil.

2. Marinate chicken breasts 20 min to 6 hrs in this liquid.

3. Heat oil in a large skillet, and remove chicken from marinade, but don’t throw the marinade out.

4. Cook the chicken in the skillet, approximately 8 min per side, turning as needed. Cook until chicken is done all the way through.

5. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan being onion and remaining marinade to a boil, whisking regularly.

6. Continue whisking mixture, but turn heat down to about medium.

7. Once chicken is cooked through, add sauce into skillet.

8. Cook down until sauce thickens to desired consistency.

9. Whisk in a pinch of corn starch if sauce does not thicken to your liking.

Serve chicken with sauce spooned over top.

Make 4 servings.

1 breast with sauce = 179 calories

Approximately 5 ww points plus

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Homemade Hummus

21 Jul

I spent a long time in my life believing that I hated hummus. In fact, i spent 10 years as a vegetarian who hated hummus, which was interesting, because that’s what everyone thought I should be eating. But I tried it once, and it was terrible. Turns out, I just had a bad hummus… because 15 years later, I tried it again, and fell in love. I was able to lower the calories significantly from a store bought hummus, by omitting the olive oil, and using about 1/2 the tahini. My favorite way to eat it is on sliced cucumbers. That allows me to have more hummus, since the vessel is super-low in calories!

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of chick peas (garbanzo beans) drained
  • 2 Tbsp of Tahini (sesame seed paste)
  • 4 Tbsp miced garlic
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 5 Tbsp water (give/take)

 

Directions:

1. Pay attention folks. The directions for this one are intense.

2 See all that stuff up there in the “Ingredients” list? Throw it all in the food processor, and grind it all down until you are happy with the texture. For me, that meant “until i could no longer stand the sound of the food processor” but I have a bit of sensory sensitivity… Add a little more water if it’s too think. You may need to stop now and then to scrape the edges.

 

Makes 1 1/2 cups of hummus.

 

1/4 Cup = 99 Calories

Approximately 3 ww points plus per serving

 

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Smoked sausage and potato bake

20 Jul

This is based off a recipe I found on Pinterest. I made a few changes to make it lower calorie and also to my taste. This was very good. If you like banana peppers, it gets a tad salty, but nobody else in my family ate the banana peppers… And they all still loved it. Will be a repeat for sure.

Ingredients :

  • 1 package (13 oz) turkey smoked sausage or kielbasa
  • 6 red new potatoes
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 8 oz banana pepper rings, drained of liquid
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp creole seasoning

Directions:

1. Slice sausage at a slant (on the bias) into slices about 1/4 in thick.

2. Cut new potatoes into cubes about 1/2 in x 1/2 inch. Don’t make them too big or they won’t cook through.

3. Place sausage, onion, potatoes and peppers in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil.

4. Sprinkle creole seasoning over mixture and mix it all together, coating each piece with a little oil.

5. Spread mixture evenly over a baking pan sprayed with nonstick spray. Use a pan with sides, not a flat sheet.

6. Bake mixture at 400 for 35 min, turning all items over once halfway through cooking.

Makes 5 servings= 231 calories per serving

Approximately 6 ww points per serving

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Homemade Pesto

9 Jul

So, I grew a couple things in my yard, for the first time this year! Basil, and Cilantro 🙂 Tragically, the Cilantro did not make it. But the Basil did GREAT, and led to this lovely Pesto, which I served with Zucchini noodles 🙂 YUM. A couple of notes: Pesto is very caloric, so I made a small batch full of rich flavor, to use in combination with a very low-calorie alternative to pasta. It was delicious. Because a little goes a long way, I recommend this pesto as a compliment to grilled chicken, or a lovely side dish. One last thing. Traditionally, pesto is made with pine nuts. but I chose almonds because they are lower in calories, and lend the same nutty flavor to the dish.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup fresh basil leaves
  • 2 tbsp slivered almonds
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic (or 1 clove fresh, chopped)
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1 tbsp shredded parmesan (the shreds, not the powder)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

 

Directions:

1. Place everything but the Olive oil into the food processor. You’ll want to use a small food processor, and you may need to scrape the sides down periodically to continue blending. Due to the small portion size, the pesto may collect around the edges of the food processor.

2. Once all other ingredients are well blended, add Olive oil and pulse until all ingredients are smooth.

 

Makes about 3 tablespoons=144 Calories per tablespoon

Approximately 3 weight watchers points plus per serving.

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Chicken Parmesan

1 Jul

Chicken Parm is one of my favorite “full fat” meals to make. Turns out, making it in the oven is almost the same. I’m not sure why I didn’t do this sooner! So, in the picture here, I served this with a different kind of pasta (which i wasn’t crazy about, so I didn’t post the recipe). The calories below are calculated using whole wheat pasta and marinara sauce.

 

Ingredients:

– 1 lb thin sliced chicken breast cutlets (the come about 4 in a 1 lb package)

– 1/2 cup water

– 1/2 cup italian bread crumbs

– 1/4 tsp garlic powder

– 2 tablespoon shredded parmesan cheese (the shreds, not the powdery kind)

– 8 tbsp 2% shredded mozzarella cheese

 

(Recommended: serve with Ronzoni whole wheat linguini and Marinara Sauce)

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Pour water into a shallow dish, and mix bread crumbs, garlic and parmesan in a separate shallow dish.

3. Dip each chicken cutlet in water, and then in breadcrumb mixture, covering on both sides.

4. Place chicken breasts on a baking pan, sprayed with nonstick spray.

5. If there are left over crumbs in the dish, sprinkle them over the chicken breasts. Spray tops of chicken breasts lightly with olive oil flavored non-stick spray.

6. Bake chicken for 10 min at 450. After 10 min, flip chicken breasts over, and turn oven to broil. Broil Chicken until tops are browned.

7. Sprinkle Chicken with 2 tbsp each of mozzarella cheese, and return to oven just long enough to melt cheese.

 

Makes 4 Servings: 238 Calories per serving

When served with 1/2 cup of Marinara Sauce, and 3 oz of Ronzoni Whole wheat linguini, each serving is 573 Calories

 

 

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Oven “fried” fish with spicy tarter sauce

23 May

So, if you live in the south like me, summer means catholic picnic and fish fry season. Tonight I threw together these 2 recipes in the spirit of fried fish. The fish is really good. The tarter sauce is WICKED good! I made a small batch, but you can easily double it. Both the fish and the tarter sauce are a little spicy. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

(2) 4 oz fish filets (I used mahi. Cod or whitefish would work too)
1/4 cup 1% milk
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. In a shallow dish, Mix together Panko, cayenne, garlic powder and salt and pepper (to taste).

2. Pour milk into a separate dish.

3. Place flour in a 3rd shallow dish.

4. One at a time, dip each filet in milk, coating each side. Then dip in flour, covering all sides with an even layer of flour. Dip filet back in milk, and finally press filet into Panko mixture, covering it evenly with crumbs. Don’t forget the ends. Repeat with remaining fish.

5. Place prepared filets on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.

6. Lightly spray tops of filets with nonstick spray and bake fish at 375 for 10-12 minutes. If fish is not desired color at the end of cooking time, you can turn the oven to broil and keep an eye on the fish until it reaches the color you like.

Serve each filet with 1 serving of spicy tarter sauce!

Tarter sauce:

3 tbsp fat free miracle whip
2 tsp sweet pickle relish
1/8 tsp paprika
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp horseradish

Mix all ingredients together. Makes 2 servings.

1 fish filet with tarter sauce= 245 calories

1 fish filet without tarter sauce= 213 calories

Fish= apps 6 weight watchers points plus. Tarter sauce = 1 pp

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Homemade Taco Seasoning

18 May

So, the taco seasoning I usually use in an envelope, contains 120 calories per envelope!!! This taco seasoning, contains 40 calories in the same serving size. I don’t know what’s in that store bought stuff that makes it so caloric (spices are typically really low cal, right?) So, here’s my version, which is just as delicious, but lower in calories. I also like that i can control the ingredients to make it hotter, milder, or however I like it. This version is a little on the spicy side, but I wouldn’t call it quite “hot”.

 

This Recipe makes seasoning for 3 lbs of ground meat.

Ingredients:

 

  • 2 beef bullion cubes, crushed
  • 1 Tbsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp cumin
  • 2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp flour
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne
  • 1/2 tsp salt

 

Mix all ingredients together. Use 2 Tbsp seasoning for 1 lb of beef. After cooking beef, add 1/2 cup of water and 2 tbsp seasoning, and cook down until liquid has evaporated.

1/2 tbsp (4 oz of beef)= 10 cal per serving
0 weight watchers points plus

 

If you like this recipe, try it out with some of our other recipes!

Weight watchers Mexican Chicken

Nachos!

 

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Cherry Lemonade Bundt Cake with Lemon Cool whip Frosting

17 May

This cake is very light, and would be great for summer. It’s the type of cake some people refer to as “poke” cake, meaning you poke holes in the cake and fill them (with jello in this case). If you love this idea, you can also check out my strawberry poke cake, or my tiramisu.

Ingredients:

  • 1 boxed lemon cake mix
  • 3 egg whites
  • 12 oz diet or “10” 7 up. ( or diet sprite, or sprite zero, or diet ginger ale)
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 small box of sugar free cherry jello
  • 1 cup boiled water
  • 1/2 cup cold water
  • 1 tub of light cool whip
  • 1 cup 1% milk
  • 1 small box (4 servings) of sugar free, instant lemon pudding
  • 2-3 drops yellow food coloring (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix cake mix, soda, lemon juice and egg whites. Pour into a bundt cake pan sprayed with non-stick spray.

2. Bake cake according to directions on box. Once cake is finished, cool 30 min.

3. Once cake has cooled, use a 2 prong meat fork (or a knife, or wooden skewer) to poke many holes all the way through the cake, to the bottom of the pan.

4. Boil cup of water. Once its boiled, mix with jello until dissolved. Add cold water, mix well.

5. Pour 1/2 of jello mixture evenly over cake. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or more. Discard remaining jello.

6. After cake has cooled 2 hours, place a large plate, or platter over the top of the pan, and flip pan over to remove cake.

7. In a medium size bowl, mix milk and pudding mix until it thickens and lumps are smooth. Fold coolwhip, and yellow food coloring (optional) into mixture until well incorporated. Ice the cake with this mixture, then refrigerate at least 2 more hours before serving.

12 Servings= 199 Calories per slice

(approximately 5 weight watchers points plus per slice)

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Seafood Chowder

13 Apr

I was recently inspired by an awesome clam chowder that I had, in Chicago of all places. I thought, I could do that pretty easily as an adaptation of my potato soup recipe! So, here it is. Seafood chowder. I added some fish and shrimp, but you could make this a clam chowder by tripling the clams instead. Feel free to add any other seafood you like as well. If you think this looks good, but you don’t like seafood. Leave it out. You’ve got a great potato soup on your hands 🙂

Ingredients
– 2 cans of chicken stock
– 1 bag of frozen O’Brien style potatoes (with onions and peppers)
– 2 stalks celery, finely diced
– 1/4 cup onion, finely diced
– 1 envelope of pioneer White Gravy Mix
– 1 cup water
– 1 tsp salt
– 4 ounces of small (salad) shrimp
– 7 oz of minced clams (small can)
– 1 mahi mahi filet, 4-5 ounces (or fish of your choice).

Directions:
1. Heat Chicken Stock in a large pan.

2. Add salt, celery and onion. Bring mixture to a boil, then simmer about 5 min.

3. Add potatoes to broth mixture, and cook until potatoes are thawed, about 15 min on low.

4. Cut fish filet into chunks, about 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch. Add fish, shrimp, and clams to pot. Cook on low heat about 3 minutes, until fish is cooked through.

5. In a separate container, mix water with gravy mix packet. Stir Gravy slurry into chicken stock and potatoes.

5. The texture of your chowder will vary greatly here depending on which brand of potatoes you used. If it is too thick, simply add 1/4 cup water at a time until it reaches the desired thickness.

Makes 8 1 cup servings= 187 Calories per cup
Appx 5 weight watchers points plus per serving

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Chicken Pot Pie

10 Apr

I love chicken pot pie. I’m a southern girl. What can I say? But that Crust!!! that cream!!! it’s oh-so-fattening, and I decided to post this recipe after picking up a frozen, single serving pot pie at the grocery store this weekend, that had a whopping NINE HUNDRED calories!!! what!? So, here it is…light flaky crust… even if there’s only half as much (crust that is. this recipe won’t leave you hungry). The filling is easy, quick, rich, and super low in calories. In fact, you could eat three servings for less calories than that single serve frozen version!

Ingredients:

– 12 oz of cooked chicken breast (diced or shredded)
– 1 large can of veg-all original mixed veggies (3 1/2 cups)
– 1/4 cup diced onion
– 1 tsp water
– 2 tbsp minced garlic
– 1 can of pillsbury reduced fat crescent rolls
– 1 can of low-fat cream of mushroom soup
– 1 can of low-fat cream of chicken soup
– Salt and Pepper to taste.

Directions:

1. Dice or shred your already cooked chicken, and place it in a large mixing bowl with 2 full cans of soup (undiluted), veggies, garlic, salt, and pepper.

2. Place onions in a microwave safe dish with 1 tsp of water and microwave for 60 seconds. It’s in your best interest not to skip this step… the onions are very strong if you stir them in raw. After cooking, mix in with chicken/veggie mixture.

3. Pour mixture into a 9×13 pan which has been sprayed with nonstick spray.

4. Unroll Crescent rolls across the top of the pan. Press seams together with your fingers to “mend” perforations.

5. Bake pot pie at 350 for 25 minutes, or until crescent crust is golden brown and cooked through.

6. Allow pot pie to sit for 5-10 min before serving. Seriously. This thing is molten-lava-hot in the middle. Let it sit.

Note: you could add a 2nd tube of crescent rolls to use as a bottom crust if you wanted, and it would still only be 412 calories (11 pp) per serving, but i don’t even think it needs it.

Makes 6 Servings= 292 Calories per serving
approximately 8 weight watchers points plus

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