Mmm, Mmm, Good!

Don't let the name of this recipe fool you. It is a lot better than you would think. It was served at work and I had it for lunch both yesterday and today. You really hardly taste the pumpkin - or at least what we think pumpkin tastes like with sugar and cinnamon and other spices. It basically tastes like chili but not as 'tomatoey'. I highly recommend it. Here's the link:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Black-Bean--n--Pumpkin-Chili

btw - it's 3 points per cup, but it's hearty!

Inspirational Groceries

So… I walked to the grocery store yesterday to get just a couple things (yeah right), but I ended up with two rather heavy bags to carry home. It’s only a couple blocks, but by the time I got home and up my steps, I could hardly breathe! The trip to the store was fine, but the trip back made me stop and lean against the door before I got my key out! Carrying those extra pounds made a huge difference! I weighed the bags - they were only 23 pounds. Just think - losing twenty pounds is like setting down this load of groceries…

Tomato Bisque Soup

Listen up weight watchers this soup is 1 point per serving!!! And its GREAT! Especially coming from someone who doesn't care for tomato soup but loves tomato bisque soup!

Tomato Bisque

Saute in 2 T olive oil (extra virgin), 1 C chopped onion for 4-5 min, stirring often.
Add 1 T minced garlic (we cut that back). Turn off and stir 1-2 min.

Add & Simmer:
4-6 C. tomatoes, peeled, seeded, & diced ( we used canned tomatoes w/ green chili's - great extra flavor )
1 C russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 Carrot peeled and diced
4 C. chicken broth
3 T. fresh basil
2 T. lemon juice
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Simmer about 30 min or until veggies are tender. Puree by small batches in a blender.

This was great how it is above but if you want to add a little extra zing, zip, aka extra calories
Top with homeade croutons, drizzle with pesto and a dollop of sour cream.

If you are wanting some grilled cheese to go along with this, I recently have done this and it was great. I used a whole laughing cow cheese wedge on each side of a bagel thin and then broil it. This made the cheese nice and bubbly on top of the bagel and it kinda was like having a grilled cheese! :)

NEW! Cheese Wedges (Laughing Cow of course)

Since we use this awesome stuff very often, I thought I'd let everyone know that Meijers is the place that I've found has the most flavors. Here's the two newest ones I've picked up! Since Meijers is my second home let me know if you would like me to pick some up for you!

Check out www.laughingcow.com they've got some cool recipes on there!

M's McBagel

A healthier option than McDonalds, and very yummy!

I took 1) EGG

Then I cracked it in a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil.

And then the sizzling goodness started frying.

I used the everything Bagel Thins, Laughing cow cheese, and honey ham.

Spread your laughing cow cheese on add the egg and ham.

Then I broiled the sandwich to get the cheese bubbly and the bagel toasty!


Amazing when your craving Mikey D's breakfast! I made this for supper one night. I figured it out to be around 7pts using deli ham and not 98%fat free :)

Fiber One Cereal

Hungry Girl had an idea that sparked my interest. Hungry for onion rings, but don't want the fried grease?

I believe IGA, had Fiber one cereal on sale this week it was out on Tues night but maybe they restocked by now. Check it out! =)

Roasted Veggie Minestrone

Taken from thepioneerwoman check it out pictures make it look soooo good!
I thought this would be a good soup ( if you like veggies ) :) I haven't tried it but if I do I'll let you know! thanks pw! :)

You could skip the cheese shavings and subsitute your pasta for whatever healthy harvest pasta you have...

Recipe: Roasted Vegetable Minestrone
Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 30 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Servings: 8



Ingredients
2 whole Zucchini, Halved, Cut Into Strips, Then Cubed
2 whole Summer Squash, Halved, Cut Into Strips, Then Cubed
8 ounces, weight White Mushrooms, Stems Removed And Quartered
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Kosher Salt To Taste
2 Tablespoons (additional) Olive Oil
2 whole Carrots, Washed And Sliced (not Peeled)
1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
3 stalks Celery, Sliced (leaves Included)
8 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
2 cans Cannelini Beans, Rinsed
1 cup (heaping) Cut Green Beans, Fresh Or Frozen
1-½ cup Medium Or Small Pasta Shells, Uncooked
1 can (14.5) Diced Tomatoes With Juice
Salt And Pepper, to taste
¼ teaspoons Turmeric (optional)
Parmesan Cheese, Shaved
Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Toss cubed zucchini, squash, and mushrooms in a bowl with olive oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt. Arrange onto two sheet pans (to avoid crowding) and roast in the hot oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until brown and black parts begin to show. Remove from oven and set aside.
In a heavy pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add carrots, onions, and celery and stir to cook for 3 minutes. Pour in broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for ten minutes.
Add cannelini beans and green beans. Cook on low for five minutes. Add pasta and cook for an additional five minutes. Add canned tomatoes, stir, and cook for an additional five minutes on low heat. Check for seasonings, adding salt, pepper, and turmeric.
Add roasted vegetables at the very end. Stir and allow to simmer and heat for a few minutes before serving. Be sure to check seasoning! Add more broth if necessary to increase liquid amount.
Serve with Parmesan shavings and crusty Italian bread.

Breakfast and Lunch

Here are a couple of ideas for breakfast and lunch. I take this to work a lot. It's very filling and really easy to put together.

Breakfast: 4pts
1 cup Multi-Grain Cherrios - 2pts
1 Mini Babybel Light Cheese round - 1pt
1/2 Large Apple - 1pt


Lunch: 6pts
Bagel Thin, LC Cheese Wedge, 5 slices Buddig Beef - 3pts
1oz Baked Lays - 2pts
1/2 Large Apple - 1pt

Tips:
-Always toast your bagel thins - they just taste better toasted, even if you're not going to eat it until later.
-There are 10 slices of Buddig Beef in a 90 calorie pack(2pts/pack), so 5 slices = 1pt.
-1 Plain Bagel Thin, 1 French Onion Cheese Wedge, and 5 Buddig Beef Slices makes a 3pt sandwich that tastes like those chipped beef mini-bagels. Mmmmm!

French Toast Challenge

In response to Teresa's challenge... Here's a recipe for Peach French Toast that looks pretty good. I didn't figure out the points, but it seems like it would be pretty light...



This is a clip from "Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger". She has several other recipe clips on hulu.com that look good too!

Cranberry French Toast

Ok so we haven't posted anything for awhile. And this blog is recipes and ideas right? So that means we can post any reciepe right? :-) Hope so because this is just awesome and I thought I would share! I have no idea how many points it is :) But its got fruit in it! So its gotta be somewhat healthy right?

Cranberry French Toast
1 stick of butter - don't worry it makes a 9x13 pan :)
1 C light brown sugar
2 TBS light corn syrup
1 pkg Pepperidge farm cinnamon swirl bread
1 C cranberries
7 eggs
2 C milk
2 tsp vanilla
cinnamon/sugar

Melt butter with brown sugar and corn syrup in a small sauce pain. Pour into 9x13 pan. Cut up bread into cubes and place on top of butter mixture. Top with cranberries. In bowl mix eggs, milk and vanilla. Pour over bread cubes coating them well. Top with cinnamon sugar and cover with foil refrigerating overnight. Bake at 350 for about 40-50 minutes. ( Bake uncovered for about 1/2 the cooking time, then cover with the foil )

Sorry I probably just broke the rules by posting this... but you'll love it! unless you don't like french toast and cranberries!

Enjoy - M.

Online Nutritional Information

While shopping today I had a Java Chiller Lite at Gloria Jeans but was unable to find nutritional information on their website (or Weight Watchers). I was, however, able to find the information at www.calorieking.com which can be used to look up other restaurant's nutritional information as well. It wasn't too bad with 255 calories, 6g fat and 1g fiber which equals 5 points.

A Lighter Summer Favorite

With fresh tomatoes available from the garden (thanks to Jodi!) one of my favorite summer meals was always BLT's. Tonight I made a lighter version:

Light BLT's - 5 points total
2 slices Healthy Life whole grain wheat bread or a Thomas thin bagel - 1 point
3 slices Oscar Mayer turkey bacon - 3 points
1 Laughing Cow cheese wedge (instead of mayo) - 1 point
veggies of your choice - I had lettuce, tomato and onion - 0 points

We inevitably served this with corn on the cob. Since no corn was available I substituted steamed broccoli - 0 points.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures.

Also, you must BEWARE!! It's getting very SCARY at IGA! The Halloween candy is piled right inside the door. Put your blinders on!

Dinner Tonight

A very healthy choice for a filling meal.

( ww- 8pts varies with size of chicken)

Kayla & I made supper for ourselves the other night. Here are some step by step photos to get this meal ( as pictured above) =)

First you cut 4-5 red skin potatoes...

Boil the potatoes until soft.

Spray a cookie sheet with low fat cooking spray and spread your potatoes on cookie sheet.

Salt & Pepper your potatoes. You can use lots of pepper to get a good taste...Right Kayla! =)

Next add your cheese. We used 3 Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb cheese wedges. Depending on how many servings of potatoes you are making, add more cheese wedges.

We whipped up our cheese and dropped clumps on the potatoes.
( you can also just cut pieces off the wedge and spread over potatoes )

YUMMY!

Lastly Broil your potatoes.

These reminded me somewhat of garlic smashed potatoes, except they aren't smashed but that would be good too!

Also I added broccoli to my potatoes, to make it like a broccoli cheesy potato.

Meanwhile in the kitchen we are steaming our asparagus in our Wok.

And also preparing our chicken! We cut the fat off the the chicken breasts and then put them on the grill. All we added was Montreal Chicken seasoning.

The chicken was tender and somewhat juicy therefore did not need any sauce!

A quick easy and healthy meal!

Red Pepper Pasta

Red Pepper Pasta - 7pts

This is one of my very favorite things right now! It's really easy and very filling. I love it! This recipe makes one serving, or you could split it up and serve it as a side.

Ingredients:
2 oz Whole Wheat Pasta (3 pts)
½ Red Pepper, sliced thin (0 pts)
¼ Med Onion, sliced thin (0 pts)
Black Pepper to taste (0 pts)
1 cup Fat Free Chicken Broth (0 pts)
2 Tbsp Kraft Classic Caesar Dressing (3 pts)
1 Laughing Cow Cheese Wedge (1 pt)

Instructions:
1.Boil Pasta According to directions on the box. (I like to split my pasta into 2oz portions when I get home from the store)
2.Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking spray. Add the Peppers, Onions, and Black Pepper. Cook until the veggies are browned and softened.
3.Add Chicken Broth and Caesar Dressing. Cover and cook until the sauce is reduced and thickened. Stir occasionally.
4.Toss the Pasta & Veggies in a medium bowl.
5.Stir in the Cheese Wedge while the mixture is still hot.
6.I like to use my kitchen shears to cut the veggies and pasta into bite sized pieces.
7.Enjoy!!

CHEESE =)

We mention the Laughing Cow Cheese a lot on here... some of you know that I had some trouble finding this besides at our hometown grocery store...IGA... I did finally find it at Walmart ( I just must not have been looking very good ) Its in a case by the deli section. Anyways thought I would let everyone know that it is $2.98 and at wally world ( I think its a lot more $$$ at IGA ) AND they not only have the creamy swiss but Garlic Herb & French Onion!

Recipe with my new flavor to follow... soon hopefully =)

Stuffed Chicken Breast – 7pts

I really like this recipe! I've made it twice & I served it once for company. I served it with Boiled Red Potatoes (1 pt each), Asparagus (1/2 pt), and Watermelon (1 pt/cup). I'll post pictures of the dessert later. Yum!!

Ingredients:
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (5oz = 5 pts)
3 slices Buddig Thin Sliced Beef (1/2 pt) (An entire 2oz package = 2 pts)
½ Laughing Cow Cheese Wedge (1/2 pt)
Chicken Broth (0 pts)
½ Cup Special K Cereal, crushed (1 pt)

Instructions:
Stack your three slices of Buddig Beef and spread the ½ Cheese Wedge on the top slice. Fold the stack in half so the cheese is in the middle.

Slice open the Chicken Breast to make a pocket & insert the Beef & Cheese.

Dip the Stuffed Chicken Breasts in the Chicken Broth and then roll in the Crushed Cereal.

Bake for 1 hour at 350

Yummy DQ

Crystal and I found some good desserts last night. We went to Dairy Queen. 2 points for the Starkiss! 0 Points for the Fudge Bar! Some DQ's also have the orange bar that is also 0 points, but Washington DQ does not carry them.

Money Savings

I went shopping at IGA last night to stock up on healthier choices to have at home and found a number of items on sale that I thought some of you might be interested in. Weight Watchers meals were buy 2 for $4 - this was a sale that I didn't see advertised in their weekly ad. Skinny Cow ice cream bars and sandwiches were on sale 2 for $7 - doesn't seem like much of a bargain until you see how much they normally are! Also, I picked up some Jolly Time 100 calorie pack 94% fat free microwave popcorn at 2 for $4.

My Lunch Today

I packed a sandwich today. A gourmet sandwich =) Here's a step by step.

Ingredients:

#1: Bagel thins ( 1pt ) You can also use sandwich thins, I like the everything bagel thins to kind of spice it up a bit.

# 2: Spread your awesome Laughing Cow Creamy Swiss cheese (1pt)! This take the place of my Mayo! :)

#3 Turkey - Honey Smoked Reduced Fat (1pt for 6 slices!) I used 4 slices for this sandwich spread.

#4 Spicy Brown Mustard ( 0pt ) If you can't tell I like mustard especially this kind.

#5 Add your veggies I put on some Baby spinach for some extra crunch! And your finished!

To finish it off I added my Fiber One yogurt & a bottle of H2O